The Microsoft Excel program is a spreadsheet consisting of individual cells that can be used to build functions, formulas, tables, and graphs that easily organize and analyze large amounts of information and data. If you like this video, here's my entire playlist of Excel tutorials: the basics of using Microsoft Excel, including the anatom. Pick a cell, and then type an equal sign (=). That tells Excel that this cell will contain a formula. Type a combination of numbers and calculation operators, like the plus sign (+) for addition, the minus sign (-) for subtraction, the asterisk (.) for multiplication, or the forward slash (/) for division. Visual Basic Editor is a separate application that is a part of Excel and opens whenever you open an Excel workbook. By default, it’s hidden and to access it, you need to activate it. VB Editor is the place where you keep the VB code.

Basic Excel Categories:

Excel Data Input
Keyboard Shortcuts
Cell References
Excel Dates & Times
Converting Between Data Types
Excel View Options
Excel Formatting
Excel Subtotals
Excel Hyperlinks
Excel Filtering
Pivot Tables
Password Protection
Saving to PDF

This page introduces some of the Basic Excel skills that will help when you are using functions and formulas in Excel.

Many useful Excel basics are described in the links below, but if you are a complete beginner, you might also find some useful tips on the Microsoft Office Basic Excel page.

Excel Data Input

There are several different ways of entering data into a spreadsheet. Many of these methods are shortcuts that will help you to save time and therefore work more efficiently.

Click on the links below for details.

EXCEL DATA INPUT

INSERT A NEW LINE IN AN EXCEL CELL

EXCEL AUTOFILL

INPUTTING EXCEL FUNCTIONS

EXCEL COPY AND PASTE

EXCEL FIND AND REPLACE

DATA VALIDATION: CREATE A DROP DOWN LIST

SPELL CHECK IN EXCEL

Keyboard Shortcuts

It is worth spending a little time learning the Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for the actions that you perform most frequently in Excel. You will find that the time invested in learning these shortcuts will soon be repaid many times over.

COMMON EXCEL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Cell References

An understanding of absolute and relative cell references is essential when you are copying formulas between Excel cells. Click on the links below for details.

EXCEL CELL REFERENCES

EXCEL REFERENCES STYLES

EXCEL NAMED RANGES

Excel Dates and Times

Did you know that Excel stores Dates & Times as numbers? An understanding of how this works will help you to work much more effectively when using Dates & Times in Excel. Click the links below for more details:

EXCEL DATES & TIMES

HOW TO SUBTRACT DATES IN EXCEL

HOW TO SUBTRACT TIME IN EXCEL

Converting Between Excel Data Types

In order to prevent problems, you may need to convert between the different Excel data types before using values in Excel functions and formulas.

CONVERT TEXT TO A NUMBER

CONVERT A NUMBER TO TEXT

CONVERT TEXT TO A DATE

CONVERT A DATE TO TEXT

Excel View Options

Excel allows you to change the view of your spreadsheet by zooming in or out, showing formulas, etc. Some of the more popular options are explained in the following links.

HOW TO FREEZE PANES IN EXCEL

EXCEL ZOOM

SHOW FORMULAS

HIDE & UNHIDE COLUMNS IN EXCEL

HIDE & UNHIDE ROWS IN EXCEL

HIDE GRIDLINES

Excel Formatting

There is much more to Excel Formatting than just making spreadsheets look good.

In addition to making your spreadsheet look professional and smart, the formatting of data in Excel can also change the way the data is interpreted. The wrong formatting can sometimes result in data being read incorrectly and may give the impression that your function has failed to evaluate correctly. Click on the links below for more details.

BASIC FORMATTING

EXCEL DATE FORMATTING

EXCEL CUSTOM NUMBER FORMATTING

MERGE CELLS

WRAP TEXT IN EXCEL

CONDITIONAL FORMATTING

Excel Subtotals

You can quickly and easily display subtotals in your data table using the built-in Excel subtotal command.

EXCEL SUBTOTAL COMMAND

Basic Excel Questions And Answers

Excel Hyperlinks

The correct use of hyperlinks can turn a simple worksheet into a complete record-keeping system, which looks professional and is easy to use. Click on the links below for details.

CREATE A HYPERLINK IN EXCEL

REMOVE HYPERLINKS IN EXCEL

Excel Filtering

One of the basic Excel requirements for anyone working with large amounts of data is the Excel filter. Excel has two main filtering types, which are described in the links below.

EXCEL AUTOFILTER (BASIC FILTER)

EXCEL ADVANCED FILTER

Pivot Tables

Learn how to use Excel Pivot Tables to quickly and easily analyse large amounts of data.

EXCEL PIVOT TABLES - (Basic Introduction)

Password Protection

Basic Excel Text

Sometimes you may want to protect your spreadsheet from being viewed or written to by others. The following pages describe how to password protect an entire workbook or individual sheets within an Excel file.

PASSWORD PROTECT EXCEL FILE

Saving To PDF

Click the link below for details of how to produce a PDF version of your Excel spreadsheet.

Excel For Beginners

CONVERT EXCEL TO PDF