Microsoft Excel: Insert Tab

SHSU Technology Tutorials | Microsoft Excel | Insert Tab

Insert Tab

1. The Insert Tab will allow you to insert various graphical and functional elements into your Excel spreadsheet. In the first group, Tables, you will find the Table button. Before you click on this, you should have some data to place into a table stored in rows and columns in the spreadsheet. For instance, this table has information about the relationship between gender and preference for a flavor of ice cream.

2. The other option in the Tables group is Pivot Table. The Pivot Table uses the information from your existing table to organize the information and make it easier to understand. In effect, it summarizes the data and condenses it so it can be more easily read. For example, the ice cream table was made into a Pivot Table, which, instead of listing the gender one by one as "f" then "m," then "f" then "m" and so on, groups each set of data by category. In this case, the category is Flavor of ice cream, and the Pivot Table shows the amount sold to each gender in terms of the flavor of ice cream in question.

To do this, select all of the table data you wish to organize. Then click Pivot Table and a new dialog box will appear. Choose whether you want to create your pivot table within the existing document or create a new one. Then trace with your cursor the location of your new table, and click OK.

3. Your pivot table should look like this, displaying the individual totals of the amounts of different flavors, as well as the Grand Total sold.

4. The next group is called Illustrations. Use this to insert pictures, clip art, shapes, and smart art.

5. The Charts section allows you to create graphs from data in the spread sheet. Simply put your data in the document and select the type of graph you would like.

6. The Hyperlink section allows you to insert links to web sites.

7. The text section allows you to insert a Text Box, Headers & Footers, WordArt, Signature Line, Objects, and Symbols.