If you are not familiar with Excel program or you are new to this product, do not miss this Excel tutorial article.
Microsoft Excel has been around for decades and is used by millions around the world. But there are still people who have just started using this popular software. Whether for work, school or personal use, starting to use this software is a bit scary. There are even classes for teaching Excel in schools and even online.
If you do not have the opportunity to attend these classes, we have made it easy for you with this article.
What is Microsoft Excel?
Simply put Excel is a spreadsheet software. The software uses cells in its columns and rows to manage, organize, and perform computational operations on data. You can use bar tables, charts, formulas and functions in a variety of ways.
In addition, Excel, despite its appearance, is not limited to numbers. You can add text, photos, videos, and more for sequencing, managing, and viewing information.
General applications of Excel
- Manage budgets for households or business assets
- Manage invoices and receipts
- Tracking projects, vendors and customers, and personal health records
- Manage schedules and calendars
- Create checklists and to-do lists
- Financial calculations, loans, debts and certificates
- Property management
This list of Excel tasks can be continued. But to use Excel for whatever you want, you have to pay attention to some statements.
Familiarity with Excel terms
During this tutorial, you may come across propositions that are used multiple times. Familiarity with these propositions and terms will help you to better understand the content while learning.
Workbook and spreadsheet: A workbook is something you use when you open Excel. The workbook contains spreadsheets. A workbook can have multiple spreadsheets, and you can use different spreadsheets that are open using tabs [which are usually visible at the bottom of the page]. [For convenience, we will now use the page statement instead of the spreadsheet equivalent of SpreadSheet in English .]
Cell: Plates are made up of small blocks called cells. Each cell contains the data you enter; From numbers to letters and pictures and even formulas. Cells are responsible for storing this information. You can either enter the information directly into the cells or use the formula bar at the top of the page.
On the left side of the formula bar, you will see a box for entering a name. By default, this box represents the rows and columns of each cell. For example, the first cell in the upper left corner of an A1 page. Where A is a column and 1 is a row.
Formulas and Functions: You can look at formulas as an equation. Using Excel, these formulas are used internally and can automatically do addition and multiplication for you.
In addition to calculations, you can also use functions to count the number of items in a column or to show the minimum and maximum numbers among a group of cells.
Tabs and toolbars in Excel
Familiarity with and mastery of the Excel toolbar will take some time. Like all Microsoft Office software, the top bar contains a set of buttons that you will use in different tabs. This toolbar is fully customizable, but you will probably see the toolbar below by default:
The following is a brief description of each:
File:Â Creates a new librarian / Opens one of the previously generated libraries / Stores, prints, and shares books and pages.
Home:Â Controls clipboard, font, layout, numbers, styles, cells, and edits these.
Insert: Used to insert tables, draw charts, images, filters, and links.
Page Layout Adjusts the appearance of the page and generally deals with page-related actions.
Formulas:Â This way you can select or handle a formula or function.
Data:Â Receiving and transferring data, viewing queries, sorting, filtering, and using data tools are some of the things that can be done through this tab.
Review:Â This tab contains tools that can be used to modify access settings, language settings, and interpret data.
View:Â Includes options to change the view of the librarian, the tools that are displayed, zoom in and out, and work with the Excel window.
Also, don’t forget the Tell me what you want to do box. In this section, if you need help or more information about one of the features, you can enter the keywords you want in it and see the results.
Quick access tool
Like the top bar and tabs, if you’ve used Microsoft Office software, you should be familiar with their quick access tools. But if not, you should know that this tool is at the top of the Excel window. The importance of this tool is that it allows you to Undo or Redo your work very quickly. It also allows you to save.
If you make a mistake and you want to restore it to its previous state or so-called Undo, just click on the Undo option. Once clicked, it restores your last activity. On the other hand, you can click on the arrow next to this option and restore all your desired activities by highlighting them.
Once you use the Undo option, the Redo option is activated. This option allows you to do one of the things you undo again. Like the Undo option, you can redo some of the things you want by clicking on the small arrow next to the Redo option.
The Save button allows you to quickly save the file you are working on with the same name.
Spreadsheet options [or abbreviated page]
Managing multiple pages in Excel is not a difficult task. So you can open multiple pages at once. For example, you can use multiple pages at a time, assuming one for the monthly report and one for the annual report.
In addition to the ability to use multiple pages, you can also take advantage of the basic features of the pages:
Add a page: To do this, click the + button next to your last page.
Change page layout: To do this, click on the Page tab and drag it where you want while holding down the click.
Name pages: To do this, double-click on the page tab and enter the name you want. By default, the names of these pages will be Sheet 1, Sheet 2, and so on.
Change the color of the pages: To do this, right-click on the page tab and select a new color in the Tab Color section.
Encrypt a page: To do this, right-click on the page and select a password from the Protect Sheet tab.
Move and copy a page: To do this, right-click on the page tab and select Move or Copy. From here you can move the page to another part of the workbook or even send it to a different workbook. You can also make a copy of it for other purposes.
Delete a page: To do this, right-click on the page tab and click Delete. You must confirm this in the next window that opens.
Work with columns, rows and cells in Excel
There are options such as selecting, inserting and deleting rows, columns and cells in Excel. The following operations can be useful for the pages you have:
Select a row or column completely
When you hover your mouse pointer over the text of one of the rows or columns, a small arrow will appear in the corner. If you click on it, the entire row or column will be selected. You can use this move to use a function to format or sort columns.
Select a group of rows, columns, or cells
When selecting more than one row, column, or cell, you must consider whether the rows, columns, or cells are stacked together.
Select rows, columns, and cells that are next to each other
When you want to select rows, columns and cells that are next to each other and stuck together, first select the item you want. Then, left-click on the mouse and drag it to the other options. Notice that the columns are selected with a gray highlight. Drop the click wherever your selections run out.
Another way to do this is to first select the first item you want, then hold down the Shift key on the keyboard, and then select the last item you want. If you do this with cells, you can select a group of cells using the GIF method below:
Select rows, columns, and scattered cells
If you want to select columns, rows or cells that are not next to each other, first select one of them, then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, and then simply select the other options you want by clicking on them. When done, release the Ctrl key.
Insert or delete a column, row, or cell
You can easily delete a column or row that you no longer need. Again, hover your mouse pointer over the letter or number of one of the columns or rows. But instead of left-clicking, right-clicking. In the menu that opens, click Insert or Delete. [The Insert option performs the Insert operation and the Delete option performs the Delete operation.]
You can also easily make a row or column invisible. Select the Hide or Unhide options from the menu you opened earlier.
You can use the same method to delete or insert a cell. However, with each method you will see a window asking you about the status of the cell repositioning. Select one of the options and then press OK.
Move a row, column or cell
If you decide to move a column, row or cell to any point on the page; You have to be careful. First, select the column, row, or cell you want according to the instructions above. Then hold the mouse pointer over the selection bar until two arrows pointing up, down, left and right appear. Then left-click and drag the mouse to where you want it on the screen. Then release the left click, just like the gif below:
One thing to watch out for is that you might move the transferred column, row, or cell to a place where another cell already exists. If this happens, a window will open asking if you want to replace it. If you intend to do so, you can click the OK button. If you have done this incorrectly, by tapping Cancel, everything will return to the previous state.
Resize a row or column
You may want to resize all or some of the columns or rows inside the page to a specific size (regardless of the amount of data). Fortunately, changing the length and width of rows or columns is easy and can be done in two ways.
First of all, right-click on the row or column you want. Then select the Column Width or Row Width option. In the small window that opens, you will see the current length or width. Now just change this number with the number you want and then click OK.
Another way is to first select the row or column you want. Hover over the border until the cursor turns into an arrow. As soon as you see a change in the cursor, hold down the left click and drag it as far as you want in the direction you want. See the gif below for a better understanding:
Adjust the size according to the amount of data
A few simple clicks are enough to do this. First select the whole page. To do this, select the top triangle A and 1 from the top left corner of the screen.
Then hold the mouse pointer on the line between the two columns as shown below to change the mouse pointer to a four-way arrow. Then double click there. Do the same for the rows. This option automatically adjusts the size of all rows and columns according to the data inside.
Formatting
Excel provides you with many ways to format pages, from the most basic to the most advanced. But since this tutorial is designed for beginners, we will only mention some of the formatting methods that are more practical than others.
Font, shading and color settings
It does not matter what you use Excel for. Formats for rows, columns, and cells allow you to easily view your data. For example, you might use the first line of the page to insert a headline.
You can easily format the top row to have a better view based on the data below it. Select the desired line and then use the Home tab to select the formatting option you want. From here you can fill in the text, shade it and change the font color.
1. Select the top row
Û². Click Bold
3. Click the small arrow next to Fill Color and select a color
4. Click the small arrow next to Font Color and consider a color
Remember that these instructions apply to all first-line data. If you have only a few columns, you can do the above steps after selecting the cells to get the formatting you want.
Date, units and decimal numbers
If you are preparing a page to track data, the default formatting for dates and units is very simple. You can do all this with a few clicks from the Home tab.
Date
Maybe for some reason you have dedicated one of your columns to history. For example, when data is entered or when a purchase occurs.
1. Select the desired row, column or cell to insert the date.
Û². Under Number in the top bar of the window, click on the General arrow.
3. Select one of the Short Date or Long Date options.
Remember that you do not have to type all the dates yourself by selecting the Long Date option. For example, if you enter 2/14/18 in your columns, it will automatically become Wednesday, February 14, 2018.
units
If you have a budget management page, price list or invoice, you can easily add unit formats in a variety of ways.
The first method
1. Select the column, row or cell you want
Û². Under Number in the top bar of the window, click on the arrow you see in General
3. Select the Currency option
The second method
This method allows you to specify the type of unit you want:
1. Select the column, row and cell you want
Û². From the Number section in the window, click on the arrow next to Currency
3. Choose the type of unit you want
Whichever way you go, all the numbers entered in the column, row or cell will change to the formatting you want.
Decimals
In Excel you can use decimal number formatting to set units or simple numbers. For example, you may want to enter your student grades or even your own grades, so you need decimal numbers. To apply this formatting, you can do the following two steps:
1. Select the column, row, or cell in which you want to enter your number
2. From the Number section in the top bar of the window, click either Increase Decimal or Deacrease Decimal. This selection will change depending on your current format
Other methods for formatting numbers
You may have noticed other options for formatting numbers by looking at the Number section in the Home tab. As you progress in using Excel, each of these items may be useful to you.
These options include time, fractions, percentages, and more. In addition, you can access options such as zip code, phone number, etc. by selecting the More Number Formats section from the bottom of the column (like the image above).
Simple formulas: automatic summation tool
One of the best tools in Excel that saves a lot of time is the AutoSum tool. This tool is easy to use and helps you avoid most computational errors. Also, if you use Excel for projects such as income and expense or loan management, etc., the AutoSum feature will appear great for you.
This simple tool can perform the operations of adding, averaging, counting or finding the minimum and sitting in a column, row or group of cells. By default, you should see the AutoSum button in the top bar of the window in the Home tab, to the right of it. You can also access it via the Formulas tab.
If you click the AutoSum button, it automatically inserts the addition function. But if you click the small arrow below the button, you will see the most useful formulas that we mentioned above:
Suppose you have a column of numbers that you want to get the sum of. First of all, select the cell in which you want the sum of the numbers to be inserted. Then, click the AutoSum button. Excel automatically detects the numbers you want to add. These numbers are highlighted and you can now see the formula, which should look something like this: = SUM (C2: C7)
Note: The equal sign is the main indicator of a formula in Excel. SUM is a function. C2: C7 are all cells that have numbers in them.
If you think the information shown is correct, press the Enter key on the keyboard. This will display the calculations performed in the cell you want, just like the image below:
But you might want to calculate the average of a group of cells. First, click on the cell in which you want the answer to be placed. Then select the small arrow on the AutoSum button. Again, Excel automatically detects numbers, highlights cells, and finally applies the formula. Press the Enter key on the keyboard to see the final result.
As we said in the General Propositions section in Excel, there are many formulas and functions to use in this software. We recommend that you review all of them from the Formulas tab and learn how to work with them.
Use ready-made templates in Excel
One of the best ways to get started with Excel is to use one of the templates. To do this, you will be faced with very different and interesting options.
Excel internal patterns
To view patterns in Excel, go to File> New. Here are some ready-made templates that can be used. You can choose the pattern that is closest to your work through different categories. You can also use the search to find the right one for you.
In-Excel templates range from simple calendars to advanced pages for managing financial records. But you can always find a pattern close to what you want among them.
If you want to see a pattern, just click on it and then see the information that contains the pattern size in the new window. If you are interested in using it, you can easily click the Create button to create the page for you.
It should be noted that there are many ready-made templates for Excel on the Internet that you can reach with a simple Google search.
Draw charts in Excel
Excel software is equipped with a powerful tool for drawing charts that help users to display their data in a more attractive way. Different types of charts are available in Excel, each of which is applicable to specific situations. The following table lists some diagrams and their applications.
| the chart | Features and types of applications |
| Columnar | Used to compare data, which are usually of the same genus and are categorized into different sections or groups. |
| Bar | It is like a bar chart but is drawn horizontally and has more potential in displaying data than comparing them. |
| circular | It is used to display data of the same type and is visually very attractive; But it is not very suitable for comparison or accurate display. |
| Linear | Such a chart is often used to grow the amount of data over time or based on another variable; But there are other uses for it. |
| Area | It is almost a three-dimensional line graph that can display changes better and more noticeably and supports multiple data types. |
| Pointwise | It is one of the popular scientific charts that can show the correlations and patterns between data well. |
| Bubble | It is an interesting and attractive way to present data with three variables and has a high visual appeal. |
| Surface | Can display several types of data in different dimensions; But its use is a bit complicated. |
| Donuts | A more advanced example is a pie chart to which more data can be added at different layers. |
| Spider | This diagram is also called a radar or star diagram, which is used to display multivariate data in two dimensions. |
To draw a chart in Excel, first select the data you want and then go to the Charts section of the Insert tab, which is located in the top bar of the software. In this section, you can see the icons related to different charts, which by clicking on each one, will open the related drop-down menu containing different types.
Lock pages in Excel
Locking Excel spreadsheets is a handy way to prevent unwanted changes to files. It can also be used to password protect files to ensure data protection when sharing them with other users. To lock a spreadsheet in Excel, first go to the Review tab and then click on Protect Sheet.
Note that using a password is completely optional and you can lock the file without it. Finally, press the OK key to save the changes.
Save and share pages in Excel
After editing the spreadsheets in Excel, you can save your file in the desired location by pressing the shortcut key Ctrl + S or clicking on the save icon in the toolbar. Also, if you put your file in the OneDrive folder, you will be able to take advantage of the automatic storage feature, which minimizes the possibility of data loss in the event of accidental closure of the application or other events.
OneDrive is also the easiest way to share Excel files. By clicking on the Share option in the upper right corner of the software, a set of instructions for sharing the screen will be displayed, by following which you will be able to share the selected file with your colleagues or friends. Of course, saving the file offline and sending it via email or other cloud services is another way to share it.
Are you ready to work with Excel?
We hope this tutorial has introduced you to some of the applications of Microsoft Excel. At first, glance, working with this software may seem scary to a novice, but the applications of Excel are so many that once you get used to it, you will no longer be able to get bored of it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Excel
What is Excel and what company is it from?
One of the most important programs in the Microsoft Office suite is Excel, which is mostly used to record data and control and monitor them.
What is the use of Microsoft Excel?
Managing invoices and receipts, tracking projects, recording personal health records, managing schedules and calendars, creating checklists and to-do lists, financial calculations, loans and debts, and property management are some of the most important applications of Excel.
The most important terms you need to know to work with this program?
Formulas and functions, Excel home page and cells are among the most important terms of this program that you can easily use Excel by knowing them.
