Microsoft Excel Introduction, Installation & Basic Menu Options

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft Corporation for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. Microsoft Excel can perform all the numerical and logical calculations and is often considered as mathematician of the computer. Microsoft Excel is used to prepare tabular format of information. It is nothing but rows and columns wise information. By default Microsoft Excel has sheets and they are called as spreadsheets because if we enter any data into the cells the cells have its own format. Collection of spreadsheets is called as workbook. Microsoft Excel is the most widely used spreadsheet application. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for applications. Now there are different Microsoft Excel versions available and widely in use which are Microsoft Excel 2003, Microsoft Excel 2007 and Microsoft Excel 2010. The extension name or secondary name for an Excel 2003 document is .xls whereas for Excel 2007, 2010 and later versions .xlsx is the extension. Microsoft Excel forms a part of Microsoft Office package. The latest versions are Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows and Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac.

Microsoft Excel Row or Record:

A single object or single person different data is called row or record. Rows are identified by numbers in a worksheet and are numbered from top to bottom along the left column of the worksheet. There are 65536 rows displayed in a single worksheet.

Microsoft Excel Column or Field:

Different objects or persons single information is called column or field. The columns are labeled from left to right and are identified by alphabets. There are 256 columns in a single worksheet. Here are some made simple keyboard shortcuts to navigate between rows and columns:

• Ctrl + → go to last column.
• Ctrl + ← go to starting column A.
• Ctrl + ↓ go to last row.
• Ctrl + ↑ go to starting row.

Microsoft Excel Cell:

The combination of row and column or the inter-junction between row and column is called cell. A cell is the intersection of a row and a column. Cell is identified by the cell reference. For example the first cell is referred to as A1 (column A, row 1). Similarly, F3 is the intersection of column F and row 3. Data and formulas are entered into the cells.

Inserting Cells, Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel

The steps to insert cells, rows and columns are:

1. Select the cells, rows or columns where you need to insert new cells, rows or columns.
2. Select the cells options from the insert menu and the insert dialog box is opened.
3. Select the appropriate option to insert cell, row or column.
4. Click on the OK button.

To insert rows or columns, you can also select relevant options from the insert menu.

Deleting Cells, Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel

The steps to delete a cell or a group of cells:

1. Select the cell. If you want to remove more than one cell, select all the cells by dragging the mouse across the cells while holding down the left mouse button.
2. Select the delete option form the EDIT menu and the delete cells dialog box is displayed. You can select the direction in which the adjoining cells should be moved when the selected cells are deleted. If you select the ‘shift cells left’ option, the cells to the right of the deleted cells are moved left. Selecting ‘shift cells up’ options moves the cells below the deleted cells up. You can also select the entire row or column option to delete the rows and columns
3. Select the appropriate option and click on the OK button to delete the cells.

Navigating the Worksheet in Microsoft Excel

You need to move to any cell directly without scrolling through the entire sheet. You can do this in three ways:

1. Click on the ‘cell reference area’ on the left corner of the worksheet window and enter the cell coordinates. For example, to move to the cell AB1, enter AB1 in the cell reference area. The cursor is positioned on the cell in the AB column and 1^st row.
2. Press F5 to invite the Go To dialog box. Enter the cell coordinates and click on the OK button to move to the desired cell.
3. Select the Find option from the EDIT menu and the Find dialog box is displayed which helps to move to a cell containing the specified value.