1 Ribbon (tabs and buttons). 2 Name Box: the address of the cell you clicked. 3 Formula Bar: what is really inside the cell. 4 Column letters. 5 Row numbers. 6 The selected cell, B3. 7 Sheet tabs.
Excel is a program for lists and numbers. Think of it as a big sheet of graph paper that can do math for you. You can keep a shopping list, a budget, a customer list, or a price list in it. When you change a number, every total updates by itself.
The free ways to get Excel
Excel on your computer. It comes with Microsoft 365. This course uses the Windows version.
Excel on the web. It is free. Go to office.com, sign in with a free Microsoft account, and click Excel. It works in Chrome.
Google Sheets. It is free at sheets.google.com. It works almost the same way. Most formulas in this course work there too.
The parts of the screen
Look at the picture in this lesson. These are the parts you will use every day.
The Ribbon is the wide strip of buttons at the top. It has tabs: File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View. Click a tab to see its buttons. Home is the one you will use most.
A cell is one little box. You type into cells.
Columns go up and down. Each column has a letter at the top: A, B, C.
Rows go side to side. Each row has a number on the left: 1, 2, 3.
Every cell has an address. The cell in column B, row 3 is called B3. Letter first, then number.
The Name Box is at the top left. It shows the address of the cell you clicked.
The Formula Bar is the long white strip next to it. It shows what is really inside the cell.
Sheet tabs are at the bottom. One file can hold many sheets, like pages in a notebook. The file is called a workbook.
Start a new workbook
Open Excel. Click the Start button on Windows, type Excel, and press Enter.
Click Blank workbook.
You now see an empty sheet called Sheet1.
Add, rename, and move sheets
To add a sheet, click the plus sign (+) next to the sheet tabs at the bottom.
To rename a sheet, double-click its tab, type a new name like Budget, and press Enter.
To move a sheet, click and hold its tab, then drag it left or right.
To delete a sheet, right-click its tab and click Delete.
Save your work
Click File at the top left.
Click Save As.
Click Browse (or This PC).
Pick a folder. Documents is a good place.
Type a name in the File name box, like My Budget.
Click Save.
After the first time, just press Ctrl+S to save again. Do it often.
Tip: Save As makes a copy with a new name. Use it when you want to keep the old version too.
Tip: Excel files end in .xlsx. To open one later, click File, then Open, then find the file. Or double-click the file in your Documents folder.
Tip: If your file is saved in OneDrive, a switch called AutoSave at the very top turns on. Then Excel saves by itself every few seconds.
Mac: On a Mac, press Cmd+S to save. Save As is under File in the menu at the top of the screen.
Web: Excel on the web saves by itself. There is no Save button. Files go to your free OneDrive. To get a copy on your computer, click File, then Save As, then Download a Copy.
Try it
Open the practice workbook. Click the sheet called 1 Start. Click cell B3 and look at the Name Box. Does it say B3? Now add a new sheet, rename it My Practice, and save the file as Excel Practice in your Documents folder.