Chapter 3: Essential Worksheet and Cell Range Operations

3.1. Essential Worksheet Operations

Closing windows

 If you have multiple windows open, you may want to close those windows that you no longer need. Excel offers several ways to close the active window:

■ Choose File ➪ Close.

■ Click the Close button (the X icon) on the workbook window’s title bar.

■ Press Alt+F4.

■ Press Ctrl+W.

Deleting a worksheet you no longer need

If you no longer need a worksheet, or if you want to get rid of an empty worksheet in a workbook, you can delete it in either of two ways:

■ Right-click its sheet tab and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.

■ Activate the unwanted worksheet and choose Home ➪ Cells ➪ Delete ➪ Delete Sheet.

Changing the name of a worksheet

The default names that Excel uses for worksheets — Sheet1, Sheet2, and so on — are generic and non-descriptive. To make it easier to locate data in a multisheet workbook, you’ll want to make the sheet names more descriptive.

To change a sheet’s name, double-click the sheet tab. Excel highlights the name on the sheet tab so that you can edit the name or replace it with a new name.

Sheet names can contain as many as 31 characters, and spaces are allowed. However, you can’t use the following characters in sheet names:

Hiding and unhiding a worksheet

• To hide a worksheet, right-click its sheet tab and choose Hide Sheet. The active worksheet (or selected worksheets) will be hidden from view.
• To unhide a hidden worksheet, right-click any sheet tab and choose Unhide Sheet. 

Inserting rows and columns

To insert a new row or rows, use either of these methods:

■ Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking the row numbers in the worksheet border. Right-click and choose Insert from the shortcut menu.

■ Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to insert, and then choose Home ➪ Cells ➪ Insert ➪ Insert Sheet Rows. If you select multiple cells in the column, Excel inserts additional rows that correspond to the number of cells selected in the column and moves the rows below the insertion down.

To insert a new column or columns, use either of these methods:

■ Select an entire column by clicking its column letter in the worksheet border, also known as the column header. (Ctrl+click to select multiple adjacent columns.) Right-click and choose Insert from the shortcut menu.

■ Move the cell pointer to the column that you want to insert, and then choose Home ➪ Cells ➪ Insert ➪ Insert Sheet Columns. If you select multiple cells in the row, Excel inserts additional columns that correspond to the number of cells selected in the row.

Deleting rows and columns

To delete a row or rows, use either of these methods:

■ Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking or Ctrl+clicking the row numbers in the worksheet border (row header). Right-click and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.

■ Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to delete, and then choose Home ➪ Cells ➪ Delete Sheet Rows. If you select multiple cells in the column, Excel deletes all rows in the selection.

Hiding rows and columns

To hide rows in your worksheet, select the row or rows that you want to hide by clicking in the row header on the left. Then right-click and choose Hide from the shortcut menu. Or you can use.

3.2.Understanding Cells and Ranges

A cell is identified by its address, which consists of its column letter and row number. For example, cell D9 is the cell in the fourth column and the ninth row.

A group of cells is called a range. You designate a range address by specifying its upper-left cell address and its lower-right cell address, separated by a colon. Here are some examples of range addresses: