Exploring the Features of the MS-Excel Interface

Lesson Objectives

By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

State the steps involved in launching MS-Excel systematically without any difficulty.
Identify at least four features of MS-Excel interface.
Differentiate between a row and a column without looking into a book.
Differentiate between a cell reference and a name box correctly with no given help.

Introduction

In our previous lesson we learnt about what an interface is and some examples of MS-Office interface

An interface is a device program that enables a user to communicate with a computer.

Examples of MS-Office interfaces are

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint

👇 Observe the images let me know through the comments section, which of them you recall is the interface of MS-Excel.

Launching MS-Excel

Observe the video carefully and identify the steps used in launching MS-excel

The steps in launching MS-Excel

👉 Click Start Button

👉 Click All Programs

👉 Click MS-Office

👉 Click MS-Excel

After MS-Excel is launched this is how the interface looks like👇

Now we continue with some examples of features of MS-Excel interface

The images below shows some of these examples

Observe the images and writes two examples of features of MS-Excel in the comments section.

Examples of features of MS-Excel

lets explain some of these examples

Ribbon

The Excel ribbon refers to the tabs at the top of the Excel interface that helps users to navigate and locate the commands when using Excel.

Active Cell

An active cell is simply a rectangular box that highlights the cell in a spreadsheet. It helps us to identify the cell that we are currently working on, where data is being entered. An active cell is also referred to as cell pointer, current cell or selected cell.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is a command line that appears either above or below the main ribbon tabs in Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The Quick Access Toolbar grants direct (quick) access to a set of desired commands in a toolbar that is always visible no matter which ribbon tab is selected.

Cell Reference

A cell reference refers to a cell or a range of cells on a worksheet and can be used in a formula so that Microsoft Office Excel can find the values or data that you want that formula to calculate

Column

What is a column in Excel? Columns are denoted and identified by a unique alphabetical header letter, which is located at the top of the worksheet. Column headers range from A-XFD, as Excel spreadsheets can have 16,384 columns in total. Columns run vertically in the worksheet, and the data goes from up to down

Row

What is a row in Excel? Each row is denoted and identified by a unique numeric value that you'll see on the left hand side. The row numbers are arranged vertically on the worksheet, ranging from 1-1,048,576 (you can have a total of 1,048,576 rows in Excel). The rows themselves run horizontally on a worksheet

Name Box

The Name Box in Excel is located on the left side of the Excel window. It is used to give a name to a table or any cell. For any normal cells, by default, the name is the row character and the column number, such as cell A1. However, we can check it when we click on the cell

Differences between a row and a column

With the help of the images and descriptions of a row and a column, what's the difference between a row and a column?

A row is denoted and identified by a unique numeric value that you'll see on the left hand side

The rows themselves run horizontally on a worksheet. Data is placed horizontally in the table, and goes across from left to right. While,

Columns are denoted and identified by a unique alphabetical header letter, which is located at the top of the worksheet

Columns run vertically in the worksheet, and the data goes from up to down.

Differences between a Cell reference and a Name box

Cell reference refers to a cell or range of cells on a worksheet and can be used for computations

While, a

Name box displays the cell that is selected in the spreadsheet.

Conclusion

Before we end todays lesson lets recap what we learn today.

👉 We looked at the steps involved in launching MS-Excel

👉 We also discussed some examples of the features of the MS-Excel interface

👉 We again discussed the differences between a row and a column

👉 We finally looked at the differences between a cell reference and a name box

Application

launch MS-Excel on your computers at home, while launching take a screenshot of each step

and submit it via my email address.

Assessment

Click the link below to access your end of lesson assignment

Assignment link

Screencast of lesson

Podcast of lesson

Click to listen to the Podcast of the Lesson

GROUP 30

NAME	INDEX NUMBER
Ntaadu Joseph	5191040338
Nissawu Prince	5191040339
Nyarko Amponsah Richard	5191040340
Michael Owusu	5191040341
Oppong Emmanuel	5191040342