Excel Glossary

absolute cell reference: A cell reference that Excel cannot automatically adjust. If you’re about to copy a formula and you want to prevent Excel from adjusting one or more of the cell references (the program has a tendency to change the column and row reference in copies), make the cell references absolute. Absolute cell references are indicated by a dollar sign (yes, a $) in front of the column letter and the row number — $K$11, for example. You can convert a relative reference to an absolute reference by pressing the F4 key. See also relative cell reference.

active: The program window, workbook window, worksheet window, or dialog box currently in use. The color of the title bar of an active window or dialog box is different from the color of a non-active window’s title bars. When several document windows are displayed, you can activate an inactive window by clicking it.

arguments: Not what you have with your spouse but rather the values you give to a worksheet function to compute. Arguments are enclosed in parentheses and separated from one another by commas. See also function and Function Palette.

AutoCalculate: Refers to the area of the status bar that automatically indicates the sum of the values in any cell selection.

borders: The different types of lines Excel can draw around the edges of each cell or the outside edge of a bunch of cells. Excel offers a wide variety of different line styles and colors for this purpose.

cell: The basic building block of plant and animal life and also of the Excel worksheet. The worksheet cell is a block formed by the intersections of column and row gridlines displayed in the worksheet. All worksheet data is stored in cells. Each cell is identified by the letter of its column and the number of its row, the so-called cell reference.

cell pointer: A heavy outline that indicates which cell in the worksheet is selected. You must move the cell pointer to a particular cell before you can enter or edit information in that cell.

cell range: A bunch of cells that are all right next to each other. To select a range of cells with the mouse, you simply point at the beginning of the range, click the mouse button, and drag through the cells. See also nonadjacent selection.

cell reference: Identifies the location of a cell in the worksheet. Normally, the cell reference consists of the column letter followed by the row number. (For example, “B3” indicates the cell in the second column and third row of the worksheet.) When you place the cell pointer in a cell, Excel displays its cell reference at the beginning of the formula bar. See also relative cell reference and absolute cell reference.

chart: Also known as a graph. This is a graphic representation of a set of values stored in a worksheet. You can create a chart right on a worksheet, where it is saved and printed along with the worksheet data. You can also display a chart in its own chart window, where you can edit its contents or print it independently of the worksheet data. (Such a chart is called, appropriately enough, a chart sheet.)

check box: Turns an option on or off in a dialog box. If the check box is selected, the option is turned on. If the check box is blank, the option is turned off. The nice thing about check boxes is that you can select more than one of the multiple options presented as a group. See also radio button.

click: The simplest mouse technique. You press and immediately release the mouse button. See also double-click.

Clipboard: The Windows equivalent of a hand-held clipboard to which you attach papers and information you need to work with. The Windows  Clipboard is a special area of memory, a holding place, where text and graphics can be stored to await further action. You can paste the contents of the Clipboard into any open Excel document (or any document in other Windows programs). The Clipboard for Office 2000 and up can now store up to twelve attachments at a time.

command button: A dialog-box button that initiates an action. The default command button is indicated by a dotted rectangle and a darker border. A button with an ellipsis ( . . . ) opens another dialog box or window. Frequently, after you choose options in the dialog box, you click the OK or Cancel command button.

comments: Notes you attach to a particular worksheet cell to remind yourself of something important (or trivial) about the cell’s contents. You can display your comments in their own text box in the worksheet by positioning the mouse pointer on the comment indicator (the red triangle that appears in the upper-right corner of the cell after adding a comment to the cell).

Control menu: A standard pull-down menu attached to all Windows programs and Excel workbook icons in the upper-left corner of their windows. This menu contains commands that open, close, maximize, minimize, or restore a window or dialog box. You can display a Control menu by clicking the program or workbook icon.

database: A tool for organizing, managing, and retrieving large amounts of information. A database is created right on a worksheet. The first row of the database contains column headings called field names, which identify each item of information you are tracking (such as First Name, Last Name, City, and the like). Below the field names, you enter the information you want to store for each field (column) of each record (row). See also field and record.

default: Don’t be alarmed; we’re not talking blame here. A default is a setting, value, or response that Excel automatically provides unless you choose something else. Some defaults can be changed and rearranged.

dialog box: A box containing various options that appears when you select Excel commands followed by an ellipsis ( . . . ). The options in a dialog box are presented in groups of buttons and boxes. (Oh, boy!) Many dialog boxes in Excel contain different tabs (see tab) that you click to bring up a different set of options. A dialog box can also display warnings and messages. Each dialog box contains a title bar and a Control menu but has no menu bar. You can move a dialog box around the active document window by dragging its title bar.

docking: Has nothing at all to do with the space shuttle. Docking in Excel refers to dragging one of the toolbars to a stationary position along the perimeter of the Excel window with the mouse. See also toolbar.

document: See workbook.

double-click: To click the mouse button twice in rapid succession. Double-clicking opens things like a program or a workbook. You can double-click to close things, too.

drag and drop: A really direct way to move stuff around on a worksheet. Select the cell or range (bunch) of cells you want to move, position the pointer on one of its edges, and then press and hold the primary mouse button. The pointer assumes the shape of an arrowhead pointing up toward the left. Hold the mouse button as you move the mouse and drag the outline of the selection to the new location. When you get to where you’re going, let it all go.

drop-down list box: An text box that displays the currently selected option, accompanied by an arrow button. When you click the associated arrow button, a pop-up list box or menu appears from the text box with other options that you can choose. To select a new option from this list or menu and close the drop-down list box, click the option.

error value: A value Excel displays in a cell when it cannot calculate the formula for that cell. Error values start with a number sign (#) and end with an exclamation point (!), and they have various capitalized informative words in the middle. An example is #DIV/0!, which appears when you try to divide by zero.

field: A column in an Excel database that tracks just one type of item (like a city, state, zip code, and so on). See also database and record.

file: Any workbook document saved to a computer disk. See also workbook.

font: Shapes for characters — typeface. Fonts have a point size, weight, and style, such as Helvetica Modern 20-point bold italic. You can pick and choose the fonts used to display information in an Excel worksheet and change their settings at any time.

footer: Information you specify to be printed in the bottom margin of each page of a printed report. See also header.

formula: Ready for some math anxiety? A sequence of values, cell references, names, functions, or operators that is contained in a cell and produces a new value from existing values. In other words, a mathematical expression. Formulas in Excel always begin with an equal sign (=).

formula bar: Sound like a high-energy treat? Well, it is . . . sort of. Located at the top of the Excel window under the menu bar, the formula bar displays the contents of the current cell. (In the case of formulas, this means that you see the formula rather than the calculated result, which shows up in the cell itself.) You can also use the formula bar to enter or edit values and formulas in a cell or chart. When activated, the formula bar displays a Cancel box and Enter box between the current cell reference on the left and the Edit Formula button and the place where the cell entry appears on the right. Click the Enter box or press the Enter key to complete an entry or edit. Click the Cancel button or press Esc to leave the contents of the formula bar unchanged.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): FTP is another one of those wacky Internet protocols like HTTP. The FTP protocol enables users to download files from the Internet. In Excel 2000, you can set up shortcuts to FTP sites on the Internet or your company’s intranet and then use them when saving or opening Web pages. (See chapter 10, “Setting up FTP Locations for publishing your Web pages” more on creating FTP locations.) See also HTTP.

function: (Let’s see, I know what dysfunction is. . . .) A function simplifies and shortens lengthy calculations. Functions have built-in formulas that use a series of values called arguments to perform the specified operations and return the results. The easiest way to enter a function in a cell is with the Paste Function button, which opens the Function Palette that walks you through the entry of the function’s arguments. The Paste Function tool uses the icon with the fx on it and appears as a button on the Standard toolbar. See also arguments and Function Palette.

Function Palette: This term refers to the palette in which you enter the arguments you want to specify for the function that you’ve chosen with the Paste Function button on the Standard toolbar. To reduce the Function Palette to just the current edit box so that you have access to any cells in the worksheet that you might want to select, you click the minimize button to the right of the edit box. After selecting cells in the worksheet, you can restore the Function Palette by clicking the edit box’s restore button (which replaces the minimize button). See also arguments and function.

graphics object: Any of the various shapes or graphics images (including charts) that you can bring into the sheets in your workbook document. All graphics objects remain in a separate layer on top of the cells in the sheet so that they can be selected, moved, resized, and formatted independently of the other information stored in the sheet.

header: Information you specify to be printed in the top margin of each page of a printed report. See also footer.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): HTML documents (commonly referred to as Web pages) are text files that contain special formatting tags that can be read by Web browsers like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator. To differentiate formatting tags from regular text in an HTML document, the tags are enclosed in a pair of angle brackets, as in <H1>, which marks the beginning of a first-level heading in the document. Many formatting tags work in pairs, with one tag to indicate where a particular format begins and another (such as </H1>) to mark where it ends. When you save a worksheet as a Web page in Excel 2000 (as explained in Chapter 10), the program automatically adds all the necessary HTML tags to the data so that your Web browser can render its information correctly. See also HTML, Web page, and Web site.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): HTTP is the Internet protocol used to format and display Web pages (aka HTML documents) in a Web browser like the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. All URL addresses using the HTTP protocol (sported by the various sites on the World Wide Web) begin with http:// in the address. See also FTP and URL.

Hyperlink: Hyperlink refers to a text entry or a graphic image that, when clicked, jumps you to another place in the same document or op another document altogether. Hyperlinks assigned to text are indicated in a worksheet by underlining the text, displaying it in blue, and by the fact that the mouse pointer changes from an arrowhead to a hand when the pointer is positioned over the text. Hyperlinks assigned to graphics images are indicated only by the change of the mouse pointer to the hand shape when the pointer’s positioned over the graphic. In an Excel 2000 workbook, you can assign a hyperlink to a cell entry or a graphic image added to the worksheet. Such hyperlinks, when clicked, can take you to another place in the same workbook, to another Office 2000 document, or to a Web page on the Internet or your company’s intranet. (See Chapter 10 for details.) See also HTML, Internet, and intranet.

I-beam cursor: The I-beam shape (looks just like the end of a girder or a capital letter I) that the mouse pointer assumes when you position it in a place on-screen where you can enter or edit text. Click the I-beam cursor in the formula bar or a text box in a dialog box, for example, to place the insertion point where you want to add or delete text. When you double-click a cell, Excel positions the insertion point exactly where you clicked. If you press F2, Excel positions the insertion point at the end of the entry in that cell. You can then click the I-beam cursor in the cell entry to reposition the insertion point for editing. See also insertion point.

insertion point: The blinking vertical bar that indicates your current location in the text. The insertion point shows where the next character you type will appear or the next one you delete will disappear. See also I-beam cursor.

Internet: The public network made up of millions of computers linked together for the purpose of exchanging information electronically. Computers offering information on the Internet are known as Web servers. They use special server software that supports the various standard Internet protocols utilized in the exchange of electronic information. Most people use the Internet to surf the World Wide Web or to send and receive e-mail. The software used to browse the World Wide Web (like the Microsoft Internet Explorer) is known as a Web browser. The software used to send and receive e-mail (like Microsoft Outlook Express) is known as the mail client. See also FTP, HTTP, intranet, and World Wide Web.

intranet: A private network using the same protocols as the Internet to exchange information electronically. Most corporate intranets are established to exchange company data not commonly available to the public. Such information is normally dispensed via Web pages and e-mail. Many specialized intranets are restricted to just those employees with interest in the material. See also FTP, HTTP, Internet, and Web page.

list box: A boxed area in a dialog box that displays a list of choices you can choose from. When a list is too long for all the choices to be displayed, the list box has a scroll bar you can use to bring new options into view. Most list boxes are already open and have the list on display. Those that you must open by clicking an arrow button are called drop-down list boxes.

macro: A sequence of frequently performed, repetitive tasks and calculations that you record. At the touch of a couple keystrokes, Excel can play back the steps in the macro much faster than is humanly possible.

marquee: Those moving dotted lights around movie stars’ names, right? Well, a marquee exists in Excel in a slightly toned-down version. It’s the moving dotted line around a selection that shows what information is selected when you move or copy data with the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands on the Edit menu.

maximize button: The center button of the three on the right side of the title bar on the less-than-full-size Excel program or workbook window. When you click the Maximize button, the workbook or program window expands to full size and fills the screen. See also minimize button and restore button.

menu: A vertical list of commands that can be applied to the active window or application. Also known as a pull-down menu because the menu opens down from the menu bar when you select the menu name. When an option is currently unavailable on a pull-down menu, the option is dimmed. See also shortcut menus.

menu bar: The row at the top of a program window that contains the names of the menu items available for the active document window.

message box: Also known as an alert box. This is a type of dialog box that appears when Excel gives you information, a warning, or an error message, or when it asks for confirmation before carrying out a command.

minimize button: The first of the three buttons on the right side of the title bar in the Excel program or workbook window. When you click a minimize button in a workbook window, the window shrinks to an icon at the bottom of the Excel screen. When you click the minimize button in the Excel program window, the Excel window shrinks to a button on the Windows  taskbar. See also maximize button and restore button.

mode indicators: The information on the right side of the status bar (the row at the bottom of the screen) that tells you what keyboard modes are currently active. Some examples are ADD, NUM, and CAPS.

mouse pointer: Indicates your position on-screen as you move the mouse on the desk. The mouse pointer assumes various forms to indicate a change in the action when you use different features: the arrowhead when you point, select, or drag; the I-beam when you place the insertion point in text; the double-headed arrow when you drag to adjust row height or column width; and the hourglass when you need to wait.

nonadjacent selection: Also called a discontiguous selection. (Is that any better?) A nonadjacent selection is one composed of various cells and cell ranges that don’t all touch each other. To accomplish this feat, click the first cell or click and drag through the first range; then hold down Ctrl as you click or drag through the remaining cells or ranges you want to select. See also cell range.

pane: A part of a divided worksheet window. You can display different parts of the same worksheet together on one window in different panes. Horizontal and vertical split bars are involved with creating and sizing.

paste: Yum, yum, remember kindergarten? Alas, in the computer age, paste means to transfer the cut or copied contents of the Clipboard into a document, either in the cell with the cell pointer or in a line of text at the location of the insertion point.

pointing: Babies do it, politicians do it, and so can you. Pointing also means selecting a cell or cell range as you enter a formula in the formula bar to automatically record cell references.

radio button: When it’s selected, a radio button in a dialog box looks like an old-fashioned radio push button (because it has dot in the middle). Radio buttons are used for dialog box items that contain mutually exclusive options. This means that you can select only one of the options at a time. (Only one can have the dot in the middle.) See also check box.

range: Also called a cell range. A range is a bunch of neighboring cells that form some type of solid block when selected with the mouse or the keyboard.

record: A single row in a database that defines one entity (like an employee, a client, or a sales transaction). See also database and field.

relative cell reference: The normal cell reference (like A2) that is automatically adjusted when you copy formulas that refer to the cell. Row references are adjusted when you copy up or down; column references are adjusted when you copy to the left or right. See also absolute cell reference and cell reference.

restore button: The center of the three buttons on the right side of the title bar when the Excel program window or a workbook window is displayed full-size on the screen. Mouse users can click the restore button to shrink a window or return a window to the size and location it had before being zoomed to full size. See also maximize button and minimize button.

ScreenTips: ScreenTips refers to all the little indicators that appear next to the mouse pointer as you do stuff like scroll to new part of a worksheet with scroll bars, copy or move data in a worksheet with drag-and-drop, or create a series of values with the fill handle.

scroll bar: The vertical or horizontal bar in the active document window and in some list boxes. Use a scroll bar to move rapidly through a document or list by clicking the scroll arrows or dragging the slider box.

selection: The chosen element, such as a cell, cell range, nonadjacent selection, file, directory, dialog box option, graphics object, or text. To select an element, highlight it by dragging the mouse or pressing keystroke shortcuts. You normally select an element before choosing the actions you want to apply to that element.

sheet tabs: The tabs that appear at the bottom of each workbook window. To select a new sheet (worksheet, chart, and so on) in your workbook, you click its tab. To display new sheet tabs, you use the tab scrolling buttons. Excel indicates which sheet is the active one by displaying the sheet name in bold on its tab. To rename sheet tabs (which are normally given names such as Sheet1, Sheet2, and so on), double-click the tab and enter a new name. See also tab.

shortcut menus: Also known as context menus, these menus are attached to certain things on the screen — namely, the toolbar, worksheet cell, or parts of a chart that are open in a chart window. These menus contain quick lists of command options related to the object they’re attached to. To open a shortcut menu and choose its commands, you must click the object with the secondary mouse button.

size box: The little square box in the lower-right corner of a workbook window that is neither minimized nor maximized. Use the size box to manually adjust the size of any open document window by dragging it until the window is the size and shape you want.

spreadsheet application: A type of computer program that enables you to develop and perform all sorts of calculations between the text and values stored in a document. Most spreadsheet programs like Excel also include charting and database capabilities. Spreadsheet is also commonly used as an alternative term for worksheet, so see also worksheet.

status bar: The line at the bottom of the Excel window. The status bar displays messages, such as Ready, or a short description of the menu option you have chosen, and it indicates any active modes, such as CAPS or NUM when you press the Caps Lock or Num Lock key.

style: If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Also known to some of us as a group of formatting instructions, all bundled together, that you can apply to the cells in a worksheet. Use styles to save time and keep things consistent. Styles can deal with the number format, font, alignment, border, patterns, and protection of the cells.

tab: You find tabs in two places in Excel: on some larger dialog boxes, such as the Format Cells or Options dialog boxes, and attached to the bottom of each worksheet in a workbook. In the case of dialog box tabs, you simply click a tab to display its set of options on the top of all the others in the dialog box. In the case of sheet tabs, you click a tab to display its sheet on top of all the others in the workbook. See also dialog box and sheet tabs.

text box: Also known as a edit box. The long skinny boxes in dialog boxes where you can type in a new entries or edit the current one.

title bar: The top bar of a program window, workbook window, or dialog box that contains its title. You can move an active window or dialog box around the screen by dragging its title bar.

toolbar: A series of related tools (buttons with icons) that you simply click to perform common tasks such as opening, saving, or printing a document. Excel comes with several built-in toolbars that you can use as-is or customize. You can create toolbars of your own design, using predefined tools or blank tools to which you assign macros. You can display them in their own little dialog boxes that float around the active document window; you can also dock them along the perimeter of the screen. See also docking.

URL: Stands for Uniform Resource Locator (pronounced like You, Are, El, and not like your brother Earl). URLs indicate the Internet address of a Web site by specifying the Internet protocol (http:// or ftp://) followed by the name of the Web server and domain name. For example, the Web address for the Dummies Web site is http://www.dummies.com. Believe it or not, the URL address represents a hacker’s idea of friendly name as the Internet only deals with machine numbers (which is the reason why your Web browser sometimes flashes messages like “Web site found. Connecting to 206.201.112.56”). See also FTP, HTTP, Web page, and Web site.

Web folder: A shortcut to a folder on a Web site used for publishing web pages on that site (see chapter 10, “Creating Web folders for publishing your Web pages”). See also Web page and Web site.

Web page: The common name for the HTML document that Web browsers like the Microsoft Internet Explorer can display. Excel 2000 now offers you the option of saving your worksheets and charts in this Web page format in addition to its native spreadsheet file format. See also HTML.

Web site: An intranet or Internet location with multiple related Web pages connected to one another via hyperlinks. See also hyperlink and Web page.

window: A framed area on-screen that contains the program (called a program window) or the workbook (called a workbook window) that you’re working with. The Excel program window typically contains a title bar, Control menu, menu bar, Standard toolbar, open document windows (with the active one on top), and status bar. The program and workbook windows can be resized and moved around the screen as needed.

workbook: An Excel file containing multiple, related sheets, such as worksheets, charts, and macro sheets. When you start a new workbook, Excel automatically puts three blank worksheets in it (named Sheet1 through Sheet3) and gives the workbook a temporary name (such as Book1, Book2, and so on). You can then add or remove worksheets as needed as well as add chart and or module/macro sheets as needed. When you save the workbook, you can then give the workbook a permanent filename. See also chart, file, and worksheet.

worksheet: Also called a spreadsheet. This is the primary document for recording, analyzing, and calculating data. The Excel worksheet is organized in a series of columns and rows. Each new workbook you open contains three blank worksheets. See also workbook.

World Wide Web (often abbreviated WWW and commonly known as the Web): The name for the entire collection of Web pages available for public viewing via a Web browser like the Microsoft Internet Explorer. The common parlance for displaying the pages of one of these Web sites is “surfing the Web.”

Last modified: 01/25/06