NGINEERING SERIES AND | OOLS SPREADSHEET TOOLS FOR ENGINEERS USING EXCEL’ 2007 BYRON S. GOTTERIEDCHAPTER 2 Using the mouse, click on the arrows at the ends of each seroll bar and note what happens. Also, try clicking-the mouse in different locations within each seroll bar and note what happens. Does your mouse have a wheel between the buttons? If so, turn the wheel and notice the resulting movement of the worksheet. Press the ‘wheel down and release, then drag the mouse across the worksheet. Notice what happens. Move the active cell to some arbitrary location within the worksheet, ‘Then press Home and note what happens. Try the same thing with Ctri-Home. a Pross function key FS and then specify some arbitrary cell address at the bottom of the dialog box. What happens when you press OK? Click on the Home tab, and then click on Find & Select/Go To. Specify some arbitrary cell address atthe bottom of the dialog box. ‘Notice what happens when you press OK. (This is an alternative to the use of function key F5.) 2.4 ENTERING DATA ‘You may enter either a numerical value (called a number constant in Excel) or & string (called a text constant in Excel) into any worksheet cell. Remember that crrors can always be corrected using the techniques described in See. 2.5, Numerical Values Numerical values are entered as ordinary numbers, with or without decimal point, Negative values should be preceded by a minus sign. Scientific notation is also permitted (e.g., to enter 4 * 10°, type 4E+8 or simply 4E8). Thus, any of the following numerical values could be entered into the worksheet Die 5-6) 3.33 259-12 ~7.08E+6 0.0 0,004 -1.2e-7 AEB 1e10 Numerical values can also be entered in other ways: for example, with embedded commas, preceded by a currency sign (S), or followed by a percent sign (%). You may also enter a numerical date (e.g. 5/24/2009) or a time (es, 7:20 PM or [Link]), However, these formats are generally not used when carrying out technical calculations; hence, we will not discuss them further. As you enter a numerical value in the currently active cell, you will see the value being entered in the Formula Bar as well as in the active cell. When you = finished typing the number, press the Enter key. You may also click on the ¥CREATING AN EXCEL WORKSHEET 27 symbol in the Formula Bar to accept the number, or click on the to reject the number. Figure 2.7 shows a number being entered in cell Al. Note the presence of the symbols x, ¥,, and fx in the Formula Bar (provided the Formula Bar is the active element in the worksheet, as indicated by the blinking vertical cursor following the number being entered). Once the number has been entered, it will continue to be visible in the Formula Bar as well as in the active cell. However, the symbols x and will no longer appear in the Formula Ber. = Gea] a0, abl 3.141593 Figure 2.7 - Entering a numerical value in cell A1 You can easily change the appearance of a numerical value within a cel (¢.¢., you can change the number of decimal places, add commas, or switch to scientific notation). To do so, highlight the numerical value, make the Home tab active and use the controls within the Number group, which is shown in Fig. 2.8. The button with the lef-pointing arrow (second from right) increases the number of decimals, and the button with the right-pointing arrow (atthe right) decreases the number of decimals, Note that the displayed value is rounded (not truncated) when the number of decimals is decreased. However, the actual value that is stored within the workshect is not changed. To add commas to the numerical value (every three digits to the left of the decimal point), highlight the numerical value and click on the comma button (center of the bution group). General : a4 ba Number 5 Figure 2.8 ~ The Number group within the Home tab