Excel tutorial - Fundamental Tools to Work Smarter in 2026

Learn to use essencial tools of Microsoft Excel to format data, and manipulate your dataset using formulas & functions

Created byLuis Carlos

Last updated 5/2026

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Microsoft Excel fundamental tools to work a dataset
Understand Excel interface
Work faster with quick access toolbar
Work with ribbon and customize it
Format data
Add and remove columns and rows
Use format painter
Change number format
Understand different type of cell references
Understand and create formulas
Use functions to work your dataset

Course content

3 sections • 28 lectures • 2h 14m total length

Introduction1:56
Learn the fundamentals of Excel to create, edit, and manage data in spreadsheets; explore the interface, customize sections, and use formulas and functions to perform tasks efficiently.
Excel interface overview4:25
Explore the Excel interface, including the top menus, ribbon, quick access toolbar, and workbook tabs, and understand how worksheets, cells, name box, status bar, and formula bar support data entry.
Excel Ribbon - How to work and how to customize3:50
Learn how to navigate the Excel ribbon, customize tabs and groups, create a new tab with font and font size commands, and use right-click menus to speed up your workflow.
Quick Access Toolbar - How to use and edit1:38
Learn to customize the quick access toolbar in Excel by right-clicking, selecting customize, and adding or removing commands, including enabling and disabling items for faster access.

Excel Workbooks - Create, Open and Save files5:18
Create a new Excel workbook from a blank file or templates, and open existing workbooks from your computer or OneDrive; save locally or to the cloud with auto recover.
Working with Worksheets - Add, delete and change name2:44
Explore how to manage Excel worksheets by adding, deleting, renaming, and reordering sheets using tabs, right-click menus, and quick insert methods.
Automatic data with autofill - save time using this tool5:25
Master autofill in Excel to enter data quickly, drag to fill a range, and create repeats or date patterns from initial values, including weekdays and month or year increments.
Rows and columns - Add and delete4:07
Learn to add and delete rows and columns in Excel by selecting rows or columns, using the context menu or ribbon, and inserting multiple new rows or columns.
Hide & Unhide Rows/Colums and Worksheets4:20
Hide and unhide rows, columns, and worksheets in Excel to manage large data. Select the items, then use format options or right-click to hide or unhide.
Change row and column size3:29
Adjust row height and column width in Excel by selecting rows or columns, dragging borders, using the format option, or double-clicking to auto-fit content, and applying changes to all cells.
Wrap, shrink and merge text4:05
Learn how to wrap text, shrink to fit, and merge cells in Excel to display long data clearly without overflowing, using wrap text, format cells alignment, and merge and center.
First Challenge - Practical exercise using Font tools3:27
Practice formatting text in Excel by using font tools to change font, size, bold, italic, underline, and color, apply cell background, set borders, merge cells, and center align.
Format painter tool - Another powerfull tool to save time2:46
Use the format painter tool to copy formatting from one place and apply it to another, speeding up styling of large data sets.
Format Numbers Tool - Date and Time Format5:00
Master date and time formatting in excel using the format numbers tool, convert numbers to dates or times, and apply custom formats for precise data presentation.
Identify and Remove Duplicates Values4:10
Identify and highlight duplicate rows in Excel with conditional formatting. Remove duplicates with remove duplicates tool, selecting ranges and columns to define duplicates by all columns or a single column.
Sort and Filter Tools14:28
Master Excel sorting and filtering to organize large data tables. Learn single-column and multi-column sorts, and apply text, number, and custom filters to reveal targeted records.

Cell references to link data - Relative, absolute and mixed8:09
Learn how cell references link related data in Excel by using relative, absolute, and mixed references to keep multiple columns in sync and save time when updating data.
Formula Anatomy - How to create a formula using Math operators4:43
Learn to create Excel formulas with math operators and cell references for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and averages, using the equal sign and copying formulas across cells.
Use Functions in Excel - Syntax used to create functions4:07
Learn the difference between a formula and a function in Excel, and how to insert a function using the insert function dialog, selecting ranges and arguments to calculate sums.
Sum Numbers with Sum Function2:34
Explore how to use the sum function in Excel to add multiple cell ranges, with examples using three ranges and semicolon-separated arguments in the formula bar.
Average Function for cells ranges average calculation1:35
Explore the Excel AVERAGE function to compute the mean from cell ranges, compare methods using sum divided by two with a direct average, and verify the correct result.
How to use Statistical Functions Min and Max2:00
Explore the min and max functions to find the smallest and largest values in a range, illustrated with daily car sales from c3 to c14.
Count and CountIf Functions5:31
Discover how to use count and countif in Excel to count cells containing numbers or meeting conditions, including dates and numbers greater than 40 or at least 50.
Exercise with Logical Functions IF, OR and AND for single and multiple condition7:10
Learn how to use Excel logical functions if, or, and to evaluate single and multiple conditions. Apply these rules to scoring scenarios with average scores and a 50 percent threshold.
Conditional Addition with Sumif and Sumifs3:54
Master conditional addition in Excel using sumif and sumifs to total booked rooms by hotel and by month, with practical hotel and January examples.
Extract Data using Vlookup Reference Function6:08
Master vlookup to fetch product names and unit prices by matching ids across two tables, using the leftmost column, table array, index number, exact or approximate match, and absolute references.
Hlookup Function to Extract Data2:43
Discover how to use HLOOKUP to extract data from a specific row, compare HLOOKUP with VLOOKUP, and set exact and approximate match arguments to fetch names.
Offset function for dinamyc ranges14:51
Learn how to create dynamic ranges in Excel using the offset function, combining with count and sum to analyze revenues over the last six months and compare to targets.

Requirements

Work with computer

Description

Hello, my name is Luis Carlos and I will be the instructor in this class of Microsoft Excel.

This class is made for beginners, being divided into different sections.

In the first part you will learn the interface excel and how it is divided. The ribbon customization and quick access toolbar will be another important point that allows to adapt the working environment to the needs of the user.

In a second part we will learn how to create and open excel files, add, delete and change the name of worksheets and in a third part of the course we learn to insert data manually and automatically and work with cell and text formatting tools.

The last part will be dedicated to formulas and functions that will be an important step to work the data automatically in the worksheet.

To follow all the lessons, is available a file exercises.xlsx in the introduction video(first course video) that can be used by the students to make all exercises made in the videos.

This class is compatible with the latest versions of Microsoft Excel (2007 / 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019)

List of main topics:

Excel interface
Customizing the Excel Quick Access Toolbar
Understanding the Structure of an Excel Workbook(anatomy)
Customize ribbon and quick access toolbar
Create, Save and open an Excel Document
Add, rename, delete worksheet
Enter text manually and automatically with autofill tool
Format data
Wrap, shrink and merge text
Format painter tool
Format numbers - Change format to date and time
Cell references - relative, absolute and mixed
Create formulas using logical operators
Functions syntax - Learn and apply the main used functions

Who this course is for:

Beginners with Excel that need to work their data using smart methods
People curious about computer science

Excel tutorial - Fundamental Tools to Work Smarter in 2026

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to Microsoft Excel4 lectures • 12min

Start Working With Excel - Learn Fundamental Tools12 lectures • 59min

Formulas and Functions to manipulate your Data12 lectures • 1hr 3min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: