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Excel - The Insert tab

Introduction

Tables

PivotTable
Table

Illustrations

Picture
Clipart
Shapes
SmartArt

Charts

Column
Line
Pie
Bar
Area
Scatter
Other charts
Options for charts

Sparklines
Slicers
Links

Hyperlink

Text

Text Box
Header & Footer
WordArt
Signature Line
Object

Symbols

Equation
Symbol

Entering text, values and formulas into cells is only part of creating a working model. The Insert tab allows you to add other elements such as charts, cliparts and images, among others, to your workbook. Some of these items will be explained in detail on other web pages.

Excel offers two types of tables. A table can be used to determine where your model is located. Formatting styles and other options can then be applied to the tables. A pivot table allows you to get a summary from a data list according to your criteria.

A pivot table allows you to quickly create a summary table from a data list or a database. You can find all the totals, averages, counts and other mathematical operations from the initial data. In addition, the dynamic aspect of the PivotTable lets you change it quickly and see the result immediately. An exercise is available to experiment with. This powerful option isn't used often enough. That's propably why Excel placed first on the Insert tab.

A table is a section of your worksheet that contains . It's a way to create a simple database in Excel. The first line contains field names. The following rows contain the data you want to save and analyze later. You determine its size, the name of each field.

In addition to tables described above, Excel 2010 lets you insert graphic elements such as images, forms, charts and graphs. The next section will demonstrate how to insert these elements into your documents.

You can insert your own pictures or photos in a document. There is also an additional tab which offers even more possibilities.

Place the cursor where you want to place the image.
Press the Image command button.
Select the drive and folder where the image you need is located.
Select the image file of your choice and press OK.

The image may not be the size or with options you need. An additional image contextual tab appear on the Ribbon giving you more options on how the image will be presented in your document.

Microsoft Office offers a good library of images you can search. In addition, you can download "art" from the Microsoft Office Online site Office Online .

Place the cursor where you want to place the ClipArt image.
Press the ClipArt command button.

A task pane will appear to the right of your document. You will be able to search Microsoft ClipArt library using search words.

In the Search box, enter the words that describe the image you're looking.

You can enter the type of image you need: clipart, photograph, video, music.

Press the OK button.

A series of cliparts will appear below the search box.

Click on the image of your choice.

It will appear in your document where the cursor is located. A contextual tab will appear on the Ribbon to give you more formatting options.

You can create your own image, logo or design by combining simple shapes into something more elaborate.

You can create any images by combining the shape to suit your needs.

You can create your own with a bit of practice.

Microsoft Office also offers several types of diagrams to suit your needs. This is one other element that has been greatly improved over previous versions. There are more diagrams which offers more options with a much improved presentation.

Before and still today, you could use the PrntScrn, or PrintScreen, key on your keyboard (next to the F12 key) to capture the screen. You only need to use the Paste option to place it in you current document. Afterward, you can edit it any way you want (crop, size, placement, colors, borders ...)

Office 2010 offers a new way at capturing the screen.

Another element that has been completely redesigned is Charts. With the new Ribbon, three contextual tabs will appear to help you manage every possible options on your charts. But first, you must create one.

But first, why do you need charts? You need a chart when you want to prepresent a massive amount of data. With the proper chart, it's easier to represent trends (up or down) and proportions (such as market shares). All Office 2010 applications are now using the graphics module of Excel. The module offre tellement to options qu'elles sont regroupé sous three tabs complémentaires : This module offers so many options that are grouped under three tabs complementaryWith the new Ribbon

After a Line chart, the Bar chart is the most popular type of chart. The height of every bar represents a value. You can also use cylinders, cones or pyramids to represent the values of your chart. These can be viewed in 2D or 3D form.

Even then, the Column charts can be grouped into four sub-categories. Each value can be side by side, one on top of each other for a cummulative effect or proportional. Each bar is of the same height. But the proportion of each value changes. The last category shows the each data series one behind the other.

Line charts are the most often used type of charts. And, like the Column chart seen previously, the data series can be seen in three different ways: side by side, cummulative and proportional.

You can use a strait line or place markers on every value. It makes the chart easier to read.

Pie charts are great when you want to represent shares or proportions. You can even make a sub-chart with some of the values.

Like Column charts, Bar charts can represent the values by using boxes, cylinders, cones or pyramids. The big difference is that the bars are horizontal instead of vertical. Like Column and Line charts,the data series can be viewed side by side, in cummulative or proportional form.

Area charts show how much surface a value is taking. Like the previous charts, the values can be seen side by side, one on top of the other or in proportion to each other.

Scatter charts use X and Y coordinates to rpresent a value. You need two data series: one for X values and another for Y values.

Microsoft Excel offers other types of charts like Stock charts, surface charts, doughnut charts, bubble charts and radar charts.

In the lower right corner of the Charts group of commands, you will find the Dialog box launcher . It will give access to all the options to create your chart.

Sparklines are a new option to Excel 2010. It allows you to create a simple chart inside a cell on your worksheet. It can only use the content of a single row or column. THe are three types of sparklines: line, Column and Win/Loss. A contextual tab is available to give you more control on its formatting.

Enter the values in the appropriate cells.
Place the cursor in cell E1.
From the Insert tab, select Line sparkline.

For the Sparkline's data range, select from A1 to D1.
For the localtion range, select cell E1.
Press the OK button.

The image to the left shows each type of Sparkline. You can try it by yourself.

Slicers is also a new option to Excel 2010. It's another way of of filtering data in a Pivot Table. With Excel 2013, Slicers can also be used with data tables.

There are many ways to filter data in a Pivot Table. Slicers are an easy way for a novice to filter data on many fields at the same time. Once the Pivot table is created and filled with the fields and data you need, you can filter it with Slicers. They can easily "slice and dice" through your data.

Each Slicer will show you a list of all the values from the fileld. You can select one or many values.

If the values you want are below each other, you can select the first one, press and hold the SHIFT key and select the last value. If the values are apart from each other, press and hold the CTRL key and select as many values as you need.

To remove the filter, press the icon on the top right corner.

Since Office 95, all Excel versions can create hyperlinks to web pages, email addresses or other Internet services or links within documents.

Select the cell where you want to place a link.
Press the Hyperlink command button.

Excel will give you four options. You can link to another Workbook or document, to a cell inside your workbook, to a new document or to an e-mail address.

The Text to display box, asks you what will be written in the cell if there is no text actually in the cell.

Enter the text of your choice.

If you want to select an existing file, from the Look in box, select the Folder where the desired document is located followed by the file.

If you want to select a cell in the current document, select Place in this document. After, you can enter the cell address or the name you gave to a cell.

If you want to create a hyperlink to a new document, select Create New document. Enter the name for the new document. You can also change in what folder the new file will be saved. You can edit the new document later or start right after having pressed the OK button.

If you want to link to an e-maill address, select E-maill Address. Enter the e-mail address of your choice. You can also enter the subject line.

The Text group of commands allows you to add text and other objects into your workbook. You can add floating text boxes over the cells, page headers and footers, WordArt for titles, signature lines, objects, mathematical symbols and other objects.

This option allows you to add a textbox over a worksheet.

Press the Text Box command button.

A text box will appear over the worksheet. You can enter text inside it. The green ball on top of the box is a handle that allows you to rotate the box. You can hold the SHIFT key to rotate the text box at 15 degree intervals (0, 15, 30, 45...)

This option allows you to insert a header and a footer for the worksheet your are working on. You will be able to show more information about the document when you will print it. You can identify the document by adding a description and even include the page number, date and time when the document was printed. Other options are also available.

The worksheet will change to Page Preview mode. Three boxes will appear on top and at he bottom the the page preview. The text placed in the left box will be aligned with the left margin of the page. The text in the box in the middle will be centered horizontally. The text in the right box will be aligned with the right margin of the page.

A contextual tab will appear on the right side of the Ribbon, It will allow you to add elements to the header and footer and give you more control.

You can style a title or the text with one of the options of the WordArt gallery.

This can give you more artistic licence over your document's presentation. The text that you will write for WordArt will not contained in a cell. Instead, it will "float" over the worksheet. You can select the WordArt box afterward and make any chages you will need.

Press on the WordArt button.
Select the formatting style of your choice.
Write your text.
Once completed, click anywhere outside the WordArt box.

To change the content of the WordArt box, just click on it and make your changes. You can also move the WordArt box.

Click on the WordArt box.
Place the cursor on the border of the box.
Keep a finger on the right move button and move the move and the box to its new location.

Allows you to insert objects from other applications. Excel cannot generate or control every type of object. Most applications can generate objets that no other application can manage. This option allows you to insert objects that you may need but that Excel doesn't understand or know how to manage its options. From the list, you can see what other applications can generate and what you can insert into an Excel workbook.

You can insert special characters into your documents by pressing the Symbols button.

Press on the Symbols button.

A small window will appear with the most commonly used symbols.

You can access more symbols by selecting the More Symbols option at the bottom of the window.