MS Excel Basics

What this lesson covers

MS Excel Basics is a 10-part Class 6 Computer Science lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

A spreadsheet arranges data in a grid of cells, each named by its column letter and row number. B2, D15. What makes it powerful is not the grid. It is that a cell can hold a formula referring to other cells, and when those change, it recalculates automatically. That single property is why spreadsheets replaced paper ledgers everywhere.

The 10 parts

1. A grid that calculates
2. What a cell can hold
3. Useful functions
4. Building a mark sheet
5. Relative and absolute references
6. Charts that tell the truth
7. What spreadsheets are used for
8. Where it usually goes wrong
9. What to remember
10. Watch one worked through