Excel 2007

I keep discovering new things with Excel 2007. In the past to change the format of a cell you had to go to Format … or right click Format cells … and it was a long process. Now all is on the ribbon.

Gr 10 Introduction to Excel

My Grade 10s seem to have difficulty hearing / listening / following instructions. I dreaded trying to teach Excel 2007. I solved the problem by having the learners create houses using Autofill, Alignment, Fills and Borders. Without being aware of it, they learned to read the screen and the features of the formatting pane. When they started ‘real’ work on page 217 it went so well! Have look at grades 10 C and D. My time ‘playing’ has reaped results. (I have saved the files in 2003 as some schools are using 2003.)

Excel

Excel is for clever people who do not like to waste time. I love the following features:

• Autofill where I can pull down and the program ‘picks’ up and changes the values in the cells and formulas/functions
• Absolute referencing so I do not have to type formulas/functions over and over again, and it stays fixed when formatted with F4.

Can you imagine doing the kind of calculations we do with Excel now, using a pencil and paper. For most it would be impossible or take a very long time.

Excel - How to prevent a formula from displaying in the formula bar

Such a nice feature. I somehow missed it!

How to prevent a formula from displaying in the formula bar.
Caution - This procedure also prevents the cells that contain the formula from being edited.

1. Select the range of cells whose formulas you want to hide.
   
2. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Protection tab.
   
3. Select the Hidden check box. Click OK.
   
4. On the Tools menu, point to Protection and then click Protect Sheet.
   
5. Make sure the Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells check box is selected.

Videos for learning

I had a wonderful time during the holidays training CAT teachers. I was asked to create some videos. Here are some new videos.

Working with long documents - Section breaks, Column breaks, Using styles
Excel functions - Round
Always look on my tip sheet for videos.

Excel - Gr 11 Activity 4 on page 189

I had a worried phone call from a teacher. She could see the formulas in cells C15 to C19, but not the answers! Solution – select those cells, go to Format, Cells, Font, Colour and set the colour to Automatic or Red or anything except White, and you will see the answers! Tricky, such a small thing but …