MS Excel Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Inserts summary rows into a sorted list at each change of a chosen column

The Subtotal command inserts summary rows into a list wherever a chosen column changes value - a total for each region, department or month - together with a grand total, and adds outline controls so the detail can be collapsed. Its one prerequisite is that the list must first be sorted by the column being grouped on. Applied to unsorted data it produces a subtotal at every change of value, which may be dozens of meaningless groups. That step is where most difficulty with the feature arises. The rows it inserts use the SUBTOTAL function rather than SUM, which is what allows nested subtotals to avoid double counting and makes the totals respect any filter applied afterwards. The outline numbers at the left collapse the view to totals alone, which is useful for printing a summary. Subtotals are removed with the Remove All button in the same dialogue. For anything more elaborate, a pivot table is the better tool.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Double clicking the format painter button

A single click applies the formatting once and turns the tool off; double-clicking locks it on until Esc is pressed.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Pie chart

A pie chart shows parts of a whole, each slice representing a category’s share of the total. It works only under conditions worth remembering: the values must be parts of a single total, must all be positive, and should be few - beyond about five or six slices the differences become impossible to judge. Human eyes compare angles poorly, so a bar chart is usually clearer even when a pie is technically valid. The other types answer different questions. A line chart shows change over time. A bar or column chart compares values across categories. A scatter chart shows the relationship between two numeric variables and is the right choice for correlation. An area chart is a line chart with the region below filled, emphasising cumulative magnitude. Choosing the chart type is a matter of what question is being asked, not of appearance. Alt + F1 inserts a default chart from the selected data.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Transpose

TRANSPOSE turns a row into a column and a column into a row. The same operation is available as the Transpose option in Paste Special.

Answer: C

Correct answer: It can contain many sheets including worksheets and chart sheets

An Excel file is called a workbook because it is a bound collection of sheets - worksheets of cells and chart sheets - rather than a single page, and the tabs along the bottom let you leaf through them. Holding text and data, or being editable, is true of almost any document and does not explain the name.

Answer: C

Correct answer: a file that can contain several worksheets

A workbook is the file; a worksheet is one sheet of cells within it. A new workbook typically opens with one sheet, and more can be added, renamed, coloured, reordered, copied and hidden using the tabs at the bottom. The distinction matters in formulas, because a reference can cross sheets. =Sheet2!A1 reads a cell on another sheet of the same workbook, and =[Budget.xlsx]Sheet1!A1 reads one in a different workbook - a link that must be updated when the source changes. A 3-D reference spans several sheets at once: =SUM(Jan:Dec!B5) adds cell B5 across twelve monthly sheets, which is the standard way to consolidate identical sheets. Several sheets can be selected together with Ctrl or Shift, after which typing or formatting applies to all of them at once - useful, but the cause of a good deal of accidental damage when the grouping is forgotten.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Microsoft online

The animated GIFs supplied for PowerPoint live in the online clip collection - the Clips Online link in the Clip Art task pane, which opens Microsoft’s Design Gallery Live. The clip art installed with Word holds still images, and there is no “PowerPoint tools and ins” gallery.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Edit

The spelling dialog offers Ignore, Ignore All, Change, Change All, Add and AutoCorrect. There is no Edit button: the correction is typed into the suggestion box instead.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The text box and text both are deleted

A text box is a single object, and its text is its content, so deleting the object removes both. Emptying the box without deleting it requires selecting the text instead.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Placed in a word table

Excel's grid maps naturally onto a Word table, so a plain paste produces one. Linking or embedding are what Paste Special offers instead, and each keeps a connection to Excel that a plain paste does not.