Excel is one of Microsoft’s most important programmes. Excel is a spreadsheet programme that comes with Microsoft 365, which used to be called Office 365. It has a wide range of features and options. Excel is not only a way to store and organise information in cells and sheets, but it is also a “what if” machine that can quickly do calculations with that information. This article is for you if you want to know how to use MS Excel.
Here, you’ll learn how to use Excel for the first time, including how to do simple calculations, make pivot tables, set up custom print areas, and change your view. An Excel spreadsheet is a very powerful piece of software that was made by Microsoft in 1985. It is used by over 800 million people to do things like crunch numbers, analyse and report on data, make charts, and take notes, but its full power is often not used.
Excel is a programme for making spreadsheets. Excel is easy-to-use software that is easy to understand and easy to use. One of the most important things about Excel is that it can be used for ad hoc analysis. Excel is used by a lot of people, and that familiarity gives it a lot of its power. Visit their official site for more details.
How to Use MS Excel
Opening an Excel spreadsheet
When you double-click the icon or choose it from the Start menu to open Excel for the first time, the programme will ask you what you want to do. Click Blank workbook to open a new Excel spreadsheet.
To open an existing spreadsheet, like the example workbook you just downloaded, click Open Other Workbooks in the lower left corner, then click Browse on the left side of the window that comes up. Then, use the file explorer to find the Excel workbook you want, click on it, and click the Open button.
Working with the Ribbon
The Ribbon is where most of Excel’s controls are located. Almost everything you need to do can be done right from the Ribbon. Where can I find this strong tool? At the window’s top. There are many tabs, such as the File tab, the Home tab, the Insert tab, the Data tab, the Review tab, and a few others. There are different buttons on each tab.
The Ribbon also has a very useful search bar. Tell me what you want to do, it says. Enter what you want to find, and Excel will help you find it. You’ll be in the Home tab of the Ribbon most of the time. But data and formulas are also very helpful.
Managing your sheets
We saw that workbooks can have more than one sheet. The sheet tabs at the bottom of the screen let you control these sheets. Click on a tab to bring up that worksheet. If you use our example workbook, you’ll see two sheets called Welcome and Thank You:
Click the “+” button at the end of the list of sheets to add a new one. You can also move the sheets around in your workbook by dragging them. And if you right-click on a worksheet tab, you’ll see a list of options:
Entering data
Now it’s time to put some information in! Even though it’s one of the most important and central things you can do in Excel, entering data is almost too easy. Just click on a cell that is empty and start typing.
You can also copy (Ctrl + C), cut (Ctrl + X), and paste (Ctrl + V) any data you’d like. Try copying and pasting the information from several cells in the example spreadsheet into another column. Data from other programmes can also be copied into Excel.
Basic calculations
Now that we know how to get some basic information into our spreadsheet, we’ll do some things with it. Excel makes it easy to do simple calculations. We’ll start by learning how to add two numbers. Let’s add 3 and 4. In a blank cell, type the following formula:
- =3+4
- Then hit Enter.
When you press Enter, Excel evaluates your equation and shows the result, 7. But if you look up at the formula bar, you’ll see that the original formula is still there. You should remember that in case you forget what you originally typed. It is just as easy to do subtraction, multiplication, and division. Try one of these:
- =4-6
- =2*5
- =-10/3
Let’s now try something else. Open the example workbook’s first sheet, click on cell C1, and type the following:
- =A1+B1
- Hit Enter.
Cells A1 and B1 should add up to 82, which is what you should get. Now, change one of the numbers in A1 or B1 and see what happens. Because you’re adding A1 and B1, Excel updates the total whenever you change one of those cells.
Unlocking the power of functions
There are a lot of formulas that take a set of numbers and tell you something about them. The AVERAGE function, for example, tells you the average of a set of numbers. Let’s give it a try. Click on a cell that is empty and type this formula:
- =AVERAGE(A1:A4)
- Then hit Enter.
The resulting number, 0.25, is the average of the numbers in cells A1, A2, A3, and A4.
Saving and sharing your work
Once you’ve made a lot of changes to your spreadsheet, you’ll want to save them. To save, press Ctrl + S. If you haven’t saved your spreadsheet yet, you’ll be asked where you want to save it and what you want to call it. You can also click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar. OneDrive is the best way to share your spreadsheets with other people.
Click the Share button in the top right corner of the window, and Excel will show you how to share your document. You can also save your document and send it by email or use any other cloud service to share it with others.
FAQ
What are the 5 basic functions of Excel?
- AutoSum;
- IF function;
- LOOKUP function;
- VLOOKUP function;
- HLOOKUP function;
- MATCH function;
- CHOOSE function;
- DATE function;
How many formulas in Excel?
Learn how to use all 300+ Excel formulas and functions, including worksheet functions typed into the formula bar and VBA functions used in Macros. Worksheet formulas are built-in functions that are used as part of a formula in a cell. These are the most basic Excel functions that you will learn.
