Economics 311

Lecture 1

Introduction to Spreadsheets

Reference Books:
[1] Preston John, Sally Preston, and Robert L. Ferrett: Learn Excel 2002
Brief. Prentice Hall 2002.
[2] Habraken Joe: 10 Minute Guide to Microsoft® Excel 2002. Que®
Corporation 2002.
[3] Walkenbach John: Microsoft® Excel 2000 Formulas. MεtT Books 1999.

After solving these problems you are supposed to know:

o how to start, exit Excel,
o how to create new workbooks, worksheets,
o how to insert or remove cells, columns, rows,
o how to entry, edit and format data,
o how to use simple formulas to calculate results in your worksheets,
o how to manipulate formulas and use relative and absolute references,
o how to create good looking charts

If you have problems with basic working in Excel’s workbooks, please refer to the
following literature:

[1] Lessons 1- 5
[2] Lessons 1 - 19
[3] Chapters 1 – 4, 15

Graphs and Charts

A spreadsheet is a tool for working with numbers. Numbers have the advantage that they
can be used in computations and can be compared in numerous ways, but visually they
are not very exciting. To attract attention of and provide information to eyes and minds
important numbers must be transformed into graphs or charts. In such a way we get
quick estimate of relative sizes and possible relations.

Some chart types are better than others for specific purposes. Attention also has to be
paid to details: size, type, titles, legends, fonts, colors, shading.

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 Economics 311
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The Line Chart is usually most effective when we want to show a trend – change over
time. Panel 1.1 gives us such a graph as a visual summary of Canadian data of new motor
vehicle sales. In table data table, the monthly volume of sales from January 2004 - June
2004 is presented for all Canadian provinces. Note that Territories are included in the
province of British Columbia. The data can be found in ‘Lecture 1.xls’ file. Please refer
to movie Line graph and paragraph bellow to see how to proceed with such a graph.

Panel 1.1

Steps for Creating a Line graph:

1. Select the range of values for BC province by pointer: B6:G6.

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2. Click the Chart Wizard button. The first Chart Wizard dialog box is displayed.
Click Line in Chart type area. You can also select the default Chart sub-type in
the right column that is a line with data markers. Each type has several variations
that you can use to display data.
3. Click Next. The second Chart Wizard dialog box is displayed.
Make sure, Rows is selected from the Data range area.
4. Click Series tab. Click in the box of Category (X) axis labels. Then, select the
names of the months: B4:G4 range.
5. Click Next. The third Chart Wizard dialog box is displayed.
Click the Titles tab, if necessary. Type the chart title, and axis titles.
6. Click the Legend tab. Uncheck the Show legend box to turn the legend off. In
this particular case, we do not need a legend because we have only one series to
display.
7. Click Next. The fourth Chart Wizard dialog box is displayed.
Click As object in to select and place the graph within the same worksheet as the
table with information.
8. Click Finish.

As we can see in the just-created graph there is some kind of inconsistency between the X
and Y-axis. To correct for this,
9. Double-click on the X-axis, select Format, then Scale tab and turn off the
selection: Value (Y) axis crosses between categories.

When the chart has tiny square handles, that means it is selected and these handles may
be used to change its size or to move it. Moreover, whatever object is selected by those
tiny square handles it can be edited the way we like.

From the previous panel we can see that the sales in BC are increasing in volume over
those months. We can also add the trend line that calculates the trend by using the least
squares method. To do so,
¾ make the chart active by pointing on it – tiny square handles appear, then from the
main menu bar select Chart (if chart is not active, in the main menu there is Data
item instead of Chart);
¾ select Add trendline;
¾ Type: Linear;
¾ Option tab: Display Equation, Display R2;
¾ OK.

The equation y = 1607.7x + 9734.3 with R2 = 0.874 says that with every month, on
average, sales in BC increase by 1,608 cars.

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A possible variant of the line chart, which fills in the space under the line, is the Area
Chart, presented in panel 1.2. Selecting this option in step 1 of the Chart wizard creates
such a graph.

Panel 1.2

In the previous section we took a set of data and created a line chart to show the trend in
new car sales over time. We may find that it is often beneficial to graphically represent
the contribution of various elements to the whole. The best way to illustrate parts of a
whole is to use a Pie Chart.

Panel 1.3

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To create a pie chart as in panel 1.3,

¾ Select the range of values B15:G15 – total sales for Canada over the six months.
¾ In the second step, you can change the labels for particular pieces from numerical
1-6, into name of months by pointing into Category Labels and then selecting the
range of names B4:G4. Note that you will have the labels as legend on the right-
hand side.
¾ In the next step, change the Title, legend, and Data labels location.
¾ Finally, select the location for your graph.

Refer to movie Pie chart to see how to increase / decrease the size of the chart and circle.

Perhaps the most common use for a chart is to make comparisons. In such a case a
Column Chart or Bar Chart is most often used. These graphs can be very simple
representing only one series (left in Panel 1.4) or more advanced to compare more series
(right in Panel 1.4).

¾ To create a column or bar chart the type has to be selected in the first step of the
Chart wizard. These types give us a variety of sub-types; so select the sub-type
that gives the best representation of our example.
¾ To compare two or more series, all of them have to be selected at the same time:
select first the series for BC, and then select the series for Alberta while holding
the Ctrl button.
¾ In the Data Range tab of the second step make sure that Series in Rows option is
selected.
¾ Also in the Series tab of the second step you have to define the names of the
series to change the numerical representation into appropriate labels.

Panel 1.4

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The right-hand chart of Pane l.4 conveys the information that Alberta has a higher
volume of sold cars than BC for every month.

The graph represented in Panel 1.5 is also created by using the column type; however the
Series in Columns option is used rather than the Series in Rows option.

Panel 1.5

Finally, very popular among the economists is also the Scatter Chart. It plots the pairs
of values. We will use it in this course very often, mostly when we cannot use the line
graph because of failure of constant differences on the x-axis.

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Problem:

Type information from Panel 1.6 into a worksheet.

Panel 1.6

Now, the statement should be well formatted and built in such way that any change
performed on data should be immediately reflected in the entire spreadsheet.

o Delete unused sheets. Rename this sheet as Statements.

o Adjust columns’ width to include all relevant information.
o Cells B5, B6, B7 should contain the same information as cells C17, F17
and I17 respectively, so calculate those cells first by using the information
below.
o Cells C17, F17, I17 and B8 contain the SUM function of relevant
information. Note that Checks and Withdrawals come with a minus sign.
o Cells C18, F18 and I18 contain the COUNT function.
o Format John’s statement. Use merged cells where appropriate. Format the
amounts as currency. Format the date. Use Bold, Italics for labels, use colors,
and center the text. Use borders. Increase the title font.
o End up with the formatting for John’s statement as in the Panel 1.7.

Now, create similar statements for Mike and Lisa by using the Copy and Paste
commands. These two statements should also be well formatted and built in such way
that any change operated into some of the data should be immediately reflected in the
entire spreadsheet, including the summary that comes later.

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o Mike has exactly the same number of operations as John and most of them
in the same amount except: Mike’s Opening Balance is $415.00; Entry 4:
$89.00; Entry 2 and Entry 3: $600.00; Entry 6: $550.50
o Lisa has exactly the same number of operations as John and most of them
in the same amount except: Lisa’s Opening Balance is $660.00; Entry 4:
$103.00; Entry 2 and Entry 3: $200.00; Entry 6: $330.00
If your calculation is correct you should get the results as in the Panel 1.8.

Panel 1.7

Panel 1.8

By using the Copy and Paste commands or copy-fill down create the summary of all
three statements.
o Net savings and Total should contain the SUM function.
o Use the appropriate formatting.

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Panel 1.9

o For Lisa, using the GOAL SEEK tool find the maximum amount of entry
8 to increase her new balance to $900.00 [$54.75].
o For Mike, using the GOAL SEEK tool find the minimum amount of entry
2 to increase his new balance to $1,710.00 [$665.75].
o Note, the new Total or Net Savings in summary should increase to
$2,755.03.

Finally, add a new item into the original summary (the one without the Goal Seek tool
implemented), Bonus for each person with value of $100. To complete this task replace
in the summary relative references with absolute, then copy and paste the summary,
insert a row, use the copy (fill) command. Note that Total increases to the value of
$2,944.03.

Also add to the Net Savings of each person a Student Bonus of 3% that is entered in a
cell outside of the summary table. Use an absolute reference to include this information
into the calculation.

Instead of using absolute references, define the name “bonus” for the cell with 3%
student bonus and use this name in your calculations. The formula for Net Savings with
SB is: =(Net Savings)*(1+bonus).

Panel 1.10

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Create charts for the results calculated in the summary.

Panel 1.11 a)-d)

LV, DC/
2005-09-08

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