Steps to Creating a Cartesian Coordinate Grid

1.  Open up a Microsoft Excel sheet.

2.  Start at column A row 1, left click, and drag mouse to column AD to highlight. (If you have never been in excel before, after the whole alphabet A-Z, the letters in the column begin to double- AA, AB, AC, and so on... so double letters come after the regular alphabet!)

3.  Click on format, scroll down to column, arrow over to width. Then fill in 2.5 for column width and click ok.

4.  Left click in column C row 3. Hold down the left button and drag mouse to column AC row 28.

5.  Release the left click button leaving the area with a blue highlight.

6.  Go to the border square on the toolbar, click the arrow, and then click the box that looks like a window pane.

7.  Click on column B rows 2, left click, and drag the mouse to column B row 3 leaving this area highlighted. Click on format, click cells, and click alignment tab. Put a check mark in “merge cells” and click ok. Go back to format, click cells, and click on alignment tab. Under text alignment, mark “center” under the horizontal and vertical settings. Click ok.

8.  Left click someplace outside that column and row.

9.  Click back on column B rows 2 and 3 and a big plus sign will appear. Move the center of the big plus sign to the lower right corner of the created box and left click. The big plus sign will turn into a small plus sign. Keeping the left button pushed, drag and highlight down to column B row 29. Release.

10.  Left click on column C row 29 and move right to highlight column D row 29. Click on format, click cells, and click alignment tab. Put a check mark in “merge cells” and click ok. Go back to format, click cells, and click on alignment tab. Under text alignment, mark “center” under the horizontal and vertical settings. Click ok.

11.  On the lower right-hand corner of column D row 29, place the mouse on the square.

12.  Move the center of the big plus sign to the lower right corner of the created box and left click. The big plus sign will turn into a small plus sign. Keeping the left button pushed, drag and highlight down to column AD row 29. Release.

13.  Left click on column C/D and type in the number 1.

14.  Left click on column E/F and type in 3.

15.  Left click on column G/H and type in 5.

16.  Repeat this procedure by moving to the right and counting by two's (using odd numbers) until you get to columns AC/AD and row 29 and reach number 27.

17.  Click on column AE row 28 and column AE row 29 and highlight.

18. Type in an upper case "X."

19.  Find autoshapes on your toolbar. If it is not displayed, go to "view, " then to "toolbars,", and then to "drawing." Find the arrow and left click it. It will NOT be available to use until you click your mouse somewhere else.

20. At the bottom right-hand corner of column AC row 28, left click and drag line to the right one full block and release mouse button.

21. At column B rows 28/29, type in the number 0.

22. At column B rows 26/27, type in the number 2.

23. At column B rows 24/25, type in 4.

24. Repeat this procedure by moving up and counting by two's (using even numbers) until you get to column B and rows 2/3 and reach number 26.

25. Left click and highlight column B row 1 and column C row 1. Click on format, click cells, and click alignment tab. Put a check mark in “merge cells” and click ok. Go back to format, click cells, and click on alignment tab. Under text alignment, mark “center” under the horizontal and vertical settings. Click ok.

26. In cell column B1/C1, type in a capital "Y."

27. Click on the arrow in autoshapes. In the upper left corner of column C row 3, left click and hold, dragging the line up and release button.

28. Your coordinate grid is now completed. You will now make a box of dots so your grid will be interactive.

29. Click between columns B and C on row 31. Left click to drag and highlight over to column AC and down to row 35.

30. Go to the border square and click the one that looks like a picture frame. This will create a new table.

31. Go to autoshapes. Find the oval. Click on it and then click inside your table. It will appear quite large. Make the oval smaller using the corners to drag it in. Try to get as small as you can (just a little larger than a period mark).

32. Go to the paint bucket in autoshapes. Click it, pick a color, and click the oval. The dot will fill.

33. Right click your colored "dot." Pick "copy." Move your cursor to another spot in the table. Right click and pick "copy." Repeat this about 15 times.

34. Go to column AE row 6. Right click and drag cursor over to column AF and down to row 13 to highlight. Click on the border box and select the window pane.

35. You now have an online table for which to list your (x,y) corrdinates. This table has 16 cells. If you need more or less spaces, you may right click inside the table and select "insert." This will allow you to add or delete rows or columns.

36. Make sure you save this excel document twice, once under each of your names.

On to the activity:

37. Your paper copy already has all of the points of the special landmarks plotted. These are the coordinate points that you need to place in your "online" table. Do that now.

38. You will now plot the points on this coordinate grid from your table. Right click a dot and drag it the intersecting spot on the (x, y) axis. Repeat this for all major landmarks.

MAKE SURE YOU SAVE AND PRINT THIS!!!

** When printing, go to page setup and change to "landscape."