subject: Microsoft Excel - Basics for Beginners [print this page] Microsoft Excel - Basics for Beginners Microsoft Excel - Basics for Beginners
Microsoft Excel is a powerful business application that is organized into a structural hierarchy of Workbooks, Worksheets, and Cells. The data you include in an Excel file can be formatted and manipulated in a variety of ways. Once you have read this article, you will have a better understanding of the structure of an Excel file and the most common types of data you can use.
Structure of an Excel File
A Microsoft Excel file is called a "Workbook." Workbooks can be thought of like a physical 3-ring binder - they hold collections of individual pages called "Worksheets." Your Workbook will generally be a collection of sheets that all have a common theme, such as a sales report file containing individual sheets with sales figures for each region or department. You would generally not have a Workbook that mixes different themes, for example your sales report Workbook would probably not contain Worksheets related to your employee Christmas Party planning checklist.
Worksheets are the individual "pages" of an Excel file. A Worksheet is basically just a computer representation of a very large piece of paper. It is organized into columns and rows, with the columns denoted by alphabetical letters (A, B...AB, AC, AD,...etc) and rows denoted by numbers. The intersection of any given row and column is called a Cell, such as cell A1 at the top left of the Worksheet. Although each Worksheet is its own separate entity, formulas can be created that access cells from any other sheet in the Workbook, or even sheets that are part of a different Workbook.
Different Types of Cell Input Data
Cells are where the magic happen, as they are the individual compartments that hold your data. Cells can contain many different types of data, such as numerical, text or formulaic. Numerical data is just what it sounds like - numbers that can be manipulated using arithmetic or statistical operations. Text data consists of alpha-numeric characters such as letters and words. Formulas are instructions that are included in a cell that allow you to manipulate and perform operations on other cells in the Workbook. When you put a formula in your cell, the calculated value is then displayed as a result.
As you can see, the hierarchical structure of an Excel Workbook allows a lot of flexibility in how your data is arranged and presented. Through the use of Worksheets and Cells, you can place numerical and text data in an organized way, and then manipulate the data with formulas and other operations to analyze your data and turn it into useful information.
How to Use Excel
Learn how to use Microsoft Excel with the video tutorials presented atHowToUseExcelTutorial.com
