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Excel at Excel | First Thing First

 

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Excel at Excel | First Thing First

Regardless of the educational background, technical or non-technical, when it comes to basic computer knowledge, Excel is one of the most important topics. Regardless of career aspirations, IT or Non-IT, when basic computer knowledge is required, Excel is most sought after by employers. Here is basic information about Excel mostly helpful for interview preparation and beginners' knowledge.

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What is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel, part of the Microsoft Office suite of software, is developed by Microsoft featuring spreadsheets using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns for various calculation or computation capabilities along with graphing tools, pivot tables, a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Excel is one of the most used software applications by global IT Companies, the Financial sector, the Banking Sector, Healthcare Teams, Market Research Analysts, Educational Sectors, etc. for various purposes like data entry and storage, accounting and budgeting, data analysis, planning, project management, etc.

What is a Spreadsheet?

A Spreadsheet or worksheet is a file consisting of a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns for various calculation or computation capabilities along with graphing tools, pivot tables, etc.
Data in a spreadsheet can be numeric values, as well as text, formulas, references, and functions.
By default, there will be only one spreadsheet or worksheet in a workbook and one can add more if required. 

What is a workbook?

A workbook is a collection of one or more worksheets in Microsoft Excel.

When was Excel launched?

Microsoft Excel was launched in 1985 by Microsoft Corporation.

How to identify an Excel workbook or file?

The file format of an Excel workbook can be identified by the extension .xlsx.

What is the file format extension of an Excel workbook or file?

The file format of an Excel workbook can be identified by the extension .xlsx. 

Tutorials for beginners:

Following are some quick peeks into the wonderful capabilities of Excel!

First thing first -How to open Excel on your computer!

How long are you going to count your fingers to add a long list of big numbers! Excel at your service in 4 different ways to add numbers automatically! The last one is really helpful while dealing with large data or conditional calculations.

Forget manual typing when you can fill the cells automatically with the required data of a regular pattern. With one extra at the end!

Large pool of data needs to be split into different cells?! Here's the smart automated way to save time from manually typing everything. Don't miss the power of power query at the end!

To switch columns of data into rows or rows into columns, use Excel capability to do that automatically. Learn Transpose along with the use of Array.

Simple Sort & Filter can save breaking your head while rearranging data in Excel.

Represent your data in a better way. Data in a simple Tabular format can save time with some basic automatic functions of calculation.

Wonder how to get a drop-down to fill data with only a click instead of typing the same again and again! Create a Drop-down for data entry.

Visualize your data in different ways for quick analysis. Excel has Different types of Charts to analyze data.

A simple Pivot Table can do wonder with instant calculations to present data for easy & quick analysis without any hassle of typing multiple formulas.

Here is the link to the complete playlist of all above mentioned tutorials: Excel at Excel | First Thing First

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What is Microsoft Excel used for?
Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool to work with vast amounts of data in an efficient manner. in Microsoft Excel, one can use different useful calculations to easily comprehend the data they are working with. The data can be in various forms like numerical, texts, symbols, etc.

2. What are the 4 major parts of Excel?
The four major parts of Microsoft Excel are the following:
Worksheet: The rectangular part with grids of rows and columns
Columns: The Vertical lines named with alphabets
Rows: The horizontal lines named after numbers
Workbook: The collection of all the active worksheets

3. What are the top 10 Excel formulas?
Here is the list of most commonly used Microsoft Excel formulas:

 To add up the total: =SUM(Cell Range)
To add individual items: =Value1+Value2
Subtract: =Value1-Value2
Multiply: =Value1*Value2
Divide: Value1/Value2
Exponents: Value1^Value2
Average: =AVERAGE(Cell Range)
Median: =MEDIAN(Cell Range)
Max: =MA(Cell Range)
Min: MIN(Cell Range)

4. What type of software is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program and it is part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications. One can download the application on a hard drive from Microsoft office 365 which allows access to the online version.

5. What are the Ctrl shortcuts in Excel?
Following is the list of some useful Ctrl shortcuts in Excel:
Ctrl + N = To create a new workbook
Ctrl + O = To open an existing workbook
Ctrl + S = To save or save as the active workbook
Ctrl + W = To close the current workbook
Ctrl + F4 = To close Excel
Ctrl + PageDown = To move to the next sheet
Ctrl + PageUp = To move to the previous sheet
Ctrl + C = To copy selected data/cells
Ctrl + X = To cut selected data/cells
Ctrl + z = To undo recent action

Related: Word to Word | First Thing First and Powerful PowerPoint | First Thing First and Interview Tips & Preparation

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