Management Science: The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets, Third Edition

Chapter 3. Basic Excel Skills

INTRODUCTION

Excel may be the most versatile software program ever created. It is used daily by millions of people in every conceivable walk of life. Some of its users are simply adding up short columns of numbers, while others are creating sophisticated applications in which Excel is performing complex numerical calculations while interacting with several other software systems. With such a versatile and flexible tool, it is difficult for any user to determine just which of the thousands of features in Excel are really worth knowing. In this chapter, we describe the basic Excel skills we think are important for every business analyst.

This chapter is not intended to serve as a beginner's tutorial on Excel. Those who are new to Excel and who need a tutorial should work through a book or a CD, or take an online course. Several of these are listed in the suggested readings. Those who have a working knowledge of Excel will find in this chapter some reminders about familiar tools and perhaps pointers to some new ones as well. We have found that many experienced users have never taken the time to explore Excel systematically, so their skills are deep in some areas but shallow in others. We recommend that you skim this chapter for Excel features that are new to you and add them to your skill set. A few minutes spent in learning how to use Excel more efficiently, even if you are an experienced user, can pay dividends in the future every time you build a spreadsheet ...