Why Should Office Workers Use Excel?

Microsoft Office Suite is probably a familiar name for every office workers, given that we use Microsoft Word on a daily basis to type everything, from short memos to important forms. Apart from Word, which should be the main reason why you hear about Microsoft Office in the first place, Excel is also a really cool tool which helps you a lot on your daily office tasks. Although Excel is considerably more difficult to use than Word, the benefits that it offers to office workers are immense. Here are some reasons why you should consider using Excel for your daily office tasks.

Excel helps to accelerate your calculations

When you work in the office, sometimes you might have to do a lot of calculations, both simple and complex ones. For simple calculations, you can use Windows’ built-in calculator. However, for complex calculations which involve several variables, you will need something more powerful and more organized. While other complex calculators exist, some of them actually cost quite a bunch, so Excel should be your preferred tool.

Excel allows you to write formulas of your own using existing functions. By mixing these functions together, you will create a complex formula that can handle multiple data inputs at a time. This will allow you to save a lot of time in the office.

Excel provides a good tool to organize your data

Inputting data is one of the jobs that very few enjoy doing. What is worse is that there are relatively few affordable tools to effectively organize cell values. As a result, sometimes you will have to manually input a lot of data, which could have been easily done by an automated process.

Excel is among the few good tools for data organization. Data are sorted by columns and rows, so if you need to apply a formula on every other entry on the same row or column, a simple drag would suffice. Furthermore, Excel allows you to quickly sort data by criteria to allow for quick search, thus making data organization a breeze.

Excel allows you to create good charts

Excel does not just help you organize data effectively. It also allows you to present them in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. Charts are better than pure numbers in presentations because people tend to find visual explanations more interesting and dynamic. Excel comes with a feature that allows you to create your own chart using the existing data in a worksheet. Whether it’s a pie chart or a simple graph, Excel can render them easily to make sure that your business report is as brief and visually stunning as possible, thus ensuring that the audience will easily understand the content.

Excel has a long development history. Throughout its development, the software has been consistently proven to be one of the best tools for office workers all around the world. Even better, Microsoft is constantly improving it through patches and new releases, so its usefulness will never become outdated.

Common Errors in Excel and How to Fix Them

Excel is a convenient tool for not only hardcore analysts but also for office workers, as it allows them to quickly and effectively organize data and do complex calculations. They can even apply certain algorithms to these data. The main feature of Excel is its formula bar, which allows you to combine different functions to create the formula that suits your purpose.

Whenever you input a function, Excel will normally assist you by showing the structure of that function. However, this is only really useful for simple formulas. Complex formulas have a greater chance for errors because of the interactions between functions. What’s worse is that you will often be left without a good explanation as to what happened.

Common Excel Formula Errors

To help you fix your Excel formulas effectively, we have compiled a list of the most frequently encountered errors in Excel, as well as how to fix them. These errors as the following:

The #### Error

This is probably the easiest error to handle. In Excel, each cell will display a specific value, and even though the value can be as long as you want it to be, trying to have a tiny cell containing an excessively long string of value will give you the #### error. Fortunately, the solution is very simple. All you have to do is to extend the width of the cell until it can fit the value, and the problem will be resolved.

The #NAME? Error

When typing a formula, you have to be extra careful with the functions’ spelling because there is no autocorrect function. If you spell the name of a function wrong, the system will not be able to recognize what functions you are referring to. This is when this error will be displayed on the screen. To solve the error, simply check your spelling to make sure that everything is correct.

The #DIV/0! Error

Division by zero is theoretically impossible in conventional mathematics, and Excel has also taken that into account. If a division by zero exists in your formula, you will get the said error. Remember to check your values to prevent this error from occurring.

The #NULL! Error

The #NULL! error occurs when there is a syntactical error in your formula. Unlike a spelling error, a syntactical error refers to an error in the structure of the formula, such as missing a point or a semicolon. Like the #NAME? error, you will have to check back to see if the functions correspond to their syntactic structure.

The #VALUE! Error

This error is related to the value in the cells itself, not the structure of the formulas. You cannot multiply a number with a text, so if you accidentally do that in your formulas, this error will occur. Naturally, your solution is to find out which values in the cells you selected are not compatible with the others. A tip for you: numbers are aligned on the right side of a cell, while texts are on the left.

Mastering Excel formulas will take some time, and making mistakes is actually quite common as you start learning Excel. Don’t worry. While this will take some time to get used to, you will eventually master the software!

Most Important Functions in Excel

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Excel is probably one of the most important software for office workers because it allows them to easily do complex calculations, which would usually require specialized software. By simply adding functions together to create a formula, you will have a powerful tool to do complex calculations. Even better, you can drag the formula along an entire column or row and replicate it throughout every box.

However, because Excel has a vast compendium of functions, some of these functions are extremely complex. Beginners might have a difficult time learning to remember and to use these functions in an actual formula. In order to help you navigate through Excel, we have picked out five of the most important functions in Excel. Allow us to show you how to use them in the article below.

Sum function

Formula: =Sum(value 1, value 2, etc.)

This is probably the simplest, yet one of the most important functions in Excel. It allows you to add up values together to get a total sum of all values. There are endless possibilities with this function, as we use addition in a lot of our daily tasks. By letting Excel do the math for you, you don’t have to manually re-input all values in the formula again, thus saving you a lot of time.

If function

Formula: =If(criteria, value if true, value if false)

This function has a wide variety of uses in Excel, which is why it is an indispensable tool when you explore Excel. The If function will let you set up a basic logic comparison, and then give out different values depending on whether the criteria are met or not, making it quite effective in organizing data. Because it is effective in sorting out data and leaving out the ones that you don’t need, the If function is a valuable tool for any analyst who mainly uses Excel.

Average function

Formula: =Average(value 1, value 2, etc.)

The Average function is another function that deals with calculations. However, instead of just adding up the values together like the Sum function, this function goes another step to divide the total sum by the number of addends. This function helps with getting the average amount of something. Accountants will find this function particularly helpful.

VLookup function

Formula: =Vlookup(lookup value, table array, column index number, lookup range)

VLookup function is quite a complex one. It allows you to search for something starting from the leftmost column of a table range, and return it as a value. It is a very complex function that requires certain training before you can master it, but once you do, you can easily track data without fear of mixing things up.

Countif

Formula: =Countif(range, criteria)

Countif is the combination of the Count function, which counts the number of values in a certain range, and the If function. The Countif function only counts values that pass the criteria, so it is another great tool to utilize when you have to sort your data by categories.

Excel offers you so many ways to organize your data and to keep your processes semi-automated. The key to a good Excel sheet lies in the formulas used on that sheet, and if you can master these formulas, you can do anything with Excel.

Hidden Tricks in Excel that You Must Know

Excel is one of the best companions for office workers out there, as it is probably the most versatile and affordable tool to help you to input and organize data, as well as to do a wide range of computations with these data. Excel is also quite easy because it includes a lot of in-software tips and tutorials.

Excel encompasses a lot of commands in its system. While most of these commands are fully introduced and addressed in many courses about Excel, some remain hidden to beginners. These hidden tricks are quite handy, as they allow you to do a range of things you thought you couldn’t do in Excel, such as create a new line in a single cell or make super quick calculations. Here are three super cool and hidden tricks that will make your Excel experience a whole lot smoother.

Adding a Line in a Single Cell in Excel

When you press enter in Excel, the cursor will immediately jump to the next cell instead of creating a new line like in Word. This can be quite annoying if you type a long string of texts since paragraphing really helps to add more clarity to the string. There is a trick, however, to add a line in a single cell just like how you do in Word, and that trick is super simple. All you have to do is to press Alt + Enter instead of just the Enter key, and the cursor will move one line below instead of jumping.

Quick Calculations in Excel

Usually, when you need to sum different sets of cells, you will have to write multiple formulas for each set. This step is quite easy, but it can be annoying and would take so much of your time. If there are too many sets of cells you need to write formulas for, this can become a tedious disaster. Fortunately, Excel has a hidden trick to quickly sum a set of cells. Simply select the first cell, then hold Ctrl while selecting the other cells, and Excel will automatically show the sum of the set, along with the average and the count in the status bar below. What a neat trick!

Freeze Pane in Excel

We usually reserve the first row of the entire spreadsheet for headings, which identifies what kinds of values will go in those columns. For huge Excel spreadsheets, you will usually scroll long past the heading row, so whenever you forget the kind of data you have to input in a certain column, you will have to scroll back up, which is super annoying and time-consuming. Excel has a cool trick called freeze pane, which allows you to freeze the heading row so that you will be able to view this row no matter how far down you have scrolled. To activate it, simply choose View->Window->Freeze Pane, and then select the row that you wish to freeze.

Excel offers you an effective and simple way to organize your data and do complex calculations. When you start out with the software, it will take you some time to get used to. But once you’ve gotten a hang of these secret tips and tricks, you’ll quickly learn to master the software.

Common Uses of Excel for Businesses

Pretty much all office workers and even students are familiar with Excel, the spreadsheet software that comes with the Microsoft Office Suite. If you ever need a tool that can help you input and organize data, and also do several complex calculations, then Excel is the right tool for you. It is also very easy to use since it comes with in-software tips and tutorials that help you get started.

However, Excel is more than just a home software. Millions of businesses around the world, both big and small, use Excel on a regular basis, and there are some perfectly good reasons for that. Excel can be an invaluable tool for your business, and below are some of the reasons.

Analyzing and storing big data

Excel helps you input and sort data based on criteria that you can set. This makes Excel a great asset for home computer users and a greater one for business owners. Through several tools such as charts and graphs, Excel will process data of large volumes and of a wide variety. Excel will also offer you the means to store those data in such an orderly way that it would be very easy to trace back even the most obscure strings of values.

Complex mathematical calculations

Let’s say it’s the end of the month and you have to calculate exactly the amount of money that you will need to pay for your employees. Which software should you use? Businesses will need to perform calculations like this on a daily basis, and Excel helps them streamline this process. There are other programs that can run complex calculations, but Excel can give out results very quickly, and you can reapply the calculations to another set of data easily. Doing so helps you do accurate calculations even on large volumes of data.

Highly-secured storage

If you are a business owner, you will have to go the extra mile to ensure the security of your company’s data. One false move and the precious data that you have been collecting for years could be lost in a moment’s notice! This is why Excel is such a great choice for businesses. Every Excel file can be password-encrypted to ensure that only the company’s employees will be able to access those files.

Excel also takes another step further in securing your files by allowing storage on Microsoft’s cloud system. Microsoft’s cloud storage is ultra-secure, thanks to the continual efforts of the world’s finest computer engineers. There is almost zero chance of tampering your data. Not all licenses come with cloud storage though, but if you are really concerned about the security of your data, then this is a worthy investment.

Excel is not only famous with home computer users but also with businesses around the world. Although the software is often considered outdated by some, its usefulness to your business should not be underestimated. Excel can make managing really complex big data easier, which is what a lot of dedicated tools struggle with from time to time.

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Advanced Microsoft Excel Training

In order to keep your career moving forward it’s important to keep enhancing your skills. The key is to never stop learning. No matter how good you think you are at something, to truly take your career to the next level you need to find ways to get even better at it until you’re an expert and no one can match your expertise.

Microsoft Excel training is one of those things that you should consider taking. The software is full of options and tools and the more you learn the easier your job could get and the more you’ll stand out. There are some advanced Excel skills that you might want to look into.

Advanced Formulas

Learning simple formulas like addition and subtraction is pretty basic. At an advanced level you should be able to write and combine formulas like SUMPRODUCT, MATCH, and SUMIFS. With our advanced Microsoft Excel training you’ll know when and how to use these functions and more.

Advanced Charting

Spreadsheets are for amateurs. If you want your data to be presented differently and in an easy way to read then you have to learn charting properly. Using Excel it’s possible to combine different charts together and set them up to be interactive. Your presentations will stand out compared to everyone else’s.

Highlight Important Info

This is a feature in Excel called conditional formatting which allows you to highlight certain items in your spreadsheets and data according to the variables that you choose. This seems like a basic thing and it is. The difference is that an Excel expert will be able to combine conditional formatting with formulas giving you more options.

Pivot Tables and Reporting

These are used to analyze data. There’s no point in adding data to a spreadsheet and having to analyze it yourself. Sure spreadsheets are a permanent record and are easily transferable between devices but why not take advantage of more features? Use pivot tables to analyze and edit your data for faster results.

VBA

VBA allows you to give certain instructions to Excel and then let it do its thing. If you can use VBA effectively, in some circumstances you might as well not show up to work because the software will handle everything else. Through Microsoft Excel training you’ll be able to write macros so your day to day work can proceed automatically and smoothly as ever.

Know All the Tips and Tricks with Microsoft Excel Training

Learn every shortcut there is so you can do your work with as little effort as possible. You can’t call yourself an excel expert unless you know all the shortcuts (whether mouse or keyboard), workarounds, and all the customizations. Apart from functionality it’ll look really cool if someone sees you working using shortcuts like a pro.

There’s so much to learn in Excel and perhaps it’ll take more than just a single Microsoft Excel training program to get you to know most of what the software has to offer. Take it step by step and build your knowledge gradually. At some point you’ll finally be able to confidently call yourself an Excel expert.