Basic Excel

This page covers some of the Basic Excel skills that will help you when you are using functions and formulas in Excel.
Click on the links below or select one of the options from the "Quick Selection" menu on the right.
Most of the useful Excel basics are covered by the links below, but if you are a complete beginner, you might find more useful tips on the Microsoft Office Basic Excel page.

Excel Data Input

The basic Excel task of populating a spreadsheet can be done in several different ways. These methods, which are described in the linked pages below, will help you to work more efficiently in Excel.

• Excel Autofill

  The Excel Autofill feature can be used to populate a range of cells with either a repeat value,

• Excel Copy And Paste

  .

• Excel Data Input

  The basic Excel task of populating a spreadsheet can be done in several different ways. These methods, which are described in the linked pages below, will help you to work more efficiently in Excel.

• Inputting Excel Function

  The most obvious way of inputting Excel is simply to type the function, with its arguments enclosed in brackets. However, if you are a beginner, or are writing a complex formula, you may find this difficult or confusing. Therefore, Microsoft has included a number of built-in Excel tools, which will help you to input functions and formulas more easily.

• Insert a New Line in an Excel Cell

  <ALT> Enter

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 be repaid many times over.

• Common Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

  Most people know some Excel keyboard shortcuts, and therefore recognise that they can be a great time-saver and can help you to work much more smoothly and efficiently.
  
  This page lists of the most popular Excel shortcuts. The shortcuts have been organised into categories, to help you to find those that are of particular interest to you. It is recommended that you try to remember a few at a time, and make use of these in your day-to-day work, until they become second nature to you.

Cell References

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

• AND

  Tests a number of user-defined conditions and returns TRUE if ALL of the conditions evaluate to TRUE, or FALSE otherwise

• Excel Cell References

  In Excel, you can use Relative References (references that change as they are copied to other cells) or Absolute References (references that remain constant if they are copied to other cells).
  
  These are discussed individually below.

• Excel Reference Styles

  Excel understands two different styles of referencing for cells and ranges. These are described in the table below :

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 below for more details:

• Excel Dates and Times

  Most users have worked with Excel dates and times, to some extent. However, not all users fully understand the way that dates and times are stored within Excel, and this prevents them from getting the most out of their Excel functions and formulas.

• How to Subtract Dates in Excel

  If you want to subtract dates in Excel, it helps if you first understand how dates are stored within Excel.

• How to Subtract Time in Excel

Excel View

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 listed below.

• Excel Zoom

• Hide Gridlines In Excel

  The gridlines in an Excel spreadsheet are only shown when looking at the worksheet electronically,

• Show Formulas In Excel

  The following decribes how to show formulas in Excel, for a whole worksheet, or how to just show the formula in a single Excel cell.

Formatting

Although it may initially appear to be only useful for making spreadsheets look pretty, Excel formatting is actually much more important than this.

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 results 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 Excel Formatting

  As well as giving your spreadsheet a professional look, the use of Excel formatting can provide essential information that determines the way a user interprets the data in the spreadsheet.

• Conditional Formatting

  Excel Conditional Formatting can be used to alter the formatting of an Excel cell based on either:

• Excel Custom Number Formatting

  How to Define an Excel Custom Number Format

• Merge Cells in Excel

  Merge Cells in Excel

• Wrap Text in Excel

  There are many situations in which you may want to wrap text in Excel cells, so that you can improve the appearance of, or easily view long text strings.

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 headings below for details.

• Create Hyperlink in Excel

  The use of hyperlinks in Excel can transform a spreadsheet into an entire filing system.

• Remove Hyperlinks in Excel

  If you want to remove hyperlinks from one or more Excel cells, simply select the cells containing the hyperlinks and right-click on the selected cell(s), using the mouse.

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 Advanced Filter

  The Excel Advanced Filter can be used to perform more complex filtering than the basic Excel Autofilter.

• Excel AutoFilter (Basic Filter)

  The basic Excel filter (also known as the Excel Autofilter) allows you to view specific rows in an Excel spreadsheet, while hiding the other rows in the worksheet.

Pivot Tables

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

Data Validation

If other users input data to your spreadsheet, you may want to limit the types of data that can be entered into specific cells. One way to do this is to present a drop-down menu to the user, so that they can select one of a list of possible values. Click on the following link for instructions on how to implement this in your spreadsheet.

• Excel Drop Down List

Saving To Other File Formats

Excel allows you produce a PDF version of your Excel spreadsheet. Click the link below for details.

• Convert Excel To PDF

  Many users wish to convert Excel files to PDF ("Portable Document Format"). PDF files present your spreadsheet to others in a way that preserves the document's formatting and prevents the files from being easily altered.