Microsoft Excel Tutorial - Ten Top Tips to Improve Your Excel Skills
Microsoft Excel 2007 is the spreadsheet programme of the Microsoft Office suite. It offers sophisticated calculation facilities, tools for graphs, pivot tables for automatically sorting, counting, and totalling data in various formats and programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).
Below you can see ten tips we have put together to get you on your way. They are most applicable to Microsoft Excel 2007 however most can be used in earlier versions of Excel.
1. Cut the ribbon -
Excel 2007, in common with the other programmes in the Office 2007 suite, makes use of the 'Ribbon', a horizontal bar replacing the menus and toolbars found in earlier versions. However, users requiring more room to work on their spreadsheet may wish to hide the ribbon. To do this, simply double-click on one of the ribbon tabs - perhaps Home, Insert, or Page Layout - and press the CTRL + F1 keys on the keyboard. Only the tabs will be left showing above your spreadsheet. You can reverse the procedure when required.
2. Print just one row -
Sometimes you may have the requirement to print just one or two rows of a spreadsheet. Highlight the data to be printed, open the 'Print' dialogue box, select the option and press 'OK'.
3. Create a chart -
This is much easier that you might think! Simply highlight all the data (including headings) and press the F11 button on your keyboard. A default chart will then be created on a separate sheet in your 'workbook'.
4. Name that box -
It is certainly easy to use the scroll bars or even your mouse to move around a small Excel worksheet. However, for larger ones (and there can be over 16,000 columns and, unbelievably, more than one million rows in a single Excel 2007 worksheet) scrolling around becomes monotonous and tiresome. Simply using the name box allows you to jump quickly from one area to another by using cell references.
5. کلاس اکسل of Pivot Tables -
If you need to summarise large volumes of data quickly, Pivot Tables prove just how powerful Excel really is. Begin by highlighting an area you want to summarise, go to the 'Insert ribbon/toolbar' and click on 'Pivot Table'. A panel appears on the left hand side and you can use this to drag the items you want into the areas you want.
6. Insert multiple rows -
To insert multiple rows into a spreadsheet, highlight the number of rows you want to insert, choose the 'Insert Rows' option and Excel will do the rest with the rows you have highlighted
7. It's a wrap -
If you press the Alt and Enter keys on the keyboard while you are typing, it will automatically turn on the wrap text feature to fit it in a cell without having to manually adjust the width of the cell and spoil any previous formatting of your worksheet.
8. It's all a logical function -
if you want to check whether two cells, at, for example, B12 and D12, (containing numbers or text), equal each other, the formula for this is a very simple = B12= D12. If B12 equals D12, the returned value is either TRUE or FALSE and it can help save you time checking a column of data. Similarly, =B12>D12 checks whether B12 is greater than D12, =B12D12 not equal to.
9. Only three clicks to chart your success -
charts are easier than before in Excel 2007, allowing you to perfectly illustrate your data. All you do is highlight the relevant column, or, by using the Ctrl button, multiple columns, click on the 'Insert ribbon/toolbar', then click on the required chart and finally click on the various parts of the chart where you want to alter labels.
Below you can see ten tips we have put together to get you on your way. They are most applicable to Microsoft Excel 2007 however most can be used in earlier versions of Excel.
1. Cut the ribbon -
Excel 2007, in common with the other programmes in the Office 2007 suite, makes use of the 'Ribbon', a horizontal bar replacing the menus and toolbars found in earlier versions. However, users requiring more room to work on their spreadsheet may wish to hide the ribbon. To do this, simply double-click on one of the ribbon tabs - perhaps Home, Insert, or Page Layout - and press the CTRL + F1 keys on the keyboard. Only the tabs will be left showing above your spreadsheet. You can reverse the procedure when required.
2. Print just one row -
Sometimes you may have the requirement to print just one or two rows of a spreadsheet. Highlight the data to be printed, open the 'Print' dialogue box, select the option and press 'OK'.
3. Create a chart -
This is much easier that you might think! Simply highlight all the data (including headings) and press the F11 button on your keyboard. A default chart will then be created on a separate sheet in your 'workbook'.
4. Name that box -
It is certainly easy to use the scroll bars or even your mouse to move around a small Excel worksheet. However, for larger ones (and there can be over 16,000 columns and, unbelievably, more than one million rows in a single Excel 2007 worksheet) scrolling around becomes monotonous and tiresome. Simply using the name box allows you to jump quickly from one area to another by using cell references.
5. کلاس اکسل of Pivot Tables -
If you need to summarise large volumes of data quickly, Pivot Tables prove just how powerful Excel really is. Begin by highlighting an area you want to summarise, go to the 'Insert ribbon/toolbar' and click on 'Pivot Table'. A panel appears on the left hand side and you can use this to drag the items you want into the areas you want.
6. Insert multiple rows -
To insert multiple rows into a spreadsheet, highlight the number of rows you want to insert, choose the 'Insert Rows' option and Excel will do the rest with the rows you have highlighted
7. It's a wrap -
If you press the Alt and Enter keys on the keyboard while you are typing, it will automatically turn on the wrap text feature to fit it in a cell without having to manually adjust the width of the cell and spoil any previous formatting of your worksheet.
8. It's all a logical function -
if you want to check whether two cells, at, for example, B12 and D12, (containing numbers or text), equal each other, the formula for this is a very simple = B12= D12. If B12 equals D12, the returned value is either TRUE or FALSE and it can help save you time checking a column of data. Similarly, =B12>D12 checks whether B12 is greater than D12, =B12D12 not equal to.
9. Only three clicks to chart your success -
charts are easier than before in Excel 2007, allowing you to perfectly illustrate your data. All you do is highlight the relevant column, or, by using the Ctrl button, multiple columns, click on the 'Insert ribbon/toolbar', then click on the required chart and finally click on the various parts of the chart where you want to alter labels.
