Page 93 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 1: Building Worksheets
In This Chapter
✓ Creating a spreadsheet from a template
✓ Designing a spreadsheet from scratch
✓ Understanding the different types of cell entries
✓ Knowing the different ways of entering data in the worksheet ✓ Using Data Validation to restrict the data entries in cells
✓ Saving worksheets
Before you can begin building a new spreadsheet in Excel, you must have the design in mind. As it turns out, the design aspect of the cre- ative process is often the easiest part because you can borrow the design from other workbooks that you’ve already created or from special work- book files, called templates, which provide you with the new spreadsheet’s form along with some of the standard, or boilerplate, data entries.
After you’ve settled upon the design of your new spreadsheet, you’re ready to begin entering its data. In doing the data entry in a new worksheet, you have several choices regarding the method to use. For this reason, this chapter
not only covers all the methods for entering data — from the most basic to the most sophisticated — but also includes hints on when each is the most appropriate. Note, however, that this chapter doesn’t include information on building formulas, which comprises a major part of the data entry task in cre- ating a new spreadsheet. Because this task is so specialized and so extensive, you find the information on formula building covered in Book III, Chapter 1.
Designer Spreadsheets
Anytime you launch Excel (without also opening an existing workbook file), the Excel screen in the Backstage view presents you with a choice between
✦ Opening a new workbook (with the generic filename, Book1), consisting of a single totally blank worksheet (with the generic worksheet name, Sheet1) by selecting the Blank Workbook template
✦ Opening a new workbook based on the design in one of the other templates displayed in the Start screen or available for download by conducting an online search