Happy Election Day!

Today, I am excited to share my first post with content.  This post is entitled “The Basics” because I hope to explore the tools from a high level and give a few tips of the trade that one must know before diving into more complicated techniques.  I will define the general terms and default layout of Microsoft Excel and then give you some of my tips and frustrations that I encountered along the way.

Refer to the red numbers in the screenshot above to follow along with the definitions.  Keep in mind that Excel is updated each year, but the aesthetics of these functions generally remain similar.

1. Workbook – An Excel file that holds any amount of worksheets. This is basically the equivalent of a new document in Word and will be the default name on any computer.
2. Worksheet – The area of entering and working with data made up of columns and rows separated by gridlines. This is also commonly called a spreadsheet. Each worksheet will appear as a separate tab at the bottom of the document and makes up a single workbook.
3. Cell – An intersection of a column and a row on a worksheet. You enter data into cells to create fill a worksheet with any kind of content. This is the basic unit of Excel that in which you will always work.
4. Active cell – This contains the cell pointer indicated by the dark border. You can only edit information in this cell and can move around with arrow keys, return/enter, or the tab button.
5. Formula bar – When you enter data into your active cell, this bar appears and is located above the worksheet. Formulas, equations, and functions to manipulate your data will be entered here.
6. Cell reference – The location of an active cell in a worksheet as identified by its column letter and row number. This is also known as the cell’s address and is always located in the top left…You can easily navigate to a spot on the worksheet with this.
7. Scroll – With bars to the right and on the bottom, Excel gives you a way to view locations on the worksheet without changing the active cell. In this version on a Mac, Excel only shows these after you start scrolling per usual.
8. Sheet tabs – These are tabs that appear at the bottom of the workbook window, which display the name of each worksheet. By right clicking on these tabs, you can copy, delete, rename, and change the worksheets in other ways.
9. Formula – This is the basic instruction that Excel uses to calculate a number. To begin a formula or function, you have to start the cell’s contents with an equals sign (=).
10. Range – The range is essentially a block of cells in a worksheet. When you select any range of cells by highlighting them, you can edit and/or format them at the same time.
11. Theme – A collection of fonts, colors, and effects for that can quickly be applied to all sheets in a workbook.
12. Fill – This is the name for the color that fills a cell, appearing behind the data. There are a variety of different fill styles that automatically help with the organization of your data, and I have found it to be useful when presenting information to others.
13. Format – This is where you can choose a style that vertically aligns your numerical data is displayed. You can specify accounting, dates, times, and more in this area which saves time that you could have to spend formatting general data.
14. Fill handle – The fill handle is maybe the most important term in the list. Dragging this from the lower-right corner of the active cell will copy the contents, formatting, and/or formula to rest of the cells.
15. Chart – Most relevant to my learning goal, a chart is essentially a graphic that allows you to compare and contrast data in a visual format. By creating organized data, you can select a data series and turn it easily into a variety of charts and graphs with this tab on the upper ribbon.

Any of that overwhelming or confusing?  Yes, maybe, but I understand because I have been there.  The best piece of advice that I can give is quite cliché but true nonetheless.  Practice makes perfect.  Like most things, the more that you work with Excel, the easier it gets.  Not all of the features are intuitive, but most of these basics are – play around with the practice sheet attached at the end of this post, and all of this will make much more sense.

Still, I can offer a few common mistakes to avoid and show you a couple of the maddening triggers that I have discovered thus far.

1. You can only edit one cell at a time, and also remember that the formula bar is for functions and formulas.  Raw data goes into each cell while functions should be submitted in the top section – don’t mix up these areas.
2. Do not try to use merge cells or other types of formatting to make your data sheet look aesthetically pleaseing.  Although these things might be helpful, it could likely compromise Excel’s ability to analyze the data later on, so use the formatting provided in templates if possible.
3. Stay away from any types of blanks.  Although normally leaving something blank indicates a zero, be careful because Excel might misread these blanks and fail to analyze the data correctly.

Good luck!  As always, play around with some raw data on you own and look up tutorials online for more practice and instuction.