Excel is a worksheets like programme that allows you to perform operations with figures arranged in a grid. It is very useful, you can do simple additions or complex operations like calculations for a mortage loan. If you have never worked with Excel here you will see in detail what a worksheet is and how to use it.

Let us now see what the basic elements of Excel2003 are (the screen, the bars, etc), so you can distinguish each of them. You will learn what they are called, where they are and what they are for. You will also learn how to get help, in case, at any given time, you don't know how to proceed. Once you know all this, in the next theme, you will be able to start creating worksheets.

How to start Excel2003

We are going to see the two basic ways of starting Excel2003:

From the button Start usually located at the bottom of the screen, on the left corner. Place the cursor and click on the button Start and the menu will unfold; place the cursor on All programs . The list of all the programs installed in your computer will be displayed. Place the mouse arrow on the folder with the name Microsoft Office and click on   Microsoft Excel. This will start the program

From the Excel icon on the desk top

Start Excel2003 now, so you can put our instructions into practice. We will soon explain to you how to combine two sessions.

To close Excel2003, you can choose any of the following operations:

Click on the button close . It is located on the upper right part of the Excel window.

You can also press the key combination ALT+F4. With this combination you will close whichever window is active at the time.

Click on the menu File and choose option Exit.

The opening screen

When you start, Excel will display an opening screen like the one below. Let us see what its fundamental components are, so you can learn the names of the different elements so it becomes easier for you to understand the course. The screen displayed below (and all the screens in this course) may not exactly coincide with the one that you see in your computer, because, as we shall see later on, every user can choose the elements he/she wants displayed at any given time.

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