What is microsoft word excel used for

Содержание

  1. Сведения о приложениях Office
  2. Microsoft Word
  3. Microsoft Excel
  4. Microsoft PowerPoint
  5. Microsoft OneNote
  6. Microsoft Outlook
  7. Microsoft Publisher
  8. Microsoft Access
  9. Skype для бизнеса
  10. Microsoft InfoPath
  11. Приложения для Windows 10
  12. Office Mobile for iPad/iPhone
  13. Office Mobile for Android
  14. Office Mobile for Windows Phone
  15. Office для Windows 10 Mobile
  16. Доступность функций
  17. What is the Difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel?
  18. Key Difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel
  19. What is Microsoft PowerPoint?
  20. How does PowerPoint work?
  21. What is PowerPoint Used for?
  22. Advantage of Using PowerPoint
  23. Difference between PowerPoint and Word
  24. What is Microsoft Word?
  25. Key differences between PowerPoint and Word
  26. Difference between PowerPoint and Excel
  27. What is Microsoft Excel?
  28. Key differences between PowerPoint and Excel
  29. Using Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel together
  30. Using PowerPoint and Word Together
  31. Using PowerPoint And Excel Together.
  32. Final Thoughts

Сведения о приложениях Office

Майкрософт Office — это мощная служба, которая помогает вам раскрыть свои лучшие идеи, сделать все возможное и оставаться на связи в пути. Просто войдите в систему, чтобы использовать персонализированный интерфейс и все самые современные приложения Office, где постоянно добавляются новые и усовершенствованные функции.

Системные требования, службы с ежемесячной подпиской для коммерческих, образовательных и государственных организаций, см. в статье Требования к системе для Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word — это полнофункциональная программа обработки текстов для операционных систем Windows и Mac. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Word в Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Excel

Майкрософт Excel — это программа для электронных таблиц, которая поддерживает вычисления, графические инструменты, сводные таблицы и язык макропрограммирования для операционных систем Windows и Mac. Дополнительные сведения см. в Excel с Майкрософт 365.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint — это программа для создания презентаций для операционных систем Windows и Mac. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье PowerPoint в Microsoft 365.

Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote — это программа создания произвольных заметок для операционных систем Windows и Mac. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье OneNote.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook — это почтовый клиент для операционных систем Windows и Mac. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Outlook в Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher — это настольная издательская система для операционных систем Windows. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Publisher в Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access — это система управления базами данных для операционных систем Windows. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Access в Microsoft 365.

Skype для бизнеса

Skype для бизнеса — это клиент обмена мгновенными сообщениями и приложение для унифицированных коммуникаций. См. статью Новые возможности Skype для бизнеса Server 2019 г.

Microsoft InfoPath

Майкрософт InfoPath — это программа, которая позволяет разрабатывать, распространять, заполнять и отправлять электронные формы. Вы можете добавить веб-часть формы InfoPath на сайт SharePoint Online. Дополнительные сведения о веб-части формы InfoPath.

Чтобы узнать, как решение PowerApps, пришедшее на смену InfoPath, помогает повысить производительность работы бизнеса в SharePoint без написания программного кода, см. статью Настройка SharePoint с помощью PowerApps.

Приложения для Windows 10

Некоторые приложения Office, такие как Excel и Word, по умолчанию закреплены на начальном экране Windows 10, Windows 8 и Windows 7. Узнайте больше о поиске и запуске приложений Office в Windows.

Office Mobile for iPad/iPhone

Office Mobile для iPad и iPhone включает популярные приложения Office, такие как Word для iPad и iPhone, Excel для iPad и iPhone, а также PowerPoint для iPad и iPhone. Эти приложения можно скачать бесплатно, а при наличии применимых планов можно создавать и редактировать документы на iPad или iPhone. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Настройка приложений Office и Outlook на устройствах с iOS.

Office Mobile for Android

Office Mobile для Android включает ваши любимые приложения Office, такие как Word для Android, Excel для Android и PowerPoint для Android. Приложения можно скачать бесплатно, а с помощью применимых планов можно создавать и редактировать документы на устройствах Android. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Настройка приложений Office и электронной почты в Android.

Office Mobile for Windows Phone

Office Mobile для Windows Телефон включает ваши любимые приложения Office, такие как Word для Windows Phone, Excel для Windows Phone и PowerPoint для Windows Phone. Приложения можно скачать бесплатно, а с помощью применимых планов можно создавать и редактировать документы на Windows Phone. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Настройка приложений Office и электронной почты на Windows Phone.

Office для Windows 10 Mobile

Приложения Office для Windows 10 Mobile оптимизированы для сенсорных экранов и экранов небольшого размера на телефонах и планшетах с Windows 10. Эти приложения можно бесплатно скачать в Магазине Windows. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Получение Office для Windows 10 Mobile.

Доступность функций

Сведения о доступности разных компонентов в разных планах, об автономных и локальных решениях см. в статье Описание службы приложений Office.

Источник

What is the Difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel?

Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel make it possible to do so much with regards to our jobs. The trio has something to offer for almost everyone. But, what exactly is the difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, and what does each piece of software do? Let’s find out!

The main difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel is the purpose of each software. PowerPoint is used for making presentations. Excel is the most helpful for capturing, tracking, and analyzing data with the help of graphical charts. Word is used for creating documents such as reports and books.

But, there is a lot more to it and in this article, I’m going to talk about what each one does, the differences between the three, and finally, how can we leverage the power of the three applications by working with all of them together. So, keep reading!

A Quick Note Before We Begin – if you want to make jaw-dropping presentations, I would recommend using one of these Presentation Designs. The best part is – it is only $16.5 a month, but you get to download and use as many presentation designs as you like! I personally use it from time-to-time, and it makes my task of making beautiful presentations really quick and easy!

Key Difference between PowerPoint, Word, and Excel

Although these three applications can be used in a way that all three work together, there are differences that set them apart. Each application is used for different tasks and in this section, that is what we are going to talk about. So, let’s get into it.

  • PowerPoint is used to present data or talking points in a slide show format. Presentations are a great way to summarize information, a project report, learnings from a research study, and much more. Microsoft PowerPoint helps you to create presentations.
  • Excel is used to manage and organize data. You can capture data, record information over time, and analyze the data by creating charts and graphs using that data.
  • Microsoft Word is used to create detailed reports, brief summaries, proposals, and pretty much anything that requires a lot of text. This is because it is a word processor.

As you can see, each application has a different goal, and thus are designed to be different from each other. Obviously, if the goal or the objective of the software is different, there are bound to be several differences in the functionalities. That said, I shall not focus on the differences in the functionalities of the three applications as pretty much everything will be different.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most powerful tools that any company can use when it comes to meetings and presentations. PowerPoint uses a slide show method of giving presentations.

PowerPoint has a wealth of features that help professionals get their messages across to their colleagues or clients. We have a large library of articles that cover everything that you need to know about PowerPoint. So, after reading this article, why not go check some of them out.

How does PowerPoint work?

To use PowerPoint, you need to have Microsoft Office installed on your PC, laptop, or Mac. Most new machines come with Office pre-installed with no payment necessary. In some cases, you will only have a free trial and will need to buy a license key.

If you do not have Office at all, you can buy it from a retail store or online. Regardless of which method you choose, you will most likely need to download it. Here is a link to the Microsoft website where you will be able to download the MS Office Suite.

Once Office is installed, you will be able to open PowerPoint and start making presentations.

What is PowerPoint Used for?

PowerPoint is used for making slide show presentations. You may need a presentation for various reasons. For instance, you may want to create a presentation giving an overview of your organization, or a pitch presentation for your investors, or perhaps a summarized performance presentation for the annual report.

The purpose of creating a presentation can be endless. The type of presentations that you make depends on what your profession is. Below is a small indicative list of professions and what they use PowerPoint for.

  • Salesperson: There is no better way for a salesperson to get a message across to their potential clients than a presentation.
  • Entrepreneurs: They would use PowerPoint for the same reason as a salesperson would need presentations. If you have meetings to sell your service, product or to raise funding, a presentation can go a long way in helping.
  • Managers: Managing a team of people is not easy. If you want to really make an impression on your team, why not use presentations? You could also use them when delivering reports to your peers or reporting managers.
  • Public Speakers: This is the most common use of presentations. Using presentations is the best way to keep your audience engaged while you give an awe-inspiring speech.

Advantage of Using PowerPoint

The main advantage of using PowerPoint is that you can create intriguing and visually appealing presentations for your clients, boss, or a classroom of students. PowerPoint has a massive selection of features that allow you to create truly personalized representations of your data, product, or service.

Difference between PowerPoint and Word

For us to talk about the difference between PowerPoint and Word, the easiest way to do this would be to talk about what Word is and what it does first. Let’s get straight to it.

What is Microsoft Word?

MS Word is a word processor. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite. MS Word is the most commonly used application within all the offerings of MS Office. Here are some of the reasons why MS Word is so popular. This list should also help explain exactly what MS Word is used for –

  • Microsoft Word used for creating large pieces of content, articles, or even blog posts.
  • Microsoft Word is also used for creating detailed reports, writing summaries, capturing information about a research, etc.
  • Word is also perfectly suited for filling out application for an award, circulating instructions for a questionnaire, and other business needs.
  • Microsoft Word can also be used to write business proposals, business agreements and contracts, and other business related confidential documents, etc.
  • It is also used within the educational domain to write anything from essays to speeches.

Key differences between PowerPoint and Word

The difference between Microsoft Word and PowerPoint is pretty big. While MS Word is used to create detailed documents, PowerPoint is used to present as much information with as little text as possible.

PowerPoint can be seen as a visual representation of data and MS Word is a text-based representation of data. Other than that, it is hard to mention other differences because they are completely different applications.

Difference between PowerPoint and Excel

We have already discussed, in some detail, what PowerPoint is. So, for this section, we will focus more on Excel and this should highlight what the differences are between the two. Let’s get straight to the point.

What is Microsoft Excel?

Excel is a program that is commonly used by accountants within a company. It can be used to manage any form of data that needs to be organized and managed. It can also be used to summarize data by creating graphs and charts.

Key differences between PowerPoint and Excel

There is one major difference between PowerPoint and Excel and that difference is the use of data.

Excel manages and organizes data and while you can turn the data into charts, Excel is not really the program that you want to use to present the data. PowerPoint is the better program for representing data.

You can use PowerPoint to present your Excel data. Let me share what I mean by that in our next section.

Using Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel together

Now this is where everything gets interesting and to be honest, this is where the power of Microsoft Office really stands out. All the programs can be used together to create a smooth workplace that runs like clockwork. Here’s how PowerPoint, Word, and Excel can be used together.

Using PowerPoint and Word Together

You can place your presentations inside of MS Word documents which can help to remove the tediousness of repeating the same points in your presentation in word. Here’s how to do it.

  1. In PowerPoint go to the “Files” tab and select it. You should get a drop-down menu.
  1. In the drop-down menu, select the “Export” option. You should get another drop-down menu.
  1. Select “Create Handouts”. This will open a dialogue box.
  1. Now, select what layout you want.
  1. Paste the link directly into your Word document, and you are done!

Doing this will allow real-time changes within word if they are done in PowerPoint.

Using PowerPoint And Excel Together.

You can use PowerPoint to present your Excel data by creating a chart in PowerPoint and linking it to the Excel file. We have a full tutorial on this which you can read by clicking on the link below –

Final Thoughts

We have reached the end of this article. Hopefully, you have walked away with enough knowledge to impress your peers and understand the key differences between the three applications.

We discussed the differences between these three products and what they all do. Be sure to bookmark this page and keep up to date with all of our articles which are designed to make your work a lot easier.

Источник

What is Excel used for? Excel is typically used to organize data and perform financial analysis. It is used across all business functions and at companies from small to large.

Contents

  • 1 What are uses of MS Excel?
  • 2 What are the 10 uses of Microsoft Excel?
  • 3 Why do we use MS Word?
  • 4 What is MS Office and uses?
  • 5 What are the 7 common uses for Excel?
  • 6 What is difference between MS Word and MS Excel?
  • 7 What is Microsoft Excel Introduction?
  • 8 Why Microsoft is important?
  • 9 How does excel help students?
  • 10 How many types of work in MS Excel?
  • 11 What is MS Excel in simple words?
  • 12 What are advantages and disadvantages of MS Excel?
  • 13 What are the 5 functions in Excel?
  • 14 Why should I learn MS Office?
  • 15 How do excel interpret data?
  • 16 What is MS suite?
  • 17 How can you use Excel in your everyday life?
  • 18 Who uses Excel?
  • 19 What is Excel written in?

What are uses of MS Excel?

Uses of MS Excel

  • Data Entry and Storage.
  • Performing Calculations.
  • Data Analysis and Interpretation.
  • Reporting and Visualizations.
  • Accounting and Budgeting.
  • Collection and Verification of Business Data.
  • Calendars and Schedules.
  • Administrative and Managerial Duties.

What are the 10 uses of Microsoft Excel?

Top 10 Uses of Microsoft Excel in Business

  • Business Analysis. The number 1 use of MS Excel in the workplace is to do business analysis.
  • People Management.
  • Managing Operations.
  • Performance Reporting.
  • Office Administration.
  • Strategic Analysis.
  • Project Management.
  • Managing Programs.

Why do we use MS Word?

The purpose of the MS Word is to allow the users to type and save documents. Similar to other word processors, it has helpful tools to make documents. Microsoft word, often called as word, carries with it a lot of benefits.

What is MS Office and uses?

Microsoft Office is a suite of applications designed to help with productivity and completing common tasks on a computer. You can create and edit documents containing text and images, work with data in spreadsheets and databases, and create presentations and posters.

What are the 7 common uses for Excel?

The 7 Most Popular Uses Of Excel For Your Business

  • Data Entry and Storage. At its most basic level, Excel is an excellent tool for both data entry and storage.
  • Collection and Verification of Business Data.
  • Administrative and Managerial Duties.
  • Accounting and Budgeting.
  • Data Analysis.
  • Reporting + Visualizations.
  • Forecasting.

What is difference between MS Word and MS Excel?

MS Word is a processing software which is used for writing letters, essay, notes, etc. Whereas, MS Excel is a spreadsheet software where a large amount of data or information can be saved in a systematic tabular manner in numerical and alphabetical values.

What is Microsoft Excel Introduction?

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used to record and analyze numerical and statistical data. Microsoft Excel provides multiple features to perform various operations like calculations, pivot tables, graph tools, macro programming, etc. It is compatible with multiple OS like Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.

Why Microsoft is important?

Microsoft Office products are the most widely-used business productivity software worldwide.Microsoft Office is extremely popular. It’s ease-of-use, accessibility, interactivity, and adaptability across operating systems have made its programs the most commonly used tools within companies around the world.

How does excel help students?

Excel reduces the difficulty of plotting data and allows students a means for interpreting the data.This goes a long way toward helping them understand the relationship between the data and the chart. Excel can easily convert any chart or data set into a web page, making it very easy to share information among groups.

How many types of work in MS Excel?

Functions. Excel 2016 has 484 functions. Of these, 360 existed prior to Excel 2010. Microsoft classifies these functions in 14 categories.

What is MS Excel in simple words?

By definition, “Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program created by Microsoft that uses tables to record and analyze numerical and statistical data with formulas and functions”. In simple words, MS Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program included with Microsoft Office and is mainly used to record data in tables.

What are advantages and disadvantages of MS Excel?

The Advantages & Disadvantages of Spreadsheets

  • Advantage: Organizing Data.
  • Disadvantage: User Bias.
  • Advantage: Streamlines Calculations.
  • Disadvantage: Learning the Syntax Takes Skill.
  • Advantage: Multiple User Access.
  • Disadvantage: Lack of Security.

What are the 5 functions in Excel?

5 Functions of Excel/Sheets That Every Professional Should Know

  • VLookup Formula.
  • Concatenate Formula.
  • Text to Columns.
  • Remove Duplicates.
  • Pivot Tables.

Why should I learn MS Office?

Microsoft Office training can give you the confidence to use the tools you are provided. Having your MS Office skills professionally trained with significantly increases your work efficiency and confidence, which will also bring you with a sense of job satisfaction at work.

How do excel interpret data?

Excel stores data sets in systems of cells organized into rows and columns.The worksheet layout and formatting allows spreadsheet administrators to see their data sets in a structured, organized format, enhancing clarity on the data when compared with non-digital data storage formats.

What is MS suite?

The Microsoft Office suite is a set of programs for common productivity tasks, including a word processing program, a spreadsheet tool, presentation software, an email program and others.Parts of the Microsoft suite of programs are available both for use in a web browser and local use on a computer.

How can you use Excel in your everyday life?

Whether it is family-based planning for a weekly, monthly or yearly calendar or a personal appointment daily planner or a schedule for managing bill payments, homework, favorite sports team’s games, and many more, excel can make it easy to compile, filter, search, organize and simplify large amounts of data.

Who uses Excel?

Excel is used extensively in finance and accounting functions. In fact, many organizations run their entire budgeting, forecasting, and accounting functions entirely out of Excel spreadsheets. While Excel is defined as a “data” management tool, the data that is most commonly managed is financial.

What is Excel written in?

Excel itself is written in Visual C++. But if you want to become good at Excel then you need to learn Visual Basic. The macros and other things you want to write in Excel use Visual Basic (not Visual C++).

Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word are part of the Microsoft Office package of productivity software. They’re also some of the most widely used software programs in the world, particularly in terms of business software.

Tip

Microsoft Word is a word processing program used for writing letters, memos, reports and paper presentations. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used for calculations, making charts and recording data about all sorts of business processes.

Uses for Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processing program designed to make it possible to create a variety of documents that will look the same between different computers and similar on the screen to how they appear on paper.

It’s used by businesses and individuals to write personal and professional letters, reports for work and school and to take notes on conversations and in seminars and classes. Because it’s so widely used, many businesses appreciate that it’s possible to send documents created in Word to clients, employees and other business associates without worrying about whether or not they’ll be able to open them.

The program allows for the use of a wide variety of fonts and styles in order to create a number of different types of documents, from informal lists of notes after a meeting to reports ready to ship out to a valued client or top executive.

Uses for Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program. That means it’s used to create grids of text, numbers and formulas specifying calculations. That’s extremely valuable for many businesses, which use it to record expenditures and income, plan budgets, chart data and succinctly present fiscal results.

It can be programmed to pull in data from external sources such as stock market feeds, automatically running the data through formula such as financial models to update such information in real time. Like Microsoft Word, Excel has become a de facto standard in the business world, with Excel spreadsheets frequently emailed and otherwise shared to exchange data and perform various calculations.

Excel also contains fairly powerful programming capabilities for those who wish to use them that can be used to develop relatively sophisticated financial and scientific computation capabilities.

Alternatives to Word and Excel

Microsoft Word and Excel aren’t the only word processing and spreadsheet programs available. Google’s G Suite office software collection is increasingly popular with many businesses, and it offers free versions to many users. Apple’s iWork suite, including Pages and Numbers, competes with Word and Excel, is also used by Mac users as an alternative to Microsoft Office.

The open source LibreOffice toolkit also includes free alternatives to Word and Excel, called Writer and Calc.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office Excel (2019–present).svg
Microsoft Excel.png

A simple bar graph being created in Excel, running on Windows 11

Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release November 19, 1987; 35 years ago
Stable release

2103 (16.0.13901.20400)
/ April 13, 2021; 23 months ago[1]

Written in C++ (back-end)[2]
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type Spreadsheet
License Trialware[3]
Website microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel
Microsoft Excel for Mac

Excel for Mac screenshot.png

Excel for Mac (version 16.67), running on macOS Big Sur 11.5.2

Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release September 30, 1985; 37 years ago
Stable release

16.70 (Build 23021201)
/ February 14, 2023; 54 days ago[4]

Written in C++ (back-end), Objective-C (API/UI)[2]
Operating system macOS
Type Spreadsheet
License Proprietary commercial software
Website products.office.com/mac
Microsoft Excel for Android

Excel for Android.png

Excel for Android running on Android 13

Developer(s) Microsoft Corporation
Stable release

16.0.14729.20146
/ December 22, 2021; 15 months ago[5]

Operating system Android Oreo and later
Type Spreadsheet
License Proprietary commercial software
Website products.office.com/en-us/excel
Microsoft Excel for iOS and iPadOS

Developer(s) Microsoft Corporation
Stable release

2.70.1
/ February 15, 2023; 53 days ago[6]

Operating system iOS 15 or later
iPadOS 15 or later
Type Spreadsheet
License Proprietary commercial software
Website products.office.com/en-us/excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Excel forms part of the Microsoft 365 suite of software.

Features

Basic operation

Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets,[7] using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering, and financial needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various factors for different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario manager).[8] A PivotTable is a tool for data analysis. It does this by simplifying large data sets via PivotTable fields. It has a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical physics,[9][10] and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It also has a variety of interactive features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the spreadsheet from the user, so the spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called application, or decision support system (DSS), via a custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer,[11] or in general, as a design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports.[12][13] In a more elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and measuring instruments using an update schedule,[14] analyze the results, make a Word report or PowerPoint slide show, and e-mail these presentations on a regular basis to a list of participants. Excel was not designed to be used as a database.[citation needed]

Microsoft allows for a number of optional command-line switches to control the manner in which Excel starts.[15]

Functions

Excel 2016 has 484 functions.[16] Of these, 360 existed prior to Excel 2010. Microsoft classifies these functions in 14 categories. Of the 484 current functions, 386 may be called from VBA as methods of the object «WorksheetFunction»[17] and 44 have the same names as VBA functions.[18]

With the introduction of LAMBDA, Excel will become Turing complete.[19]

Macro programming

VBA programming

Use of a user-defined function sq(x) in Microsoft Excel. The named variables x & y are identified in the Name Manager. The function sq is introduced using the Visual Basic editor supplied with Excel.

Subroutine in Excel calculates the square of named column variable x read from the spreadsheet, and writes it into the named column variable y.

The Windows version of Excel supports programming through Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is a dialect of Visual Basic. Programming with VBA allows spreadsheet manipulation that is awkward or impossible with standard spreadsheet techniques. Programmers may write code directly using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which includes a window for writing code, debugging code, and code module organization environment. The user can implement numerical methods as well as automating tasks such as formatting or data organization in VBA[20] and guide the calculation using any desired intermediate results reported back to the spreadsheet.

VBA was removed from Mac Excel 2008, as the developers did not believe that a timely release would allow porting the VBA engine natively to Mac OS X. VBA was restored in the next version, Mac Excel 2011,[21] although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting some high level developer tools.[22]

A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder.[23] The Macro Recorder records actions of the user and generates VBA code in the form of a macro. These actions can then be repeated automatically by running the macro. The macros can also be linked to different trigger types like keyboard shortcuts, a command button or a graphic. The actions in the macro can be executed from these trigger types or from the generic toolbar options. The VBA code of the macro can also be edited in the VBE. Certain features such as loop functions and screen prompt by their own properties, and some graphical display items, cannot be recorded but must be entered into the VBA module directly by the programmer. Advanced users can employ user prompts to create an interactive program, or react to events such as sheets being loaded or changed.

Macro Recorded code may not be compatible with Excel versions. Some code that is used in Excel 2010 cannot be used in Excel 2003. Making a Macro that changes the cell colors and making changes to other aspects of cells may not be backward compatible.

VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the Excel Object Model,[24] a vocabulary identifying spreadsheet objects, and a set of supplied functions or methods that enable reading and writing to the spreadsheet and interaction with its users (for example, through custom toolbars or command bars and message boxes). User-created VBA subroutines execute these actions and operate like macros generated using the macro recorder, but are more flexible and efficient.

History

From its first version Excel supported end-user programming of macros (automation of repetitive tasks) and user-defined functions (extension of Excel’s built-in function library). In early versions of Excel, these programs were written in a macro language whose statements had formula syntax and resided in the cells of special-purpose macro sheets (stored with file extension .XLM in Windows.) XLM was the default macro language for Excel through Excel 4.0.[25] Beginning with version 5.0 Excel recorded macros in VBA by default but with version 5.0 XLM recording was still allowed as an option. After version 5.0 that option was discontinued. All versions of Excel, including Excel 2021 are capable of running an XLM macro, though Microsoft discourages their use.[26]

Charts

Graph made using Microsoft Excel

Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. It also supports Pivot Charts that allow for a chart to be linked directly to a Pivot table. This allows the chart to be refreshed with the Pivot Table. The generated graphic component can either be embedded within the current sheet or added as a separate object.

These displays are dynamically updated if the content of cells changes. For example, suppose that the important design requirements are displayed visually; then, in response to a user’s change in trial values for parameters, the curves describing the design change shape, and their points of intersection shift, assisting the selection of the best design.

Add-ins

Additional features are available using add-ins. Several are provided with Excel, including:

  • Analysis ToolPak: Provides data analysis tools for statistical and engineering analysis (includes analysis of variance and regression analysis)
  • Analysis ToolPak VBA: VBA functions for Analysis ToolPak
  • Euro Currency Tools: Conversion and formatting for euro currency
  • Solver Add-In: Tools for optimization and equation solving

Data storage and communication

Number of rows and columns

Versions of Excel up to 7.0 had a limitation in the size of their data sets of 16K (214 = 16384) rows. Versions 8.0 through 11.0 could handle 64K (216 = 65536) rows and 256 columns (28 as label ‘IV’). Version 12.0 onwards, including the current Version 16.x, can handle over 1M (220 = 1048576) rows, and 16384 (214, labeled as column ‘XFD’) columns.[27]

File formats

Excel Spreadsheet

Filename extension

.xls, (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb — Excel 2007)

Internet media type

application/vnd.ms-excel

Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) com.microsoft.excel.xls
Developed by Microsoft
Type of format Spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Excel Binary File Format (.XLS) as its primary format.[28] Excel 2007 uses Office Open XML as its primary file format, an XML-based format that followed after a previous XML-based format called «XML Spreadsheet» («XMLSS»), first introduced in Excel 2002.[29]

Although supporting and encouraging the use of new XML-based formats as replacements, Excel 2007 remained backwards-compatible with the traditional, binary formats. In addition, most versions of Microsoft Excel can read CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other legacy formats. Support for some older file formats was removed in Excel 2007.[30] The file formats were mainly from DOS-based programs.

Binary

OpenOffice.org has created documentation of the Excel format. Two epochs of the format exist: the 97-2003 OLE format, and the older stream format.[31] Microsoft has made the Excel binary format specification available to freely download.[32]

XML Spreadsheet

The XML Spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2002[29] is a simple, XML based format missing some more advanced features like storage of VBA macros. Though the intended file extension for this format is .xml, the program also correctly handles XML files with .xls extension. This feature is widely used by third-party applications (e.g. MySQL Query Browser) to offer «export to Excel» capabilities without implementing binary file format. The following example will be correctly opened by Excel if saved either as Book1.xml or Book1.xls:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
 xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet1">
  <Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="2" ss:ExpandedRowCount="2" x:FullColumns="1" x:FullRows="1">
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Name</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Example</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Value</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">123</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
  </Table>
 </Worksheet>
</Workbook>

Current file extensions

Microsoft Excel 2007, along with the other products in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, introduced new file formats. The first of these (.xlsx) is defined in the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification.

Excel 2007 formats

Format Extension Description
Excel Workbook .xlsx The default Excel 2007 and later workbook format. In reality, a ZIP compressed archive with a directory structure of XML text documents. Functions as the primary replacement for the former binary .xls format, although it does not support Excel macros for security reasons. Saving as .xlsx offers file size reduction over .xls[33]
Excel Macro-enabled Workbook .xlsm As Excel Workbook, but with macro support.
Excel Binary Workbook .xlsb As Excel Macro-enabled Workbook, but storing information in binary form rather than XML documents for opening and saving documents more quickly and efficiently. Intended especially for very large documents with tens of thousands of rows, and/or several hundreds of columns. This format is very useful for shrinking large Excel files as is often the case when doing data analysis.
Excel Macro-enabled Template .xltm A template document that forms a basis for actual workbooks, with macro support. The replacement for the old .xlt format.
Excel Add-in .xlam Excel add-in to add extra functionality and tools. Inherent macro support because of the file purpose.

Old file extensions

Format Extension Description
Spreadsheet .xls Main spreadsheet format which holds data in worksheets, charts, and macros
Add-in (VBA) .xla Adds custom functionality; written in VBA
Toolbar .xlb The file extension where Microsoft Excel custom toolbar settings are stored.
Chart .xlc A chart created with data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that only saves the chart. To save the chart and spreadsheet save as .XLS. XLC is not supported in Excel 2007 or in any newer versions of Excel.
Dialog .xld Used in older versions of Excel.
Archive .xlk A backup of an Excel Spreadsheet
Add-in (DLL) .xll Adds custom functionality; written in C++/C, Fortran, etc. and compiled in to a special dynamic-link library
Macro .xlm A macro is created by the user or pre-installed with Excel.
Template .xlt A pre-formatted spreadsheet created by the user or by Microsoft Excel.
Module .xlv A module is written in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) for Microsoft Excel
Library .DLL Code written in VBA may access functions in a DLL, typically this is used to access the Windows API
Workspace .xlw Arrangement of the windows of multiple Workbooks

Using other Windows applications

Windows applications such as Microsoft Access and Microsoft Word, as well as Excel can communicate with each other and use each other’s capabilities. The most common are Dynamic Data Exchange: although strongly deprecated by Microsoft, this is a common method to send data between applications running on Windows, with official MS publications referring to it as «the protocol from hell».[34] As the name suggests, it allows applications to supply data to others for calculation and display. It is very common in financial markets, being used to connect to important financial data services such as Bloomberg and Reuters.

OLE Object Linking and Embedding allows a Windows application to control another to enable it to format or calculate data. This may take on the form of «embedding» where an application uses another to handle a task that it is more suited to, for example a PowerPoint presentation may be embedded in an Excel spreadsheet or vice versa.[35][36][37][38]

Using external data

Excel users can access external data sources via Microsoft Office features such as (for example) .odc connections built with the Office Data Connection file format. Excel files themselves may be updated using a Microsoft supplied ODBC driver.

Excel can accept data in real-time through several programming interfaces, which allow it to communicate with many data sources such as Bloomberg and Reuters (through addins such as Power Plus Pro).

  • DDE: «Dynamic Data Exchange» uses the message passing mechanism in Windows to allow data to flow between Excel and other applications. Although it is easy for users to create such links, programming such links reliably is so difficult that Microsoft, the creators of the system, officially refer to it as «the protocol from hell».[34] In spite of its many issues DDE remains the most common way for data to reach traders in financial markets.
  • Network DDE Extended the protocol to allow spreadsheets on different computers to exchange data. Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft no longer supports the facility.[39]
  • Real Time Data: RTD although in many ways technically superior to DDE, has been slow to gain acceptance, since it requires non-trivial programming skills, and when first released was neither adequately documented nor supported by the major data vendors.[40][41]

Alternatively, Microsoft Query provides ODBC-based browsing within Microsoft Excel.[42][43][44]

Export and migration of spreadsheets

Programmers have produced APIs to open Excel spreadsheets in a variety of applications and environments other than Microsoft Excel. These include opening Excel documents on the web using either ActiveX controls, or plugins like the Adobe Flash Player. The Apache POI opensource project provides Java libraries for reading and writing Excel spreadsheet files.

Password protection

Microsoft Excel protection offers several types of passwords:

  • Password to open a document[45]
  • Password to modify a document[46]
  • Password to unprotect the worksheet
  • Password to protect workbook
  • Password to protect the sharing workbook[47]

All passwords except password to open a document can be removed instantly regardless of the Microsoft Excel version used to create the document. These types of passwords are used primarily for shared work on a document. Such password-protected documents are not encrypted, and a data sources from a set password is saved in a document’s header. Password to protect workbook is an exception – when it is set, a document is encrypted with the standard password «VelvetSweatshop», but since it is known to the public, it actually does not add any extra protection to the document. The only type of password that can prevent a trespasser from gaining access to a document is password to open a document. The cryptographic strength of this kind of protection depends strongly on the Microsoft Excel version that was used to create the document.

In Microsoft Excel 95 and earlier versions, the password to open is converted to a 16-bit key that can be instantly cracked. In Excel 97/2000 the password is converted to a 40-bit key, which can also be cracked very quickly using modern equipment. As regards services that use rainbow tables (e.g. Password-Find), it takes up to several seconds to remove protection. In addition, password-cracking programs can brute-force attack passwords at a rate of hundreds of thousands of passwords a second, which not only lets them decrypt a document but also find the original password.

In Excel 2003/XP the encryption is slightly better – a user can choose any encryption algorithm that is available in the system (see Cryptographic Service Provider). Due to the CSP, an Excel file cannot be decrypted, and thus the password to open cannot be removed, though the brute-force attack speed remains quite high. Nevertheless, the older Excel 97/2000 algorithm is set by the default. Therefore, users who do not change the default settings lack reliable protection of their documents.

The situation changed fundamentally in Excel 2007, where the modern AES algorithm with a key of 128 bits started being used for decryption, and a 50,000-fold use of the hash function SHA1 reduced the speed of brute-force attacks down to hundreds of passwords per second. In Excel 2010, the strength of the protection by the default was increased two times due to the use of a 100,000-fold SHA1 to convert a password to a key.

Other platforms

Excel for mobile

Excel Mobile is a spreadsheet program that can edit XLSX files. It can edit and format text in cells, calculate formulas, search within the spreadsheet, sort rows and columns, freeze panes, filter the columns, add comments, and create charts. It cannot add columns or rows except at the edge of the document, rearrange columns or rows, delete rows or columns, or add spreadsheet tabs.[48][49][50][51][52][53] The 2007 version has the ability to use a full-screen mode to deal with limited screen resolution, as well as split panes to view different parts of a worksheet at one time.[51] Protection settings, zoom settings, autofilter settings, certain chart formatting, hidden sheets, and other features are not supported on Excel Mobile, and will be modified upon opening and saving a workbook.[52] In 2015, Excel Mobile became available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile on Windows Store.[54][55]

Excel for the web

Excel for the web is a free lightweight version of Microsoft Excel available as part of Office on the web, which also includes web versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Excel for the web can display most of the features available in the desktop versions of Excel, although it may not be able to insert or edit them. Certain data connections are not accessible on Excel for the web, including with charts that may use these external connections. Excel for the web also cannot display legacy features, such as Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 dialog sheets. There are also small differences between how some of the Excel functions work.[56]

Microsoft Excel Viewer

Microsoft Excel Viewer was a freeware program for Microsoft Windows for viewing and printing spreadsheet documents created by Excel.[57] Microsoft retired the viewer in April 2018 with the last security update released in February 2019 for Excel Viewer 2007 (SP3).[58][59]

The first version released by Microsoft was Excel 97 Viewer.[60][61] Excel 97 Viewer was supported in Windows CE for Handheld PCs.[62] In October 2004, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2003.[63] In September 2007, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3).[64] In January 2008, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007 (featuring a non-collapsible Ribbon interface).[65] In April 2009, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2).[66] In October 2011, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3).[67]

Microsoft advises to view and print Excel files for free to use the Excel Mobile application for Windows 10 and for Windows 7 and Windows 8 to upload the file to OneDrive and use Excel for the web with a Microsoft account to open them in a browser.[58][68]

Quirks

In addition to issues with spreadsheets in general, other problems specific to Excel include numeric precision, misleading statistics functions, mod function errors, date limitations and more.

Numeric precision

Excel maintains 15 figures in its numbers, but they are not always accurate: the bottom line should be the same as the top line.

Despite the use of 15-figure precision, Excel can display many more figures (up to thirty) upon user request. But the displayed figures are not those actually used in its computations, and so, for example, the difference of two numbers may differ from the difference of their displayed values. Although such departures are usually beyond the 15th decimal, exceptions do occur, especially for very large or very small numbers. Serious errors can occur if decisions are made based upon automated comparisons of numbers (for example, using the Excel If function), as equality of two numbers can be unpredictable.[citation needed]

In the figure, the fraction 1/9000 is displayed in Excel. Although this number has a decimal representation that is an infinite string of ones, Excel displays only the leading 15 figures. In the second line, the number one is added to the fraction, and again Excel displays only 15 figures. In the third line, one is subtracted from the sum using Excel. Because the sum in the second line has only eleven 1’s after the decimal, the difference when 1 is subtracted from this displayed value is three 0’s followed by a string of eleven 1’s. However, the difference reported by Excel in the third line is three 0’s followed by a string of thirteen 1’s and two extra erroneous digits. This is because Excel calculates with about half a digit more than it displays.

Excel works with a modified 1985 version of the IEEE 754 specification.[69] Excel’s implementation involves conversions between binary and decimal representations, leading to accuracy that is on average better than one would expect from simple fifteen digit precision, but that can be worse. See the main article for details.

Besides accuracy in user computations, the question of accuracy in Excel-provided functions may be raised. Particularly in the arena of statistical functions, Excel has been criticized for sacrificing accuracy for speed of calculation.[70][71]

As many calculations in Excel are executed using VBA, an additional issue is the accuracy of VBA, which varies with variable type and user-requested precision.[72]

Statistical functions

The accuracy and convenience of statistical tools in Excel has been criticized,[73][74][75][76][77] as mishandling missing data, as returning incorrect values due to inept handling of round-off and large numbers, as only selectively updating calculations on a spreadsheet when some cell values are changed, and as having a limited set of statistical tools. Microsoft has announced some of these issues are addressed in Excel 2010.[78]

Excel MOD function error

Excel has issues with modulo operations. In the case of excessively large results, Excel will return the error warning #NUM! instead of an answer.[79]

Fictional leap day in the year 1900

Excel includes February 29, 1900, incorrectly treating 1900 as a leap year, even though e.g. 2100 is correctly treated as a non-leap year.[80][81] The bug originated from Lotus 1-2-3 (deliberately implemented to save computer memory), and was also purposely implemented in Excel, for the purpose of bug compatibility.[82] This legacy has later been carried over into Office Open XML file format.[83]

Thus a (not necessarily whole) number greater than or equal to 61 interpreted as a date and time are the (real) number of days after December 30, 1899, 0:00, a non-negative number less than 60 is the number of days after December 31, 1899, 0:00, and numbers with whole part 60 represent the fictional day.

Date range

Excel supports dates with years in the range 1900–9999, except that December 31, 1899, can be entered as 0 and is displayed as 0-jan-1900.

Converting a fraction of a day into hours, minutes and days by treating it as a moment on the day January 1, 1900, does not work for a negative fraction.[84]

Conversion problems

Entering text that happens to be in a form that is interpreted as a date, the text can be unintentionally changed to a standard date format. A similar problem occurs when a text happens to be in the form of a floating-point notation of a number. In these cases the original exact text cannot be recovered from the result. Formatting the cell as TEXT before entering ambiguous text prevents Excel from converting to a date.

This issue has caused a well known problem in the analysis of DNA, for example in bioinformatics. As first reported in 2004,[85] genetic scientists found that Excel automatically and incorrectly converts certain gene names into dates. A follow-up study in 2016 found many peer reviewed scientific journal papers had been affected and that «Of the selected journals, the proportion of published articles with Excel files containing gene lists that are affected by gene name errors is 19.6 %.»[86] Excel parses the copied and pasted data and sometimes changes them depending on what it thinks they are. For example, MARCH1 (Membrane Associated Ring-CH-type finger 1) gets converted to the date March 1 (1-Mar) and SEPT2 (Septin 2) is converted into September 2 (2-Sep) etc.[87] While some secondary news sources[88] reported this as a fault with Excel, the original authors of the 2016 paper placed the blame with the researchers misusing Excel.[86][89]

In August 2020 the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) published new guidelines in the journal Nature regarding gene naming in order to avoid issues with «symbols that affect data handling and retrieval.» So far 27 genes have been renamed, including changing MARCH1 to MARCHF1 and SEPT1 to SEPTIN1 in order to avoid accidental conversion of the gene names into dates.[90]

Errors with large strings

The following functions return incorrect results when passed a string longer than 255 characters:[91]

  • type() incorrectly returns 16, meaning «Error value»
  • IsText(), when called as a method of the VBA object WorksheetFunction (i.e., WorksheetFunction.IsText() in VBA), incorrectly returns «false».

Filenames

Microsoft Excel will not open two documents with the same name and instead will display the following error:

A document with the name ‘%s’ is already open. You cannot open two documents with the same name, even if the documents are in different folders. To open the second document, either close the document that is currently open, or rename one of the documents.[92]

The reason is for calculation ambiguity with linked cells. If there is a cell ='[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1'!$G$33, and there are two books named «Book1» open, there is no way to tell which one the user means.[93]

Versions

Early history

Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982. Multiplan became very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and the first Windows version was 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) on November 19, 1987.[94][95] Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by the early 1990s, Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve its position as a leading PC software developer. This accomplishment solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing GUI software. Microsoft maintained its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so.

Microsoft Windows

Excel 2.0 is the first version of Excel for the Intel platform. Versions prior to 2.0 were only available on the Apple Macintosh.

Excel 2.0 (1987)

The first Windows version was labeled «2» to correspond to the Mac version. It was announced on October 6, 1987, and released on November 19.[96] This included a run-time version of Windows.[97]

BYTE in 1989 listed Excel for Windows as among the «Distinction» winners of the BYTE Awards. The magazine stated that the port of the «extraordinary» Macintosh version «shines», with a user interface as good as or better than the original.

Excel 3.0 (1990)

Included toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add-in support, 3D charts, and many more new features.[97]

Excel 4.0 (1992)

Introduced auto-fill.[98]

Also, an easter egg in Excel 4.0 reveals a hidden animation of a dancing set of numbers 1 through 3, representing Lotus 1-2-3, which is then crushed by an Excel logo.[99]

Excel 5.0 (1993)

With version 5.0, Excel has included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language based on Visual Basic which adds the ability to automate tasks in Excel and to provide user-defined functions (UDF) for use in worksheets. VBA includes a fully featured integrated development environment (IDE). Macro recording can produce VBA code replicating user actions, thus allowing simple automation of regular tasks. VBA allows the creation of forms and in‑worksheet controls to communicate with the user. The language supports use (but not creation) of ActiveX (COM) DLL’s; later versions add support for class modules allowing the use of basic object-oriented programming techniques.

The automation functionality provided by VBA made Excel a target for macro viruses. This caused serious problems until antivirus products began to detect these viruses. Microsoft belatedly took steps to prevent the misuse by adding the ability to disable macros completely, to enable macros when opening a workbook or to trust all macros signed using a trusted certificate.

Versions 5.0 to 9.0 of Excel contain various Easter eggs, including a «Hall of Tortured Souls», a Doom-like minigame, although since version 10 Microsoft has taken measures to eliminate such undocumented features from their products.[100]

5.0 was released in a 16-bit x86 version for Windows 3.1 and later in a 32-bit version for NT 3.51 (x86/Alpha/PowerPC)

Excel 95 (v7.0)

Released in 1995 with Microsoft Office for Windows 95, this is the first major version after Excel 5.0, as there is no Excel 6.0 with all of the Office applications standardizing on the same major version number.

Internal rewrite to 32-bits. Almost no external changes, but faster and more stable.

Excel 95 contained a hidden Doom-like mini-game called «The Hall of Tortured Souls», a series of rooms featuring the names and faces of the developers as an easter egg.[101]

Excel 97 (v8.0)

Included in Office 97 (for x86 and Alpha). This was a major upgrade that introduced the paper clip office assistant and featured standard VBA used instead of internal Excel Basic. It introduced the now-removed Natural Language labels.

This version of Excel includes a flight simulator as an Easter Egg.

Excel 2000 (v9.0)

Included in Office 2000. This was a minor upgrade but introduced an upgrade to the clipboard where it can hold multiple objects at once. The Office Assistant, whose frequent unsolicited appearance in Excel 97 had annoyed many users, became less intrusive.

A small 3-D game called «Dev Hunter» (inspired by Spy Hunter) was included as an easter egg.[102][103]

Excel 2002 (v10.0)

Included in Office XP. Very minor enhancements.

Excel 2003 (v11.0)

Included in Office 2003. Minor enhancements.

Excel 2007 (v12.0)

Included in Office 2007. This release was a major upgrade from the previous version. Similar to other updated Office products, Excel in 2007 used the new Ribbon menu system. This was different from what users were used to, and was met with mixed reactions. One study reported fairly good acceptance by users except highly experienced users and users of word processing applications with a classical WIMP interface, but was less convinced in terms of efficiency and organization.[104] However, an online survey reported that a majority of respondents had a negative opinion of the change, with advanced users being «somewhat more negative» than intermediate users, and users reporting a self-estimated reduction in productivity.

Added functionality included Tables,[105] and the SmartArt set of editable business diagrams. Also added was an improved management of named variables through the Name Manager, and much-improved flexibility in formatting graphs, which allow (x, y) coordinate labeling and lines of arbitrary weight. Several improvements to pivot tables were introduced.

Also like other office products, the Office Open XML file formats were introduced, including .xlsm for a workbook with macros and .xlsx for a workbook without macros.[106]

Specifically, many of the size limitations of previous versions were greatly increased. To illustrate, the number of rows was now 1,048,576 (220) and columns was 16,384 (214; the far-right column is XFD). This changes what is a valid A1 reference versus a named range. This version made more extensive use of multiple cores for the calculation of spreadsheets; however, VBA macros are not handled in parallel and XLL add‑ins were only executed in parallel if they were thread-safe and this was indicated at registration.

Excel 2010 (v14.0)

Microsoft Excel 2010 running on Windows 7

Included in Office 2010, this is the next major version after v12.0, as version number 13 was skipped.

Minor enhancements and 64-bit support,[107] including the following:

  • Multi-threading recalculation (MTR) for commonly used functions
  • Improved pivot tables
  • More conditional formatting options
  • Additional image editing capabilities
  • In-cell charts called sparklines
  • Ability to preview before pasting
  • Office 2010 backstage feature for document-related tasks
  • Ability to customize the Ribbon
  • Many new formulas, most highly specialized to improve accuracy[108]

Excel 2013 (v15.0)

Included in Office 2013, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

  • Improved Multi-threading and Memory Contention
  • FlashFill[109]
  • Power View[110]
  • Power Pivot[111]
  • Timeline Slicer
  • Windows App
  • Inquire[112]
  • 50 new functions[113]

Excel 2016 (v16.0)

Included in Office 2016, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

  • Power Query integration
  • Read-only mode for Excel
  • Keyboard access for Pivot Tables and Slicers in Excel
  • New Chart Types
  • Quick data linking in Visio
  • Excel forecasting functions
  • Support for multiselection of Slicer items using touch
  • Time grouping and Pivot Chart Drill Down
  • Excel data cards[114]

Excel 2019, Excel 2021, Office 365 and subsequent (v16.0)

Microsoft no longer releases Office or Excel in discrete versions. Instead, features are introduced automatically over time using Windows Update. The version number remains 16.0. Thereafter only the approximate dates when features appear can now be given.

  • Dynamic Arrays. These are essentially Array Formulas but they «Spill» automatically into neighboring cells and does not need the ctrl-shift-enter to create them. Further, dynamic arrays are the default format, with new «@» and «#» operators to provide compatibility with previous versions. This is perhaps the biggest structural change since 2007, and is in response to a similar feature in Google Sheets. Dynamic arrays started appearing in pre-releases about 2018, and as of March 2020 are available in published versions of Office 365 provided a user selected «Office Insiders».

Apple Macintosh

Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011

  • 1985 Excel 1.0
  • 1988 Excel 1.5
  • 1989 Excel 2.2
  • 1990 Excel 3.0
  • 1992 Excel 4.0
  • 1993 Excel 5.0 (part of Office 4.x—Final Motorola 680×0 version[115] and first PowerPC version)
  • 1998 Excel 8.0 (part of Office 98)
  • 2000 Excel 9.0 (part of Office 2001)
  • 2001 Excel 10.0 (part of Office v. X)
  • 2004 Excel 11.0 (part of Office 2004)
  • 2008 Excel 12.0 (part of Office 2008)
  • 2010 Excel 14.0 (part of Office 2011)
  • 2015 Excel 15.0 (part of Office 2016—Office 2016 for Mac brings the Mac version much closer to parity with its Windows cousin, harmonizing many of the reporting and high-level developer functions, while bringing the ribbon and styling into line with its PC counterpart.)[116]

OS/2

  • 1989 Excel 2.2
  • 1990 Excel 2.3
  • 1991 Excel 3.0

Summary

Legend: Old version, not maintained Older version, still maintained Current stable version
Microsoft Excel for Windows release history

Year Name Version Comments
1987 Excel 2 2.0 Renumbered to 2 to correspond with contemporary Macintosh version. Supported macros (later known as Excel 4 macros).
1990 Excel 3 3.0 Added 3D graphing capabilities
1992 Excel 4 4.0 Introduced auto-fill feature
1993 Excel 5 5.0 Included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and various object-oriented options
1995 Excel 95 7.0 Renumbered for contemporary Word version. Both programs were packaged in Microsoft Office by this time.
1997 Excel 97 8.0
2000 Excel 2000 9.0 Part of Microsoft Office 2000, which was itself part of Windows Millennium (also known as «Windows ME»).
2002 Excel 2002 10.0
2003 Excel 2003 11.0 Released only 1 year later to correspond better with the rest of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc.).
2007 Excel 2007 12.0
2010 Excel 2010 14.0 Due to superstitions surrounding the number 13, Excel 13 was skipped in version counting.
2013 Excel 2013 15.0 Introduced 50 more mathematical functions (available as pre-packaged commands, rather than typing the formula manually).
2016 Excel 2016 16.0 Part of Microsoft Office 2016
Microsoft Excel for Macintosh release history

Year Name Version Comments
1985 Excel 1 1.0 Initial version of Excel. Supported macros (later known as Excel 4 macros).
1988 Excel 1.5 1.5
1989 Excel 2 2.2
1990 Excel 3 3.0
1992 Excel 4 4.0
1993 Excel 5 5.0 Only available on PowerPC-based Macs. First PowerPC version.
1998 Excel 98 8.0 Excel 6 and Excel 7 were skipped to correspond with the rest of Microsoft Office at the time.
2000 Excel 2000 9.0
2001 Excel 2001 10.0
2004 Excel 2004 11.0
2008 Excel 2008 12.0
2011 Excel 2011 14.0 As with the Windows version, version 13 was skipped for superstitious reasons.
2016 Excel 2016 16.0 As with the rest of Microsoft Office, so it is for Excel: Future release dates for the Macintosh version are intended to correspond better to those for the Windows version, from 2016 onward.
Microsoft Excel for OS/2 release history

Year Name Version Comments
1989 Excel 2.2 2.2 Numbered in between Windows versions at the time
1990 Excel 2.3 2.3
1991 Excel 3 3.0 Last OS/2 version. Discontinued subseries of Microsoft Excel, which is otherwise still an actively developed program.

Impact

Excel offers many user interface tweaks over the earliest electronic spreadsheets; however, the essence remains the same as in the original spreadsheet software, VisiCalc: the program displays cells organized in rows and columns, and each cell may contain data or a formula, with relative or absolute references to other cells.

Excel 2.0 for Windows, which was modeled after its Mac GUI-based counterpart, indirectly expanded the installed base of the then-nascent Windows environment. Excel 2.0 was released a month before Windows 2.0, and the installed base of Windows was so low at that point in 1987 that Microsoft had to bundle a runtime version of Windows 1.0 with Excel 2.0.[117] Unlike Microsoft Word, there never was a DOS version of Excel.

Excel became the first spreadsheet to allow the user to define the appearance of spreadsheets (fonts, character attributes, and cell appearance). It also introduced intelligent cell re-computation, where only cells dependent on the cell being modified are updated (previous spreadsheet programs recomputed everything all the time or waited for a specific user command). Excel introduced auto-fill, the ability to drag and expand the selection box to automatically copy a cell or row contents to adjacent cells or rows, adjusting the copies intelligently by automatically incrementing cell references or contents. Excel also introduced extensive graphing capabilities.

Security

Because Excel is widely used, it has been attacked by hackers. While Excel is not directly exposed to the Internet, if an attacker can get a victim to open a file in Excel, and there is an appropriate security bug in Excel, then the attacker can gain control of the victim’s computer.[118] UK’s GCHQ has a tool named TORNADO ALLEY with this purpose.[119][120]

Games

Besides the easter eggs, numerous games have been created or recreated in Excel, such as Tetris, 2048, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Angry Birds, Pac-Man, Civilization, Monopoly, Battleship, Blackjack, Space Invaders, and others.[121][122][123][124][125]

In 2020, Excel became an esport with the advent of the Financial Modeling World Cup.[126]

See also

  • Comparison of spreadsheet software
  • Numbers (spreadsheet)—the iWork equivalent
  • Spreadmart
  • Financial Modeling World Cup, online esport financial modelling competition using Excel

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References

  • Bullen, Stephen; Bovey, Rob; Green, John (2009). Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel and VBA (2nd ed.). Boston: Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-50879-9.
  • Dodge, Mark; Stinson, Craig (2007). Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Inside Out. Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0-7356-2321-7.
  • Billo, E. Joseph (2011). Excel for Chemists: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-38123-6.
  • Gordon, Andy (January 25, 2021). «LAMBDA: The ultimate Excel worksheet function». microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved April 23, 2021.

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Excel

  • Microsoft Excel – official site

Microsoft is an American multinational company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and is headquartered in Washington.

Some of the best-known products of Microsoft Corporation are Microsoft Operating System, known by name Windows, Microsoft Office Suite, Internet Explorer and Edge Browser.

MS Office is the family of server software which consists of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneDrive, Teams etc. Two such products of Microsoft Office which are very popular is MS Word and MS Excel.

Key Takeaways

  1. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used for data management, analysis, and visualization, while Microsoft Word is a word processing program used for creating and editing documents.
  2. Excel is used for financial analysis, budgeting, and forecasting, while Word is used for creating reports, letters, and other documents.
  3. Excel uses cells and formulas to calculate, while Word uses text and formatting tools to create documents.

Microsoft Excel is used to make spreadsheets. It is in the form of rows and columns. The file extension of Microsoft Excel is ‘.xls’. Microsoft Word is used to make word documents. Images can be inserted in a word document. Tables can also be created. The file extension of Microsoft Word is ‘.doc’. Tables created in excel can be added in a word document.

Microsoft Excel vs Microsoft Word

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Microsoft Excel was developed by Microsoft in the year 1987 for Windows, macOS, Android etc. It is a spreadsheet application. With the coming of Excel into the market, it replaced Lotus 1-2-3, i.e. standard spreadsheet.

Excel is widely used over the globe for arithmetic calculations, and it can also represent charts, graphs and histograms. The basic feature of Excel Spreadsheets is that it consists of a grid of cells arranged in the form of rows and columns.

It uses the programming language Visual Basic For Applications(VBA).

Microsoft Word was also developed by Microsoft but released earlier than Excel, i.e. in 1983. It was released as Multi-Tool Word. Then various versions of Word was written for different platforms.

Word is a word processor application, and it came with advantages like bold, italicize and underline the text. Then came the option of fonts in which text can be changed into any type of fonts the user liked or wanted. Unlike MS-DOS, Word can be used with a mouse also.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparisons Microsoft Excel Microsoft Word
Initial View In Excel, a spreadsheet occurs in tabulated form with rows and columns. In Word, a blank page opens where you can write texts, insert image, videos, tables etc.
File Extension Excel uses the extension of ‘.xls’ to save files. Word uses the extension of ‘.doc’ to save files.
Interrelation Excel tables can be easily inserted into MS Word. Word files cannot be inserted into MS Excel.
Grammar Check  It doesn’t have any option to check grammar. It can automatically detect and correct grammatical mistakes.
Programming It has VBA(Visual Basic for Applications) to perform complex and advanced tasks. It doesn’t need any programming for use.

What is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel was released 32 years ago for all the platforms, whether it be Windows, Android, iOS, macOS etc. One of the basic features of MS Excel is that it comes in the form of spreadsheets with a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns.

Columns are given in alphabetical order. It is very important for doing arithmetic calculations. For that, it uses programming known by the name Visual Basic For Applications(VBA).

Because of the launching of Excel’s 5th version in 1993, it replaced LOTUS 1-2-3, which was earlier used for standard spreadsheets in the industries. MS Excel is an important part of Microsoft Office Suite.

According to Microsoft, Excel can perform 484 functions. These functions are classified into 14 classes. It can also display data as charts, graphs, histograms and in a 3D view. Pivot Tables can also be used in Excel, especially if dealing with data analysis.

The User Interface of MS Excel is simple, but if you have to perform an arithmetic task, then understanding the menu toolbar may be challenging at times. MS Excel comes with the extension of ‘.xls’.

Tables of Excel can be easily inserted if working on MS Word. It lacks some formatting and advanced options. A grammar check can not be done. But it can filter and modify the statistical data very easily.

Various types of copy-paste options are available in Excel. It supports database activities as well.

microsoft

What is Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Word launched 37 years ago, much before MS Excel. Earlier it was released with the name Multi-Tool Word for only Xenix, which has now become an obsolete version of Unix in 1983.

MS Word was developed by a person named Charles Simonyi for Xenix company and was hired by Microsoft. MS Word came with an option to be used with a mouse also. 

It also has the advantage of undoing, making text bold, italicize and underline. Word was appreciated for giving fast cut-paste options and gave unlimited options for undoing if something went wrong.

MS Word for Windows came with the desktop publishing facility, and it was the most used word processing application in the world. MS Word is so common now that it is used in sending emails in document format.

The user interface and menu toolbar are very easy and simple for any user to understand. It comes with an extension of ‘.doc’. It has been used for writing essays, resumes, research publishing as well.

MS Word files cannot be inserted in MS Excel, unlike MS Word. It doesn’t perform any calculations as well. All the calculations are to be done manually. It automatically detects grammatical mistakes and shows a red line. It can be printed easily with formatted structures.

microsoft word

Main Differences Between Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word

  1. In Excel, a spreadsheet occurs in tabulated form with rows and columns. In Word, a blank page opens where you can write texts, insert image, videos, tables etc.
  2. MS Excel uses the extension of ‘.xls’ to save files. MS Word uses the extension of ‘.doc’ to save files.
  3. MS Excel tables can be easily inserted into MS Word. MS Word files cannot be inserted into MS Excel.
  4. MS Excel doesn’t have an option to check grammar. It is very difficult to do so. MS Word can automatically detect and correct grammatical mistakes and shows a red colour underlining your text.
  5. MS Excel has VBA(Visual Basic for Applications) to perform complex and advanced tasks because it performs and solves complex equations. MS Word is very simple to use and basically needed for writing stuff, so it doesn’t need any programming for use.

Difference Between Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word

References

  1. http://45.231.185.114/criptografia/misuse_rc4.pdf
  2. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=REW6AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=Microsoft+Excel+and+Microsoft+Word&ots=cwcuWdhFtt&sig=3b43ikJ4iLsGCPjanWERs5SGk2Y

Sandeep Bhandari

Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.

Содержание

  • Чем примечателен «Word»?
  • Что можно сказать об «Excel»?
  • Чем отличаются «Excel» и «Word» друг от друга и какая среди этих программ в «Microsoft Office» лучше?
    • Ввод числовых данных
    • Введение даты и времени
    • Маркер заполнения
  • 4. Редактирование данных
    • Выделение ячейки
    • Копирование данных
    • Перетаскивание данных
    • Перемещение данных
  • 5. Завершение работы.
  • Microsoft Excel – это популярная офисная программа из линейки Microsoft Office.
    • Что собой представляет программа Microsoft Excel?
  • Что из себя представляет программа Excel

Чем примечателен «Word»?

«Microsoft Word»

«Microsoft Word» является текстовым редактором, который на сегодняшний день превосходит все аналогичные программы для составления текста. Программа поможет вам создать текст, отредактировать его по вашему вкусу и сохранить на компьютере для дальнейшего чтения. Причем, режим чтения здесь можно устанавливать дополнительно, тем самым исключать возможность исправлять или удалять информацию.

Так что же именно можно написать с помощью «Word»? С помощью «Word» вы создадите любые статьи, научные доклады, заметки, списки (таблицы, прайс-листы), а также сможете читать скачанные электронные книги (вместе с иллюстрациями) или просматривать качественные изображения.

Редактор «Word» используют самые разные люди от простых пользователей ПК до ученых и бизнесменов. В документе «Word» текст удобно редактируется: делайте любые красные строки, выравнивайте текст по шаблону, создавайте документ строго в соответствии с требованиями делопроизводства. В итоге, полученный документ можно распечатать на принтере и использовать везде, где вам необходимо.

Трудно описать все возможности программы в одном маленьком обзоре. Мы еще не сказали про возможность нумеровать страницы, если вы составляете большие тексты или пишете книгу. Если вы хотите придать шрифту красивый стиль, изменить его размеры, написать курсивом, выделить заголовки и подзаголовки – то пожалуйста! Вам нужно построить схему или диаграмму? Нет проблем! Редактор «Word» поможет вам во всем этом.

Что можно сказать об «Excel»?

«Microsoft Excel»

«Microsoft Excel» является многофункциональным и универсальным табличным редактором, хотя составление и редактирование таблиц – это еще не единственные его возможности. «Excel» действительно будет полезен самым продвинутым пользователям – с его помощью вы будете создавать базы данных, осуществлять сложные вычисления, делать различные прогнозы и анализы. Программа значительно упростит и ускорит вашу работу, а также расширит возможности для предпринимаемых действий.

В общем, программа «Excel» подойдет для ведения:

  • Бухгалтерского учета
  • Экономической и финансовой аналитики
  • Научной деятельности различного рода
  • Исследований: социологических, маркетинговых и прочих
  • Деятельности в банковской сфере
  • Копирайтинга и рерайтинга в Интернете
  • Базы данных

Если вы менеджер или сотрудник офиса (тем более со стажем), то для работы в «Excel» и осуществления каких-либо вышеуказанных задач вам потребуются лишь базовые знания по владению данным табличным редактором. Что касается простых пользователей компьютеров, то здесь, конечно, необходимо быть более «продвинутыми», нежели все обычные пользователи. Но во втором случае человек не потратит свое время зря, а наоборот, только заложит фундамент для своего будущего трудоустройства.

Чем отличаются «Excel» и «Word» друг от друга и какая среди этих программ в «Microsoft Office» лучше?

Что лучше «Excel» или «Word»?

Итак, мы подошли к самому главному – к сравнению двух редакторов: «Excel» и «Word». Судя по тому, что мы узнали выше, отличия в них имеются.

«Word» — редактор, в котором вы имеете возможность составлять преимущественно тексты. Вы будете работать над текстом, используя все возможности редактирования при этом: отступы, сноски, заголовки, подзаголовки, стиль шрифта, нумерацию страниц и так далее. Создавать таблицы здесь, конечно, тоже можно, но не на таком профессиональном уровне, как в «Excel».

«Excel», в свою очередь, является профессиональным инструментом для составления таблиц и всего, что с ними связано. Что лучше «Excel» и «Word» — вопрос не корректный. Эти программы специализируются каждая на своем.

Обе они очень полезны для работы в своей сфере деятельности. И обе эти программы требуют определенных навыков и знаний для их использования, хотя кому-то будет проще и полезнее освоить что-то свое. Но, в целом, оба этих редактора в комплексе никогда не помешают вам, если вы бизнесмен, ученый, сотрудник офиса, бухгалтер, копирайтер и т.д.

>Практическая работа №1 Знакомство с Microsoft Excel

Для создания таблицы и дальнейшего её использования вы должны уметь вводить данные в ячейки. Существует несколько типов данных применяемых для работы в Excel:

  • текстовые;

  • числовые;

  • даты;

  • времени;

  • формулы;

  • функции;

Текстовые данные могут содержать практически любые символы. По умолчанию вводимый в ячейку текст выравнивается по левому краю.

Чтобы ввести текст, выполните следующие действия:

  • Щелкните на ячейке, в которую вы собираетесь вводить текст.

  • Наберите его. Текст появляется в ячейке и строке формул.

  • Нажмите Enter.

  • Если вы сделали ошибку, щелкните на строке формул и отредактируйте текст.

Ввод числовых данных

Числовые значения могут содержать только цифры от 0 до 9 и специальные символы + – E e ( ) . , $ % /

Чтобы ввести числовые данные, сделайте следующее:

  • Активизируйте необходимую ячейку.

  • Введите данные. Используя числовой формат, для введения отрицательного числа поставьте перед ним минус или заключите его в скобки. При введении дробей пользуйтесь либо десятичной дробью (0,…), либо натуральной (например, 1/2).

  • Нажмите Enter. Введенное число автоматически выравнивается по правому краю. Вводимые цифры отображаются в строке формул и в активной ячейке. Мигающая вертикальная черта, которая появляется в строке формул и в активной ячейке, называется точкой вставки (insertion point).

Введение даты и времени

Подобные данные вводятся в самых различных форматах (чтобы увидеть форматы в которых может выводиться дата и время выберите вкладку Главная и вызовите в группе Число диалоговое окно Формат ячеек, на вкладке Число в области Числовые форматы выберите Дата или Время). Когда вы вводите дату в одном из форматов, она преобразуется в целое число, соответствующее этой дате, отсчитанной от 1 января 1900 года. Хотя вы не видите этих целых чисел, они используются Excel для выполнения дальнейших вычислений, производимых с датами.

Чтобы правильно ввести дату и время, соблюдайте следующие инструкции.

  • Щёлкните на интересующей вас ячейке.

  • Наберите данные в понравившемся вам формате. Из специальных символов используйте только дефис (-), косую черту (/), для времени – двоеточие (:).

  • Нажмите Enter. Дата или время выровняются по правому краю.

Маркер заполнения

Обратите внимание на вид указателя мыши, который представляет собой белый толстый крестик. В нижнем правом углу выделенной ячейки имеется маленький черный квадратик, который называется маркером заполнения. Если навести на него указателем мыши то последний примет вид черного тонкого крестика. Потянув мышью за маркер заполнения, например, вниз, можно скопировать содержание в свободную ячейку или во все ячейки столбца, на которые протяните рамочку.

Маркер заполнения позволяет заполнять ячейки таблицы по определенной закономерности. Например, можно заполнить ряд чисел в порядке возрастания или убывания. Элементом заполнения может быть не только число, но и текст. Для этого достаточно выделить две соседние ячейки, указывающие закономерность заполнения, и потянуть маркер заполнения в нужном направлении.

4. Редактирование данных

После введения данных пользователь можете исправить их в самой ячейке и в строке формул.

Чтобы отредактировать данные сделайте следующее:

  • Выделите необходимую ячейку.

  • Щёлкните в строке формул или нажмите клавишу F2 или дважды щёлкните в этой же ячейке. Таким образом, ячейка переходит в режим редактирования (в строке состояния появляется надпись Правка).

  • Нажмите клавиши ß или àдля перемещения курсора по тексту содержимого ячейки. Для удаления расположенного слева от курсора символа используйте клавишу Backspace, а для символа расположенного справа, клавишу Delete. Затем введите недостающие данные.

  • Нажмите клавишу Enter или щёлкните на соответствующей кнопке, расположенной в строке формул для введения в ячейку набранных данных.

  • Если вы передумали и не хотите вводить или сохранять исправления, щёлкните на кнопке Отмена в строке формул или нажмите клавишу Esc.

Выделение ячейки

Прежде чем копировать, перемещать или удалять данные в ячейках, нужно вначале их выделить и только, потом выполнять необходимые операции.

Для выделения одной ячейки просто щёлкните на ней.

Чтобы выделить группу (диапазон) соседних ячеек, щёлкните в левом, верхнем углу группы и, не отпуская кнопки мыши, перетащите её указатель в правый нижний угол, а затем отпустите кнопку.

Копирование данных

При копировании и перемещении данные, с которыми выполняются эти операции, размещаются временно в области памяти, называемой буфер обмена, что позволяет копировать данные в другие области листа, на другой лист или рабочую книгу. При копировании данные остаются в ячейке-источнике и размещаются в указанной вами ячейке-приёмнике.

Копирование данных проводится следующим образом.

  • Выделите ячейку (ячейки), содержимое которой необходимо копировать.

  • Щёлкните на кнопке Копировать, расположенной в группе Буфер обмена на вкладке Главная. При этом содержимое ячейки (ячеек) скопируется в буфер обмена.

  • Выделите первую ячейку, в которую будут копироваться данные, (чтобы скопировать данные на лист другой рабочей книги, перейдите к ней, когда выйдете из текущей книги.)

  • Щёлкните на кнопке Вставить, расположенной в группе Буфер обмена на вкладке Главная. Данные появятся в выбранной вами ячейке.

Одни и те же данные можно копировать в различные области, многократно повторяя операцию Вставить.

Перетаскивание данных

Быстрее можно копировать данные, просто перетаскивая их с помощью мыши. Выделите ячейки, которые необходимо копировать, нажмите и удерживайте клавишу Ctrl, а затем перетащите рамку выделенного диапазона ячеек в нужное место. После того как вы отпустите кнопку мыши, данные скопируются. (Если вы забыли нажать клавишу Ctrl при перетаскивании, то данные не скопируются, а переместятся.) Чтобы вставить данные между указанными ячейками, при перетаскивании удерживайте нажатыми клавиши Ctrl+Shift.

Перемещение данных

Операция перемещения данных очень похожа на копирование. Различие лишь в том, что в первом случае данные удаляются из ячейки-источника, а во втором — остаются.

Перемещение данных выполняется следующим образом:

  • Выделите интересующие вас ячейки.

  • Щёлкните на кнопке Вырезать.

  • Выделите первую ячейку, в которую хотите переместить данные. Для перемещения данных на другой рабочий лист просто перейдите на него.

  • Щёлкните на кнопке Вставить.

5. Завершение работы.

Для того чтобы завершить работу с Excel необходимо выполнить следующие действия:

  • либо щёлкнуть на кнопке в верхнем правом углу окна программы;

  • либо выбрать Файл→ Выход.

  • либо открыть системное меню нажав на кнопку , расположенную в левом верхнем углу окна программы и выбрать Закрыть;

  • либо нажать сочетание клавиш Alt+F4

  1. В папке Мои документы создайте папку со своим именем (если она еще не создана).

  2. Запустите Microsoft Excel.

  3. Выполните задания приведенные ниже.

Задание 1.

  1. В ячейку А1 введите число 5, в ячейке А2 число 2.

  2. Выделите ячейки А1 и А2, потяните Маркер заполнения вниз до ячейки А10. Запишите в тетрадь что получилось.

  3. В ячейке В2 наберите слово «январь», потяните маркер заполнения вправо до ячейки К2. Запишите в тетрадь что получилось.

  4. Создайте собственный список, например список состоящий из фамилий учащихся вашего класса (создание собственных списков: Excel 2010 — Файл→Параметры→Дополнительно→группа Общие→ Изменить списки, Excel 2003 — Сервис→Параметры→Списки: элементы списка вводятся в столбик).

  5. В любой ячейке наберите любую фамилию из вашего списка и потяните за маркер заполнения. Запишите в тетрадь что получилось?

Задание 2.

  1. Введите в ячейку В1 число 5 и в ячейку С1 число -2.

  2. Выделите ячейку D1 и нажмите на знак = в Строке формул.

  3. Теперь наберите в ней следующую формулу: =(4*B1-C1)/2 (НЕ ВВОДИТЕ АДРЕСА ЯЧЕЕК В ФОРМУЛУ ВРУЧНУЮ!!! Для того чтобы адрес ячйки появился в формул просто щелкните на соответствующей ячейке)

  4. Перемести курсор на любую другую ячейку. Запишите в тетрадь что содержаться в ячейке D1.

  5. Выделите ячейку В1 и наберите другое число, например 3. Перемести курсор на любую другую ячейку. Запишите в тетрадь что произошло с содержимым ячейки D1.

  6. Чтобы просмотреть формулу, которая находится в ячейке, необходимо выделить ту ячейке в которую вводилась формула. Формула появится в Строке формул. Выделите ячейку с числом 7. Запишите в тетрадь что отображается в Строке формул.

Задание 3.

Excel позволяет автоматически просуммировать содержание сразу нескольких ячеек. Для того чтобы просуммировать числа в столбце или строке из нескольких ячеек необходимо:

  • выделить ячейку, в которой вычисляется сумма, щелкнуть мышью по кнопке Автосумма на Главная→Редактирование (Excel 2003 по кнопке Автосумма на Стандартной панели инструментов):

  • выделить нужный интервал ячеек, содержащих числа (это и будет областью суммирования);

  • Если необходимо просуммировать содержимое прямоугольного блока ячеек, то следует выполнить следующие действия:

  • выделить ту ячейку, в которую нужно будет поместить результат;

  • нажать мышью на пиктограмму суммирования;

  • выделить прямоугольный блок ячеек с числами, которые требуется просуммировать;

  • нажать клавишу Enter.

Если в области суммирования в одной из ячеек окажется текст, или ячейка окажется пустой, то Excel пропустит эти ячейки, а просуммирует только числа.

Выполните задание.

  1. Наберите в ячейках столбца Е числа 24, 15, 55, 34, 98.

  2. Выделите ячейку под последним числом и нажмите мышью на пиктограмму суммирования.

  3. Сумма чисел этих ячеек должна появится в выделенной ячейке.

Задание 4

На Листе2 создайте таблицу «Расходы предприятия за квартал» согласно алгоритму!!!

Алгоритм выполнения задания

Ввод названия таблицы

  1. В ячейку А1 введите название таблицы. Выделите диапазон А1:F1 и на пиктограмме(объединить и поместить в центре) на Главная→Выравнивание (Excel 2003 на панели Форматирование).

Ввод и оформление шапки

  1. Выделите диапазон А2:F2, выберите Главная→ Выравнивание→ Диалоговое окно «Формат ячеек» (Excel 2003 команду Формат→Ячейки→ вкладка Выравнивание) и установите флажок переносить по словам для размещения текста в несколько строк. Выберите варианты вертикального и горизонтального выравнивания по центру. Завершите работу в окне кнопкою ОК.

  2. Введите в каждую ячейку текст соответствующего заголовка столбца. Если текст выглядит не так, как на рисунке, измените размеры ячеек. При заполнении ячеек B2, C2, D2 достаточно ввести текст в ячейку B2, а, затем воспользовавшись маркером автозаполнения автоматически заполнить следующие ячейки.

Ввод и оформление боковика

  1. Выделите диапазон А3:А7, выберите Главная→ Выравнивание→ Диалоговое окно «Формат ячеек» (Excel 2003 команду Формат→Ячейки→ вкладка Выравнивание) и установите флажок переносить по словам для размещения текста в несколько строк. Выберите варианты вертикального выравнивания – по центру, горизонтального – по левому краю. Завершите работу в окне кнопкой ОК

  2. Введите в каждую ячейку текст соответствующего названия строки

Ввод данных

  1. Выделите диапазон В3:F7, выберите Главная→Число→Диалоговое окно «Формат ячеек» (Excel 2003 команду Формат→Ячейки→ вкладка Число) и установите для выделенных ячеек денежный формат с двумя десятичными знаками, обозначение денежной единицы – р.

  2. Введите числа (дробную часть числа, пробелы и наименование денежной единицы вводить не нужно!).

  3. Выполните повторное сохранение.

Завершение оформления таблицы

Чтобы заголовок, шапка и боковик таблицы отличались от данных, выберите для них соответствующий шрифт, размер и начертание. Выделите таблицу и выполните ее обрамление, выберите команду Главная→Ячейки→Формат→Формат ячеек→Вкладка Граница (Excel 2003 Формат→Ячейки→вкладка Граница), можно сделать заливку ячеек (вкладка Заливка)

Вычисления в таблице

Выполните задание 4

  1. В ячейку Е3 введите формулу для вычисления среднемесячной суммы расходов на гос.налоги.

  1. Выполните групповое заполнение ячеек Е3:Е6 формулой, для этого навести указатель мыши в нижний правый угол ячейки. Курсор примет вид черного крестика и протянуть его до последней ячейки диапазона.

  2. В ячейку F3 введите формулу для вычисления суммы расходов на государственные налоги за квартал.

  1. Выполните групповое заполнение формулой ячеек F3: F6

  2. В ячейках B7:D7, F7 получите суммарные расходы по месяцам и за квартал.

  3. Переименуйте Лист 2 в Расходы предприятия за квартал (щелчок правой кнопкой мыши на листе Лист2, выбрать пункт Переименовать).

  4. Выполните повторное сохранение рабочей книги.

  5. Перейдите на Лист 3, назовите его Крупнейшие озера мира (аналогично п.6)

  6. Создайте таблицу «Крупнейшие озера мира»

  1. Найти глубину самого мелкого озера, площадь самого обширного озера и среднюю высоту озер над уровнем моря.

Чтобы воспользоваться встроенными функциями необходимо выбрать Формулы → Библиотека функций → кнопка (Excel 2003 панель инструментов Стандартная или в строке формул щелкнуть на значке ) и выбрать соответствующую функцию:

  1. Для нахождения минимальной глубины нужно щелкнуть по ячейке С10 и выбрать функцию МИН

  2. Для нахождения максимальной площади нужно щелкнуть по ячейке В11 и выбрать функцию МАКС

  3. Для нахождения средней высоты над уровнем моря нужно щелкнуть по ячейке D12 и выбрать функцию СРЗНАЧ.

  4. Сохраните таблицу в своей папке с именем Озера.xls.

  5. Завершите работу с Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel – это популярная офисная программа из линейки Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Excel необходим для составления разнообразных таблиц, графиков и диаграмм, а также для проведения математических расчетов (вычисление, умножение, расчет простых и сложных функций и т.д.).
В первую очередь Microsoft Excel удобен для экономистов и бухгалтеров, потому что позволяет создавать отчеты (таблицы) и производить даже сложные арифметические расчеты. Microsoft Excel можно назвать автоматическим калькулятором с множеством функций и возможностей. Для того чтобы пользоваться данной программой, Вам не обязательно быть гением и изучать все ее возможности. Мы научимся базовым знаниям работы в данной программе и рассмотрим, как в ней производятся различные вычисления.

Microsoft Excel

Что собой представляет программа Microsoft Excel?

Одна огромная таблица, которую можно очертить и внести в нее необходимые данные. Используя функции программы по назначению, Вы сможете в одной – двух ячейках произвести сложный расчет.
Большинство людей ошибочно думает, что основная функция Microsoft Excel – создание таблиц. Это вовсе не так. Не стоит судить о книге по обложке. Основная функция программы Microsoft Excel – произведение математических вычислений.
Microsoft Excel несколько отличается от своего собрата из этого же пакета документов – Word-а. Если в ворде все просто и понятно, то в Excel перед нами появляется размеченный на ячейки лист. Первоначально для работы пользователю доступна одна книга, содержащая три листа. Новые листы можно добавлять, а также редактировать и удалять уже существующие.
На пересечении строки и столбца располагается ячейка, в ней-то Вы и будете печатать. Для того чтобы начать печатать в Excel, кликните в любую ячейку левой кнопкой мышки два раза, и можете начать вводить нужную информацию.
Увы, отдельно скачать Microsoft Excel нельзя. Только в составе пакета Microsoft Office, который доступен по .

Что из себя представляет программа Excel

Программа Microsoft Excel представляет из себя большую таблицу, в которую можно вносить данные, то есть печатать слова и цифры. Также, используя функции этой программы, можно производить с цифрами разные манипуляции (складывать, вычитать, умножать, делить и многое другое).

Многие думают, что Excel – это только таблицы. То есть они убеждены, что все таблицы на компьютере составляются только в этой программе. Это не совсем верно.

Да, действительно, Excel представляет из себя таблицу. Но эта программа нужна, в первую очередь, для вычислений. Если требуется не только расчертить таблицу со словами и цифрами, но еще и произвести с цифрами какие-либо действия (сложить, умножить, вычислить процент и т.д), то тогда Вам нужно воспользоваться программой Microsoft Excel. А если же Вам нужно составить таблицу без вычислений, то есть ввести уже готовые данные, то быстрее и удобнее это сделать в программе Microsoft Word.

Если сравнивать программу Microsoft Excel с программой Microsoft Word, то Excel, конечно, сложнее. И лучше начинать работать в этой программе после того, как освоите Word. Чтобы изучить Excel досконально, потребуется немало времени. Но, как показывает практика, большинству для работы нужно всего-то «научиться считать». То есть прочитать и проработать два-три урока этого раздела.

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What is Excel?

What is Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program available in the Microsoft Office Package. MS Excel is used to create Worksheets (spreadsheets) to store and organize data in a table format.

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used software application in the world. Excel have the Powerful Tools and Functions, using it for wide verity of applications across the global IT Companies. It is easy to enter the data, read and manipulate the data. Excel stores the data in a table format in Rows and Columns.

Here is a screen-shot of a Microsoft Excel File:

Microsoft Excel

  • What is Excel in Computer?
  • What is Excel Used for?
  • Where Excel is Used?
  • Features of MS Excel:
    • Key Components:
    • Usage
    • Industries
    • Interface
    • Data Analysis
    • Data Visualization
    • Templates
    • Enhancing Excel Features
    • Programming Language
    • Macros
    • Add-ins
    • Integration with Other Office Applications:
    • Security Features
    • Resource and Support Communities:
    • Limitations
    • Data security and privacy
    • Data accuracy and integrity
    • Alternative Applications
    • Conclusion
  • Excel Objects and Definitions
    • What is Excel Ribbon?
    • What is Excel Workbook?
    • What is Excel Worksheet?
    • What is Excel Range?
    • What is Excel Cell?
    • What is Excel Row?
    • What is Excel Column?
    • What are Excel Macros?
    • What is Excel VLookUp?

What is Excel in Computer?

In computer terms, Excel is a spreadsheet application in Microsoft Office Pack. It is one of the most using Applications in business industries. We can store any kind of the data in the spreadsheets in the Excel Range or Excel Cells. We can also insert Images, Shapes, Charts, Pivot Tables in the Excel Sheets to understand the data.

What is Excel Used for?

Microsoft Excel used for storing the data, processing the data, analyzing and presenting the data.

  • We can enter data in Strings, Dates or Numerical type of Data in the Excel Cells and Save the Files for future reference
  • We can use verity of formulas available in Excel to perform calculations
  • We can Develop Tools and Dashboards
  • We can Interact with Other Applications
  • We can connect to verity of Data Bases
  • We can represent data in Charts
  • We can drill down and analyze the data using Pivot Tables

Read More Uses

Where Excel is Used?

Microsoft Excel used in almost all industries. Here are the some of the real-time Excel Using industries and domains:

  • Financial sector is excessively using to perform different kind of calculations.
  • Analytical professional use Excel almost everyday for applying the basic analytical techniques and tools.
  • Banking Sector use to understand the Customer
  • Retail Associates uses for analyzing the POS data to check the change and trend in sales
  • Reporting Analysts uses for generating Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Reports.
  • Healthcare Teams uses for performing the longitudinal data analysis.
  • Market Research Analysts uses for finding the frequencies and cumulative aggregates.
  • VBA Developers uses for developing the Office Applications, Tools, Office Add-ins and Dashboards.

Features of MS Excel:

The following features of Excel made the Excel as most widely using application:

  • Graphical Features of Excel

    Excel have verity of the graphical features to represent the data in Charts and pictorial format. For Example, Charts, Shapes, Smart Arts, Clip Arts, Pictures.

  • Data Base Features of Excel

    Excel can be used as data base and perform of verity of data operations. For example, Pivot Tables, Slicers, Tables, Spark lines, Database, Sorting, Filtering, Data Validation, Grouping, etc.

  • Functional Features of Excel

    Excel Tools and Functions will help to perform powerful calculations and enhance the Excel Application Features. For example, Formulas, VBA Macros, Add-ins, Hyperlinks, Conditional Formatting, Spell Check, Protection, etc.

Key Components:

Excel is a spreadsheet software developed by Microsoft that is used to perform calculations, data analysis, and data visualization. Some of the key components of Excel include:

  • Workbook: A workbook is the main file that contains one or more worksheets where you can enter data, perform calculations, and create charts and graphs.
  • Worksheet: A worksheet is a single spreadsheet within a workbook that consists of rows, columns, and cells.
  • Cell: A cell is a rectangular box in a worksheet where you can enter data, formulas, and functions.
  • Range: A group of adjacent cells, which can be selected and formatted together.
  • Chart: A chart is a visual representation of data in a worksheet that can help you to identify patterns and trends.
  • PivotTable: A PivotTable is a powerful tool that allows you to summarize and analyze large amounts of data quickly and easily.
  • Sparklines: Sparklines are small, simple charts that are used to show trends in data over time.
  • Ribbon: The Ribbon is a graphical user interface that contains all the tools and commands you need to work with Excel. It is organized into tabs, which are further divided into groups of related commands.
  • Quick Access Toolbar: The Quick Access Toolbar is a customizable toolbar that provides quick access to frequently used commands.
  • Name box: The box located to the left of the formula bar, which displays the reference of the selected cell or range.
  • Solver: Solver is an add-in tool that allows you to find the optimal solution to a problem by changing the values of certain variables.
  • Goal Seek: Goal Seek is a tool that allows you to determine the value of a variable that will achieve a certain goal in a formula.
  • Scenario Manager: Scenario Manager is a tool that allows you to create and compare different scenarios for a worksheet by changing the input values of certain variables.
  • Power Query: Power Query is a tool that allows you to transform and analyze large amounts of data from various sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, and web pages.
  • Power Pivot: Power Pivot is an add-in tool that allows you to create advanced data models and perform complex data analysis using large amounts of data.
  • Data Tables: Data Tables are tools that allow you to calculate multiple results based on different sets of input values for one or more formulas.
  • Web Queries: Web Queries are tools that allow you to import data from a website directly into Excel, making it easier to collect and analyze data from the internet.
  • Get & Transform: Get & Transform is a feature that allows you to connect to various data sources, transform and reshape data, and load it into Excel for analysis and reporting.
  • Freeze Panes: Freeze Panes is a feature that allows you to keep certain rows or columns visible as you scroll through a worksheet, making it easier to view and analyze large amounts of data.
  • Collaboration Tools: Excel also provides various collaboration tools that allow multiple users to work on the same worksheet simultaneously, such as shared workbooks and co-authoring.
  • Protect Workbook/Worksheet: Protect Workbook/Worksheet is a feature that allows you to restrict access to certain parts of a workbook or worksheet by setting password protection, so that only authorized users can view or edit the data.
  • Error Checking: Error Checking is a feature that allows you to identify and correct errors in your formulas and functions, which can help to ensure data accuracy.
  • Templates: Excel Templates are pre-designed spreadsheets that you can use to quickly create different types of documents, such as budgets, calendars, and invoices.
  • Macro: A macro is a set of instructions that automate repetitive tasks in Excel.
  • Office Add-ins: Office Add-ins are third-party tools that you can install in Excel to extend its functionality, such as data connectors, visualization tools, and productivity apps.
  • Merge cells: A tool that allows you to combine multiple cells into a single, larger cell.
  • Autofill: A tool that allows you to quickly fill a series of cells with a pattern or sequence of data.
  • Data Validation: Data Validation is a feature that allows you to restrict the type of data that can be entered into a cell. This can help to ensure data accuracy and consistency.
  • Custom Number Formats: Custom Number Formats are tools that allow you to create your own number formats, making it easier to display numbers in a way that is more meaningful for your data.
  • Text to Columns: Text to Columns is a feature that allows you to split data in a column into multiple columns based on a delimiter, such as a comma or space.
  • Flash Fill: Flash Fill is a tool that allows you to automatically fill in data based on a pattern that you specify, making it easier to clean and transform data.
  • Print Options: Excel also provides various print options that allow you to customize the layout and formatting of your worksheet before printing, such as page orientation, margins, and scaling.
  • Page Layout View: Page Layout View is a feature that allows you to view your worksheet as it will appear when printed, making it easier to adjust the layout and formatting.
  • Filter: A tool that allows you to display only specific data in a worksheet, based on certain criteria.
  • Sort: A tool that allows you to arrange data in a worksheet in ascending or descending order, based on certain criteria.
  • Function: A function is a built-in formula that performs a specific calculation or task, such as SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, and MIN.
  • Formula: A formula is an equation that performs a calculation in a cell based on the values in other cells.
  • Formula bar: The area at the top of the Excel window where you can view and edit the contents of a selected cell.
  • Cell reference: A way to identify a cell in a worksheet, which is a combination of the column letter and row number, such as A1, B2, etc.
  • Relative reference: A cell reference that changes when you copy or move a formula to a different location in a worksheet.
  • Absolute reference: A cell reference that remains constant when you copy or move a formula to a different location in a worksheet, which is denoted by a dollar sign ($).
  • Mixed reference: A cell reference that has both absolute and relative components, which is denoted by a dollar sign ($) before the column or row reference.
  • Dynamic Arrays: Dynamic Arrays are a new feature in Excel that allow you to create formulas that automatically expand or shrink to fit the size of the data, making it easier to perform calculations on large datasets.
  • Formula auditing: A tool that allows you to trace the relationships between cells and formulas in a worksheet, which can help you identify errors and troubleshoot problems.

Usage

Excel is a widely used spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications and is used to organize, analyse, and manipulate data. Excel allows users to create, format, and manipulate tables of numerical and textual data in rows and columns.

Users can perform various mathematical and statistical calculations on the data, create charts and graphs to visualize the data, and use formulas and functions to automate calculations and analysis. Excel also provides various tools and features for data analysis, such as sorting, filtering, and pivot tables, that allow users to extract insights quickly and easily from large data sets.

Industries

Excel can be used in a variety of industries and professions, including finance, accounting, marketing, and research. It is often used for budgeting, financial forecasting, tracking expenses, inventory management, and analyzing sales data.

Interface

Excel has a user-friendly interface and is widely available on Windows and Mac OS systems. Additionally, Excel supports collaboration features, such as sharing workbooks and co-authoring, which allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet simultaneously.

Data Analysis

Another important feature of Excel is its ability to handle large amounts of data. Excel can handle millions of rows of data and thousands of columns, making it ideal for working with large datasets. Additionally, Excel provides several features for managing large datasets, such as sorting, filtering, and searching.

Excel also allows users to collaborate on workbooks in real-time using cloud-based solutions like OneDrive or SharePoint. This feature makes it easy for teams to work on the same document simultaneously and ensures that everyone is working with the most up-to-date version of the data.

Data Visualization

Excel also provides various tools for data visualization, which make it easy to create charts, graphs, and other visualizations that help to communicate data insights. With features like sparklines and conditional formatting, users can quickly identify trends and patterns in data without the need for complex analysis.

Overall, Excel is an essential tool for anyone who works with data. Its extensive feature set, customizability, and ease of use make it an ideal choice for businesses, researchers, educators, and individuals. Whether you are working with small datasets or large, Excel can help you manage and analyze your data efficiently, saving you time and improving your productivity.

Templates

Excel also provides various templates that help users get started with common tasks, such as budgeting, invoicing, and project management. These templates can be customized to meet specific needs, making it easy for users to create professional-looking spreadsheets without starting from scratch.

Enhancing Excel Features

Another way to overcome some of the limitations of Excel is to use Excel add-ins or plugins that provide additional features and capabilities. There are many add-ins available that can help users automate tasks, perform advanced analysis, and enhance visualization.

  • For example, the Analysis ToolPak add-in provides a wide range of statistical and engineering functions, while the Power Query add-in allows users to extract and transform data from a variety of sources. The Solver add-in can help users find optimal solutions for complex problems, while the Power Pivot add-in provides advanced data modeling and analysis capabilities.
  • In addition to add-ins, users can also consider using Excel templates or pre-built solutions that provide pre-configured spreadsheets and models for specific use cases. There are many templates available for financial modeling, budgeting, project management, and other applications. These templates can help users save time and avoid errors by providing pre-built formulas and templates for common tasks.

Finally, to improve collaboration and data sharing, users can consider using cloud-based collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams or SharePoint. These platforms allow users to share and collaborate on Excel spreadsheets in real-time, providing a more efficient and collaborative workflow.

Programming Language

Excel also has a programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) that allows users to automate repetitive tasks and create custom solutions. With VBA, users can create macros, which are small programs that automate common tasks, such as formatting data or generating reports.

VBA also provides access to many of Excel’s built-in features, as well as the ability to create custom functions and procedures. This allows users to create highly customized solutions that can save time and increase efficiency.

Macros

In addition to add-ins, templates, and complementary tools, users can also consider using Excel macros to automate repetitive tasks and improve productivity. Macros are small programs written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that can be used to automate tasks and add custom functionality to Excel.

  • With macros, users can automate tasks such as formatting, data entry, and data cleaning, as well as perform more advanced tasks such as data analysis and modeling. Macros can also be used to create custom functions and formulas that can be reused in other Excel spreadsheets.
  • To create macros, users need to have a basic understanding of VBA programming. Excel provides a built-in macro recorder that allows users to record their actions and convert them into VBA code. Users can also write their own code from scratch or modify existing code to create more complex macros.
  • Macros can be saved as part of the Excel spreadsheet or as a separate file, and can be easily shared with other users. However, it is important to be cautious when using macros as they can potentially contain malicious code that can harm your computer or compromise your data.
  • Excel VBA Macros can be a powerful tool for automating tasks and improving productivity in Excel. By learning how to write and use macros, users can save time and improve their workflow, and add custom functionality to Excel spreadsheets. However, it is important to be careful when using macros, and to ensure that they come from a trusted source and do not contain any malicious code.

Add-ins

In addition to its core features, Excel also supports a wide range of add-ins and third-party applications that can further extend its functionality. For example, users can install add-ins to enhance data visualization, automate data entry, or integrate Excel with other software tools.

Integration with Other Office Applications:

One of the advantages of Excel is its compatibility with other Microsoft Office applications, such as Word and PowerPoint. Excel data can easily be copied and pasted into these applications, allowing users to create professional-looking documents and presentations that include charts, tables, and graphs.

Excel also supports a wide range of file formats, including CSV, TXT, XML, and HTML, making it easy to share data with other applications or import data from external sources. Additionally, Excel can connect to external data sources such as SQL databases, SharePoint lists, and OData feeds, allowing users to work with data from a wide range of sources.

Security Features

Excel also provides various security features, such as password protection and file encryption, that help to keep data safe and secure. This is especially important when working with sensitive or confidential information.

Finally, Excel is widely supported by third-party tools and services, which can further enhance its capabilities. For example, there are many add-ins and plug-ins available that provide additional functionality, such as data analysis tools, charting software, and collaboration platforms.

In conclusion, Excel is a powerful and versatile tool that provides many features and capabilities for managing and analyzing  data. Whether you are a business owner, financial analyst, researcher, or student, Excel can help you work with data more efficiently and effectively. Its ease of use, customizability, and compatibility with other applications make it an ideal choice for anyone who works with data on a regular basis.

Resource and Support Communities:

Excel’s popularity has led to the development of many resources and support communities, which can help users learn how to use the software effectively. These resources include online tutorials, user forums, and training courses, which can help users become proficient in Excel quickly.

  • Furthermore, Excel’s features are constantly evolving, with new updates being released on a regular basis. These updates often include new tools and functionality that help users work with data more effectively.
  • In addition to its features, Excel’s versatility and wide range of applications make it an essential tool for many industries and professions. For example, Excel is commonly used in finance and accounting for budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling. It is also used in marketing and sales for data analysis, customer segmentation, and campaign tracking.
  • In research, Excel is used for data cleaning, manipulation, and analysis. Excel is also frequently used in education, where it is used to teach data analysis, statistics, and financial modeling.

In summary, Excel is a powerful and versatile tool that provides many features and capabilities for managing and analyzing data. Its ease of use, customizability, compatibility with other applications, and wide range of applications make it an essential tool for many industries and professions. With its continued development and support, Excel is likely to remain a key tool for data management and analysis for years to come.

Limitations

Despite its many advantages, Excel is not without its limitations. One limitation is its ability to handle extremely large datasets. While Excel can handle millions of rows of data, it may become slow and unwieldy with datasets that exceed this limit.

  • Additionally, Excel is not well-suited for complex data modeling and analysis. While it provides many tools and features for data analysis, it may not be the best choice for advanced statistical analysis or machine learning.
  • Another limitation of Excel is its potential for errors. Because it relies on manual data entry and manipulation, it is vulnerable to human errors such as typos and miscalculations. Additionally, its use of cell-based formulas and references can lead to errors when cells are moved or deleted.
  • Finally, Excel’s use of proprietary file formats can make it difficult to share data with users who do not have access to the software. While Excel can save files in a variety of formats, users may need to use specialized software to open or work with these files.
  • While Excel is a powerful and versatile tool for managing and analyzing data, it does have some limitations. Users should be aware of these limitations and choose the appropriate tools and software for their specific needs. Despite its limitations, Excel remains a popular and widely used tool for data management and analysis, and its continued development and support make it a valuable tool for many industries and professions.

Data security and privacy

Another important consideration when working with Excel is data security and privacy. Excel files can contain sensitive and confidential data, such as financial records, personal information, or trade secrets. As such, it is important to take appropriate measures to protect this data from unauthorized access or disclosure.

  • One way to improve data security in Excel is to use password protection. Excel allows users to password-protect their spreadsheets and workbooks, which can prevent unauthorized access or editing. Passwords should be strong and complex, and users should avoid sharing passwords with others or storing them in an insecure location.
  • Another way to improve data security is to restrict access to Excel files. Users can use file permissions to control who has access to their Excel files and what they can do with them. For example, users can set read-only permissions for certain users, or prevent users from copying or printing the file.
  • Users should also be aware of the risks associated with sharing Excel files over email or cloud storage services. Excel files can be intercepted or accessed by unauthorized parties if they are not encrypted or secured properly. To avoid these risks, users can use secure file-sharing services or encrypt their Excel files before sharing them.
  • Finally, users should be aware of privacy laws and regulations that may apply to their use of Excel. For example, certain types of data, such as personal information or medical records, may be subject to specific data protection laws. Users should ensure that they are complying with applicable privacy laws and regulations when working with Excel.

In conclusion, data security and privacy are important considerations when working with Excel. By using password protection, access restrictions, secure file-sharing, and complying with privacy laws, users can protect their sensitive data and ensure that it is not disclosed or accessed by unauthorized parties.

Data accuracy and integrity

Another important consideration when working with Excel is data accuracy and integrity. Excel spreadsheets can be prone to errors, such as data entry mistakes, formula errors, or incorrect formatting. These errors can lead to incorrect analysis, decision-making, or reporting, and can have serious consequences for businesses or organizations.

  • To ensure data accuracy and integrity, users should follow best practices for data entry and management in Excel. This includes using consistent and clear naming conventions for data and columns, validating data as it is entered, using data validation rules to restrict data entry to specific formats or ranges, and using formulas and functions to perform calculations and analysis.
  • Users should also be careful when using copy-and-paste or importing data from external sources, as these actions can introduce errors or inconsistencies in the data. Users should validate and clean data as it is imported, and ensure that data is formatted consistently with the rest of the spreadsheet.
  • Another way to improve data accuracy and integrity is to perform regular checks and audits of Excel spreadsheets. Users can use tools such as Excel’s auditing and error-checking features to identify potential errors or inconsistencies in their data, and correct them before they become serious issues. Users can also use third-party tools or add-ins that provide more advanced auditing and error-checking capabilities.

In conclusion, data accuracy and integrity are critical considerations when working with Excel. By following best practices for data entry and management, validating and cleaning data, performing regular checks and audits, and using tools and add-ins that improve data accuracy and integrity, users can ensure that their Excel spreadsheets are reliable, accurate, and trustworthy.

Alternative Applications

To mitigate some of the limitations of Excel, there are several alternatives and complementary tools that users can consider. For example, users can consider using more advanced data analysis software such as Python, R, or MATLAB, which offer more powerful statistical analysis and machine learning capabilities.

  • Users can also consider using cloud-based data management and analysis tools such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Power BI, which offer collaborative features, more powerful data visualization options, and support for larger datasets.
  • Finally, to ensure compatibility and interoperability with other software and systems, users can consider using open-source or non-proprietary file formats such as CSV or JSON, which can be read and manipulated by a wide range of software tools and platforms.
  • In summary, while Excel remains a valuable tool for data management and analysis, it is important for users to be aware of its limitations and consider using complementary tools and software to meet their specific needs. By combining Excel with other tools and techniques, users can work more efficiently, reduce errors, and extract more value from their data.

Conclusion

Excel is constantly evolving, with new features and capabilities being added with each new version. For example, recent updates have introduced new functions, new chart types, improved data analysis tools, and enhanced collaboration features.

  • Excel is also widely used in data analysis and business intelligence. With features like Power Query and Power Pivot, users can easily connect to external data sources, clean and transform data, and create interactive dashboards and reports.
  • In addition to its business applications, Excel is also used extensively in education, where it is used to teach data analysis, mathematical modeling, and financial analysis.
  • Overall, Excel is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to perform a wide range of tasks. Whether you are a small business owner, financial analyst, researcher, or student, Excel can help you manage and analyse data more efficiently, saving you time and improving your productivity. With its user-friendly interface, extensive feature set, and customizability, Excel is a valuable tool for businesses, professionals, and individuals alike.

In conclusion, while Excel has some limitations, there are many ways to overcome these limitations and enhance its capabilities. By using add-ins, templates, and complementary tools and software, users can work more efficiently, perform advanced analysis, and share data more effectively. With its continued development and support, Excel is likely to remain a key tool for data management and analysis for years to come.

Excel Objects and Definitions

Excel Ribbon

What is Excel Ribbon?

Excel ribbon is the navigation menu in Excel, shows all the Controls and Commands in different Tabs.

Microsoft Excel Workbook

What is Excel Workbook?

Excel Workbook is the Main File which can contain at one or more worksheet or spreadsheets.

What is Excel - Worksheet?

What is Excel Worksheet?

Excel workbook can contain more than one worksheet. It is a spreadsheet with rows, columns and cells.

What is Excel - Range?

What is Excel Range?

Excel range is the worksheet object contains one or more Cells.

Excel Cell

What is Excel Cell?

Cell is an Object of Excel Sheet to enter information. It represents with Column Name followed by Row Number.

What is Excel Rows?

What is Excel Row?

Rows are the Records in Excel Spreadsheet. Excel Rows are represented by row numbers (1,2,3,…).

What is Excel Columns?

What is Excel Column?

Columns are Fields in Excel Spreadsheet. Each Column in a sheet represented with a unique Column Name, starts with Column name A.

What is Excel Macro?

What are Excel Macros?

A Macro is a re usable tiny program which we can save and run to repeat the same action or tasks in Excel.

What is VLOOKUP Function in Excel

What is Excel VLookUp?

VLOOKUP Function in Excel helps to lookup the corresponding values of a Range, Table and Arrays.

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Excel is an electronic spreadsheet program that is used for storing, organizing, and manipulating data.

The information we’ve prepared refers to Microsoft Excel in general and is not limited to any specific version of the program.

What Excel Is Used For

Electronic spreadsheet programs were originally based on paper spreadsheets used for accounting. As such, the basic layout of computerized spreadsheets is the same as the paper ones. Related data is stored in tables — which are a collection of small rectangular boxes or cells organized into rows and columns.

All versions of Excel and other spreadsheet programs can store several spreadsheet pages in a single computer file. The saved computer file is often referred to as a workbook and each page in the workbook is a separate worksheet.

Spreadsheet Cells and Cell References

When you look at the Excel screen — or any other spreadsheet screen — you see a rectangular table or grid of rows and columns.

In newer versions of Excel, each worksheet contains roughly a million rows and more than 16,000 columns, which necessitates an addressing scheme in order to keep track of where data is located.

The horizontal rows are identified by numbers (1, 2, 3) and the vertical columns by letters of the alphabet (A, B, C). For columns beyond 26, columns are identified by two or more letters such as AA, AB, AC or AAA, AAB, etc.

The intersection point between a column and a row is the small rectangular box known as a cell. The cell is the basic unit for storing data in the worksheet, and because each worksheet contains millions of these cells, each one is identified by its cell reference.

A cell reference is a combination of the column letter and the row number such as A3, B6, and AA345. In these cell references, the column letter is always listed first.

Data Types, Formulas, and Functions

The types of data that a cell can hold include:

  • Numbers
  • Text
  • Dates and times
  • Boolean values
  • Formulas

Formulas are used for calculations — usually incorporating data contained in other cells. These cells, however, may be located on different worksheets or in different workbooks.

Creating a formula starts by entering the equal sign in the cell where you want the answer displayed. Formulas can also include cell references to the location of data and one or more spreadsheet functions.

Functions in Excel and other electronic spreadsheets are built-in formulas that are designed to simplify carrying out a wide range of calculations – from common operations such as entering the date or time to more complex ones such as finding specific information located in large tables of data.

Excel and Financial Data

Spreadsheets are often used to store financial data. Formulas and functions that are used on this type of data include:

  • Performing basic mathematical operations such as summing columns or rows of numbers
  • Finding values such as profit or loss
  • Calculating repayment plans for loans or mortgages
  • Finding the average, maximum, minimum and other statistical values in a specified range of data
  • Carrying out What-If analysis on data, where variables are modified one at a time to see how the change affects other data, such as expenses and profits

Excel’s Other Uses

Other common operations that Excel can be used for include:

  • Graphing or charting data to assist users in identifying data trends
  • Formatting data to make important data easy to find and understand
  • Printing data and charts for use in reports
  • Sorting and filtering data to find specific information
  • Linking worksheet data and charts for use in other programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Word
  • Importing data from database programs for analysis

Spreadsheets were the original «killer apps» for personal computers because of their ability to compile and make sense of information. Early spreadsheet programs such as VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 were largely responsible for the growth in popularity of computers like the Apple II and the IBM PC as a business tool.

Excel Alternatives

Other current spreadsheet programs that are available for use include:

  • Google Sheets: A free, web-based spreadsheet program
  • Excel Online: A free, scaled-down, web-based version of Excel
  • Open Office Calc: A free, downloadable spreadsheet program.

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What is Excel?

Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft and a component of its Office product group for business applications. Microsoft Excel enables users to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet.

By organizing data using software like Excel, data analysts and other users can make information easier to view as data is added or changed. Excel contains a large number of boxes called cells that are ordered in rows and columns. Data is placed in these cells.  

Excel is a part of the Microsoft Office and Office 365 suites and is compatible with other applications in the Office suite. The spreadsheet software is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS platforms.

Common Excel use cases

Excel is most commonly used in business settings. For example, it is used in business analysis, human resource management, operations management and performance reporting. Excel uses a large collection of cells formatted to organize and manipulate data and solve mathematical functions. Users can arrange data in the spreadsheet using graphing tools, pivot tables and formulas. The spreadsheet application also has a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.

Organizations use Microsoft Excel for the following:

  • collection and verification of business data;
  • business analysis;
  • data entry and storage;
  • data analysis;
  • performance reporting;
  • strategic analysis;
  • accounting and budgeting;
  • administrative and managerial management;
  • account management;
  • project management; and
  • office administration.

Excel terminology and components

Excel has its own terminology for its components, which new users may not immediately find understandable. Some of these terms and components include the following:

  • Cell. A user enters data into a cell, which is the intersection of a column and row.  
  • Cell reference. This is the set of coordinates where a cell is located. Rows are horizontal and numbered whereas columns are vertical and assigned a letter.
  • Active cell. This is the currently selected cell, outlined by a green box.
  • Workbook. This is an Excel file that contains one or more worksheets.
  • Worksheet. These are the different documents nested within a Workbook.
  • Worksheet tab. These are the tabs at the bottom left of the spreadsheet.
  • Column and row headings. These are the numbered and lettered cells located just outside of the columns and rows. Selecting a header highlights the entire row or column.
  • Formula. Formulas are mathematical equations, cell references or functions that can be placed inside a cell to produce a value. Formulas must start with an equal «=» sign.
  • Formula bar. This is the long input bar that is used to enter values or formulas in cells. It is located at the top of the worksheet, next to the «fx» label.
  • Address bar. This bar located to the left of the formula bar shows the number and letter coordinates of an active cell. 
  • Filter. These are rules a user can employ to select what rows in a worksheet to display. This option is located on the top right of the home bar under «Sort & Filter.» An auto filter option can be selected to show rows that match specific values.
  • AutoFill. This feature enables users to copy data to more than one cell automatically. With two or more cells in a series, a user can select both cells and drag the bottom right corner down to autofill the rest of the cells.
  • AutoSum. This feature enables users to add multiple values. Users can select the cells they want to add and press the Alt and Equal keys. There is also a button to enable this feature on the top right of the home page, above «Fill» and to the left of «Sort & Filter.»
  • PivotTable. This data summarization tool sorts and calculates data automatically. This is located under the insert tab on the far left.
  • PivotChart. This chart acts as a visual aid to the PivotTable, providing graph representations of the data. It is located under the middle of the insert page, next to maps.
  • Source data. This is the information that is used to create a PivotTable.

Key aspects of Excel.

This image shows key features of Excel.

Advanced Excel capabilities

More advanced tools in Excel include the following:

  • TREND function. This tool is used to calculate linear trend lines through a set of Y or X values. It can be used for time series trend analysis or projecting future trends. Trendlines can be used on charts.
  • VLOOKUP. The Vertical Lookup, or VLOOKUP function, can be used to search for values in a larger data set and pull that data into a new table. VLOOKUP is a cell input command that looks like =VLOOKUP(). The parentheses include the data the user wants to look up, where to look for it, the column number with the value to return; or optionally, the user can specify an Approximate or Exact match indicated by True or False.
  • Table Array. This is a combination of two or more tables with data and values linked and related to one another. This is part of VLOOKUP.
  • Col_index_num. Another value when creating a table array that specifies the column from where data is being pulled.
  • Range_lookup. This value in VLOOKUP provides information closest to what a user wants to find when nothing matches other variables. This is represented by a true or false label. False gives the exact value a user is looking for and True gives results from a variable data range.
  • MAX and MIN functions. These functions provide the maximum and minimum values from selected data sets. MAX is used to find the maximum value in a function tab and MIN is used to find the minimum value.
  • AND function. This function has more than one criteria set when searching variables. If a variable matches the criteria, the value will be returned as true; if not, it will be returned as false. The input for the function should look like this: =AND (logical1, [logical2], …).

Additional functions for use in Excel include subtract, multiply, divide, count, median, concatenate and other logical functions similar to AND, such as OR.

Excel and XLS files

An XLS file is a spreadsheet file that can be created by Excel or other spreadsheet programs. The file type represents an Excel Binary File format. An XLS file stores data as binary streams — a compound file. Streams and substreams in the file contain information about the content and structure of an Excel workbook.

Versions of Excel after Excel 2007 use XLSX files by default, since it is a more open and structured format. Later versions of Excel still support the creation and reading of XLS files, however. Workbook data can also be exported in formats including PDF, TXT, Hypertext markup language, XPS and XLSX.

Macro-enabled Excel files use the XLSM file extension. In this case, macros are sets of instructions that automate Excel processes. XLSM files are similar to XLM files but are based on the Open XML format found in later Microsoft Office software.

Excel competitors

Even though Excel might be one of the most recognizable spreadsheet programs, other vendors offer competing products. Examples include the following:

  • Google Sheets. Google Sheets is a free competitor to Excel, with similar layouts and features. Users with a Gmail account can access Google Sheets. Google Sheets are saved in the cloud, meaning users can access their spreadsheets from anywhere and on numerous devices. Multiple users can also collaborate on the same spreadsheet.
  • Numbers. Apple’s spreadsheet program comes free with every Mac and provides prebuilt templates, charts and graphs. Numbers excels at graphics and charts, but it does not handle large data sets as well as Microsoft Excel. Numbers is also exclusive for Apple’s devices. But it does enable users to save spreadsheets as Excel files, so a Windows user can still open a Numbers spreadsheet in Excel.
  • Apache OpenOffice Calc. This free open source spreadsheet software features multiple user collaboration; natural language formulas that enable users to create formulas using words; DataPilot, which pulls data from corporate databases; and style and formatting features that enable different cell formatting options. The software uses a different macro programming language than Excel and has fewer chart options. OpenOffice Calc works on Windows and macOS platforms. OpenOffice Calc also uses the Open Document Format as its default, with only limited support for Microsoft’s XLSX format.

Microsoft Excel vs. Google Sheets.

This image compares Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.

History and future of Excel

Microsoft released Excel in 1985 under the name Microsoft Multiplan. Microsoft’s spreadsheet program competed with similar products at the time, including Lotus 1-2-3 from the Lotus Development Corp. Although Lotus 1-2-3 was reportedly the first spreadsheet to introduce cell names and macros, Multiplan used a graphical user interface and enabled users to point and click using a mouse. Multiplan made it easier to manipulate, process and view spreadsheet data.

Initially, Multiplan lost popularity on Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) systems when competing with Lotus 1-2-3. Two years after its initial release, in 1987, Microsoft introduced Excel version 2.0. By 1988, this new version, now on Windows platforms, began to outsell Lotus 1-2-3 and other similar spreadsheet programs.

In 1990, Microsoft released version 3 of Excel, with features such as toolbars, 3D charts, and drawing and outlining capabilities. Version 4 came along two years later and added the auto-fill function. In 1993, version 5 of Excel was released. This version included Visual Basic for Applications macros, which enabled regular tasks to be automated.

One of the next big updates to Excel was version 12, which was released in 2007. This update used a new Ribbon menu system. Improved functions included a SmartArt set of diagrams, better management of named variables and more flexibility for formatting graphs. Excel moved to using the more structured and open XLSX files as well. Version 15 released in 2013 included new tools such as Power View, Power Pivot and Flash Fill. This version also improved multithreading capabilities.

The current version of Excel, version 16, was released in 2019. Since its conception, Microsoft Excel has become one of the most widely used business applications and is often paired with other Microsoft apps such as Word, Outlook and PowerPoint. Although Microsoft no longer updates Excel as different versions, it rolls out new features and updates automatically over time.

Microsoft Excel is arguably one of the most popular spreadsheet applications and has long since played a role in businesses. However, with the popularity of other current spreadsheet software, Excel now has increased competition. The website askwonder.com claims that the collection of apps in Google Suite, which includes Google Sheets, is used by 2 billion users every month, whereas Microsoft Excel has an estimated 750 million to 1.2 billion monthly global users. Google and Microsoft do not publish monthly usage for either spreadsheet program, so it is difficult to estimate values.

Learn more about the different benefits of using Excel for HR in this article.

This was last updated in November 2021


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