Excel 2007:
Intermediate
Frequently asked questions and instructor notes
All our courses assume that each student has a personal computer to use during the class. Our hands-on approach to learning requires they do. This topic gives information on how to set up the classroom to teach this course. It includes minimum requirements for the students’ personal computers, setup information for the first time you teach the class, and setup information for each time that you teach after the first time you set up the classroom.
The Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office 2007 suite are subject to continual updating by Microsoft. The versions of each that you install are by definition different from the versions that we used to prepare this course in December 2006. The setup process described here may vary slightly from what you will encounter. This also applies to activities and screen shots throughout the course.
Hardware requirements
Each student’s personal computer should have:
· A keyboard and a mouse
· Pentium 500 MHz processor (or higher)
· At least 256 MB RAM
· 2 GB of available hard drive space
· CD-ROM drive
· SVGA at 1024×768, or higher resolution monitor
Software requirements
You will need the following software:
· Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003
· Microsoft Office 2007
· The Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs (If this is not installed, students will not be able to complete Activity C-1 in the unit titled “Web and Internet features.”)
· Adobe Reader 8 or later, for viewing PDF files in Activity C-1 in the unit titled “Web and Internet features”
· A printer driver. Students are not required to print in this course, but Print Preview mode cannot be accessed without a printer driver installed.
Network requirements
The following network components and connectivity are also required for this course:
· Internet access, for the following purposes:
– Updating the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office 2007 at update.microsoft.com.
– Downloading the Student Data files (if necessary).
– Downloading the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs from www.microsoft.com/downloads. (If this add-in is not available, students will not be able to complete Activity C-1 in the unit titled “Web and Internet features.”)
– Downloading Adobe Reader 8 from www.adobe.com. (If this is not installed, students will not be able to view the PDF file created in Activity C-1 in the unit titled “Web and Internet features.”)
– Downloading document templates from Microsoft Office Online. (If online templates are not available, students will not be able to complete Activity B‑1 in the unit titled “Templates and settings.”)
First-time setup instructions
The first time you teach this course, you will need to perform the following steps to set up each student computer.
1 Install Windows XP on an NTFS partition according to the software manufacturer’s instructions.
Note: You can also use Windows Vista or Windows Server 2003, but the screen shots in this course were taken using Windows XP, so students’ screens will look somewhat different.
2 If the operating system is Windows XP, then launch the Control Panel, open the Display Properties dialog box, and apply the following settings:
· Theme — Windows XP
· Screen resolution — 1024 by 768 pixels
· Color quality — High (24 bit) or higher
3 If Windows was already loaded on this PC, verify that Internet Explorer is the default Web browser. (If you installed Windows yourself, skip this step.)
a Click Start and choose All Programs, Internet Explorer.
b Choose Tools, Internet Options.
c Check “Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser.”
d Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
e Close and re-open Internet Explorer.
f If a prompt appears, asking you to make Internet Explorer your default browser, click Yes.
4 Navigate to update.microsoft.com. Update the operating system with the latest critical updates and service packs.
5 Install Microsoft Office 2007 according to the software manufacturer’s instructions, as follows:
a When prompted for the CD key, enter the code included with your software.
b Select the Customize installation option and click Next.
c Activate the Installation Options tab.
d For Microsoft Office Excel, Office Shared Features, and Office Tools, click the drop-down arrow and choose “Run all from My Computer.”
e Set all but the following to Not Available: Microsoft Office Excel, Office Shared Features, and Office Tools.
f Click Install Now.
g On the last screen of the Office 2007 installer, click Go to Office Online. Internet Explorer displays the Office Online Web site, and the installer window closes.
h On the Office Online Web page, activate the Downloads tab.
i Download and install any available updates.
j Close Internet Explorer
6 Configure Windows Explorer to show hidden files and folders:
a In a Windows Explorer window, choose Tools, Folder Options.
b Activate the View tab.
c Under Files and Folders, Hidden files and folders, select “Show hidden files and folders.”
7 If you don’t have the data CD that came with this manual, download the Student Data files for the course. You can download the data directly to student machines, to a central location on your own network, or to a disk.
a Connect to www.courseilt.com/instructor_tools.html.
b Click the link for Microsoft Excel 2007 to display a page of course listings, and then click the link for Excel 2007: Intermediate.
c Click the link for downloading the Student Data files, and follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
8 Create a Student Data folder on each student’s computer, and copy the Student Data files to that folder.
9 Start Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Then, do the following:
a Activate the software. After activation, the Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office System dialog box appears.
b On the Privacy Options screen, verify that “Search Microsoft Office Online for Help content when I’m connected to the Internet” is checked.
c Verify that “Download a file periodically that helps determine system problems” is cleared.
d Verify that “Sign up for the Customer Experience Improvement Program” is cleared.
e Click Next.
f Select “I don’t want to use Microsoft Update.”
g Click Finish to close the dialog box.
h Click the Office Button and click Excel Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.
i On the Popular screen, under “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office,” enter a generic user name for the student, such as Student01, User01, and so on. Then, close Excel.
10 Download and install the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs. (Do this even if you are using Windows Vista.)
a Navigate to
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=
4d951911-3e7e-4ae6-b059-a2e79ed87041&DisplayLang=en, or connect to
http://www.microsoft.com and search for “2007 Microsoft Office Add-in:
Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS.”
b Install the software according to the software manufacturer’s instructions.
11 Download and install Adobe Reader 8 or later. To do so:
a Connect to www.adobe.com/products/reader.
b Click Download now and follow the on-screen instructions.
12 To ensure that students won’t get a security warning when they open files in Excel 2007, designate the Student Data folder as a Trusted Location:
a Click the Office Button and choose Excel Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.
b On the Trust Center page, click Trust Center Settings to open the Trust Center dialog box.
c Navigate to the Trusted Locations page.
d Click Add new location. The Microsoft Office 2007 Trusted Location dialog box opens.
e Click Browse and navigate to the Student Data folder.
f Click OK to close the Browse dialog box.
g Check “Subfolders of this location are also trusted.”
h Click OK to close the Microsoft Office 2007 Trusted Location dialog box.
i Click OK to close the Trust Center dialog box.
j Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.
k Close Excel.
Setup instructions for every class
Every time you teach this course, it’s best to do a fresh install of Microsoft Office Excel 2007. If you choose not to do this, you will need to perform the following steps to set up each student computer.
1 If necessary, reset any defaults that have been changed in previous classes.
a Click the Office Button and click Excel Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.
b On the Popular page, under “Top options for working with Excel,” click Edit Custom Lists. Delete the custom list containing North, South, East, Central, and West. Click OK to close the Custom Lists dialog box.
c Under “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office,” remove the student’s name from the User name box and replace it with a more generic name, such as Student01 or User01.
d On the Save page, under Save Workbooks, confirm that the default file location is C:\Documents and Settings\User_name\My Documents.
e On the Advanced page, under Display, verify that under “For cells with comments, show,” the “Indicators only, and comments on hover” option is selected.
f On the Advanced page, under “Display options for this worksheet,” check “Show a zero in cells that have zero value.”
g On the Customize page, remove any commands that students added to the Quick Access toolbar. The only commands that should be left on it are Save, Undo, and Redo.
h Click OK to save these settings and close the Excel Options dialog box.
2 Delete My colors and My theme. To do so, open a new blank workbook and activate the Page Layout tab. Open the Themes gallery and delete My theme. Open the Colors gallery and delete My colors.
3 Remove the Sample test and My OS invoice templates from the Templates folder. To do so, navigate to C:/Documents and Settings/User_name/Application Data/Microsoft/Templates, and delete the templates.
4 Delete the contents of the Student Data folder, if necessary. (If this is the first time you are teaching the course, create a folder named Student Data at the root of the hard drive. For a standard hard drive setup, this will be C:\Student Data.) If you delete the Student Data folder itself (instead of just the contents), then designate the Student Data folder as a trusted location, as described in the preceding section.
5 Copy the data files to the Student Data folder. (See the download instructions in the preceding section.)
6 Open Internet Explorer and navigate to update.microsoft.com. Update the operating system and Office 2007.
Topic B: Frequently asked questions
There are no frequently asked questions for this course at this time.
Topic C: Course notes
There are no notes for this course at this time.
Topic D: Additional information
Page 1-13. The caption for Exhibit 1-5 mistakenly says Activity B-3 when it should be Activity C-2. (There’s no B-3 by the way.)
Page 2-21. In step 4.2, there’s an extra space between “select” and “the.”
Page 2-25. In step 13, in the sheet name, “Report” should be lowercase.
Page 5-17. The word Explanation is missing in the first Ex1 paragraph.
Page 5-22. The last sentence of the right side of step 7 is wrong. Students are told that they are displaying spice names that begin with the letter B. However, they’re actually filtering on names that begin with C.
Page 6-5. The right side description of the data file is wrong. Instead of containing “five years of revenue figures,” the worksheet actually contains four quarters of figures for five regions.
Page 7-6. In the procedural steps, the button name in step 5 is wrong. It should be Close and not OK.
Page 8-31. In Exhibit 8-7, cell B5 is missing the comment indicator. (Students added the comment in step 2 and the exhibit displays the worksheet status after step 5.)