1.

Understanding Excel Layout

Think of Excel like a giant grid or notebook. Each square is called a cell. Cells are organized
into columns (labeled A, B, C, etc.) and rows (labeled 1, 2, 3, etc.). You can write numbers,
words, or formulas inside these cells.

2. Basic Excel Functions

We’ll start with simple formulas and then move to advanced functions. A formula is like a
recipe you tell Excel to follow.

Example: Addition of numbers

● Step 1: Click on a cell.

● Step 2: Type =5+10 and press Enter.
● Result: Excel will add 5 and 10 and show you the answer (15).

Instead of typing numbers directly, you can use cell references (like B2, A3) to create formulas.

Example: Adding cells

● Step 1: Click on cell C1.

● Step 2: Type =A1+B1 and press Enter.
● Result: Excel will add whatever is in cells A1 and B1 and show the result in C1.

3. AutoFill (Filling Patterns Automatically)

Excel can guess patterns and fill data for you.

Example: Filling in numbers

● Step 1: Type 1 in cell A1 and 2 in cell A2.

● Step 2: Select both cells.
● Step 3: Drag the small square at the bottom-right corner of the selection downwards.
 ● Result: Excel will fill the rest of the cells with numbers in the same pattern (3, 4, 5…).

4. Advanced Formulas: IF Statements

Imagine you want Excel to check something and do different things based on whether it’s true or
false. We use IF statements.

Example: Check if a number is greater than 10

● Step 1: In cell B1, type =IF(A1>10, "Yes", "No") and press Enter.
● Result: If the value in A1 is greater than 10, B1 will show "Yes." Otherwise, it will show
"No."

5. VLOOKUP (Looking up data)

Sometimes you have a big list, and you want Excel to find specific information from that list.

Example: Finding a price based on an item

Imagine you have a list of items and prices, and you want to find the price of a specific item.

● Step 1: In column A, type:

○ A2: "Apple"
○ A3: "Banana"
○ A4: "Carrot"
● Step 2: In column B, type:
○ B2: "10"
○ B3: "5"
○ B4: "7"
● Step 3: In cell D1, type "Carrot".
● Step 4: In cell E1, type =VLOOKUP(D1, A2:B4, 2, FALSE) and press Enter.
● Result: Excel will return the price of the "Carrot," which is 7.
Explanation:

● D1: The value you’re looking for (Carrot).

● A2:B4: The range where the data is (the list of items and prices).
● 2: The column from which you want to return the value (prices are in the 2nd column).

6. Pivot Tables (Summarizing Data)

Pivot tables help you quickly analyze and summarize large amounts of data.

Example: Summarizing Sales Data

Let’s say you have this sales data:

● Column A (Item): "Apple," "Banana," "Carrot."

● Column B (Sales): 100, 200, 150.
● Column C (Region): "North," "South," "North."

To create a pivot table:

● Step 1: Select all the data.

● Step 2: Go to the Insert tab on the toolbar and select PivotTable.
● Step 3: Choose where you want the Pivot Table (in a new worksheet).
● Step 4: Drag Item to the Rows area and Sales to the Values area.
● Result: Excel will create a summary of the sales for each item.

7. Conditional Formatting (Highlight Important Info)

Excel can color cells based on certain rules.

Example: Highlight numbers greater than 50

 ● Step 1: Select the range of numbers (e.g., A1
).
● Step 2: Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules > Greater
Than.
● Step 3: Enter "50" and choose a color to highlight cells.
● Result: Cells with numbers greater than 50 will be colored.

8. Data Validation (Controlling Data Input)

This feature lets you create dropdown menus or restrict what can be entered in a cell.

Example: Create a dropdown list

● Step 1: Select the cells where you want the dropdown (e.g., A1
).
● Step 2: Go to Data > Data Validation.
● Step 3: In the box that appears, choose List and enter the values you want (e.g., "Apple,
Banana, Carrot").
● Result: Now, when you click on those cells, you’ll have a dropdown to pick from.

9. Macros (Automating Tasks)

Macros let you record tasks and play them back, so Excel can do them for you automatically.

Example: Recording a macro

● Step 1: Go to View > Macros > Record Macro.

● Step 2: Perform some tasks (e.g., formatting cells, entering data).
● Step 3: Go to View > Macros > Stop Recording.
● Step 4: Go back to View > Macros > View Macros, and you can run the macro to do the
task again.
10. Charting Data (Visualizing Data)

Charts help you turn numbers into pictures (graphs).

Example: Creating a Bar Chart

● Step 1: Select a list of data (e.g., A1

with values like 10, 20, 30).
● Step 2: Go to Insert > Chart > Bar Chart.
● Result: Excel will create a bar chart showing your data.

Summary of Tools:

● Formulas: Create recipes for Excel to follow (=A1+B1).

● AutoFill: Quickly fill patterns.
● IF Statements: Make decisions within your formulas.
● VLOOKUP: Find specific data in a list.
● Pivot Tables: Summarize and analyze big data.
● Conditional Formatting: Highlight important data.
● Data Validation: Restrict or guide data entry.
● Macros: Automate tasks.
● Charts: Turn numbers into pictures.

11. Find and Replace (Changing Words Quickly)

Imagine you have a list of words and need to change one specific word across the entire sheet.

Example: Replacing "Banana" with "Orange"

● Step 1: Press Ctrl + H to open the Find and Replace window.

● Step 2: In the Find what box, type "Banana."
 ● Step 3: In the Replace with box, type "Orange."
● Step 4: Click Replace All.
● Result: Excel will replace every instance of "Banana" with "Orange."

This is super useful when you have lots of text to update!

12. Text Functions (Manipulating Words)

Excel has built-in functions that help you manipulate words (text) in different ways.

LEFT, RIGHT, and MID (Extracting Parts of Text)

These functions let you take pieces of a word or sentence from the beginning, middle, or end.

● LEFT: Takes characters from the start of the text.

● RIGHT: Takes characters from the end of the text.
● MID: Takes characters from the middle of the text.

Example: Extracting parts of a word

If you have "Apple" in cell A1:

● LEFT function: =LEFT(A1, 3) will return "App" (first 3 letters).

● RIGHT function: =RIGHT(A1, 2) will return "le" (last 2 letters).
● MID function: =MID(A1, 2, 3) will return "ppl" (starting from the 2nd letter and taking
3 letters).

13. CONCATENATE (Joining Text)

Concatenate (or simply &) joins different pieces of text together.

Example: Joining first and last names

Let’s say you have "John" in cell A1 and "Doe" in cell B1.

● Step 1: In cell C1, type =CONCATENATE(A1, " ", B1) or =A1 & " " & B1.
● Result: Excel will join "John" and "Doe" together with a space in between to make "John
Doe."

14. TRIM (Removing Extra Spaces)

Sometimes text data has extra spaces that mess things up. The TRIM function removes all
unnecessary spaces.

Example: Cleaning up spaces

● Step 1: If cell A1 contains " Hello World " with extra spaces, type =TRIM(A1) in another
cell.
● Result: It will return "Hello World" without the extra spaces.

15. UPPER, LOWER, and PROPER (Changing Case)

● UPPER: Changes text to ALL CAPS.

● LOWER: Changes text to all lowercase.
● PROPER: Capitalizes the first letter of each word.

Example: Changing text case

If you have "apple pie" in A1:

● UPPER function: =UPPER(A1) will return "APPLE PIE."

● LOWER function: =LOWER(A1) will return "apple pie."
● PROPER function: =PROPER(A1) will return "Apple Pie."
16. SEARCH and FIND (Locating Words in Text)

Both SEARCH and FIND locate the position of a word or letter inside a cell. The difference is
that SEARCH is case-insensitive (doesn’t care about uppercase or lowercase), while FIND is
case-sensitive.

Example: Searching for "apple" in a sentence

If you have "I like apple pie" in cell A1:

● SEARCH: =SEARCH("apple", A1) will return 8, because "apple" starts at the 8th
character.
● FIND: =FIND("Apple", A1) would return an error because "Apple" with a capital "A"
doesn’t exist, but =FIND("apple", A1) would return 8.

17. SUBSTITUTE (Replacing Specific Words Inside a Text)

If you want to replace only certain parts of a sentence, use the SUBSTITUTE function.

Example: Replacing "banana" with "grape"

If you have the sentence "I like bananas" in cell A1:

● Step 1: In cell B1, type =SUBSTITUTE(A1, "bananas", "grapes").

● Result: Excel will replace "bananas" with "grapes" and return "I like grapes."

You can use this to replace only specific words or phrases without affecting the entire sentence.

18. LEN (Counting Letters in Text)

The LEN function tells you how many characters (letters, spaces, and numbers) are in a cell.

Example: Counting characters

 ● Step 1: If you have "Hello World" in A1, type =LEN(A1) in B1.
● Result: It will return 11, because there are 11 characters (including the space).

19. TEXT TO COLUMNS (Splitting Text into Multiple Columns)

Imagine you have a list of names like "John Doe" in a single cell, but you want to separate the
first and last names into two different columns. You can use Text to Columns to do this.

Example: Splitting first and last names

● Step 1: Select the column with the data (e.g., column A with "John Doe").
● Step 2: Go to Data > Text to Columns.
● Step 3: Choose Delimited (if there’s a space, comma, or other separator between the
names).
● Step 4: Select the space checkbox as the delimiter and click Finish.
● Result: "John Doe" will be split into two columns—one with "John" and another with
"Doe."

20. Combining Text and Numbers

Sometimes you want to combine words and numbers in a specific way.

Example: Adding a label to a number

If you have a number 100 in cell A1 and you want it to say "100 apples," you can use:

● Step 1: =A1 & " apples".

● Result: Excel will return "100 apples."

Summary of Text Tools:

● Find and Replace: Quickly change words across the whole sheet.
● LEFT, RIGHT, MID: Extract parts of text.
● CONCATENATE (&): Join words together.
● TRIM: Remove extra spaces.
● UPPER, LOWER, PROPER: Change the case of text.
● SEARCH and FIND: Locate words in a sentence.
● SUBSTITUTE: Replace specific words inside text.
● LEN: Count the number of characters in a cell.
● Text to Columns: Split text into multiple columns.
● Combining Text and Numbers: Add text labels to numbers.