How to Use Excel

Microsoft Excel has been a leading data management program since entering the market in 1985, and it remains popular to this day for organizing and analyzing data. Whether you’re tracking a budget, visualizing sales data, or organizing a project timeline, Excel offers powerful tools to help you streamline your work and achieve better results. Understand Excel’s key features, practical tips, and how to make the most of this versatile application in your personal and professional life.

Key functions and formulas in Excel

Understanding the program’s primary functions is the key to unlocking its benefits, which include helping you save time and reduce errors. Explore some of the main features to get a better grasp of all Excel has to offer.

VLOOKUP

VLOOKUP (short for “Vertical Lookup”) is a popular and useful Excel function that retrieves data from a particular column. It’s especially invaluable when working with large data sets for the way it helps you to find and examine information quickly. It can help saves time and mitigate the risk of the mistakes that often accompany manual data retrieval, making it an essential tool for professionals working with complex data sets.

The formula works like this:

1. Enter the lookup value: Select the cell containing the value you want to search for.

2. Highlight the table array: Identify the data set you’ll be searching and select the range.

3. Specify the column index: Pinpoint the column containing the data you want. 

4. Set the range lookup: Choose “TRUE” if you want the program to locate approximate matches or “FALSE” if you want exact matches.

5. Apply the formula: Put the formula into action. All together, that’s =VLOOKUP(lookup value, range, column number, and match type).

PivotTables in Excel

PivotTables are dynamic Excel tools that allow you to perform powerful calculations and work with large quantities of data, analyzing, summarizing, and presenting it in an easy-to-understand format. With PivotTables, you can quickly extract meaningful insights from raw data (such as sales trends or customer demographics). They’re especially useful when creating summary reports, generating insights, or presenting data in an easily digestible format.

The steps to create a PivotTable are as follows:

1. Prepare your data: First, you must make sure the data is free of errors, accurate, and free from blank rows or columns.

2. Insert a PivotTable: Go to the “Insert” tab, click “PivotTable.” Then, you can select your data range.

3. Drag fields: Assign fields to Rows, Columns, or Values to organize your data.

4. Customize the view: Use filters, sort options, and formatting to create a more visually appealing table.

Working with cells in Excel

Cells are the areas where rows intersect with columns. Knowing how merge and perform other functions can help improve your work’s quality and enhance your ability to organize data.

How to merge cells in Excel

You can combine multiple cells into one, a function best used for creating headers or titles across more than one column in your spreadsheet. However, overuse can complicate sorting and formula application within the Excel sheet, so use them sparingly.

To perform this function, you must:

1. Select cells: Highlight the cells you want to merge.

2. Merge options: Go to the “Home” tab, select “Merge,” and choose your preferred merge type.

3. Adjust alignment: Ensure that the content aligns correctly inside the merged cell using the “Align” feature.

CONCATENATE in Excel

This function combines text from multiple cells and puts it into a single cell. This feature is useful for creating custom strings, such as linking first and last names. Because manual re-entry isn’t necessary, this method of combining data can save you a good deal of time and effort.

To use CONCATENATE, you must:

1. Select the cells to combine: Identify the cells with the text you want to merge.

2. Apply the formula: Use =CONCATENATE( or =CONCAT( to join text with a space or another separator.

3. Refine the output: Use additional characters such as commas or dashes to further format the results.

Additional tips for using Excel

From Excel’s key features to its helpful formatting tools and time-saving shortcuts, this spreadsheet software program can help you perform many tasks. Check out a few tips to help you get the most out of it.

Keyboard shortcuts

Using these shortcuts can significantly boost efficiency, helping to optimize your productivity when using Excel. They reduce the amount of time you spend searching through menus for tools, allowing you to focus on the task at hand. These include:

• Copy and paste: Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + V

• Undo an action: Ctrl + Z

• Create a table from a selected range: Ctrl + T

• Insert the date: Ctrl + ;

• Open the Home tab: Alt + H

Formatting data

Proper formatting helps make sure that your spreadsheets are easy to read and simple to interpret. By being conscious of how your Excel sheet is formatted, you’ll not only improve readability but also ensure the utmost professionalism. Formatting options include:

• Conditional formatting: Highlight data points that meet specific conditions, such as values below a set point, to identify trends and patterns in your data.

• Data validation: Limit data entry to specific types, such as dates or whole numbers.

• Cell styles: Use predefined styles for headers, totals, or emphasis to maintain consistency.

Resources for learning Excel

Mastering Excel requires frequent practice as well as reliable access to plenty of learning sources to help you along the way. Introductory books such as Excel All-in-One For Dummies can provide a general overview for beginners, while YouTube and other video platforms can walk you through more advanced features and techniques via visual aids. Structured courses on Coursera can also give you guided learning experiences tailored to your specific skill level. Combine these resources with continued practice with Excel to gain a much stronger understanding of this useful program.

Who uses Excel?

From finance to marketing to education, Excel is a valuable tool for professionals across all sorts of industries, including:

• Accountants: To create balance sheets, manage budgets, and perform financial analysis.

• Data analysts: For processing large data sets, visualizing trends, and creating predictive models.

• Project managers: To track milestones, budgets, and task progress.

• Marketers: For analyzing customer data, tracking campaign performance, and managing leads.

Learning more about how to use Excel with Coursera

Excel is more than just a spreadsheet tool: It’s an incredibly useful way to manage, review, and organize data in the workplace, and by understanding all its essential features, you can streamline your workflows and gain a more competitive edge in numerous professional fields.

For an even deeper understanding of Excel, consider the Excel Skills for Data Analytics and Visualization Specialization from Macquarie University on Coursera. This Specialization can help you learn how to use Excel tools for the purpose of data analysis and data visualization. You might also consider the IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate if you’re preparing for a career in data analytics.