Computer Tutorials for Beginners

Linking to other Excel Worksheets  - You can put the answer to a formula on a different worksheet. It doesn't have to go into the same sheet you're working on. For example, think back to the exam marks spreadsheet we did earlier. We had a spreadsheet that had the average scores for the students. Below that we had each exam mark as a letter of the alphabet: A, B, C, etc. The spreadsheet we created was this one below: Instead of putting all those Grades on the same Sheet, we could have put them on Sheet2 of the Workbook. If you want to put a formula on a different work sheet, you have to set a reference to the Sheet that contains the numbers going into the formula. An example might clear things up. Start a new spreadsheet In cell A1 of   Sheet1   enter the number 4 In cell A2 of   Sheet1   enter the number 5 Click on   Sheet2   at the bottom of the spreadsheet Click inside cell A1 of   Sheet2 Click inside the formula ba...

Project Two - You have just created a spreadsheet on Chocolate addiction. Time now to reveal your addiction! Create a spreadsheet like the one in the last section, but substitute Chocolate Addiction for something else. Examples might be: smoking, drinking, eating out, clothes, make-up - in fact, anything that someone might be spending too much money on. (It doesn't have to be you doing the spending; it can be entirely made up.) Your spreadsheet must include the following: Daily totals Individual totals Weekly total Columns for Prices Columns for Number and Cost Weekly cost Annual cost You can format the spreadsheet any way you like. The colour scheme is entirely up to you. Just make sure that your spreadsheet is easy to follow.

Entering Data into a Spreadsheet - To begin this part of the course, we'll do something really simply: we'll enter some text and numbers into some cells. When we're finished, our spreadsheet will look like this: So, to enter something into a cell, do the following: Click on cell A1 with your left hand mouse button Type the text "Numbers" (without the quotation marks) Press the Return key on your keyboard The darker border will jump down one cell to A2 Type a 3 and then press the Return Key on your keyboard The darker border will jump down one cell to A3 Enter a 6 and a 9 in exactly the same way When you're finished, your spreadsheet will look like the one in the image above. The word "Numbers" was our heading. We're not going to do anything to the heading. It is there purely for our benefit, in order to serve as an explanation for what the numbers are. Except "Numbers" is not very descriptive. Let's change i...

Microsoft Excel 2000 to 2003 Tutorials  -This is our free computer course for Microsoft Excel. It is for those who have versions 2000 to 2003. If you have a more modern version, then your tutorials are here: Click Here for our Excel 2007 to Excel 2013 Course Both courses are for beginners to the world of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. You can either dip in as you please using the links below, or start in section one and see how you get on. > Section One - Getting Started with Excel 1. What is a Spreadsheet? 2. Launching and Exploring Excel 3. Entering data into a Spreadsheet 4. How to Widen Rows and Columns in Excel 5. Centring Data in a Cell 6. Font formatting in Excel 7. Saving your work 8. Project One > Section Two - Entering Data into Cells 1. The Spreadsheet 2. AutoFill 3. Entering data into a Spreadsheet 4. Entering formulas in Excel  5. Entering formulas in Excel 2 > Section Three - Extending the Spreadsheet 1. Adding up Rows in ...

Internet Options - Content Advisor  - For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows): How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box The Content Advisor allows you to set what sort of content you want to allow on to your computer when surfing the internet. If you don't want the kids coming across adult material then Internet Explorer can block this. It is not, however, entirely effective, and you shouldn't rely on it as your only content blocker, if this is a concern to you. Software like   Netnanny   and   Cybersitter   can do a better job. But to see how the Content Advisor works, click the   Content   tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. You'll see the following: The Content Advisor is at the top. If your button says   Disable   instead of   Enable   it means that you already have Content Advisor switched on. We'll assume th...

Customize Your Folder Views in Windows XP  -As well as the folder options from the dialogue box, you can do a certain amount of customization of you folders. Here's how. Change how the Files are displayed In the image below, the files in the folder are displayed as Tiles: To change how the files are displayed, either click the View menu at the top, or click the Views icon in the toolbar: The black dot shows you which View is currently selected. The five different Views in XP are Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, and Details. When you click  Thumbnails , you'll see your files set out like this: When you click  Icons , you'll see your files set out like this: When you click  List , you'll see your files set out like this: When you click  Details , you'll see your files set out like this: The only two views where file information is directly displayed are Tiles and Details. Otherwise, you have to move your mouse over a file to get mo...

Windows XP Folder and File Options, Associate a Program with a File Type  -This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window):   Set the Control Panel to Classic View If you want to control how Folders operate on your PC, and files in folders, then the Control Panel icon you need is called, not surprisingly,   Folders . There are some quite useful options here that you may want to set, and we'll see what they are now. Click the   Start   button in the bottom left of your screen. From the Start menu, click   Control Panel . Then double click the   Folder   Options   icon to see the following screen: There are three tabs on the Folder Options dialogue box: General, View and File Types. General Folder Options The image above shows the General Folder options you can set. The first one, tasks, sets how the Folder looks when you open it up. T...

Install a New Font in Windows XP  -This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window):  Set the Control Panel to Classic View If you've ever had to choose a Font for some word processing you've been doing, then you've probably heard of Arial, Times New Roman and Courier. You may well have wanted something a little different for your work, and chosen Fonts, like Bookman Old Style or Comic Sans MS. There will also be plenty of fonts to choose from if you have Microsoft Word, as it comes with its own set of Fonts. But even if these are not enough, there's some great Fonts out there on the Internet. You can use a Control Panel icon to install new Fonts. First, though, you need to get hold of a Font that you like. Most Fonts are copyrighted to the people or organizations who created them. So you just can't install a Font without reading the copyright information attached to ...

Control Panel Icons -Switch to Classic View -To see a list of Control Panel icons instead of "Pick a Category" options, you need to be in Classic View. Here's how. Click the Start button, then click Control Panel on the Start menu In the top left of the Control Panel, select Switch to Classic View. (If it says Switch to Category View then you're already in Classic View, and there's no need to do anything): When you click on   Switch to Classic View , you'll see the Control Panel as a list of icons: The above icons are the ones we'll double click on throughout the Control Panel tutorials.

The Windows 7 Taskbar  - The taskbar is the thin strip that runs across the bottom of your screen. It is split into a number of different areas: a round Start button, Quick Launch icons, a notification area, and a clock. All other areas are the Taskbar itself. The image below shows where the different areas are: The Start button is explained in a section all of its own, as it's probably the most important area of the Taskbar. Click here to go the Start button page: The Windows 7 Start button There is one more area on the Taskbar, and it's easily overlooked - the Show Desktop button. In the images above, you can just see a narrow rectangle to the right of the clock: Click this button to minimize all open programmes and reveal the desktop. Quick Launch Icons In the main image above, take a look at the three big icons to the right of the round Start button. These are quick launch icons, meaning you can quickly launch any of the programmes you see there. When ...