1.1 Getting Started with Excel

Excel is one of the most important business applications of all time. It allows managers to perform sophisticated and powerful analyses, including quickly connecting with corporate databases with hundreds of thousands of records. At the same time, it is intuitive and straightforward to use. It would be hard to find any business, small or large, whose managers do not rely on Excel in their daily work.

In this book, we start with the basics and then quickly demonstrate how to use some of the most advanced features of Excel. At the outset, we should get two important things out of the way. First, as a beginner, there is no substitute for experience. Each lesson in this book contains a rich set of practice problems and assessments that require you to apply what you are learning in the live Excel application. Don’t skip over the problems. The only way to learn a skill in Excel is to do it in Excel.

The second important point is that you should also find ways to experiment with Excel. When you have a decision to make that requires you to analyze something numerically, put the numbers in Excel. When you are done with a homework assignment or set of practice problems, play with the numbers in the assignment. Eventually, you will feel comfortable with Excel as a tool to help you solve many types of business and personal problems. Let us begin by discussing the Excel working environment.

When you open Excel, you are typically presented with a blank workbook. A workbook An Excel file that stores all the information, previous calculations, and analyses that you may have already completed. Must contain at least one worksheet. is an Excel file that stores all the information, previous calculations, and analyses that you may have already completed. A workbook must contain at least one worksheet. A worksheet A key part of an Excel workbook that contains data and calculations and is organized into a collection of cells arranged in the form of a table. contains the actual data and calculations. A worksheet is organized into a collection of cells arranged in the form of a table. Cells Rectangular boxes in a worksheet that store individual pieces of data or calculations. store individual pieces of data or calculations. Figure 1.1 shows a blank Excel workbook. You will notice a fairly sophisticated menu system at the top of the workbook—but don’t worry! We will discuss Excel’s menus in the next few sections. Near the bottom left of Figure 1.1, you can see the text “Sheet1” on a tab. This designates that there is one worksheet in the workbook. You can add a worksheet by clicking on the plus icon next to the word “Sheet 1.” When you have more than one worksheet in your workbook, you can move to another worksheet in the workbook by clicking on that particular worksheet tab.

You will also notice that each of the worksheets is divided into a number of cells. You can select a cell by clicking on that cell. You will also notice that each cell has an address that can be described in terms of the row and column that corresponds to that particular cell; we refer to cells by their addresses. The top-left cell in a worksheet is cell A1. The cell in column F and row 10 is called cell F10.

Excel has literally dozens of menu items that you can access. The menu area is divided into major groups according to each group’s function. The major menu areas can be accessed by clicking on the various menu tabs. Figure 1.2 shows the various menu tabs and the specific menu items available under the Home tab. While the menu displayed in Figure 1.2 may not exactly match the menu you see when you open Excel on your computer, it should be pretty close. Each of the major menu areas is further organized into specific groups separated by vertical lines. As you can see, the Home menu area is divided into menu groups (such as Clipboard, Font, and Alignment). There are other groups in the Home area that are not shown in Figure 1.2.

The features in each menu tab are grouped together because they perform similar functions. (From left to right in Figure 1.2) The File menu is used to manipulate workbooks. The Home area includes items used in formatting the appearance of data in cells. Items in the Insert area include features that allow you to place specialized elements into your workbooks, such as charts, pictures, and shapes. The Formulas menu uses Excel’s built-in functions to help perform calculations. Items in the Data area are used to aid in importing and working with large amounts of data. The Review menu items allow you to add comments and check spelling in the worksheets. The View menu items are used to change how a worksheet is displayed on the screen. More details about each menu area will be provided when we start to use the items in each area.

The File menu tab contains the menu items necessary for working with workbooks. You will notice that the File menu is different from the other tabs in Excel. The File menu tab contains the menu items necessary for working with workbooks. Clicking on the File menu tab displays a fly-out menu (see Figure 1.3), while clicking on any other tab reveals a new set of icons in the menu area that can be used with the open worksheet.

The left column of the File menu contains the major categories of tasks that can be performed on workbooks. The Info portion of the File menu displays options for opening the Desktop App, viewing previous versions of the file, and protecting the workbook.

The New portion of the File menu contains features related to creating a new workbook. You will notice that you can create a blank workbook or workbooks that are based on templates. Templates can be particularly useful because they often contain data, formatting, and calculations that relate to common spreadsheet tasks (such as managing a budget or expense report).

Open is used to select a different workbook that you want to be opened in Excel (Figure 1.3). With Open, you can open recently used workbooks or select a workbook that has been saved on OneDrive (a cloud service provided by Microsoft).

If the file you want to open is not displayed in the list of recent files, you will need to open your OneDrive in a browser window. Go to OneDrive, select the folder that contains the file you want to open, and click the file name. The file will open in the Excel online application.

The Save As menu item allows you to (1) save the current workbook, (2) save a copy of the current workbook with a new name or location, or (3) save a copy of the current workbook as a different file type. Save As can be helpful as you gain experience with some of the more advanced features in Excel.

The Print menu area contains items related to printing a worksheet. These items include selecting the correct printer, manipulating the various printer functions, and sending a worksheet to the printer. The Print area also displays a preview of how a particular worksheet will look once printed.

It is nearly impossible to keep track of all of the options and features available in Excel, and it is not uncommon to need help along the way. In addition to the large amount of Excel content that is available on the internet, there is a large help database available within Excel itself. To access this help, click on Help in the Menu Bar at the top of the window and select the Help icon. The Excel Help area (see Figure 1.5) provides access to Microsoft’s extensive online help materials, where you can search for a topic and access the Featured Help options that are displayed. As you gain more experience with Excel, you will find that using the help features can save you a lot of time and frustration.

Take a few minutes and explore Excel; you will find that it is intuitive to use and easy to learn.