Founders of the Colonies Chart in Excel

In the next two days you will gather the following information about each of the thirteen colonies that formed the United States.  You will record the name of the colony and its founding date, the name of its leader, and the reasons it was founded.  You will organize your colonies by New England, Middle, and Southern regions.

  1. Start Microsoft Excel.

Review of Spreadsheet Terms

Spreadsheet - A record keeping tool that mainly works with numbers. It stores the data in a grid of columns and rows.

Cell - A container for data in a spreadsheet identified by its column letter and row number.

Column - Vertical line of data identified by a letter.

Row - Horizontal line of data in a spreadsheet identified by a number.

Value - Numbers (ex. 27) stored in cells and used in calculations.

Label - Words or characters (ex. big, & ? ...) stored in a cell that cannot be used in calculations.

Formula Bar - Bar below the standard and formatting toolbars where data entered from the keyboard is displayed as it is entered into the cell.

Cell Indicator - Shows the current location of the cell cursor on the left of the formula bar.

Cell Cursor - Highlighted cell which can be moved around by the arrow keys or mouse.

Setting Up Your Chart

  1. On the menu bar, click on File|Save As
  2. In YOUR folder on the H: NETWORK drive, save the file as FOUNDING-lastnamef

Adding Your Name Header

  1. On the Menu Bar, click on View|Header and Footers...
  2. In the Page Setup dialog, click on Custom Header... button.  See the picture below:

  3. Click in the white space under Center Section. Type your full name, your teacher's name, and your class period. like in the example below.

Setting Up Your Spreadsheet Printing Properties

  1. Click on File|Page Setup...

On the Page tab

  1. On the Page tab, choose Landscape orientation, and choose Fit To: 1 page(s) wide by 1 tall scaling. See the picture below.

  2. Click on the Margins tab and set it up as seen below.

Setting up your First Name title

  1. Highlight Columns A, B and C.
  2. Click on Format|Column|Width and set the width to 40. See the picture below.

  3. Change your Zoom factor to 75%
  4. Click on cell A1.
  5. Type Colony/Date Founded
  6. Click on cell B1.
  7. Type Leader
  8. Click on cell C1.
  9. Type Reasons Founded
  10. Highlight A1 through C1.
  11. Make the font 12 pt, Bold, and Center the text.
  12. Click on cell A2.
  13. Type New England Colonies
  14. Make the font 12 pt, Bold, Italics, and Center the text.
  15. Highlight A2 through C2.
  16. Click on the Merge and Center button.
  17. Click on cell A8.
  18. Type Middle Colonies
  19. Make the font 12 pt, Bold, Italics, and Center the text.
  20. Highlight A8 through C8.
  21. Click on the Merge and Center button.
  22. Click on cell A13.
  23. Type Southern Colonies
  24. Make the font 12 pt, Bold, Italics, and Center the text.
  25. Highlight A13 through C13.
  26. Click on the Merge and Center button.

Setting up the borders for the spreadsheet.

  1. Highlight from cell A1 to C17.
  2. Use the Borders tool on the formatting toolbar to turn on the border that looks like this
    Hint: Look for the Borders tool in the following area and use the down triangle to select  All Borders     from the list.
  3. Click on cell D17.
  4. The borders for the area A1 to C17 should now look like the picture below.

  5. Save your work.

Setting up the fill and font colors for the spreadsheet.

  1. Add color to the spreadsheet in the areas seen below.  You may choose your fill colors for the cells, but DO NOT fill white cells with color.
  2. Your font colors may be black or white.  Use white text when the background color is dark. Use black where the background color is light.

  3. Save your work.

Adding Data to Your Chart.

  1. Click in the cell where you need to add your information.
  2. Type your information.  If the data is too long to fit inside the cell do the following.
    1. Click away from the cell and then click on the cell that is too long.
    2. Click on Format|Cells and click on the Alignment Tab.
    3. Click on Wrap Text as seen in the picture below. This will cause the text to fit within the cell.

  3. Continue typing your information.  When complete, go to Printing Your Chart.

Printing your chart.

  1. Highlight cells A1 through C17.
  2. Click on File|Print Area|Set Print Area.
  3. Click on File|Print Preview
  4. When you have completed this, call for a teacher to inspect your work and then you will be allowed to print.

Congratulations on completing this lesson.

For more information about this lesson, please contact Misty Burkett or Jeff Skelton - Teachers, Lewisville ISD