Introduction to Excel

1. Introduction to Excel

Hi, I'm Jess, and I will be your instructor for this introduction to Excel course. We'll cover the basics of Excel and have you supercharging your data analysis before you know it.

2. What is Excel?

You've likely heard of Excel, a popular spreadsheet software by Microsoft that allows us to insert, read, and manipulate data in rows and columns. It's widely used in businesses of all sizes and even for personal tasks like family budgeting. Excel offers a free cloud-based version with limited features as part of Microsoft 365, which can suffice for basic tasks. However, for this course, we'll use the paid version with advanced capabilities.

3. Why Excel?

Excel is used for storing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing data. It's designed for both technical and non-technical users with a user-friendly interface that may seem daunting at first due to its many features. It's popular for its collaboration tools, like shared workbooks, co-authoring, and commenting, which are valuable in business settings. Excel also offers many templates to help you get started.

4. Limitations

An important thing to know about Excel is how much data it can handle. The two main limitations to be aware of are available memory and system resources limits that can happen with opening workbooks. Additionally, a worksheet's total number of rows and columns is limited to just over 1 million rows and 16,500 columns.

5. Excel interface

Many components make up the Excel interface. Throughout this course, you'll become more familiar with these concepts, such as the ribbon, worksheet, and formula bar in later slides.

6. Key definitions

We'll start with workbook, an Excel file containing one or more worksheets to help you organize your data.

7. Key definitions

Next, we'll look at the worksheet, the primary area you'll work in. It can often be referred to as a sheet or a spreadsheet. It consists of cells organized into columns and rows.

8. Key definitions

A cell in Excel is a box that is formed at the intersection of a row and a column. This is where information is contained.

9. Key definitions

Cell reference refers to the combination of a column, letter, and row number that identifies a cell in the worksheet.

10. Key definitions

For example, a cell that appears at the intersection of column C and row four is C4.

11. Key definitions

The active cell refers to the cell that is being worked with. This is identified by a rectangular green box.

12. Key definitions

Next is a range, which refers to two or more cells in a worksheet. These do not necessarily have to be adjacent to each other.

13. Key definitions

You may have also come across the term formulas when talking about Excel. These can be mathematical equations, cell references, or even functions placed within a cell. All formulas must start with an equal sign.

14. Key definitions

Finally, it's great knowing about formulas, but what about where you put them? That would be the formula bar at the top of the worksheet next to the FX label.

15. Let's practice!

Now you've got more familiar with the Excel interface and its key components, let's test your knowledge.

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