Office 2013 Bible: The Comprehensive Tutorial Resource

Chapter 12

Using Excel Worksheets and Workbooks

IN THIS PART

Understanding what Excel is used for

Looking at what’s new in Excel 2013

Learning the parts of an Excel window

Navigating Excel worksheets

Introducing Excel’s Ribbon

Trying out Excel with a step-by-step hands-on session

This chapter is an introductory overview of Excel 2013. If you’re already familiar with a previous version of Excel, reading (or at least skimming) this chapter is still a good idea.

Identifying What Excel Is Good For

Excel, as you probably know, is the world’s most widely used spreadsheet software and part of the Microsoft Office suite. Other spreadsheet software is available, but Excel is by far the most popular and has been the world standard for many years.

Much of the appeal of Excel is due to the fact that it’s so versatile. Excel’s forte, of course, is performing numerical calculations, but Excel is also very useful for non-numeric applications. Here are just a few of the uses for Excel:

• Number crunching: Create budgets, tabulate expenses, analyze survey results, and perform just about any type of financial analysis you can think of.
• Creating charts: Create a wide variety of highly customizable charts.
• Organizing lists: Use the row-and-column layout to store lists efficiently.
• Text manipulation: Clean up and standardize text-based data.
• Accessing other data: Import data from a wide variety of sources.
• Creating graphical dashboards: Summarize a large amount of business information in a concise format. ...