Excel Courses

More about Excel

Regardless of the industry you work in, Microsoft Office Excel is an invaluable spreadsheet program for organizing and representing data. Excel offers functions, formulas, and pivot tables to help you aggregate and then analyze large sets of information. Excel first truly appeared on the scene way back in 1987, when a version was released for Windows. Excel is a complex and powerful software today, and it gives you a great degree of control over the data in your spreadsheet. Yet, it's easy for even beginners to learn it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Excel?

Excel is a spreadsheet program in the Microsoft Office suite of applications used to record, store, manipulate, and analyze data. It has many built-in functions that allow for mathematical and spatial manipulation of data as well as data representation through visualizations. Data is stored in cells, with each cell having a unique address depending on the row and column value of the cell. Regardless of the industry you work in, Microsoft Office Excel is an invaluable spreadsheet program for organizing and representing data. The functions, formulas, and pivot tables in Excel help to aggregate and analyze large sets of information. Excel first debuted in 1987, when a version was released for Windows. Today, Excel is a complex and powerful software application offering users and companies precise control over the data included in a spreadsheet. Despite its complexity, it's straightforward enough for beginners to dive in and later learn how to unlock additional uses for Excel.

What is VLOOKUP?

The VLOOKUP function in Excel is one of the most useful features Excel provides. The V in VLOOKUP stands for vertical, and the LOOKUP portion represents the function's ability to look up and extract data from another table, based on an associated value. It makes searching and automating the input of data easy and efficient. It is a must-know skill for anyone working with large datasets and spreadsheets.

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How can I learn Excel quickly?

To learn Excel, think of it as an analytical assistant that can reliably work out the data for you. After giving it the proper training with the right set of formulas, you can rely on Excel to take your input and give back accurate results that are ready to use. First, it is important to understand the basics. Don't take the menus and features for granted; you will be surprised at how much you overlook. Get to know the interface and all the different menu options. Then, use the application for a real-life problem. Jump into a real business problem and try to make a repeatable solution that requires minimal work in the future. Finally, never be afraid to seek out help. Even advanced users need help from time to time.

What is Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and what are macros?

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an event-driven programming language within Excel used to automate tasks by writing macros. Excel users who find themselves performing repetitive tasks, can instead write a macro to automate these series of manual operations. Although VBA is not as complicated as other programming languages, knowing how to write macros and sets of actions executed on an Excel spreadsheet by VBA code can still be confusing to beginners. This difficulty is because Excel VBA is where your application skills start crossing over into programming capabilities. However, once you get the basics down, you are on your way to becoming an advanced Excel user.

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