Excel 2017 Reference Guide
Section: Excel Basics Tutorial: Excel Made Easy Excel Made Easy - A Beginner's Guide Author: Greetings! In this tutorial, you'll learn about workbooks and the different parts of an Excel worksheet (spreadsheet), such as rows, columns, and cells. We'll discuss how to insert rows and columns, and how to move around in a worksheet. We'll also learn how to enter data into cells, move and copy data, propagate cell contents, and more. We'll tell you everything you need to know to get started using Microsoft Excel.
We encourage you to open the Excel program and take the steps we outline below in your own worksheet. The Excel Worksheet (Spreadsheet) and Workbook An Excel worksheet, or spreadsheet, is a two-dimensional grid with columns and rows. Look at the spreadsheet below.
The column names are letters of the alphabet starting with A, and the rows are numbered chronologically starting with the number one. The cells in the first row are A1, B1, C1, and so on. And the cells in the first column are A1, A2, A3, and so on.
These are called cell names or cell references. We use cell references when creating math formulas or functions. For example, the formula to add the contents of cells B2 and B3 together is: =B2+B3. Structure of a Microsoft Excel Worksheet (Spreadsheet). The Name Box is located in the area above Column A, and displays the cell reference of the selected cell - the cell where the cursor is resting. In our spreadsheet above, the selected cell is C2.
Notice that the column letter (C) and the row number (2) change color. The beginning of the Formula Bar can be seen in the area above Column D on our worksheet. The Formula Bar displays the contents of the selected cell. A workbook is a collection of worksheets or spreadsheets. When the Excel program is opened, a workbook opens with three blank worksheets. The names of the worksheets are displayed on tabs at the bottom of the Excel window. For more information, see our separate tutorial.
How to Move From Cell to Cell The arrow keys can be used to move left, right, up, and down from the current cell. Press the Enter key to move to the cell immediately below the current cell, and press the Tab key to move one cell to the right. How to Select Cells There are a variety of ways to select cells in an Excel spreadsheet:. To select one cell, click in the cell. To select one or more rows of cells, click on the row number(s). To select one or more columns of cells, click on the column letter(s). To select a group of contiguous cells, click in a corner cell and, with the left mouse button depressed, drag the cursor horizontally and/or vertically until all of the cells you want selected are outlined in black.
To select multiple cells that are not contiguous, press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking in the desired cells. To select every cell in the worksheet, click in the upper right corner of the worksheet to the left of 'A.' To enter data into a cell, just click in the cell and begin typing. What you type also displays in the Formula Bar.
When entering dates, Excel defaults to the current year if the year portion of the date is not entered. You may edit cell contents from the Formula bar, or from directly inside the cell. To edit from the Formula Bar, select the cell and click inside the Formula Bar. When done typing, either press the Enter key or click inside another cell. To edit directly inside a cell, either double click inside the cell, or select the cell and press the F2 key. Each cell has a specific format. In Excel, a cell's format tells Excel how to display the contents of the cell.
A cell's format may be different than the cell contents. For example, you may have entered 8.9521 in a cell. But if the cell was formatted to display only two decimal places, Excel will display 8.95 in that worksheet cell.
However, Excel will still use the real cell value that you entered, 8.9521 when performing calculations that involve that cell. For more information, see our separate tutorial on. How to Propagate Cell Contents There are multiple ways to propagate or fill data from one cell to adjacent cells.
Let's begin with two popular that allow us to fill down, or fill to the right:. To fill adjacent cells with the contents of the cell above, select the cell with the data and the cells to be filled and press Ctrl + D (the Ctrl key and the D key) to fill down. To fill adjacent cells with the contents of the cell to the left, select the cell with the data and cells to be filled and press Ctrl + R (the Ctrl key and the R key) to fill to the right. To propagate in any direction, use the Fill Handle. Click in a cell with data to be copied, hover the cursor over the cell's lower right corner until the cursor changes to a thin plus sign (+) or a dark square, and drag up, down, left, or right to fill the cells. Excel's Fill Handle is powerful; see our.
If the data to be copied is a date, number, time period, or a custom-made series, the data will be incremented by one instead of just copied when the Fill Handle is used. For example, to display the months of the year in column A, type January in cell A1, drag the Fill Handle down to cell A12, and the months will display, in order, in column A! How to Move and Copy Cell Contents To move cell contents, right-click in the selected cell and click Cut; then right-click in the new location and click Paste. Similarly, to copy cell contents, right-click in the selected cell and select Copy, and paste in the new cell. You can copy the contents of a cell as described above, but paste and fill multiple adjacent cells. Just highlight the block of cells you want to paste in: click and hold the left mouse button in one corner of the cell range. Still holding the mouse button down, swipe the cursor over to the opposite corner until just the cells you want filled are highlighted.
Then right-click and click Paste. To remove the animated border around the original cell, press the ESC key, or start typing in a new cell. How to Add and Delete Rows and Columns To insert a new row in a spreadsheet, right-click on a row number, and click Insert. Excel always inserts the row ABOVE the row that was clicked on. If you want to continue inserting rows, press the F4 key to insert each additional row.
To delete a row, right-click on the row number, and click Delete. Contiguous rows can be deleted by highlighting them before clicking Delete. And non-contiguous rows can be selected by pressing and holding the CTRL key before clicking Delete. Don't press the Delete key on the keyboard unless you just want to delete the cell contents and not the actual row. To insert a new column, right-click on a column letter and click Insert. Excel always inserts the column to the LEFT of the column that was clicked on.
As with rows, if you want to add additional columns after inserting the first column, press the F4 key. To delete a column, right-click on the column letter, and click Delete. Contiguous columns can be deleted by highlighting them before clicking Delete.
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And non-contiguous columns can be selected by pressing and holding the CTRL key. Don't press the Delete key on the keyboard unless you just want to delete the cell contents and not the actual column. How to Lock Cells and Protect a Spreadsheet There are two steps to preventing important cell content from being accidentally overwritten or deleted. First, the cell must be locked. Second, the worksheet must be protected. If you have any valuable data or complex formulas that you do not want to lose, and data DOES get accidentally erased(!), then you owe it to yourself to learn which cells to lock and which worksheet protection options to take. We provide detailed instructions in our separate tutorial,.
We have a wide variety of beginner tutorials for the Excel user - see Related Tutorials on the sidebar. We also have. If you ever see ##### in a cell, don't panic.
It's just Excel's way of telling you that you need to make the column wider for the cell contents to display. To make the column wider, place the cursor on the right side of the column heading and drag the column edge to the right until the data displays.
We hope you've enjoyed our Beginners Guide to Microsoft Excel tutorial.
Top 10 Best Excel Books – In this age of internet, people rarely rely on books to find out the answers or learn a new skill or two. They have an internet connection and their best friend “Google” and every answer they need, they would get within a few seconds of wait. Sounds fascinating, isn’t it? Then why should someone consult books in the first place? Is something people learn by searching in the Google. But if you want to make your learning comprehensive, internet won’t be able to help you always. There would be something or the other missing from your open/free courses that you would only find in books.
That doesn’t mean we’re recommending you to not join in the courses that you find useful. We are only saying that if you keep these 10 books as your supporting allies, you will learn much better. So, want to know the 10 best books on excel?
We will give a review and the best takeaway from each book and also the details of the book. This is one of the most revered books on excel in recent times. Let’s have a look at the brief review and the best takeaways from the book. Book Review There are several excel books in the market which promise to be an ally to students and teachers, however, they turn out to be a complete waste of time at the first place. But this book is one of the most sought after books on excel and people from all walks of life have recommended this book to everyone, whoever wants to learn excel at a deeper level. This particular book is used as a tool for advanced excel for top level MBA programs as well as for people who love learning by themselves.
Very detailed and the research in the book is commendable. Takeaways from this Best Excel Book If you’re a sincere student of excel, you will get a lot out of this book. Here are the best takeaways from the book –. By using this top excel book, you would be able to create functional spread-sheets that you would be able to use in every minor to major thing possible. You would be able to make charts and integrate graphics into your content or report to improve visibility and influence. You would also be able to visualize data using conditional formatting and use advanced features in excel.
Lastly, by using this book, you would be able to make the most of add-ins in your excel spread-sheets. #2 – Excel: Quick Start Guide from Beginner to Expert (Excel, Microsoft Office) by William Fischer This top excel book is equally comprehensive as the name suggests but the most important part of this book is its price. It’s much cheaper than any comprehensive book on excel. Book Review Let’s say that it’s your first job and you need a reference guide which will aid you in learning the basic excel formulas to advanced concepts, what should you do? You should pick up this book and follow the instruction, and you would learn almost everything that you need to learn to earn professional proficiency. From charts to data modelling, from pivot models to dashboard design, you will learn almost everything and even when you’re going for any core domains like data scientist, this book would greatly help you as reference guide. Best takeaways from this Top Excel Book Compared to the price you need to pay to buy this book, you can call it a no-nonsense guide to learn excel (from basics to advanced).
Let’s find out the best takeaways of the book –. This excel book is for everybody. If you’re a beginner, you can refer this book. And even if you’re an expert in excel, you will still learn something from the book. So it’s a comprehensive book and can be used as a great reference for all your professional and personal requirements.
The examples used in this book are easy and straightforward which makes learning easier. The short-cut keys mentioned in the book are very useful and will save you a ton of time. #3 – Excel 2016 for Dummies (Excel for Dummies) by Greg Harvey Dummies books are always un-put-down-able. Once you decide to learn something new, you can pick up a book on dummies and you will learn a ton. This book on excel is no different.
Book Review Like other two top excel books mentioned above, this book is also equally comprehensive. If you want to create beautiful charts and any kind of tables in excel, this book will teach a great deal. This according to the readers is a great addition to the dummies series. Best takeaways from this Best Excel Book You will learn a lot from this book.
Here are the best takeaways –. No matter where you are at this moment, this book will get you started. You will get to learn to create worksheets, use formulas, integrate graphs, learn formatting and more as you go along with the book. You will also be able to make changes in data, learn about transferring data between different workbooks, organize any sort of information and create chart. This is a great guide even if you hate learning excel. This is so comprehensive and easy to learn that you can take one sip at a time and learn as much as you need.
#4 – Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User’s Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Excel 2010-2016 by Rob Collie and Avichal Singh As the title suggests, this book is for people who need excel for four things – Power Query, Power BI, DAX and Powerpivot. Let’s look at the review of the book and the best takeaways.
Book Review This best excel book is a masterpiece. People who need Power Pivot for their professional requirement revere this book as one and only reference guide.
Back in 2012, the edition was almost full proof. In this edition, it has been refined more and now it’s the perfect guide for professionals and students. It’s formatted beautifully and very easy to use. If you want to know any of these core areas in depth, this is a must have in your shelf. Best takeaways from this Top Excel Book This advanced excel book is not for beginners; so if you’re a beginner it’s better that you try out any one of the above three before picking up this book. This book will assume that you have enough knowledge in the basic pivot tables, relationships and databases and then it will teach you how you can get started with DAX and Power Pivot. The writing style is very lucid and people from all walks of life would greatly benefit from this book.
#5 – Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals, (MISL-WILEY) by K. Scott Proctor Coming to the financial modelling, it’s complex and for professionals who need to know advanced excel at much more deeper level. Let’s look at the review and the best takeaways. Book Review If you’re new to and don’t have a clue where to start, pick up this book and dive in. This book will help you build financial models from scratch. Many finance professionals are acquainted with financial modelling, but very few are familiar with consolidated and projections.
This book will help you build that skill. This book will also come with a CD which will help you save the effort and time to go online and download the sheets and workbooks.
The only possible flaw is this book is little old (for 2007 excel), but most of the methods mentioned here work similarly in the recent versions of excel. Takeaways from this Best Excel Book. It will teach you how you can build financial models from scratch even when you’re a beginner. You will learn how to integrate many financial statements like cash flow statement, balance sheet and income statement into one.
It will also teach you how you can present the. #6 – Predictive Analytics: Microsoft Excel by Conrad Carlberg This book is different in context and covers mostly practical problems. Let’s have a glance at the reviews and best takeaways. Book Review This advanced excel book is not for beginners. This is for people who already have some sort of experience in excel should go for this book.
This book is about predictive analytics and how you can solve practical problems in marketing, finance and in other domains by using excel. You will build skills which will help you reduce costs, improve productivity, enhance revenues and build momentum in your business or professional activities.
You will also get a collection of downloadable excel workbooks plus VBA code. Takeaways from this Best Excel Book. You will learn to use data to make better tactical decisions. You will find out the right analytics techniques for each real life problem. You will learn to use excel to solve real life problems. You will learn about managing huge variables and datasets. #7 – Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts (WILEY) by Michael Alexander, Jared Decker & Bernard Wehbe Every business is always looking for a competitive advantage.
Business Intelligence can be yours if you pick up this book and apply its principles. Let’s have a look at the review and the best takeaways.
Book Review This best excel advanced book is particularly useful for business analysts because business intelligence is their domain of work. But that doesn’t mean you as a business owner can get access to this incredible book.
This book is not for beginners. To pick up this book, you at least need a basic overview of excel functions and formulas. This book will teach you to be more efficient with Microsoft Business Intelligence tools like Power Pivot, Power Query & Power View. Best takeaways from this Advanced Excel Book.
This is the best excel book you can find on linking files and extracting clear and solid summaries. Business analysts need to understand the pattern to make an informed decision. This book will teach them how to bring all the files together within few hours. It’s for people who are at advanced level in excel, but it’s very lucid and easy to understand. #8 – Excel Macros For Dummies by Michael Alexandar This one again is from Dummies. Dummies series always stand out.
This one does too. Have a look at the review and best takeaways.
Excel 2017 Quick Reference Guide
Book Review This is one of most sought after excel macro books in recent times. Once you finish up this book, you would be able to implement and use over 70 macros and save time and become more productive as a result. You will also learn how to use macros and how you can customize them.
Excel 2016 Reference Guide
Best takeaways from this Excel Book. You will learn Macros 101.
You will get to know how macros are used; understand VBA and VBE (Visual Basic Editor). You will get a workbook workshop that will teach you how you can automate tasks using macros. You will learn how macros help you navigate spread-sheets and scrub, shape and manipulate data. You will also learn how macros can help you automate pivot table and chart tasks. Best takeaways from this Excel Book Best takeaways: You will learn everything in excel, step by step. Moreover, along with this book, you will get a vault of 60 articles with video demonstrations and downloadable exercises which will give you practical ways to learn excel.
#10 – Excel Charts by John Walkenbach This book is for mastering excel-charts. Let’s see the review and best takeaways.
Book Review Most of the professionals use Excel for making calculations and as business tools for making solid decisions. But this book concentrates on visual representations of data. You would learn to select the right charts for appropriate visual representations, to modify the data in the charts and to give a professional appearance. But this book is not for newbies. You need to know Excel at foundational level to be able to justify the content of this book. Best takeaways from this Excel Book. You will be able to create high impact charts for business as well as for educational purpose.
You will learn to customize charts with graphics, shapes and pictures. You will also learn to use interactive charts. You will learn to use VBA to create and modify charts.
These 10 books will help you become the master of excel. If you pick up all 10 and decide to study and apply all that you learn, soon enough, you will become an authority in Microsoft Excel. Amazon Associate Disclosure WallStreetMojo is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.