Excel Projects
Microsoft Excel Information
Excel is one program in the Microsoft Office Suite of products. Excel is a spreadsheet program that is primarily used by accountants to keep track of spending, budgets, payroll and other business related information. Excel has its own file extension when you save, it is either .xls or .xlsx.
Excel is organized into worksheets. By default, Excel creates 3 worksheets but there can be lots more. Excel worksheets are broken down into columns and rows. Each column is identified with a letter and each row with a number so that you can identify where you are at anytime when using the program. The smallest and most specific unit in Excel is where the column and the row meet. This spot is called a cell. For example, A3 is a single cell located in column A and row 3.
Because Excel is used for calculating costs and comparing numbers, there are several features built into the program that make it easy to do mathematic calculations. If you are going to simply add up a column or row of numbers, the AutoSum button makes it quick and easy to do so. If you need to do something more complicated, you simply tell Excel that you are going to do math in a particular cell by beginning the cell with an = sign and following it with the math you want done. For example, if you wanted to multiply what was in cell A3 by what was in B3, then you would create the following formula: =A3*B3 in cell C3 and hit enter. Excel would then do the math for you and display the results in cell C3. If a number changed in A3, then Excel would automatically redo the math and put the new answer in C3 for you. We can say that Excel uses mathematical sentences known as formulas to analyze and display information.
We can also quickly visualize our results or other information in Excel by using the Charting and Graphing features built into the program. We can also sort our information by using the Ascending and Descending button. This is handy for quickly reorganizing information in alphabetical or numeric order.
Excel is organized into worksheets. By default, Excel creates 3 worksheets but there can be lots more. Excel worksheets are broken down into columns and rows. Each column is identified with a letter and each row with a number so that you can identify where you are at anytime when using the program. The smallest and most specific unit in Excel is where the column and the row meet. This spot is called a cell. For example, A3 is a single cell located in column A and row 3.
Because Excel is used for calculating costs and comparing numbers, there are several features built into the program that make it easy to do mathematic calculations. If you are going to simply add up a column or row of numbers, the AutoSum button makes it quick and easy to do so. If you need to do something more complicated, you simply tell Excel that you are going to do math in a particular cell by beginning the cell with an = sign and following it with the math you want done. For example, if you wanted to multiply what was in cell A3 by what was in B3, then you would create the following formula: =A3*B3 in cell C3 and hit enter. Excel would then do the math for you and display the results in cell C3. If a number changed in A3, then Excel would automatically redo the math and put the new answer in C3 for you. We can say that Excel uses mathematical sentences known as formulas to analyze and display information.
We can also quickly visualize our results or other information in Excel by using the Charting and Graphing features built into the program. We can also sort our information by using the Ascending and Descending button. This is handy for quickly reorganizing information in alphabetical or numeric order.