BHS Technology Task # 4
Working with the Demographics Spreadsheet

October 18 - 22, 2004

 

 

This week the Tech Task deals with the ability to open an Excel email attachment, sort the information, save the sorted information into a separate Excel worksheet, sort the new worksheet several different ways, and print out the information that deals with only your own students. 

 

Mr. Erickson has emailed you an Excel attachment that contains information that you need to know about your students; however, it also contains information about over a thousand other students.  How do you narrow down that information so that you do not have multitudes of information that you do not need?

 

First:  Right-click the attachment from Mr. Erickson’s email and select Save As instead of Open.  Save the file into your network folder (F: or G: drive), and then open it from there to begin work on it.

 

BEGINNER LEVEL

 

I can identify and sort the Excel attachment so that all of my students are in one section that can be separated from the excess student rows.

 

(1)         Notice three important things about the spreadsheet.

a.      Students are sorted entirely alphabetically, not by grade level.

b.      There are seventeen columns (A-Q) with important header titles and over 1200 rows – one for each student registered at BHS during the time when the spreadsheet was constructed.

c.      The last column has a header titled “My Students.” 

(2)         Click in the top student row in the “My Student” column.  Click the down Cursor Control arrow until the cursor is in that column’s cell for the row for one of your student, and type an X in that cell.  (See the Wizard Task before completing this.)

Shortcut for finding your students: 

1) Click Edit / Find and type in the last name of your first student. Hit <enter>. The spreadsheet will change to the area of the spreadsheet and the row number for your student will turn blue. Drag the FIND box out of the way, but do not close it.

2) Click in the MY STUDENTS column and put the appropriate letter in the row.

3) Click back in the FIND box and type in the name of the next student; hit <enter> and continue.

(3)         Continue until all students are identified.

(4)         At that point, each of the students that you have in class should have an X in the “My Students” column.

(5)         Click the cell in the corner between the A column and the 1 row.  This will highlight the spreadsheet.

(6)         Click Data / Sort  .  In the Sort box that opens, make sure that the Sort By area has My Students in it and Descending with the bullet in it.  There should be a bullet in the My list has a header row. Click OK.

(7)         The spreadsheet now has your students listed in alphabetical order above the rest of the student body.


INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

 

I can separate my students from all other students, save them into a separate Excel worksheet, and sort them for pertinent information

(1)       Click in the gray area to the left of row A1.  Holding down the left mouse button (or holding down the shift key while pressing the down Cursor Control key), scroll down until you have highlighted all of your students.

(2)       Let up on all keys. 

(3)       Copy the highlighted cells to the clipboard.

a.      Click Edit/Copy      or

b.      Click Ctrl / C          or

c.      Click the Copy button on the toolbar.

(4)       Click the My Students tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.  This will open a new blank worksheet.

(5)       Click in cell A1.

(6)       To paste the copied cells into the new worksheet:

a.      Click Edit / Paste       or

b.      Click Ctrl / V   (think about the V being for Velcro, since you are sticking the copied information in a new place)           or

c.      Click the Paste button on the toolbar.

(7)       All of your students are now separated into a new worksheet.

Note:  you might have to adjust the column sizes.  Just highlight the entire worksheet and then double-click the      |        line between any two columns.  You may also highlight the entire worksheet and then click Format / column / AutoFit selection.

(8)       Save your changes.

(9)       To sort your new worksheet by the header columns, just

a.      Click the corner cell to the left of the A column and above the 1 row to highlight the entire worksheet.

b.      Click Data / Sort and select the desired header category in the Sort By dropdown menu box.

c.      You may select additional sorting categories in the next two areas of the box.

d.      The My list has a header row area should be bulleted.

e.      Click OK.

(10)  To print your information, just File / Print as usual.  (Remember to keep printed pages locked up.)

a.      There is a Print what area of the Print dialog box.  It should say Active Sheets selected.

b.      If you want to print only selected rows (classes), you may highlight the desired rows and go to File / Print Area / Set Print Area and then click the Print button.

c.      You may hide both rows and columns before printing:

                                                              i.      Highlight desired rows or columns to hide.

                                                            ii.      Go to Format / Row / Hide or Format / Column / Hide.

                                                          iii.      To “unhide” the rows or columns, highlight the ones before and after, and then go to Format / Row (or Column) / Unhide.

 


WIZARD LEVEL

 

I can separate my students not only into one alphabetical list, but also by individual class blocks.

 

(1)       Instead of putting an X in the My Students column, use the following key: 

If students are in

insert the letter below instead of X

     1 Odd

     A

     2 Odd

     B

     3 Odd

     C

     4 Odd

     D

     1 Even

     E

     2 Even

     F

     3 Even

     G

     4 Even

     H


NOTE:  Some teachers use other letter designations for the blocks, like 2E for 2nd Even, etc. 

(2)       Click the cell in the corner between the A column and the 1 row.  This will highlight the spreadsheet.

(3)       Click Data / Sort  .  In the Sort box that opens, make sure that the Sort By area has My Students in it and Descending with the bullet in it.  Click OK.

(4)       The spreadsheet now has your students listed in alphabetical order by each of the eight blocks.

(5)       Click in the gray area in front of row A1.  Holding down the left mouse button (or holding down the shift key while holding down the down Cursor Control key), scroll down until you have highlighted all of your students.

(6)     Let up on all keys. 

(7)    Copy the highlighted cells to the clipboard.

a.      Click Edit/Copy      or

b.      Click Ctrl / C          or

c.      Click the Copy button on the toolbar.

(8)       Click the My Students tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.  This will 

open a new blank worksheet.

(9)        Click in cell A1.

(10)         To paste the copied cells into the new worksheet:

a.      Click Edit / Paste       or

b.      Click Ctrl / V   (think about the V being for Velcro, since you are sticking the copied information in a new place)           or

c.      Click the Paste button on the toolbar

(11)      All of your students are now separated into a new worksheet listed by time blocks.

(12)      Save your changes.

(13)         To sort your new worksheet by the header columns, just

a.      Click the corner cell between A1 to highlight the entire worksheet.

b.      Click Data / Sort and select the desired header category in the Sort By dropdown menu box.

c.      You may select additional sorting categories in the next two areas of the box.

d.      The My list has a header row area should be bulleted.

e.      Click OK.

(14)   Print as usual. (Remember to keep printed pages locked up.)