Basics of MS Excel

We all know the significance of Microsoft Excel. Many people are already using excel with perfection but still there are many who are planning to use it. For those people this e-book can be beneficial.

What is Microsoft Excel?

Excel version: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010

Excel is a spreadsheet application. There are grids of cells to manipulate, organize, and perform calculations with available data. There are other tools also like pivot tables, charts, functions and formulas which can be used in a different ways as per the user’s requirement.

Texts, images, videos, objects, and many other items can be added to the spreadsheets.

How to open an Excel File?

Go to Program > Click on “Excel”.

New Excel File will be opened. Go to File > Click on “Save” OR Press “F12”.

General Uses for Excel

• Preparing budget sheet for house, institute or office etc.

• Invoicing and receipts

• Projects Tracking, client and customers, and maintaining health records

• Planners and calendars

• Checklists and task lists

• Calculation of Financial, loan, mortgage, and debt.

• Management of Inventory

Above are only few areas however excel can be used everywhere and in any requirement the only requirement is you should be familiar with the tools available in excel.

MS Excel Basic Terms

During the journey of excel-learning you will see many new terms and the terms repetition again and again since many terms are interlinked.

Workbook and Spreadsheet: A workbook is an excel file in which there are many spreadsheets.

Cell: In spreadsheets, cell is an area which is made by the intersection of column and rows. Values can be put directly in the cell. To edit a cell, just double click on the cell OR press F2 to enter the cell. In the below picture Cell D2 is made by column D and Row no. 2.

Formulas & Functions: A formulas is an equation which can perform the following tasks.

1.    Do calculations,

2.    Return the information.

3.    Manipulate the contents of other cells,

4.    Test the conditions.

5.    Can count the numbers of items, and many more.

A formula always starts with an equal sign (=). In addition to calculations, you can use functions for things like counting the number of items.

In the below picture, Formula SUM (Cell: D2) is shown, in which two cells B2 and C2 are being summed.

Function: Functions are categorized depending upon their functionality. As per your requirement you can use the function by searching as per its category.