Excel - useful facts

A spreadsheet (called a workbook within Excel) is a powerful application which can be used to store, manipulate, calculate and analyse data such as numbers, text and formulae. An analogy can be drawn between a spreadsheet and an accountant’s ledger. A ledger is made up of many pages, each page arranged into a series of rows and columns.

Put simply, a spreadsheet is used to enter numbers and perform simple calculations but the capabilities of Excel extend far beyond this. Excel provides a number of features including:

• Functions for mathematical, financial and other calculations.
• A selection of tools to facilitate “what if” type analyses.
• A Chart Wizard – to produce graphical representations of data held within workbooks.
• Graphics to highlight information in worksheets and charts.
• Database features which enable the sorting, filtering and analysis of information.
• Macros that allow you to automate time - consuming tasks
  

There are many different practical applications for which a spreadsheet can be used. The obvious ones are financial applications, such as maintaining budgets and accounts. Other applications include processing course marks, analyzing results from experiments, and maintaining lists and audits.

Each worksheet contains 256 Columns and 65,526 Rows. This makes it ideal for keeping accounts, amongst other things, for the largest company or for home use.

By default, there are three worksheets in each workbook, but more can easily be added. Simply click Insert, then Worksheet. You can add as many worksheets as you wish, by clicking on Edit, Repeat or by using the CTRL V keystrokes.

Excel is designed to be user-friendly, so in addition to calculating formulas to add, divide, multiply, subtract and calculate averages using the = function, the same result can be achieved by using the Autosum feature