Posted: July 15th, 2009 | Author: Andrew Whiteman | Filed under: Computer | Tags: c, Computer, computer software, computer;internet, computers, excel 2007, excel 2007 training courses, i, information technology, m, microsoft excel 2007 ribbon, Microsoft Office 2007, o, r, S, software, software programs, t, training | No Comments »
by Andrew Whiteman
In order to create an Excel formula, begin by typing an equal sign: this distinguishes it from other types of data. A formula consists of groups of expressions. There are three key elements in these expressions: arithmetic operators, such as add and subtract; functions; and references to worksheet.
To create a formula which returns the total of two of the numbers in a spreadsheet (say 24 and 12), you simply type “=24 12″. When you press the Enter key, you would get the correct result. However, the formula would not be linked to the two cells containing the numbers. If the entry in either of the cells were to change, the formula would still give the old result.
Obviously, the best solution is to ensure that our formula contains a reference to the two cells in question. The simplest method of doing this is to click on the first cell having typed the equal sign. Excel then automatically creates a reference to the cell. Next type a plus sign and click the second cell. Excel puts in a reference to the second cell and we then enter the formula either by clicking on the Enter button (on the left of the formula bar) or pressing Enter on the keyboard.
Now that our formula contains a reference to these two cells, any time the cell contents change, the result returned by formula will be updated.
If this were the only way of performing calculations in Excel, formulas would become very long and extremely complex. To avoid this situation, we can use Excel’s built-in functions. Functions carry out complex mathematical calculations without the user having to worry about how the result is reached.
For example, imagine that we wanted to total the contents of a hundred different cells. If we relied purely on the “+” sign, we would end up creating a formula with a hundred different arguments; in other words, a reference to each of the cells containing the numbers. Instead, we can use the SUM function.
To use a function in a formula, type “=” followed by the name of the function. Next type open brackets and enter the arguments of the function. The arguments of the function are the values required by that function in order to return a result. In the case of the SUM function, we simply need to specify which cells contain the numbers we want to total. We can do this by clicking or dragging across the cells that contain those numbers.
When you have entered a reference to all cells containing numbers that we want to total, you can confirm entry of the formula by pressing the Enter key. You don’t even need to close the brackets. Excel will close them for you.
Posted: July 7th, 2009 | Author: Dwight Davidson | Filed under: Computer | Tags: Computer, computer software, computers, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2007 training courses, slide presentations, software programs, training, tutorial | No Comments »
by Dwight Davidson
Audience handouts provide us with a method of giving the attendees of your PowerPoint presentations something to remember you by. They normally consist of printouts of the presentation; one, two, three, four six or nine slides to a page. Naturally, however, whether or not the essence of your presentation can be captured by this kind of printout depends on the nature of the presentation.
You will almost certainly want to personalize the look and feel of your handouts. To do this, click on the View tab of the PowerPoint ribbon and then click on the Handout Master button. In PowerPoint, masters allow you to determine the format of the three main elements within a presentation; slides, speaker notes and handouts. When you are in handout master mode, the Handout Master contextual tab appears. It contains a Page Setup section which allows you to choose the orientation of both the page as a whole and of the individual slide miniatures. It also contains buttons for activating or deactivating the header, footer, date and page number as well as for formatting the background of the slide.
Given that Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to produce three separate elements (slides, speaker notes and handouts), when the print command is used, you need to specify which of these elements you wish to print. This is done by choosing an option from the Print What drop-down menu. In addition to the three elements mentioned above, you can also print the outline of the presentation.
If you have created a presentation with a fair amount of important detail, it may be more useful to print out the slide outline and distribute it to the audience in place of PowerPoint’s usual handouts. Better still, you can export your presentation into Microsoft Word and then customise it for your audience. To export an outline, from the Office button, choose Publish and then Create Handouts in Microsoft Word.
When exporting to Word in this way, you will be presented with a dialogue box which allows you to choose one of five page layout options. Firstly, you can have speaker notes next to slides. This will create a two column layout with a slide miniature in column one and speaker notes next to it in column two. If you have used the speaker notes feature in your presentation, this may be a useful solution. The second option is Blank Lines Next to Slides: this produces the same two column layout as the first option but the right hand column is blank, so that you can enter notes next to each slide.
The first two options don’t offer you much room for text. If you have made or wish to make extensive notes on each slide, options three and four (Notes below Slides and Blank lines below Slides) provide a layout with the text below the slide miniature and leaves approximately 60 percent of the page free for notes.
If you simply wish your audience to have a summary of the content of the presentation, you can choose the final option: Outline Only. This simply exports the text on each slide into Microsoft Word.
When using any of the above Word export choices, you have the option of activating the Paste Link feature. This will create a link between the exported file and the original PowerPoint presentation, such that, if the presentation is modified, the exported Word file will also be updated.
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