Excel is part of Microsoft’s 365 suite of software, alongside Word, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, and more. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows users to organize, format, and calculate data in a spreadsheet. Excel users can create pivot tables and graphs to help them compute and visualize complex data sets.
There’s no shortage of things you can do with an Excel spreadsheet. Here are just a few common documents you can create:
Balance sheet
Budgets
Calendar
Data report
Forms
Income statement
Invoice
Mailing list
Planning document
Time sheet
To-do list
All of these documents can be applied to your business or personal life. Excel is a versatile tool that can help you stay organized and calculate important information.
When using Excel, you’ll want to be sure to know the basics of a spreadsheet program. Once you’re familiar with its interface and features, you can add data to the cells or create a document by formatting the cells to your liking. Then, you can learn formulas and functions to calculate sums of money, for example, or the number of products needed for a launch.
When you’re starting out with Excel, here are a few commands you’ll want to know.
How to create a new spreadsheet
How to format column or row text and titles
How to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers in two or more cells
How to add or delete columns, rows, and pages (within the same spreadsheet)
How to sort your data
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can start to learn the different Excel formulas to help you compute data.
There are many formulas available in Excel that you can use to work with data. Each formula in Excel begins with an equal sign. Before you create a formula, you’ll need to write an equal sign (=) in the cell where you want the formula’s result to appear.
These are some of the basic formulas to keep in mind.
Add: To add the values of two or more cells, use the plus (+) sign.
Example: =A4+D5
Subtract: To subtract the values of two or more cells, use the minus (-) sign.
Example: =A4-D5
Multiply: To multiply the values of two or more cells, use the asterisk (*).
Example: =A4*D5
Divide: To divide the values of two or more cells, use the forward slash (/).
Example: =A4/D5
You can use parentheses to create a large formula that combines these actions. Example: =((A4+C4)/(D5-C5)*3).
On Excel, you can use “functions” to automate tasks you normally use in a formula. Instead of using the plus sign to add a range of cells, you can use the SUM function. Let’s go through a few popular functions:
SUM: The SUM function adds up a range of cells. To input the function, use parentheses to indicate the range of cells. If you are summing up the numbers in cell A1 through A17, your formula would be: =SUM(A1:A17).
AVERAGE: Similar to the SUM function, the AVERAGE function calculates the mean of the values of a range of cells. For example: =AVERAGE (A1:A17).
IF: With the IF function, you can ask Excel to return values based on a logical test. The syntax looks like: IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false]). For example: =IF(A1>B1,”Over Budget”,”OK”).
VLOOKUP: The VLOOKUP function allows you to search for anything in your spreadsheet’s columns or rows. The syntax looks like: VLOOKUP(lookup value, table array, column number, Approximate match (TRUE) or Exact match (FALSE)). For example: =VLOOKUP([@Engineer],tbl_Engineers,7,TRUE).
COUNTIF: The COUNTIF function is another useful one that returns the number of cells that meet certain criteria. The syntax looks like: COUNTIF(range, criteria). For example: =COUNTIF(A1:A17,”San Francisco”).
