Download practice files 

Download practice files 

Open the practice file Excel Practice One (Right click and choose Save Target As.)

Opening a file by Double clicking the file in its original location (i.e. "My Documents")  

Activity 1: Opening a file by Double clicking the file in its original location (i.e. "My Documents")  

1. Open the My Documents window (or other folder where Excel Practice One is stored)

2. Locate the file Excel Practice One

3. Double click to open the file in Excel

4. Close Excel when you are through

You can store documents in any folder on your hard disk or on a network, but it's good practice to store them together in a folder that you can find easily when you open or save documents. Microsoft Windows includes a folder named My Documents that can serve as a place to store the documents you use frequently. If you work with many documents or different types of documents, you can organize them in subfolders in the My Documents folder

 Opening a file from within a program

Activity 2:  Opening a file from within a program

1. Open Excel to a blank workbook (Start-Programs-Microsoft Excel. Click on File and choose Open)

2. The Open dialogue box appears and by default displays the contents of the My Documents folder (or the last folder you opened). If another folder or drive letter is in the Look in window, click on the My Documents button located on the left

4. Find the file ExcelPracticeOne and double click. Close Excel when you are through.

The Look in: window has a down arrow that allows you to switch to different drives and folders when locating a file. You will see the feature in the Save and Save As dialogue boxes as well.

Opening a file from the Recent Documents list in the File menu

Activity 3: Opening a file from the Recent Documents list in the File menu

1. Open Excel to a blank workbook (Start-Programs-Microsoft Excel)

2. Click on File 

3. Expand the menu and go to the bottom and click on ExcelPracticeOne.xls

4. Close Excel

The Recent documents list is located at the bottom of the File menu. You can click on a document in the list to open in in a separate window.

You may also reopen Recent documents from the Start-Documents menu

Saving a workbook for the first time

Activity 4: Saving a workbook for the first time

1. Open Excel to a blank document (Start-Programs-Microsoft Excel)

2. Notice that the Title bar (the blue bar at the top of the Excel window) says Microsoft Excel-Book 1. This is the temporary name that Excel has given the document until you name it. You give it a name when you save for the first time

3. Click in the first cell and type your name

4. To save the document, choose Save from the File menu

5. The Save As dialogue box appears...notice that Excel has suggested the name Book 1. Excel also suggests that you save the document in the My Documents folder. You may change the name to whatever you wish by simply typing. To change the destination folder, use the Save in down arrow to navigate.

6. One other option that you have is to specify the format that the file is saved in. This is done in the Save as type window. Workbooks may be saved as web pages, templates, earlier versions of Excel, etc.

7. After a document is saved for the first time, you may save changes you have made by choosing Save from the File menu, or clicking on the Save button on the Standard toolbar . This resaves the document in the same location

A file format is the way in which information is stored in a file so that a program can open and save the file. A file's format is indicated by a three-letter extension after the file name. For example, when you save a new document in Microsoft Excel XP, Excel by default stores it in Excel XP format with a .xls file extension.

Saving a copy of a workbook in a different location or under a different name

Activity 5: Saving a copy of a workbook in a different location or under a different name

To save a document under a different name or to a different location, choose Save As from the File menu and change the name in the File Name window and/or the location in the Save in window.

Saving a workbook as a web page

Activity 6: Saving a workbook as a web page

1. On the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
2. If you want to save the document in a different folder, locate and open the folder.
3. In the File name box, type a name for the document.

You can use long, descriptive file names if you want.

4. Click Save. Excel saves the document as an HTML doc which can be opened in a browser (such as Internet Explorer).

If your document contains any embedded files - such as clip art or pictures saving as a web page also creates an associated folder which contains those files

This folder must be in the same directory as the created html file if you transfer the html file to a web server or a floppy disk

You have now completed this module. Take a few minutes to review and practice what you have learned.