Tutorial for introduction to MS Excel and Basics of it.

Anybody can add drop-down lists in his/her workbook. Select a cell or a group of cells (ex: A1:A12) go to the menu bar Data/Validation, select "List" in the "Allow" text box and in the "Source" text box submit a list of values separated by commas (John, Mark, Joe, Peter) or a range of cells (ex: =B1:B5). Click OK. Now when you select any of the cells A1 to A12 a small arrow appears at the right of the cell. Click on it and you are offered a selection of the values that you have submitted or of the values that you have entered in cells B1 to B5.

The following lists the most useful shortcut keys available in Excel. The shortcuts are arranged by context.

This is the basic unit of the spreadsheet. It is a location that can contain information and is most often defined by its column and row address. For example C6 represents a cell in the third column (column C) and sixth row. The naming convention for a cell reference is the alphabetic column letter position followed by the row number. C6 is correct but 6C is incorrect. You may use either lower or upper case letters when referencing a column.

This top basics list lays out all the fundamental skills required to successfully use Excel 2007.

As a spreadsheet application, Microsoft® Excel is used to enter text and numbers to be organized, calculated and analyzed. Entering formulas allow any changes in the original numbers to be automatically recalculated throughout an entire worksheet. Data may be formatted creating an attractive, readable presentation of tables or charting and text manipulation features produce attractive and informative reports.

Excel allows you to create spreadsheets much like paper ledgers that can perform automatic calculations. Each Excel file is a workbook that can hold many worksheets. The worksheet is a grid of columns (designated by letters) and rows (designated by numbers). The letters and numbers of the columns and rows (called labels) are displayed in gray buttons across the top and left side of the worksheet. The intersection of a column and a row is called a cell. Each cell on the spreadsheet has a cell address that is the column letter and the row number. Cells can contain either text, numbers, or mathematical formulas.

In this tutorial you are going to learn how to format text and perform basic mathematical calculations. Microsoft Excel enables you to choose a default font. The default font is the style of typeface that Excel will use unless you specify a different style. For the exercises in this lesson, you want your font to be set to Arial, Regular, and Size 10.

Microsoft Office software developers have been paying more and more attention to the means of protecting users' information, and Microsoft Excel has not been overlooked. Recent versions of the program provide users with advanced features for protecting Microsoft Excel documents against unauthorized access of the information stored in them. The methods include completely blocking access to a document, forbidding saving changes to it, and protecting individual sheets and cells. Let's look at protecting Microsoft Excel documents in detail.

This is a basic tutorial of Excel. It is recommended that you have EXCEL running at the same time. You can try what you are reading. On an PC you can toggle back and forth between the Tutorial and Excel using the ALT-TAB. If you are using this on a Mac, switch back and forth with the finder. Using either machine, if you can tile the windows just a little you can switch back and forth by clicking on the window of the program you want to become active.