Welcome to week eight of CPU1000, Computers and Office Automation. This week, we will learn about more advanced features of Excel, including absolute cell references, charts, conditional formatting, and the Format as Table feature. Using absolute cell references makes creating and copying some formulas more efficient. Charts allow you to create visual representations of the numerical data in your spreadsheet. Conditional Formatting is a great way to draw attention to data that meets a specific requirement. The Format as Table feature allows you to quickly add borders and shading to your data and sort the data to bring more meaning to it.

Getting Started

This week, we will be learning how to write formulas that can be copied to other cells using what’s called the fill handle in Excel. We’ll also be learning about the difference between relative and absolute cell references. Watch this video to learn more:

Lesson Objectives

Upon completion of this week's lesson, you should be better prepared to:

Demonstrate effective use of relative and absolute cell references in formulas
Demonstrate how to use conditional formatting to highlight data
Demonstrate how to format data by using a style
Create and format charts

Readings and Resources

To be better prepared for this week's assignments, please view the following resources:

MS Excel: Relative & Absolute Cell References – This GCF tutorial covers how to create and copy formulas using relative and absolute cell references.
MS Excel: Tables – This GCF tutorial covers formatting data as a table and modifying tables.
MS Excel: Charts – This GCF tutorial covers charts, inserting charts, changing a chart layout and style, and other chart options.
MS Excel: Conditional Formatting – This GCF tutorial covers conditional formatting, creating a conditional formatting rule, removing conditional formatting, and using conditional formatting presets.