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Most Frequently Asked
Question |
| There is just one question asked often enough to mention here at the
top of the sheet where we hope that everyone will see it. |
| Question: I have input my data on the various input
sheets, but nothing changes on the other sheets. The
old default names etc. have not been replaced by my employee
names, etc. What did I do wrong? |
| Answer: Your spreadsheet is probably set to calculate manually. You
can press the F9 key to make it recalculate or you can set the
spreadsheet to recalculate automatically. Do this by selecting
Tools, Options, Calculation from the top Excel toolbar and then
checking Automatic. |
Basic Excel Operations
Keyboard Shortcuts
Words in the top Excel toolbar have a line under one of the
letters. For example File has a line under the "F".
Also, the items in the drop-down list have a line under one of the
letters. The underlined letters are a reminder that you do not
need to use your mouse to select items from the toolbar, but
instead can use the Alt key in combination with the
highlighted letter to navigate the Excel toolbar. For example to
open the File menu you can hold down the Alt
key and press the "F" key. Or, if you want to save a file you can
press Alt and then F and then S.
The basic Excel operations described here include the keyboard
shortcuts whenever a toolbar operation is discussed. [Return
to Top] |
File Names and Saving Files
After you have made changes to the spreadsheet you need to save
the file if you don't want loose your changes. You can save it
under it's old name (the one it had when you opened it) by
clicking on the save file icon (looks like a floppy disk) on the
Top Excel Toolbar. After you have created a schedule you should
probably save the spreadsheet under a new name (such as May-06
Schedule.xls) to differentiate it from other schedules you have
created. You can do this by selecting File, Save
As on the Top
Excel Toolbar. You now need to select the folder where you want to
save it and then type the new file name in the space provided.
When it is time to create your next schedule, you can open the
last-saved schedule (May-06 Schedule in this example) and use it
as a starting point for creating your next schedule. As soon as
you open it, you should save it under a new name in case you have
the Excel auto-save feature enabled. [Return
to Top] |
Excel Toolbars
Excel toolbars put the Excel commands at your fingertips. The
basic commands (File, Edit, View, etc) are located at the very top
of the screen. When you select an item, a menu will appear showing
the commands available to you. Sometimes Excel does not show all
of the available commands and you need to click the little down
arrow at the bottom of the list to reveal additional commands.
There are several other toolbars available. A list of the toolbars
is revealed when you right-click your mouse in the gray area at
the top of the screen. Any toolbars that you have chosen to be
displayed are listed with a check mark next to it. The Standard
toolbar and the Formatting toolbar are very useful and should be
selected by left-clicking on it. Once the toolbar has been
displayed at the top of your screen you can drag (right-click on
the left side of the toolbar to grab it) and drop it in the place
you want it. [Return
to Top] |
Spreadsheet Calculation
Excel can be set to recalculate either manually or automatically.
If it is set to calculate automatically, all of the cells will
update each time you change something. If it is set to calculate
manually the cells will not update automatically and you will need
to press the F9 Key to have the spreadsheet recalculate.
You can set the recalculation mode by selecting Tools,
Options,
Calculation from the top Excel toolbar and then checking either
Automatic or Manual. [Return
to Top] |
Column Width and Row Height Adjustment
You may find that you would like to adjust the width of a column
or, less frequently, the height of a row. If the row and column
headers are visible (Tools, Options, View, Row and column headers
checked), you can simply grab (left click on the line between the
column headers A, B ,C, etc) the right column margin and move it
to the width you need. Likewise you can grab the bottom of the row
header and move it until the row is at the desired height.
You can also highlight one or more columns and then select Format,
Column, Width from the top Excel toolbar and then entering a
number (number of pixels) to set the width of the selected
columns. A similar procedure can be used to set one or more row
heights. [Return
to Top] |
Sheet Protection
Individual worksheets can be protected (Tools,
Protection, Protect
Sheet) to prevent accidental changes to the cell contents. The
sheet protection can also include a password to prevent
unauthorized access. All sheets are initially protected (without a
password) to prevent accidental deletion of cell formulas, etc. in
protected cells. Sheet protection will not prevent changes to
unprotected cells. [Return
to Top] |
Cell Protection
Individual cells can be protected to prevent changes to the cell
contents. To protect cells you need to highlight them and then
select Format, Cells, Protection from the top Excel toolbar and
then check "Locked". You can also check "Hidden". The worksheet
also needs to be protected to prevent changes to protected cells.
Data input cells are not protected and the contents can be changed
without unprotecting the worksheet. If you want to prevent
unauthorized data entry, you can protect the data input cells and
then protect the worksheet with a password. [Return
to Top] |
Auto Save
You can have Excel automatically save the spreadsheet at some
specified interval. One advantage to automatic save is that most
of your work will not be lost if you experience a power outage or
if your computer crashes. A disadvantage is that your spreadsheet
will be totally lost if you have a power outage or your computer
crashes during the automatic save operation for both the old and
new files will be corrupted. Another disadvantage is the undo
option is reset whenever a spreadsheet is saved and you can not
undo something that you did before the spreadsheet was saved. The
auto save option can be set by selecting Tools,
Options, Save from
the top Excel menu. [Return
to Top] |
Default File Location
You can select the folder where Excel first looks for a file by
selecting Tools, Options, General,
Default File Location. If you
keep everything in "My Documents", you can leave it set at the
default. Otherwise, you may want to select another folder. [Return
to Top] |
Data Entry
Almost all data entry in the Shift Schedules spreadsheets is in
light green colored cells. Other cells contain formulas or labels
and should not be disturbed. You may find that the active cell
moves down one cell or right one cell each time you press the
enter key. This feature is useful in some situations, but not in
others. If you want to disable this feature, select Tools,
Options, Edit from the top Excel menu and de-select this feature.
[Return
to Top] |
Copying Cells
Whenever you copy information from one cell (or group of cells) to
another, you also copy the cell formatting, validation, and other
cell properties from the origin cell(s) to the destination cell(s).
If you want to preserve the formatting, etc. of the destination
cells, you should use the Copy/Paste Special/Values technique. You
can do this by highlighting the origin cells and then
right-clicking your mouse and selecting Copy. Now go
to the top left corner of the group of destination cells and right
click the mouse and select Paste Special from the
first menu and then Values from the second menu.
Note that the Paste Special menu has several useful ways to paste
the cell contents. You can paste formats, validation, column
widths, etc.
[Return
to Top] |
Selecting a Range of Cells
If you want to select a group of cells (a range) for an operation
(say to set the print area or to delete the cell contents) you can
select the cell in one corner of the group of cells and, while
holding down the left mouse button, move to the opposite corner of
the group of cells. This works well if the range is entirely
visible on the screen, but if the range includes cells that are
not visible on your monitor, it is sometimes difficult to move to
the other corner of the range.
An alternative method of highlighting a range of cells is to
anchor the cursor in one corner of the range (go to the corner and
press and hold down the left mouse button) and use the arrow and
page up and page down keyboard keys to move the other range corner
to where you want it to be. [Return
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Printing a Selected Range
Most print ranges in the Shift Schedules spreadsheets are already
established and do not need adjustment. One exception is the print
range on the Individual Schedules sheet, where the default is to
print all of the schedules. If you need to print fewer schedules,
you will need to reset the print range. Do this by selecting the
new range and then File, Print Area,
Set Print Area from the top
Excel toolbar. [Return
to Top] |
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Hiding Sheets There may be
sheets that you do not need to see on a regular basis and would
like to hide from view. To hide a sheet you need to go to that
sheet and select Format, Sheet, Hide
from the top Excel toolbar. If you want to unhide a sheet you need
to select Format, Sheet, Unhide,
and then select the sheet from the list of hidden sheets. [Return
to Top] |
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Moving Sheet Tabs The
sheet tabs at the bottom of the screen can be moved by dragging
and dropping the tab to the new location. You may want to do this
to put the often-used sheets next to each other. [Return
to Top] |
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