Microsoft Excel is part of the Office suite
of apps that you can download for free.
It lets you create effective spreadsheets
– with formulas, albeit not as many as the desktop
version – as long as you have a Microsoft account,
although certain options require an Office 365
subscription (from £5.99 a month). In this tutorial we
showcase how to set up a monthly spreadsheet to
keep track of your expenditure. It bears a similarity
to the Excel desktop versions. The latter require an
understanding of maths and logic, but once set up
they will speed up the process of calculating figures.
For example, ‘=SUM(B1:B8)*0.04’ will add up what’s
in cells B1 to B8 and then multiply this by 0.04 to
get a total. Don’t worry, the tutorial will showcase
formulas in action!
1: Start your spreadsheet
Tap Done to bypass the ‘What’s New’ window,
then tap New Blank Workbook. Double-tap cell
A1, type ‘Monthly Expenditure 2014’ and then
select the green tick on the far right.
4: Adding borders
Tap cell A3 and drag the select tool to F15. Tap
the Cell Border option and choose All Borders.
Select A17 to F17 and repeat. Finally, select cell
A20 to B20 and do the same.
2: Basic formatting
If you tap between column headers, eg A and
B, you can drag across to resize a column. Now
select cell A1 and use the formatting options in
the bar near the top to change the aesthetics.
5: Currency and numbers
Select B4 and highlight to F15. Tap the Number
Formatting option and choose Currency.
Repeat the process for all of the ‘Sub total’ and
‘Grand total’ cells.
3: Advanced formatting
Type in the remaining cell headers, as shown.
Select cell B3, then drag the box to cell F3 to
highlight them. Select ‘A’ icon at the top, choose
‘Fill Colour’ and choose a colour.
6: Values and formulas
Key in the values as above (ignore the £ signs
for now). Tap B17 the tap on the ‘fx’ icon in the
top-left. Choose ‘SUM’ then select cell B15 and
drag up to cell B4.
7: Copy and paste
Double-tap cell B17 and then tap the ‘Copy’
option from the floating bar of options. Now
double-tap on cell C17 and choose the ‘Paste’
option to copy in the formula.
8: Finish calculation
The formula you constructed initially will be
copied and applied to the relevant cells in that
column, so the total will automatically change
to reflect the new cells.
9: Grand total and save
Now double-tap cell B20 and tap the ‘fx’ icon.
Choose ‘SUM’ again and then highlight cell B17
and drag across to cell F17. Tap the tick and your
grand total will be calculated.