Chances are that you won’t be using all of the data available in the DIY College Rankings spreadsheets. Once you’ve defined some basic filters, it’s generally a good idea to copy the data you want to work with to a different spreadsheet tab in the Excel workbook. This way you can add to or modify the data without accidentally deleting or creating errors in the original data. In this lesson, I’m going to show you the basics of how to copy data in Excel.

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I’m not covering topics in the way most people are taught to use spreadsheets. I’m trying to provide enough information for you to be able to start using the DIY spreadsheets as soon as possible. And then I’ll start filling in other information that you need to know but wouldn’t be as useful in starting to use the spreadsheets.

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In this lesson I explain how to insert a column and why you would want to when using the DIY Spreadsheets. This is going to have you do things that I won’t explain now but in upcoming lessons. I just wanted to show you how to do something that can help you start using the data.

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In this lesson I’m going to make sure you know how to get around the Excel spreadsheet. I know that a lot a people figure out how to do something in an application, not just Excel, and never really learn any of the other features available. I know that’s the case for me. While putting together these lessons on how to use Excel, I’ve learned different ways of doing things. So I want to point out a few features and how to use them.

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In this lesson I’m going to show you how to open and save the Excel spreadsheet. I know this is still pretty basic but I really want to emphasize the important of creating a backup file. While I’ve “write protected” some of the tabs to ensure a copy of the data is always available in the file, it doesn’t do any good when the file itself disappears.

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I think most of us are likely to take for granted that other people know how to do something that we do without thinking. The tech geek is the perfect example. You just want to get rid of an annoying icon and instead get a 30 minute lecture of how to set all of your screen options. And I’m pretty sure I’ve been guilty of this where my spreadsheets are concerned.

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