Meet Excel’s Ribbon User Interface When you first launch Excel 2010, the program opens up the

first of three new worksheets

(named Sheet1) in a new workbook file (named Book1) inside a program window.

Introduction

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used software applications of all time. Hundreds of millions of people around the
world use Microsoft Excel. You can use Excel to enter all sorts of data and perform financial, mathematical or
statistical calculations.
1 Range: A range in Excel is a collection of two or more cells. This chapter gives an overview of some very important
range operations.
2 Formulas and Functions: A formula is an expression which calculates the value of a cell. Functions are predefined
formulas and are already available in Excel.

Basics
This section explains the basics of Excel.

1 Ribbon: Excel selects the ribbon's Home tab when you open it. Learn how to minimize and customize the ribbon.
2 Workbook: A workbook is another word for your Excel file. Excel automatically creates a blank workbook when
you open it.
3 Worksheets: A worksheet is a collection of cells where you keep and manipulate the data. By default, each Excel
workbook contains three worksheets.
4 Format Cells: When we format cells in Excel, we change the appearance of a number without changing the number
itself.
5 Find & Select: Learn how to use Excel's Find, Replace and Go To Special feature.
6 Templates: Instead of creating an Excel workbook from scratch, you can create a workbook based on a template.
There are many free templates available, waiting to be used.
7 Data Validation: Use data validation in Excel to make sure that users enter certain values into a cell.
8 Keyboard Shortcuts: Keyboard shortcuts allow you to do things with your keyboard instead of your mouse to
increase your speed.
9 Print: This chapter teaches you how to print a worksheet and how to change some important print settings in
Excel.
10 Share: Learn how to share Excel data with Word documents and other files.
11 Protect: Encrypt an Excel file with a password so that it requires a password to open it.

Functions
Discover how functions in Excel help you save time. If you are new to functions in Excel, we recommend you to
read our introduction to Formulas and Functions first.

1 Count and Sum: The most used functions in Excel are the functions that count and sum. You can count and sum
based on one criteria or multiple criteria.
2 Logical: Learn how to use Excel's logical functions such as the IF, AND and OR function.
3 Cell References: Cell references in Excel are very important. Understand the difference between relative, absolute
and mixed reference, and you are on your way to success.
4 Date & Time: To enter a date in Excel, use the "/" or "-" characters. To enter a time, use the ":" (colon). You can
also enter a date and a time in one cell.
5 Text: Excel has many functions to offer when it comes to manipulating text strings.
6 Lookup & Reference: Learn all about Excel's lookup & reference functions such as the VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP,
MATCH, INDEX and CHOOSE function.
7 Financial: This chapter illustrates Excel's most popular financial functions.
8 Statistical: An overview of some very useful statistical functions in Excel.
9 Round: This chapter illustrates three functions to round numbers in Excel. The ROUND, ROUNDUP and
ROUNDDOWN function.
10 Formula Errors: This chapter teaches you how to deal with some common formula errors in Excel.
11 Array Formulas: This chapter helps you understand array formulas in Excel. Single cell array formulas perform
multiple calculations in one cell.

Data Analysis
This section illustrates the powerful features Excel has to offer to analyze data.

1 Sort: You can sort your Excel data on one column or multiple columns. You can sort in ascending or descending
order.
2 Filter: Filter your Excel data if you only want to display records that meet certain criteria.
3 Conditonal Formatting: Conditional formatting in Excel enables you to highlight cells with a certain color,
depending on the cell's value.
4 Charts: A simple Excel chart can say more than a sheet full of numbers. As you'll see, creating charts is very easy.
5 Pivot Tables: Pivot tables are one of Excel's most powerful features. A pivot table allows you to extract the
significance from a large, detailed data set.
6 Tables: Tables allow you to analyze your data in Excel quickly and easily.
7 What-If Analysis: What-If Analysis in Excel allows you to try out different values (scenarios) for formulas.
8 Solver: Excel includes a tool called solver that uses techniques from the operations research to find optimal
solutions for all kind of decision problems.
9 Analysis ToolPak: The Analysis ToolPak is an Excel add-in program that provides data analysis tools for financial,
statistical and engineering data analysis.

The Excel program window containing this worksheet of the workbook is made up of the following components:
✦File menu: When clicked, this button opens the new Backstage View containing a bunch of file-related options
including Info, Save, Save As, Open, Close, Recent, New, Print, Share, and Exit as well as the Excel Options button
that enables you to change Excel’s default settings.

✦Quick Access toolbar: You can click the Save, Undo, and Redo buttons to perform common tasks to save your
work and undo and redo editing changes. You can also click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button to the
immediate right of the Redo button to open a drop-down menu containing additional common commands such
New, Open, Quick Print, and so on, as well as to customize the toolbar, change its position, and minimize the
Ribbon.

✦Ribbon: Most Excel commands are contained in the Ribbon. They are arranged into a series of tabs ranging from
Home through View.

✦Formula bar: This displays the address of the current cell along with the contents of that cell.

✦Worksheet area: This area contains all the cells of the current worksheet identified by column headings, using
letters along the top, and row headings, using numbers along the left edge, with tabs for selecting new
worksheets. You use a horizontal scroll bar on the bottom to move left and right through the sheet and a vertical
scroll bar on the right edge to move up and down through the sheet.

✦Status bar: This bar keeps you informed of the program’s current mode and any special keys you engage, and
enables you to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.

✦Protect Workbook to encrypt the Excel workbook file with a password, protect its contents, or verify the
contents of the file with a digital signature.

✦Check for Issues to inspect the document for hidden metadata (data about the file) and check the file’s
accessibility for folks with disabilities and compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.

✦Manage Versions to recover or delete draft versions saved with Excel’s AutoRecover feature.

✦Properties lists the Size of the file as well as any Title, Tags, and Categories (to help identify the file when doing
a search for the workbook) assigned to it. To edit or add to this list of properties, click the Properties drop-down
button and then select Edit Properties in Document, Advanced Properties, or Customize Properties on its
dropdown menu.
✦Related Dates lists the date the file was Last Modified, Created, and Printed. To edit or add to this list of dates,
click the Related Dates dropdown button and then select Add a Related Date or Customize Dates on its drop-down
menu.

✦Related People lists the name of the workbook’s author as well as the name of the person who last modified the
file. To edit or add to this list of people, click the Related People drop-down button and then select Add a Related
Person or Customize People on its drop-down menu.

The Ribbon is made up of the following components:

✦Tabs: Excel’s main tasks are brought together and display all the commands commonly needed to perform that
core task.

✦Groups: Related command buttons can be organized into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab’s larger
core task.
✦Command buttons: Within each group you find command buttons that you can select to perform a particular
action or to open a gallery. Note that many command buttons on certain tabs of the Excel Ribbon are organized into
mini-toolbars with related settings.

✦Dialog Box launcher: This button is located in the lower-right corner of certain groups and opens a dialog box
containing a bunch of additional options you can select.

To get more of the Worksheet area displayed in the program window, you can minimize the Ribbon so that only
its tabs are displayed. You can minimize the Ribbon by doing any of the following:

✦Click the Minimize the Ribbon button (the first button with the caret symbol in the bank of buttons to the right,
opposite the last Ribbon tab).

✦Double-click a Ribbon tab.

✦Press Ctrl+F1

Keeping tabs on the Excel Ribbon The very first time you launch Excel 2010, its Ribbon contains the following
seven tabs, proceeding from left to right:

✦Home: Use this tab when creating, formatting, and editing a spreadsheet. This tab is arranged into the
Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles, Cells, and Editing groups.

✦Insert: Use this when adding particular elements (including graphics, PivotTables, charts, hyperlinks, and
headers and footers) to a spreadsheet. This tab is arranged into the Tables, Illustrations, Sparklines, Filter, Charts,
Links, and Text groups.

✦Page Layout: Use this tab when preparing a spreadsheet for printing or reordering graphics on the sheet. This
tab is arranged into the Themes, Page Setup, Scale to Fit, Sheet Options, and Arrange groups.

✦Formulas: Use this tab when adding formulas and functions to a spreadsheet or checking a worksheet for
formula errors. This tab is arranged into the Function Library, Defined Names, Formula Auditing, and Calculation
groups. Note that this tab also contains a Solutions group when you activate certain add-in programs, such as
Conditional Sum and Euro Currency Tools — see Book I, Chapter 3 for more on Excel add-ins.

✦Data: Use this tab when importing, querying, outlining, and subtotaling the data placed into a worksheet’s data
list. This tab is arranged into the Get External Data, Connections, Sort & Filter, Data Tools, and Outline groups.
Note that this tab also contains an Analysis group if you activate add-ins, such as the Analysis Toolpak and Solver
Add-In — see Book I, Chapter 3 for more on Excel add-ins.

✦Review: Use this tab when proofing, protecting, and marking up a spreadsheet for review by others. This tab is
arranged into the Proofing, Language, Comments, and Changes groups. Note that this tab also contains an Ink
group with a sole Start Inking button if you’re running Office 2010 on a Tablet PC or on a computer equipped with
some sort of electronic input tablet.

✦View: Use this tab when changing the display of the Worksheet area and the data it contains. This tab is
arranged into the Workbook Views, Show, Zoom, Window, and Macros groups.

Adjusting to the Quick Access toolbar When you first begin using Excel 2010, the Quick Access toolbar contains
only the following three buttons:
✦Save: Saves any changes made to the current workbook using the same filename, file format, and location.

✦Undo: Undoes the last editing, formatting, or layout change you made.

✦Redo: Reapplies the previous editing, formatting, or layout change that you just removed with the Undo button.

Fooling around with the Formula bar The Formula bar displays the cell address and the contents of the current
cell. The address of this cell is determined by its column letter(s) followed immediately by the row number, as in
cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1, or cell XFD1048576, the
very last of each Excel 2010 worksheet at the intersection of column XFD and row 1048576. The contents of the
current cell are determined by the type of entry you make there: text or numbers, if you just enter a heading or
particular value, and the nuts and bolts of a formula, if you enter a calculation there.

The Formula bar is divided into three sections:

✦Name box: The left-most section displays the address of the current cell address.

✦Formula bar buttons: The second, middle section appears as a rather nondescript button displaying only an
indented circle on the left (used to narrow or widen the Name box) with the Insert Function button (labeled fx) on
the right until you start making or editing a cell entry. At that time, its Cancel (an X) and its Enter (a check mark)
buttons appear in between them.

✦Cell contents: The third white area to the immediate right of the Function Wizard button takes up the rest of the
bar and expands as necessary to display really, really long cell entries that won’t fit in the normal area.

Programming Macros in Excel

In this first section you will learn how easy it is to record macros with the Macro Recorder and to create other
macros of your own in the Visual Basic Editor. You will discover that:

- the Macro Recorder is not only a recorder but it is the best teacher and it will be a great assistant (writing code
for you) even when you become an expert at programming in VBA.

- the Visual Basic Editor is the most user friendly development environment that tells you immediately if there
are mistakes in your sentences so that you do not have to wait at the end of your project to realize that something
that you have written is wrong.

- in the Visual Basic Editor you will create these powerful and useful user forms

- in the Visual Basic editor you will test your macros step by step, modify them and improve them.

THE END