MS EXCEL : Introduction

Microsoft Excel is part of the Microsoft Office suite. The whole suite also includes the
following products:
● Word 2010 - a powerful word processing tool.
● Powerpoint 2010 - an intuitive tool used to create great presentations
● Onenote 2010 - a simple program that allows you to gather notes and information in one
place
● Outlook 2010 - a great tool that allows you to manage all your email accounts
● Publisher 2010 - helps you design and publish great looking documents
● Access 2010 - a very powerful database tool

Microsoft's Excel is the de facto standard for spreadsheet software and is an often
indispensable tool for budgeting, financial forecasting and data entry
One of the biggest benefits of Excel is its primary function: The ability to organize large
amounts of data into orderly, logical spreadsheets and charts. With the data organized,
it's a lot easier to analyze and digest, especially when used to create graphs and other
visual data representations.
Excel crunches numbers almost instantly, making batch calculations much easier than
working things out yourself with a calculator. Depending on your understanding and skill with
Excel, the formulas and equations are used to quickly compute both simple and complex
equations using large amounts of data.
As part of Microsoft's Office suite, Excel works with almost every other piece of software in
Office. Excel spreadsheets can be easily added to Word documents and PowerPoint
presentations to create more visually dynamic reports or presentations.

Advantages of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel allows you to manipulate, manage and analyze data helping assist in decision
making and creating efficiencies that will directly affect your bottom line. Whether you’re
using it for business or to help manage personal database and expenses Microsoft Excel gives
you the right tools to enable you to accomplish all your needs.
The advantages of Excel are wide and varied; here are the main advantages:
● Easy and effective comparisons - With the powerful analytical tools included within
Microsoft Excel you have the ability to analyze large amounts of data to discover trends
and patterns that will influence decisions. Microsoft Excel’s graphing capabilities allows
you to summarize your data enhancing your ability to organize and structure your data.
● Powerful analysis of large amounts of data - Recent upgrades to the Excel spreadsheet
enhance your ability to analyze large amounts of data. With powerful filtering, sorting
and search tools you are able to quickly and easily narrow down the criteria that will
assist in your decisions. Combine these tools with the tables, Pivot Tables and Graphs
 you can find the information that you want quickly and easily even if you have hundreds
of thousands of data items. While you will need the latest technology to get the best out
of Microsoft Excel it is scalable and can be used at home on your low powered PC or at
work on your high powered Laptop.
● Working Together - With the advent of the Excel Web App you can now work on
spreadsheets simultaneously with other users. The ability to work together enhances
your ability to streamline processes and allows for ‘brainstorming’ sessions with large
sets of data – the collaboration tools allow you to get the most out of the sharing
capabilities of Microsoft Excel.The added bonus is that as the Excel Worksheet is web
based you can collaborate anywhere – you are no longer tied to your desk but can work
on spreadsheets on the go – this is ideal for a businessman on the go.
● Microsoft Excel Mobile & iPad Apps - With the advent of the tablet and the smart
phone it is now possible to take your worksheets to a client or a meeting without having
to bring along your Laptop. The power of these mobile devices now allows you to
manipulate data and update your spreadsheets and then view the spreadsheets
immediately on your phone or tablet.

Disadvantages of Microsoft Excel

● Not easy to share – Microsoft have made great strides with their Web applications but the
sharing functionality still has a long way to go to become world class. Part of the problem is
that often the ability for sharing a tool requires extra software to be installed on the PC and
this often becomes cumbersome. Tools like Google Documents are revolutionizing the way
people share documents online.
● Non relational – I use MS Access for databases and love the relational aspect of the
database. The idea that you can link data by common elements (such as employee ID,
Stock Number etc) greatly assists in the reduction of data, and the ability to analyze data.
Aside from some database functions and some lookup tools Microsoft Excel lacks any true
relational functionality.
● Scalability – Excel 2010 has introduced larger spreadsheets and binary formats, howver
using large amounts of data on the average PC will slow down and often freeze the PC. As
some of the competing tools are in the 'cloud' file size does not become a problem.
● No Forms – while you can use forms within VBA, the average user will not have much
knowledge of VBA and therefore not be able to incorporate functional forms into their
spreadsheets quickly.

CELL ADDRESS
There are two types of cell references: relative and absolute. Relative references change when
a formula is copied to another cell. Absolute references, on the other hand, remain constant, no
matter where they are copied.
The key difference between relative and absolute cells is that relative cell references move when
you copy them, but absolute references do not. Absolute references are noted by a dollar sign in
front of the cell reference.
By default, all cell references are relative references. When copied across multiple cells, they
change based on the relative position of rows and columns. For example, if you copy the
formula =A1+B1 from row 1 to row 2, the formula will become =A2+B2. Relative references are
especially convenient whenever you need to repeat the same calculation across multiple rows or
columns.
There may be times when you do not want a cell reference to change when filling cells. Unlike
relative references, absolute references do not change when copied or filled. You can use an
absolute reference to keep a row and/or column constant. An absolute reference is designated in a
formula by the addition of a dollar sign ($). It can precede the column reference, the row reference,
or both.

So a relative cell reference might look like =A1+A2 but an absolute reference might look
like =$A$1+$A$2. (Actually, the formula can also look like =$A1+$A2 or =A$1+A$2,

LOGICAL IF

The IF function can perform a logical test and return one value for a TRUE result,
and another for a FALSE result.
For example, to "pass" scores above 90: =IF(A1>90,"Pass","Fail").
More than one condition can be tested by nesting IF functions. (multiple Ifs)
The IF function can be combined with logical functions like AND and OR.
Nested If
The IF function can be "nested". A "nested IF" refers to a formula where at least
one IF function is nested inside another in order to test for more conditions and
return more possible results. Each IF statement needs to be carefully "nested"
inside another so that the logic is correct.
Eg :
=If(a2>90,”a”,if(a2>80,”b”,if(a2>70,”c”,”D”)))
IF AND

If you want to do something specific when two or more conditions are TRUE, you
can use the IF function in combination with the AND function to evaluate
conditions with a test, then take one action if the result is TRUE, and (optionally)
do something else if the result of the test is FALSE.
To test if a number in A1 is greater than zero and less than 10, use
=AND(A1>0,A1<10).
IF OR
The OR function is a logical function to test multiple conditions at the same time.
OR returns either TRUE or FALSE.

Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting in Excel enables you to highlight cells with a certain color,
depending on the cell's value.
To highlight cells that are greater than a value, select the range . On the Home tab,
in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting. Click Highlight Cells Rules, Greater
 Than. Enter the value you need and select a formatting style. Same can be done for
less than/equal/text containing/date occurring etc.

COUNT,COUNTIF
COUNT function returns the count of values that are numbers, generally cells that
contain numbers. Values can be supplied as constants, cell references, or ranges
COUNTIF is a function to count cells that meet a single criteria. COUNTIF can be
used to count cells with dates, numbers, and text that match specific criteria.
=COUNTIF (range, criteria) eg : =COUNTIF(D5:D12,">100")

Where range - The range of cells to count, criteria - The criteria that controls which
cells should be counted.

HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP are functions in Microsoft Excel that allow you to use a
section of your spreadsheet as a lookup table

VLOOKUP allows you to search a table that is set up vertically. The HLookup
function retrieves data from the table horizontally.

When the user uses VLookup function for finding specific information in MS Excel
spreadsheet, each matching information is displayed in the same row but in the next
column.

Microsoft Excel defines HLookup as a function that “looks for a value in the top row
of a table or array of values and returns the value in the same column from a row
you specify”.

The format of the VLOOKUP function is:

VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup).

The lookup_value is the user input. This is the value that the function uses to search on. If
you are searching a table by the Student ID number, then the lookup_value is the cell that
contains the inputted Student ID number being looked up. The table_array is the area of
cells in which the table is located.

The col_index_num is the column of data that contains the answer that you want

Range_lookup is a TRUE or FALSE value. When set to TRUE, the lookup function gives
the closest match to the lookup_value without going over the lookup_value. When set to
FALSE, an exact match must be found to the lookup_value or the function will return #N/A.
Note, this requires that the column containing the lookup_value be formatted in ascending
order.
HLOOKUP( lookup_value, table_array, row_index_num, [range_lookup] )

In the above syntax lookup_value refers to the value that the user wants to look for,
table_array refers to the data or table the user is searching for, and row_index_num
in this refers to the row number array, that the user wants the corresponding value
to be returned from

One of the pre-requisite for using VLookup function is that the value the user is
searching must be located in the left-most column of the table/range.

In HLookup syntax, the pre-requisite is that the value the user is searching in the
table or range must be in the top-most column.

PIVOT TABLE
A pivot table is a table which is used to store the summary of a certain data set in a
condensed manner. The table consists of rows, columns, data fields, and pages. These
components can be moved around and it helps the user to expand, isolate, sum, and
group the particular data in real time. This table enables the user to view the differences
in a very big set of information. It is very helpful in organizing a large amount of data in
Microsoft Excel.

Working of the Table

A pivot table takes a user-specified data field and converts the header of each column
into a data option which can be easily manipulated by the user. Columns containing data
can be removed from, added to, or moved around the table quite easily. Here, user
friendly and informative summaries can be created from long spreadsheets of raw data.
The data can be summarized in various ways including frequencies and averages. Using
the pivot table in excel has many benefits which are described below.

Easy to Use

An important advantage of pivot tables is that it is easy to use. You can easily
summarize data by dragging the columns to different sections of the table. The columns
can also be re-arranged as you wish with the click of a mouse.

Easy Data Analysis

With the help of excel pivot tables, you can handle large quantities of data in one single
go. These tables allow you to take a large amount of data and work on it in such a way
that you need to view only a few data fields. This helps in the easy analysis of large
amount of data.

Easy Summary of Data

Another important benefit of pivot tables is that it helps to summarize data in a quick
and easy manner. The table helps in making a concise summary out of thousands of
rows and columns of unorganized data. With the help of these tables you can summarize
large amounts of information into a small space. The data can be summarized in a
simple format which is easily understandable. Users can arrange rows and columns of
the data according to their needs and they can label it and sort it in any way they want
to.

Find Data Patterns

Excel pivot tables help you to create customized tables from large data groups.
Manipulating data in this manner will help to find recurring patterns in the data, if any.
This in turn will help in accurate data forecast.

Quick Report Creation

One of the important features of excel pivot tables is that it helps to create reports in an
efficient way. This saves you the long and strenuous hours that you need to spend for
creating reports manually. Apart from this, the table also helps you provide links to
external sources if any, in the report created.

Helps in Quick Decision Making

A pivot table can be considered to be a valuable Excel reporting tool as it allows users to
easily analyze the data and arrive at quick decisions. This serves as a huge advantage in
the industrial world, where it is crucial to make precise and quick decisions.

STEPS to create Pivot table

1. Click anywhere in the dataset.Go to Insert –> Tables –> Pivot Table.
2.In the Create Pivot Table dialog box, the default options work fine in most of the cases. Here are a
couple of things to check in it:
(a) Table/Range: It’s filled in by default based on your data set. If your data has no blank
rows/columns, Excel would automatically identify the correct range. You can manually change this if
needed.
(b) If you want to create the Pivot Table in a specific location, under the option ‘Choose where you
want the PivotTable report to be placed’, specify the Location. Else, a new worksheet is created with
the Pivot Table.
3. Click OK.
4. As soon as you click OK, a new worksheet is created with the Pivot Table in it.
While the Pivot Table has been created, you’d see no data in it. All you’d see is the Pivot Table name
and a single line instruction on the left, and Pivot Table Fields on the right.