Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

• Adding Different Types of Data

• Quick Ways to Add Data

Now that you've created a basic worksheet, and you're acquainted with Excel and its sometimes-quirky interface, it's time to get down and dirty adding data. Whether you want to plan your household budget, build a sales invoice, keep track of birthday and holiday gifts, or graph your soaring (or plunging) net worth, you first need to understand how Excel interprets the information you put in your worksheet.

Depending on what kind of data you type into a cell, Excel classifies it as a date, a number, or a piece of text. In this chapter, you'll learn how Excel makes up its mind, and how you can make sure it makes the right decision. You'll also see how to create a sample worksheet and learn how to use Excel's best time-savers, including the indispensable Undo feature.