Microsoft Excel Introduction

Getting Started with Microsoft Excel is really easy. It is like using any new tool – knowing something about it, how the tool operates and what it does makes it easier for you to use it. In order to start using Excel you need to learn the basics which you need to create a foundation of knowledge and skills that will help you to use Excel as an important tool at your work or home.

• Identify the Elements of the Excel Interface

In order to use it effectively you will need to become familiar first with Excel interface by exploring and identifying its capabilities through available commands and options.

• Create a Basic Worksheet

Once you are familiar with the Excel interface, it’s time to start building a simple worksheet to store and manipulate your data. This way you can lay the foundation for creating more complex workbooks.The word you need to remember is the Ribbon – a graphical menu panel that appears at the top of the application window – its central location enables you to access most of the commands that you will need to use in Excel.

• Use the Help System

As you continue to work in Excel, you might have a few questions about the basic tasks. This is where the Help system comes handy as it will help you to find the answers. It is your new tool’s instruction manual, a comprehensive system which will assist you in finding information that you need as you carry on working with the application.

In order to take full advantage of everything Excel can do for you, you must first understand how Excel thinks, what it can do for you, and how to tell it what to do. In this lesson, you’ll begin to understand how to use it. By using Excel formulas and functions to calculate your data, you are less likely to encounter errors, you can save time, and you can present the results of the calculations in a consistent manner.

• Create Formulas in a Worksheet

The easiest way to calculate data in Excel is to use formulas and in this topic, you will create formulas in a worksheet.By gaining a solid understanding of how Excel does it, you’ll save yourself time and ensure a level of accuracy not possible when performing the same calculations on your own.

• Insert Functions in a Worksheet

In the last topic, you created formulas in worksheets. You’ve seen how using formulas in Excel can make it easy for you. But at some point, you will likely need to use some complex formulas that involve numerous cell and range references.There are likely to be formulas you use so frequently that you get tired of writing the same formula over and over again. Fortunately, Excel provides you with the ability to create complex formulas quickly and easily by using a massive set of built-in formulas.In this topic you will become familiar with this Excel functionality.

• Reuse Formulas

Excel provides you with a number of methods to reuse nearly any of your content, including formulas and functions, by using a variety of copy and paste techniques.By reusing your content, you can eliminate the hassle and reduce the likelihood of entering numerous errors in your workbooks. All of this will allow you to avoid repetitive tasks and hours of troubleshooting so you can focus on more important things.You will save time once you learned to reuse many workbook elements.

Excel provides you with a wide variety of options for making significant changes to your worksheets. This lesson will help you understand how this functionality works and how it will keep your documents updated without throwing away any of the valuable work.You will learn how to easily add, revise, and remove data without having to create a new worksheet every time your data changes.

• Manipulate Data

If you are asked to create an inventory worksheet based on prior worksheets,it’s going to be a much easier task if you use a copy of an older worksheet and change the data than if you were to try and re-create the worksheet from scratch. By using the data-editing options in Excel, you can quickly revise and manipulate data to meet the changing needs of your organization.

• Insert, Manipulate, and Delete Cells, Columns, and Rows

In the last topic, you manipulated data. In some instances, you will need to manipulate other elements of the worksheet. You’ll want to be able to configure the cells, columns, and rows in your worksheets to suit your needs.In this topic, you will find out how to insert, manipulate, and delete cells, columns, and rows.

• Search for and Replace Data

As your worksheets become larger and hold more and more data, it can become difficult to identify which specific values need to be updated.Having to find and correct multiple errors in a workbook can be a painstaking,time-consuming process. The good news is that Excel includes a number of options to help you find and correct mistakes throughout your workbooks quickly and easily. By using Excel options such as cell names and the Find and Replace commands, you can quickly and accurately locate and change data in worksheets.

• Spell Check a Worksheet

In addition to ensuring you have the correct data and formulas in your worksheets, you’ll want to make sure everything is spelled correctly. In this topic, you will spell check a worksheet. In any situation where you are entering data into an electronic file, there is a chance that you might mistype or misspell a word, which can detract from the appearance and accuracy of your work. Understanding how to use this functionality can help you make sure your worksheets are accurate and look professional.

In this lesson, you will learn to format a worksheet. If you work with large worksheets, with thousands of data entries which can be difficult to read,you will need to understand how to organize the data by using a variety of formatting options that can help you present your data in the right way to suit your needs.By applying the formatting options available in Excel, your worksheets will have a professional appearance and the data within them will be easier to read and interpret.

• Modify Fonts

Changing the font properties of the data in a worksheet will help you highlight key points within the data and make it more visually appealing. You will be able to create spreadsheets that are easy to read and interpret and that allow the important information to stand out from the crowd.

• Add Borders and Color to Cells

Like successful advertisements highlight key information to attract the attention of potential consumers you could do so by adding borders and colours to specific cells in an Excel worksheet. This will help draw your audience to the important information in your workbooks. Borders and Colours in your cells will also enable you to group similar data and make complex worksheets appear to be less cluttered with information.

• Apply Number Formats

At some point you might be asked to work with the numeric data in a variety of ways. You may even have specific instructions on how to present data in a particular cell, row, or column. For example, all numbers should appear with a pound or dollar sign, and only show two decimal places. By learning how and when to apply number formats, you’ll give yourself the flexibility needed to work with and analyze all of your numeric data.

• Align Cell Contents

In this topic you will learn to adjust the data displayed within the cell. Excel might not display the content within the cell exactly as you expected – when the data exceeds the column width and there is data in the next cell, or not all of the data will be visible. Taking the time to familiarize yourself with the text alignment options will definitely improve the appearance of your worksheet.

• Apply Cell Styles

Another formatting option Excel provides is cell styles – a unique set of formatting options that you can apply to a cell or a range on a worksheet. You can select from a wide range of predefined cell styles or create your own custom style. Styles can include cell protection options to prevent people from altering your data.

Understanding how to set your worksheets up for printing and how to print only what you need will allow you to deliver only the necessary information to your audience by using both the default print setting and customized settings to enhance the readability of the printouts.

• Define the Basic Page Layout for a Workbook

In this topic, you will define the basic page layout for a workbook that you want to print. You have gathered relevant information and want to make it available to those who do not have access to a computer, or to perform a detailed review of the entire workbook. Before printing it you will want to to preview and check if any adjustments need to be made.

• Refine the Page Layout and Apply Print Options

For larger worksheets and workbooks, or only a subset of the data in a worksheet you might need to further customize the printing. You will be shown how to check and adjust the page layout and print options so that the printed output looks the way you expect it to look.

Due to their size, the large workbooks can present challenges. Understanding how to manage them if you need to add or remove worksheets from your workbooks,or to preserve certain data without displaying it to colleagues or supervisors, or simply to refer to a large number of workbook files,will help you to access specific areas of large worksheets and workbooks more efficiently.

• Format Worksheet Tabs

You will learn to change the default sheet names to something more meaningful so that you can locate data quickly.

• Manage Worksheets

Excel enables you to reposition, hide, copy or delete worksheets in a workbook so that your data is presented in an organized manner.You will learn how to edit multiple worksheets simultaneously and save time.

• Manage the View of Worksheets and Workbooks

It can be difficult to track information when you are working on data that is spread over several worksheets.This topic will help you to modify the default view of your worksheets, you’ll be able to easily review data from different sources simultaneously, copy and paste data to the correct location without risking error.

This lesson is all about you and your needs.Throughout this course, you have used many options and commands. With this experience,you might recognize certain settings or options that you would like to adjust to better meet your needs.This lesson will teach you to customize the Excel environment so that you can complete your Excel projects more efficiently.

• Customize General and Language Options

When you start using Excel,the interface might not provide you with convenient access to all of the options that you needed, or it might include options that you do not need at all. By customizing general and language options, you can access the options that you need.

• Customize Formula Options

You can also customize options that deal with formulas and calculations. You might find that the default behavior for formulas is not for you but you can customize it – this will enable you to specify how to calculate formulas, manage performance, and control errors in your workbooks.

• Customize Proofing and Save Options

When you are reviewing a workbook that contains a lot of nouns, using the default settings during a spell check might become tedious. Also, you might find that the default save options do
not meet your needs during a special project.In this topic, you will learn to customize proofing and save options to streamline your work processes.

• Customize the Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar

By customizing the ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar, you can place your most commonly used commands and options at your fingertips.

• Customize the Functionality of Excel by Enabling Add-Ins

Another way to customize Excel is to add functionality through the use of Microsoft Office add-ins.By enabling add-ins, you can
increase your productivity by including additional commands and features that deal with specialized job functions.

• Customize Advanced and Trust Center Options

As you become more experienced with Excel, you might find that there are certain advanced options that you want to customize and that you can make important changes to numerous features and settings, including security settings.

By now you fully understand how the tool of Excel operates and what it does.
Make the best use of it.
Good luck.