Introduction to Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used software applications of all time.
Hundreds of millions of people around the world use Microsoft Excel. You can
use Excel to enter all sorts of data and perform financial, mathematical or
statistical calculations.

1 Range: A range in Excel is a collection of two or more cells. This chapter

gives an overview of some very important range operations.
2 Formulas and Functions: A formula is an expression which calculates
the value of a cell. Functions are predefined formulas and are already
available in Excel.

Basics of Excel
This section explains the basics of Excel. Don't miss our next two sections on
Functions and Data Analysis to discover the real power of Excel!

Ribbon in Excel
1 Ribbon: Excel selects the ribbon's Home tab when you open it. Learn how
to use the ribbon.

Excel selects the ribbon's Home tab when you open it. Learn how to use the ribbon.

Tabs
The tabs on the ribbon are: File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data,
Review, View and Help. The Home tab contains the most frequently used
commands in Excel.
Groups
Each tab contains groups of related commands. For example, the Page
Layout tab contains the Themes group, the Page Setup group, etc.

Use the Ribbon

Let's use the ribbon to create a table. Tables allow you to analyze your data
in Excel quickly and easily.

1. Open data-set.xlsx.
2. Click any single cell inside the data set.

3. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table.

The Create Table dialog box appears.

4. Excel automatically selects the data for you. Check 'My table has headers'
and click on OK.

Result: Excel creates a nicely formatted table for you.

Note: use the drop-down arrows to quickly sort and filter. Visit our chapter
about tables to learn more about this topic.
Collapse the Ribbon
You can collapse the ribbon to get extra space on the screen. Right click
anywhere on the ribbon, and then click Collapse the Ribbon (or press CTRL +
F1).

Result:
 Workbook in Excel
A workbook is another word for your Excel file. When you start Excel, click Blank
workbook to create an Excel workbook from scratch.

Open an Existing Workbook

To open a workbook you've created in the past, execute the following steps.

1. On the File tab, click Open.

2. Recent shows you a list of your recently used workbooks. You can quickly
open a workbook from here.
 Worksheets in Excel
A worksheet is a collection of cells where you keep and manipulate the data.
Each Excel workbook can contain multiple worksheets.
Select a Worksheet
When you open an Excel workbook, Excel automatically selects Sheet1 for
you. The name of the worksheet appears on its sheet tab at the bottom of
the document window.

Format Cells in Excel

When we format cells in Excel, we change the appearance of a number
without changing the number itself. We can apply a number format (0.8,
$0.80, 80%, etc) or other formatting (alignment, font, border, etc).
1. Enter the value 0.8 into cell B2.

By default, Excel uses the General format (no specific number format) for
numbers. To apply a number format, use the 'Format Cells' dialog box.
2. Select cell B2.

3. Right click, and then click Format Cells (or press CTRL + 1).

The 'Format Cells' dialog box appears.

4. For example, select Currency.

Note: Excel gives you a live preview of how the number will be formatted
(under Sample).

Find & Select in Excel

You can use Excel's Find and Replace feature to quickly find specific text and
replace it with other text. You can use Excel's Go To Special feature to quickly select
all cells with formulas, notes, conditional formatting, constants, data validation, etc.

Find
To quickly find specific text, execute the following steps.

1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select.
2. Click Find.

The 'Find and Replace' dialog box appears.

3. Type the text you want to find. For example, type Ferrari.

4. Click 'Find Next'.

Excel selects the first occurrence.

 Excel Templates
Instead of creating an Excel workbook from scratch, you can create a workbook
based on a template. There are many free templates available, waiting to be used.

Existing Templates
To create a workbook based on an existing template, execute the following
steps.

1. On the File tab, click New.

2. Use the search box to search for online templates or click a template from
one of the Office templates.
3. Click Create to download the template.
Excel creates the workbook Home inventory1.xlsx based on this template.

Data Validation in Excel

Use data validation in Excel to make sure that users enter certain values into a cell.

In this example, we restrict users to entering a whole number between 0 and

10.

Create a Data Validation Rule

To create the data validation rule, execute the following steps.
1. Select cell C2.

2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
On the Settings tab:

3. In the Allow list, click Whole number.

4. In the Data list, click between.

5. Enter the Minimum and Maximum values.

Input Message
An input message appears when the user selects the cell and tells the user
what to enter.

On the Input Message tab:

1. Check 'Show input message when cell is selected'.

2. Enter a title.

3. Enter an input message.

Error Alert
If users ignore the input message and enter a number that is not valid, you
can show them an error alert.

On the Error Alert tab:

1. Check 'Show error alert after invalid data is entered'.

2. Enter a title.

3. Enter an error message.

4. Click OK.

Data Validation Result

Now, let's check if the data validation is working properly and as expected.

1. Select cell C2.

2. Try to enter a number higher than 10.

Result:
Note: to remove data validation from a cell, select the cell, on the Data tab,
in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation, and then click Clear All. You ca

Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel

Keyboard shortcuts allow you to do things with your keyboard instead of your
mouse to increase your speed.

Basic
Select cell B2.

1. To select the entire range, press CTRL + a (if you press CTRL + a one
more time Excel selects the entire sheet).

2. To copy the range, press CTRL + c (to cut a range, press CTRL + x).

3. Select cell A6 and press CTRL + v to paste this range.

4. To undo this operation, press CTRL + z

Moving
Select cell B2.

1. To quickly move to the bottom of the range, hold down CTRL and press ↓

2. To quickly move to the right of the range, hold down CTRL and press →
Try it yourself. Hold down CTRL and press the arrow keys to move from edge
to edge.

Selecting
Select cell A1.

1. To select cells while moving down, hold down SHIFT and press ↓ a few
times.

2. To select cells while moving to the right, hold down SHIFT and press → a
few times.

3. Select cell A1 below (Sheet2).

4. To quickly select a column of data, press CTRL + SHIFT + ↓

Note: use CTRL + SHIFT + → to quickly select a row of data.

Formulas
Select cell F2.

1. To quickly insert the SUM function, press ALT + =, and press Enter.
2. Select cell F2, hold down SHIFT and press ↓ twice.

3. To fill a formula down, press CTRL + d (down).

Note: in a similar way, you can fill a formula right by pressing CTRL + r
(right).

Formatting
Select the range B2:F4.
1. To launch the 'Format cells' dialog box, press CTRL + 1

2. Press TAB and press ↓ twice to select the Currency format.

3. Press TAB and press ↓ twice to set the number of decimal places to 0.

4. Press Enter.

Result:

5. To quickly bold a range, select the range and press CTRL + b

Workbook
Open a workbook. A workbook is another word for your Excel file.

1. To save an existing workbook, press CTRL + s (F12 opens the Save

As dialog box).
2. To create a new workbook, press CTRL + n

3. To open an existing workbook, press CTRL + o

4. To close the active workbook, press CTRL + w

5. To close Excel (and many other applications), press ALT + F4

The workbook below has 3 worksheets. Click Sheet2 to make it the active
sheet.

6. To quickly move to the next worksheet (Sheet3), press CTRL + Page

Down.

7. To quickly move to the previous worksheet (Sheet1), press CTRL + Page

Up.
 Share Excel Data
Learn how to share Excel data with Word documents and other files.

Paste
Most of the time, you'll simply need to paste static Excel data in a Word
document.

1. Select the Excel data.

2. Right click, and then click Copy (or press CTRL + c).

3. Open a Word document.

4. Press CTRL + v.

5. Click the icon in the upper left corner of the table and add borders.

Result:
Note: To delete the table, right click the icon in the upper left corner, and
then click Delete Table.

Paste Link
You can also link the source data in Excel with the destination data in Word.
If you change the data in Excel, the data in Word is updated automatically.

1. Repeat steps 1 to 3 above.

2. In Word, on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste.

3. Click Paste Special.

The Paste Special dialog box appears.

4. Click Paste link, HTML Format.

5. Click OK.
6. Click the icon in the upper left corner of the table and add borders.

Result:

7. Change the Excel data.

Result:

Note: In Word, right click the icon in the upper left corner of the table, and
then click Linked Worksheet Object, Links to launch the Links dialog box.
Here, you can break the link, change the location of the Excel file, etc.

Password Protect an Excel File

Encrypt an Excel file with a password so that it requires a password to open it.
To password protect an Excel file, execute the following steps.

1. Open an Excel file.

2. On the File tab, click Save As.

3. Click Browse.
4. Click on the Tools button and click General Options.

5. In the Password to open box, enter a password and click OK.

6. Re-enter the password and click OK.

Note: this feature also encrypts your Excel file. If you lose or forget the
password, it cannot be recovered.

7. Enter a file name and click Save.