 The term “spreadsheet” covers a wide variety of elements useful for quantitative analysis of all kinds. Essentially, a spreadsheet is a simple tool consisting of a matrix of cells that can store numbers, text, or formulas.  Excel is, however, much more than an expensive calculator or place to put information. Built-in functions can help an accountant create financial statements, pivot table reports, analyses, depreciation schedules, loan amortization schedules, cash flow budgets, cost-volume-profit analyses with charts, and more.  The spreadsheet’s power comes from its ability to recalculate results as you change the contents of other cells.

 The more comfortable you become with the spreadsheet, the more uses you will find. Using a spreadsheet can help you find solutions that you never would have imagined on your own.  It is literally impossible to enumerate all of the possible applications for spreadsheets. You should keep in mind that spreadsheets are useful not only for financial analysis, but for any type of quantitative analysis whether your specialty is in marketing, management, engineering, statistics, or economics.  For that matter, a spreadsheet can also prove valuable for personal uses. With Excel, it is a fairly simple matter to build a spreadsheet to monitor your investment portfolio, plan for retirement, experiment with various mortgage options when buying a house, create and maintain a mailing list, and so on.

 Click windows start button  Select All Programs and then scroll down your list of programs and click the Microsoft Office folder.  Click Microsoft Office Excel 2013 to start the application.

 File – This is where you manage your files and the data about them — creating, saving, inspecting for hidden metadata or personal information, and setting options. In short, it is everything that you do to a file that you don’t do in the file.  Quick Access Toolbar – At the top of the Excel window is the Quick Access Toolbar, which is designed to give you an easy way to execute the commands used most often. The default setting in Excel provides access to the Save, Undo, and Redo commands. The Quick Access toolbar can be modified to include the Print Preview, Open, Quick Print, and other co  Ribbon – There are three basic components of the Ribbon, as follows: 1. Tabs: There are several of them across the top depending on whether you have added any add-ins to Excel. Each represents core tasks you do in Excel. 2. Groups: Each tab has groups that show related items together. 3. Commands: A command is a button, a box to enter information, or a menu. The principal commands in Excel are gathered on the first and second tabs, the File and Home tabs.

 How to add another sheet and haw to name it  The worksheet is a matrix of cell, each of which can contain text, numbers, or formulas. Each cell is referred to by a column letter and a row number. Column letters (A, B, C, …) are listed at the top of each column, and row numbers (1, 2, 3,…) are listed to the left of each row.  For easy use:  Ctrl + C (copy)  Ctrl + V ( paste)  Ctrl + S (save)  Ctrl +X (cut)  Ctrl + cells to select

 before putting data into a cell, you must first select the cell by clicking on it. As you type, the data is also automatically entered into the formula bar. Text entries into cells are often referred to as labels, whereas numbers or formula entries are referred to as values.  Selecting a Range of Cells.  use keyboard when you want to change from one cell to another instead of mouse.  Edit cells or edit value inside the cell.  Delete/ insert row or column  Page layout

 Formulas in Excel always begin with an equal sign (=). These formulas can use numbers; math symbols to add, subtract, multiply, or divide (+,, *, /); cell references; and/or functions.  For instance, the SUM function is written as follows: = SUM(argument). The argument is a series of cell references you want summed.

 Relative addressing means that a cell or rang is reference using a coordinate system not an absolute reference.  An absolute address is an address using an specified column and row address such as: $. To create an absolute reference, type dollar signs before the column letter and row number. The $ indicates an absolute reference.  For example, $B$6 will always refer to cell B6. The $ tells Excel to not change the reference.  We can also create mixed references. In a mixed reference only the column or row remains constant, not both. For example, $B6 is a mixed reference (column absolute, row relative). If the formula is copied down, it will change to $B7, but if it is copied across it will still be $B6. On the other hand, B$6 (column relative, row absolute) will still be B$6 if copied down, but will change to C$6 if copied across

 A function allows you to calculate a result such as adding numbers together, or finding the average of a range of numbers.  Example:  Average: used to return the numbers of column within a reference.  Sum: used to add the contents of selected cells.  Count: used to count how many numbers are in the list.  Max: used to return the maximum numbers from a list.  Min: used to return the minimum numbers from a list.  Mode  Median

 Excel has a number of function which allow you to evaluate values and make decisions based on the result of the evaluation.  IF ( logical-Test, Action If-True, Action-If-False)