Excel Introduction

Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft that organises data in a grid and does calculations for you.

What is a Spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is like a big sheet of squared paper. Each little box can hold a number, some text, a date or a formula. The difference from paper is that Excel can calculate: when you change one number, every total that uses it updates instantly.

What is Excel Used For?

Other spreadsheet programs, such as Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, work in almost the same way. Most formulas in this tutorial also work there.

The Excel Window

When you open Excel and choose Blank workbook, you see:

• Ribbon: the tabs at the top (Home, Insert, Formulas, Data...) with buttons
• Name Box: on the left, shows the address of the selected cell, such as A1
• Formula bar: shows what is really inside the selected cell
• Worksheet grid: the rows and columns where you work
• Sheet tabs: at the bottom, Sheet1, Sheet2... each is a separate page

Workbooks, Sheets and Cells

• A workbook is one Excel file (.xlsx)
• A workbook holds one or more worksheets (sheets)
• A sheet is made of columns (letters A, B, C...) and rows (numbers 1, 2, 3...)
• Where a column and a row meet is a cell

Each cell has an address made from its column letter and row number. The cell in column C, row 4 is C4.

Your First Calculation

Click cell A1 and type a formula. Formulas always begin with =:

=250+180

Press Enter. The cell shows the result:

The cell shows the answer, but the formula bar still shows =250+180.

Now let Excel use values from other cells. Type 250 in A1, 180 in A2, and this formula in A3:

=A1+A2

Change A1 to 300 and A3 changes to 480 by itself. This is the real power of Excel.

Saving Your Work

• Press Ctrl + S to save
• The normal file type is Excel Workbook (.xlsx)
• Use .xlsm only if the file contains macros
• Use .csv to share plain data with other programs, but it keeps only one sheet and no formatting

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Exercise