A workbook in Microsoft Office Excel is well suited for creating tables, since it is originally designed in the form of columns and rows. However, this is not enough. To create a spreadsheet in Excel, you must have at least a minimal knowledge of the built-in tools and capabilities of the program.
Instructions
Step 1
When the program starts, a blank book is automatically created and cell A1 is activated, it is surrounded by a frame - a cell pointer. If you plan to give a name to your table, leave a couple of top rows free, you can return to them after you decide on the number of columns. If this is not necessary, start entering data immediately.
Step 2
Enter the column and row names for your table. Use the mouse cursor or the arrows on your keyboard to move through the cells. To confirm the end of data entry and move one cell down, use the Enter key. If you need to clear a cell, select it with the pointer and press the Delete key.
Step 3
To delete one or several printable characters, double-click the left mouse button in the cell, position the cursor in the desired place and erase the characters with the Backspace or Delete key.
Step 4
If the values in your table contain the names of the days of the week, months of the year, ordinal numbers, or other commonly used systematized data, refer to the autocomplete function. Enter in the first cell, for example, the day of the week "Monday", select the cell with the pointer.
Step 5
Move the cursor to the lower right corner of the pointer and hold down the left mouse button. Without releasing it, drag the outline of the pointer six cells down or to the right - the remaining days of the week will automatically appear in the empty cells.
Step 6
When the data in cells overlaps each other, you may need to adjust the column widths and row heights. Move the cursor to the top of the sheet work area and place it between the letter names of two adjacent columns. The cursor will change its appearance. Hold down the left mouse button and move the cursor to the right until the full text is displayed in the cell.
Step 7
Also, the size of all columns can be aligned to the widest cell. To do this, just double-click the left mouse button between the names of the two columns. The same principle applies to aligning row heights: instead of a field with an alphabetic column name, work in an area with row numbers.
Step 8
To style the borders of the table, select the required columns and rows with the mouse. On the "Home" tab in the "Font" section, click on the "Borders" button in the form of a sketched square. In the drop-down menu, select one of the options for designing the borders of the cells and the table itself.
Step 9
To change the appearance of a cell, select it and click on the "Cell Styles" button in the "Styles" section. Select the appropriate design option in the context menu by clicking on it with the left mouse button.
Step 10
In case you need to add (delete) a cell, row or column, use the "Insert" ("Delete") button in the "Cells" section on the "Home" tab. To merge several cells (for example, to style the name of the table), select the required number of cells and click on the “Merge and Center” button. This button is located in the Alignment section of the Home tab and looks like a square with the letter "a" in the center.
