Most users of Windows-based computer systems with the installed Microsoft Office suite certainly came across MS Excel. For beginning users, the program causes some difficulties in mastering, nevertheless, working in Excel with formulas and tables is not so complicated as it might seem at first glance if you know the basic principles laid down in the application.
What is Excel?
Essentially, Excel is a complete mathematical machine for performing many arithmetic, algebraic, trigonometric and other more complex operations, using several basic data types that are not always related to mathematics.
Working with Excel tables means using more advanced features with a combination of calculations, plain text, and multimedia. But in its original form, the program was created precisely as a powerful mathematical editor. Some, however, at first take the application for some kind of calculator with advanced features. The deepest error!
Work in Excel with tables for beginners: the first acquaintance with the interface
First of all, after opening the program, the user sees the main window, in which there are basic controls and tools for work. In later versions, when the application starts, a window appears in which it is proposed to create a new file, by default called "Book 1" or to select a template for further actions.
Working with Excel tables for beginners at the first stage of getting to know the program should be reduced to creating an empty table. For now, consider the basic elements.
The main field is occupied by the table itself, which is divided into cells. Each one is numbered, due to the two-dimensional coordinates - the row number and letter designation of the column (for example, take Excel 2016). This numbering is necessary so that in the dependency formula it is possible to clearly define exactly that cell with data, the operation on which will be performed.
Above, as in other office applications, there is a panel of the main menu, and a little lower - a toolbox. Under it there is a special line in which formulas are entered, and a little to the left you can see a window with the coordinates of the currently active cell (on which the rectangle is located). Below is a panel of sheets and a slider for horizontal movement, and below it are buttons for switching views and scaling. On the right is a vertical bar to move up / down the sheet.
Basic types of data entry and simple operations
At first, it is assumed that work in Excel with tables by a novice user will be mastered by operations familiar to him, for example, in the same Word text editor.
As usual, in the table you can perform operations of copying, cutting or pasting data, enter text or numerical data.
But the input is slightly different from that produced in text editors. The fact is that the program is initially configured to automatically recognize what the user prescribes in the active cell. For example, if you enter the line 1/2/2016, the data will be recognized as a date, and in the cell instead of the entered numbers, the date will appear in a simplified form - 02/01/2016. Changing the display format can be quite simple (we will dwell on this later).
This is exactly the case with numbers. You can enter any numerical data, even with an arbitrary number of decimal places, and they will be displayed in the form in which everyone is used to seeing them. But, if you enter an integer, it will be represented without the mantissa (decimal places in the form of zeros). You can also change this.
But at the end of data entry, many novice users try to move to the next cell using the keyboard arrows for this (similar to how this can be done in Word tables). And it does not work. Why? Yes, only because working with Excel tables differs from the Word text editor quite noticeably. The transition can be carried out by pressing the Enter key or by setting the active rectangle to another cell with the left mouse click. If after writing something in the active cell, press the Esc key, the input will be canceled.
Sheet Actions
Work with sheets at first should not cause difficulties. On the bottom panel there is a special button for adding sheets, after clicking on which a new table will appear with automatic transition to it and assigning a name ("Sheet 1", "Sheet 2", etc.).
Double-click to activate the renaming of any of them. You can also use the right-click menu to call up an additional menu in which there are several basic commands.
Cell formats
Now the most important thing is that the cell format is one of the basic concepts that defines the type of data that will be used to recognize its contents. You can call the format editing through the right-click menu, where the corresponding line is selected, or by pressing the F2 key.
The window on the left shows all the available formats, and the right shows options for displaying data. If you look at the example with the date shown above, “Date” is selected as the format, and the desired view is set on the right (for example, February 1, 2016).
For carrying out mathematical operations, you can use several formats, but in the simplest case, choose a numerical one. On the right there are several types of input, a pointer to the number of characters in the mantissa after the decimal point and the setting field for the separator of the group of digits. Using other numerical formats (exponential, fractional, monetary, etc.), you can also set the desired parameters.
By default, a common format is set for automatic data recognition. But when you enter text or several letters, the program can transform it spontaneously into something else. Therefore, to enter text for the active cell, you must set the appropriate parameter.
Working at Excel with formulas (tables): an example
Finally, a few words about the formulas. And for starters, consider an example of the sum of two numbers in cells A1 and A2. The application has a button for automatic summation with some additional functions (calculation of arithmetic mean, maximum, minimum, etc.). It is enough to set the active cell located in the same column below, and when you select the amount, it will be calculated automatically. The same thing works for horizontally located values, but the active cell for the sum must be set to the right.
But you can enter the formula manually (working with Excel tables also presupposes such an opportunity when an automatic action is not provided). For the same amount, you should put an equal sign in the formula bar and write the operation in the form A1 + A2 or SUM (A1; A2), and if you need to specify the range of cells, use this type after the equal sign: (A1: A20), after which the sum of all numbers in the cells from the first to the twentieth inclusive is calculated.
Graphing and charting
Working with Excel tables is also interesting because it involves the use of a special automated tool for plotting dependency graphs and diagrams based on selected ranges.
To do this, there is a special button on the panel, after clicking on which you can select any parameters or the desired view. After that, the chart or graph will be displayed on the sheet as a picture.
Cross-connections, data import and export
In the program, you can also establish relationships between data located on different sheets, use cross-references to files of a different format or objects located on servers on the Internet, and many other add-ons.
In addition, Excel files can be exported to other formats (for example, PDF), copy data from them, etc. But the program itself can open files created in other applications (text formats, databases, web pages, XML- documents, etc.).
As you can see, the possibilities of the editor are almost unlimited. And, of course, there is simply not enough time to describe them all. Only the basics are given here, but the interested user will have to read the help information in order to master the program at the highest level.