Excel Scavenger Hunt

Workbook Structure
1. How are columns and rows addressed?
-Columns are lettered and rows are numbered.
2. How is a cell addressed?
-By it’s column letter and row number.
3. List at least one keyboard shortcut to move to the end of a group of cells:
-Ctrl + Arrow in direction you want to go
4. What keypress immediately takes you to the top‐
left corner of your spreadsheet?
-Ctrl + Home key on Windows, Ctrl + fn and left arrow on Mac
5. How do you rename a worksheet?
-Double click on a worksheet.

Data Basics
1. What do you type to force a cell to record information as text data?
-By putting the ‘ key in front of the information.
2. How does Excel store date information? Why is that useful?
-The base date is set as 1/1/1900, or initially 1 in Excel formatting. It’s useful
because Excel can then do math to find the difference in two specific dates,
which can help in analyzing a wide variety of different things.
3. How do you add a new row to a worksheet?
-Right click on the first cell in the row, click insert, and Entire Row.
4. How do you add a new column to a worksheet?
-Right click on the cell in the column, click insert, and Entire Colum.
5. How do you adjust a column’s width?
-Click and drag on the actual lettered column you want to widen.
6. How do you open the “Format Cells” window?
-By clicking the font button on the ribbon bars or by pressing command +1 on a
Mac.

Printing
1.
How do you instruct Excel to automatically scale a printout to fit within a cert
ain number of
pages wide?
-On the printing setup, on the page tab, there is a scaling command, Fit to: ‘#’
pages wide by ‘#’ tall. The first # command will fit them to the specific number of
pages wide.
2. …within a certain number of pages long?
-On the printing setup, on the page tab, there is a scaling command, Fit to: ‘#’
pages wide by ‘#’ tall. The second # command will fit the spreadsheet to the
specific number of pages long.
3.
How do you force Excel to display a set of column headings at the top of ever
y page printed?
-On the ribbon bar, under Page Layout, there is a Print Titles button
(Windows)/on print setup, there is a Sheet tab (Mac), highlight the row

Creating Formulas
1. What character must be used to start a formula in Excel?
-The “=” (equals sign)
2. What is meant by PEMDAS?
-The order in which a computer calculates math functions; acronym for
Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.
3. What symbols are used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?
-The + is used for addition, the – is used for subtraction. Multiplication formulas
must start with =PRODUCT(cell #:cell#). Division formulas must start with
=(QUOTIENT(Numerator, Denominator).

Absolute vs. Relative Cell Addressing

1. What happens to “relative” cell addresses in a formula when they are copied to a new
cell?
-The new formula will update to different cells of a “relative” position.
2. What happens to “absolute” cell addresses in a formula when they are copied to a new
cell?
-The new formula will always refer to the same, marked absolute cell.
3. When writing a formula, how do you specify a cell address as absolute? For example,
how would you specify cell B5 as being absolute?
-If absolute rows were required in a formula, it would be entered as B$5. If
Absolute columns were required, the formula would be entered as $B5. If both
absolute rows and columns were required, it would entered as $B$5. Note that
the $ sign preceding the row or column is what makes the reference absolute. F4
is a shortcut for absolute referencing.

Functions
1. Suppose you want a function like =AVERAGE() to work on a range of cells, such as
A1 through A500. What is the syntax for doing this?
-In the formula bar of the designated cell, you would enter =AVERAGE(A1:A500)
2. What is the Excel function for finding the smallest value in a range of cells? The
largest?
-In the formula bar, you would enter the =MIN() or =MAX() formulas to find the
smallest and largest numbers in a range, respectively.
3. What is the syntax for the Excel =IF() function? How is it used? Give an example.
-The IF() function is used as a test to see whether a condition is ‘true’ or ‘false.’
Depending on the true/false outcome, the function will carry out a different
following function. The IF() function consists of three parts: the condition being
tested, the output if condition is true, and last, the output if the condition is false.
For instance, if you wanted to compare the value of A2 being greater than the
value B2, where a “Yes” display is required for a ‘true’ and a “NO” display is
required for a ‘false,’ the formula would be entered as =IF(A2>B2,”YES”,”NO”)

Pivot Tables
1. What do you click in Excel to create a new pivot table?
-On Windows, simply INSERT, then click on Pivot Table. On a Mac, click on
DATA in the toolbar and then on Pivot Table Report.
2. How do you configure a pivot table to give you a “count” of items instead of sum?
-Right click on the row or column of information specified to be counted. Under
“Summarize Data By” select ‘count’ instead of ‘sum.’
3. How do you set the number format of data in a pivot table?
-Right click, select “Number Format,” then under the “Number” tab, you can
select how many decimals used for rounding or what kind format to be displayed
for negative numbers.
4. How do you configure a pivot table to “group” the rows?
-In the data column of choice, right click and select “Group.” You then have the
option to group by certain parameters. For time measurements, you can group by
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, quarters, or years followed by a
specified quantity. For instance if you wanted to group by week, you would select
days and then select ‘7’ as the quantity of days.
5. How do you configure the pivot table to not display grand totals?
- Right click the “Grand Total” column and select “Remove Grand Total.”