Microsoft Excel Basics

Microsoft® Office Excel 2007 Training

BASICS OF EXCEL

By: Aparna Shrivastav

Basics of Excel

Learning Excel

• Microsoft Office Excel 2003 is a spreadsheet application that allows you to enter, calculate,

and analyze data.

• Excel also allows you to enhance financial data by using charts, graphs, and reports.

• Excel is primarily used to analyze numerical data. It offers tools to help you perform

calculations, forecast trends and relationships, import data from other applications, publish

data to the World Wide Web, and integrate Excel data with other Microsoft applications.

Basics of Excel

Contents

• Themes, Table Style, Cell Style• Formatting Options• Functions – Maths (Count, Average, Max, Min, Sum), Logical (If),

Date (Date, Now, Today), Financial (PMT). • Charts• Conditional Formatting• Filter & Sort• Subtotals• Data Validation• Remove Duplicates• Protecting Sheet• Reviewing & Printing Options• Grouping & Ungrouping• Defining Name Range

Basics of Excel

Data Formatting

Data formatting in MS Excel becomes very easy with the help of Excel’s built-in features, which can be applied on available data, like-numbers, text, date, day, month, year, currency settings etc. The formatting menu provides formatting facilities for – Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Fill, and Protection.

Right click on any cell… and choose format cell or press – Ctrl +1

Basics of Excel

Mathematical Functions

Excel has a library of basic and advanced math functions that go way beyond the powers of a simple calculator. Here, is a listing of some of the more common ones:

Sum function is used to add up columns or rows of data.

Syntax is =Sum(range)

MIN function is used to find the smallest value in range.

Syntax is =Min(range)

Max function is used to find the largest value in a range.

Syntax is =Max(range)

Count function is used to count the no. of cells in a range which consists of only numeric values.

Syntax is =Count(range) 

Basics of Excel

Mathematical Functions

INT function discards decimal values. This function is used when result

needs to be a whole number that is never rounded up.

Syntax is =Int(range)

Round function is used to round a number to the desired number of

decimal places.

Syntax is =Round(number, decimal places)

CountA function counts not just numeric value cells, but also ones

containing text (all non blank cells).

Syntax is =CountA(range)

Basics of Excel

Date Functions

Now function returns the current system date and time. This function will refresh

the date/time value whenever the worksheet recalculates.

The syntax for the Now function is =Now()

1. Today function checks the computer’s clock and returns the date. This

function is dynamic, if you open this workbook tomorrow; you will see

tomorrow’s date on this worksheet. If you need a static, unchanging date, do

not use the Today function. Syntax is = Today()

Date function helps to insert a date. It is a static function.

The syntax for the DATE function

=DATE(Year, Month, Day)

Basics of Excel

Logical Function

In Excel, the If function returns one value if a specified condition evaluates to

TRUE, or another value if it evaluates to FALSE.

The syntax for the If function is:

=If(condition, value_if_true, value_if_false)

condition is the value that you want to test (argument 1)

value_if_true is the value that is returned if condition evaluates to TRUE

(argument 2)

value_if_false is the value that is returned if condition evaluates to FALSE

(argument 3).

Basics of Excel

Financial Function

At times, people take out a loan at some point – be it for education, a car, or

a house. While we know that we pay a certain amount of interest on the loan

with each payment, there are functions available in Excel to help you

financial calculations.

For example, the PMT function helps you to calculate monthly installment for

a loan.

THE PMT Function

Syntax

=PMT(rate,nper,pv)

Basics of Excel

Charts

Graphs are important part of any analysis or reporting. They get more attention of management on areas of concern when time is very limited. Excel has variety of charts like Column chart, Line chart, Pie chart, Bar chart, Area chart, Scatter chart, 3D chart etc.

To insert a chart in your Worksheet, either simply click on the Insert tab on the Menu bar and you will see different chart options right there in the Sub Menu bar

Basics of Excel

Charts

To see all Chart types together, click on Other Charts and select All Chart Types. Here you will see a detailed list of all available Chart Types, along with its Sub Types/Details.

Select the desired Chart Type and Click OK.

You sometimes may need to perform some formatting after your chart is created.

Basics of Excel

Sorting

Excel's sort feature is a quick and easy way to sort data in a spreadsheet. The options for sorting your data include:

Sort in ascending order - A to Z alphabetically or smallest to largest for number data.

Sort in descending order - Z to A alphabetically or largest to smallest for number data.

Custom sort - includes sorting by the cell background color or the font color of the data.

Basics of Excel

Filter

Many times, rather than working with an entire table, you may wish to work with only a subset of your data. Using the AutoFilter feature, you can display only the records with which you wish to work and hide all others from view.

To AutoFilter a List

Select the header row.

Then select data tab and click filter.

Click the drop down arrow on the cell which ever records you want to filter.

To show all records, click the box next to (Select All).

Basics of Excel

Filter

To clear a filter, click the arrow for the column whose filter you want remove and choose Clear from the list. Click Reapply to reapply a filter.

To remove all filters from the table, click the Clear button on the Sort & Filter group on the Data Ribbon.

To remove the AutoFilter arrows, click the Filter button on the Sort & Filter group on the Data Ribbon to deselect it.

Basics of Excel

Printing Options

To Print The Worksheet

Click office logo and select Print.

Click OK.

Setting Print Area

Select the cell range.

Select Page layout tab.

Select Set Print Area.

Basics of Excel

Page Setting

Select Page layout tab and then select Print titles.

Select Orientation as Portrait or Landscape in the Page tab.

Select the Margin tab, then set the Margin.

Select the sheet tab. If you want to display gridlines, select Gridline check box.

If you want to repeat a particular row or column to be repeated at the top / left of every page then select that particular row/ column under the option “Rows to repeat at top” / “Column to repeat at left”.

Click OK.

Questions?

Thank You