Week

PowerPoint Basics


Introduction

I have used excel in my professional and personal life for numerous uses. Here are a few example of how I like to use Excel:

  • Calculating grades
  • Making a to do list
  • Communicating a list of items needed for a project
  • Project management schedules
  • Organizing items and their locations
  • Making a budget for a grant or a personal trip
  • Making a calendar or schedule of events
  • Making a graph
  • A check in list for an event
  • Make name badges
  • Fill out a travel expense report
  • Taxes
  • Calculations when I am being lazy and cannot find a good calculator
  • And hundreds of other uses

There are so many uses for Excel that we could have an Excel 101, 102, 103, and 104 classes on it. This is an introduction to Excel so I am going to showcase the basics in this week's lecture. If you find yourself enjoying statistics and math in your college career or if you like to organize lists of items, I would strongly suggest looking into advanced Excel functions. Excel also has a lot of applications to recreation and sport management. For example, if you have to keep track of who registered for an event and who paid, you might use an Excel file. Additionally, if you would like to keep track of team statistics, team players, individual workouts, or when certain courts are availble for booking, then you might want to use an Excel file.

Many of the tracking applications where you would keep track of an item like gym rentals or program registrations primarily require basic Excel functions like making borders, wrapping text, changing the color of the cell, adjusting font size, highlighting, freezing cells, and adding tabs. These items will be basics we will cover this week.

When I learned how to use Excel I found it quite dificult to read examples and try to duplicate them on my own. When I had someone sit down with me and show me the tips and tricks, I learned the basics quicker and remembered how to use them the next time I made an Excel sheet. Additionaly, I needed to learn more advanced functions within Excel and found that reading the detailed instructions confusing and hard-to-follow. I started watching Lynda.com and YouTube videos and it was a different, and easier experience. This week is a curated list of videos on the Excel basics. I would like for you to go through these videos with an Excel sheet open and duplicate the activities the narrators cover. After going through these videos, you will be prepared to do your Excel assignment for this week.