1.1.3: The Excel Workbook

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WorldCorp sells many consumer electronics, including tablets, HD antennas, headphones, and TVs. The Portland location is in a port city, so it can dispatch orders anywhere in the world, but most of its orders go to the northern United States and Canada. As you receive more and more orders from clients, you need a spreadsheet or database to keep all data flowing so that the warehouse knows where the shipment will be sent, what products are in the order, and how much the total shipment costs. This data, in turn, can be added to the financial statements in the accounting system, which will help the senior managers analyze the sales results of the company. Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that can be used for creating sales order tables.

Common Uses of Spreadsheets

Excel is a spreadsheet software application type that has rows and columns in a grid pattern. A cell is the intersection of a row and a column, and it looks like a rectangle. You can enter data into the cells to design tables and graphs and perform data analysis. A workbook is a file that contains at least one worksheet, which is a tab within a workbook where you can input data and design tables and graphs that use the data (Figure 9.2). The terms worksheet and spreadsheet are interchangeable, but Excel uses the worksheet terminology.

A workbook may contain several worksheets, similar to taking a hard copy of a set of data and adding it to another hard copy in a file folder. One benefit of using a workbook is that the worksheets within it can communicate with each other. Having multiple worksheets in one workbook gives you flexibility in organizing and analyzing your data. Data analysis grows in complexity as a business grows. Even a simple accounting system for a small business designed in Excel will require many sheets, and each worksheet can feed or receive data from other worksheets. One workbook can contain all of these worksheets together, as in a manila file folder.

Figure 9.2: An Excel workbook contains individual worksheets made up of cells. (Used with permission from Microsoft)

The cells are named based on their location. For example, the upper-left cell is in column A and row 1, so Excel designates its address relative to the other cells in the worksheet, or its cell reference, as A1. You can use these cell references to perform operations that use either formulas or functions. A formula is a mathematical operation that may use constants or cell references, or a combination of constants and cell references. All formulas must begin with “=.” For example, you can calculate 4 + 4 by typing “=4+4” in a cell, or you can add the contents of cell A1 and 4 by typing “=A1+4” or typing “=” and then clicking on cell A1 and then completing the formula.

A function is a mathematical or analytical operation that uses words instead of mathematical operators. All functions must also begin with “=” in Excel. For example, to calculate 4 + 4, you can type “=sum(4,4).” Excel can do the calculations for you just as you would using a calculator. Excel’s formulas and functions can take the place of a calculator.

One use for spreadsheets is to create a monthly food budget. You can keep track of how much you spend on groceries by category and on eating out at restaurants. You could list it by the type of product (i.e., milk) and by restaurant. Over time, you can use these numbers to determine your average cost for groceries and for eating out, and you will then be able to predict what you will spend on groceries. This tracking can serve as a control on your budget and will help you save money in the long run. You can use a similar process for all your personal finance and family expenses to enable you to create a budget that works for your situation by tracking expenses.

In business, the same principles apply. If you can track business sales, you will be able to allocate the money more effectively. In other words, by having a better accounting system and dispatching of orders, a manager will be able to see where money is being generated. If the manager realizes that a certain product is generating a higher profit, then the manager can allocate resources to increase the sales of that product. For example, the company could increase the unit production and hire more sales agents to sell that product, which in turn will increase distribution venues, such as corporate retail clients that sell the products in their stores. Not only that, the company may also increase the marketing and advertisement expenses of these products, to gain new clients. All of these actions stemmed from the tracking of sales and analyzing what products sell the most units. In all these layers of actions, there will be many worksheets tracking data, such as an order-dispatching spreadsheet or the unit cost manufacturing sheets.

The Excel Workbook

A workbook is an Excel file that contains one or more worksheets (referred to as spreadsheets). Excel will assign a file name to the workbook, such as Book1, Book2, Book3, and so on, depending on how many new workbooks are opened. Figure 1.2 shows a blank workbook after starting Excel. Take some time to familiarize yourself with this screen. Your screen may be slightly different based on the version you’re using.

Figure 1.2 Blank Workbook

Figure 1.2a Blank Workbook (right-side)

Your workbook should already be maximized (or shown at full size) once Excel is started, as shown in Figure 1.2. However, if your screen looks like Figure 1.3 after starting Excel, you should click the Maximize button, as shown in the figure.

Figure 1.3 Restored Worksheet

Navigating Worksheets

Data are entered and managed in an Excel worksheet. The worksheet contains several rectangles called cells for entering numeric and non-numeric data. Each cell in an Excel worksheet contains an address, which is defined by a column letter followed by a row number. For example, the cell that is currently activated in Figure 1.3 is A1. This would be referred to as cell location A1 or cell reference A1. The following steps explain how you can navigate in an Excel worksheet:

1. Place your mouse pointer over cell D5 and click.
2. Check to make sure column letter D and row number 5 are highlighted, as shown in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4 Activating a Cell Location

1. Move the mouse pointer to cell A1.
2. Click and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer back to cell D5.
3. Release the left mouse button. You should see several cells highlighted, as shown in Figure 1.5.

This is referred to as a cell range and is documented as follows: A1:D5. Any two cell locations separated by a colon are known as a cell range. The first cell is the top left corner of the range, and the second cell is the lower right corner of the range.

Figure 1.5 Highlighting a Range of Cells

1. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a sheet tab indicated by “Sheet1″. Clicking on the + adds additional worksheets. This is how you open or add a worksheets within a workbook. To see how this works, click on the + to add another worksheet so that you now have two sheets
2. Click the Sheet1 worksheet tab at the bottom of the worksheet to return to the worksheet shown in Figure 1.5.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Basic Worksheet Navigation

• Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to activate cells on the worksheet.
• Hold the SHIFT key and press the arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight a range of cells in a worksheet.
• Hold the CTRL key while pressing the PAGE DOWN or PAGE UP keys to open other worksheets in a workbook.
• Mac Users: Hold down the Fn and Command keys and press the left or right arrow keys

Basic Excel Terms

Before using a workbook, it is helpful to know a few key terms.

1. Cell. This is the area where you will enter data.
2. Row. Rows are cells aligned horizontally.
3. Column. Columns are cells aligned vertically.
4. Worksheet. A worksheet is a single page within a workbook. Like the tabs in an internet browser, the tabs in an Excel workbook show different pages, or worksheets. A workbook may have many worksheets included in it. In this screenshot, the workbook only has one worksheet and one tab, which is labeled Sheet1. The selected tab shows the selected worksheet. Clicking the + button will add another worksheet. When you save a workbook in Excel, all of the worksheets in that workbook are saved.

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2.1: Using Excel Cells is shared under a CC BY 1.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

Opening an Excel Workbook

When working with Microsoft Excel, the workbook is the primary file format used to store and organize data. A workbook can contain one or more worksheets (“tabs”), each of which provides a grid of rows and columns for entering, calculating, and analyzing data. Workbooks are versatile and scalable, enabling users to manage everything from small personal budgets to large-scale organizational datasets within a single file.

To open an existing workbook, launch Excel and select a recently used file from the Start screen or use File > Open to browse. Excel supports several file formats, and while .xlsx is the standard default format, it can open .xls, text-based .csv, and macro-enabled workbooks (.xlsm).

When creating a new workbook, you can begin with a blank workbook or select from templates (budgets, calendars, invoices, expense reports). Templates speed up repetitive tasks and reduce formatting errors.

It is best practice to save a new workbook immediately upon creation and to save progress regularly throughout your work session (Ctrl+S). Choose an appropriate location (local drive, external device, or cloud service such as OneDrive) and assign a meaningful file name (e.g., CIS034_GradeTracker_Spring2025.xlsx).

Figure 1.3.1: Excel Opening Page

Common formats and when to use them:

• .xlsx — default workbook with formatting, charts, formulas.
• .xls — legacy compatibility with older Excel versions.
• .csv — plain-text exchange with other systems (no formatting/formulas).
• .xlsm — macro-enabled workbook for recorded or written automations. We will begin using macros in Chapter 8 – Macros & Automation, so saving certain files as .xlsm will be required there.

Managing workbooks effectively also means organizing files systematically. Use consistent naming conventions and store workbooks in clearly labeled folders. For example:

Marketing_Campaigns › 2025 › Q1 › SocialMedia_Jan2025.xlsx

In shared environments, consider including the creator's name or a version tag in the file title (e.g., Inventory_Apr2025_v2_Taylor.xlsx) to minimize confusion and prevent overwrites.

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Page written with material from COM112: Course Text Copyright © 2020 by The American Women's College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Summary

A spreadsheet is a collection of data that is organized into rows and columns. Microsoft® Excel is a spreadsheet application used to store and analyze quantitative data. An Excel file is called a workbook, and it is saved with an .xlsx extension. A workbook file consists of one or more worksheets which consists of many columns and rows. Columns are the vertical part of a worksheet grid identified by letters. Rows are the horizontal part of a worksheet grid identified by numbers. The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. Each cell can store a single item of data. The data can contain text, numbers, formulas, and/or functions. Clicking a cell with the mouse pointer will make the selected cell the active cell. The active cell’s contents are displayed in the formula bar.

Typical uses for Excel include:

• Accounting reports (Balance Sheets, Income Statements, etc)
• Budgets
• Calendars
• Checklists and task lists
• Contact/Address lists
• Expense tracking
• Inventory control
• Invoices
• Mortgage and other financial calculations
• Operational statistics
• Sales price lists, forecasts and analysis