Excel Overview

Excel  was originally code-named Odyssey during development. It was first released on September 30, 1985.              

Where do you find or start Excel?

If you have Excel or the entire Microsoft Windows, you can find Excel in your Start menu.

Keep in mind that new computers do not include Excel. It must be purchased and installed before running it on your computer. If you do not want (or cannot afford) to purchase Excel, you can use a limited version for free at the Microsoft Office website.

If Excel is installed on your computer, but you can't find it in your Start menu, use the following steps to launch Excel manually.

1.      Open My Computer.

2.      Click on or select the C: drive. If Microsoft Office is installed on a drive other than the C: drive, select that drive instead.

3.      Navigate to the Program Files (x86) folder, then the Microsoft Office folder.

4.      In the Microsoft Office folder, if there is a root folder, open that folder. Then open the Office folder, where XX is the version of Office (e.g., Office16 for Microsoft Office 2016) installed on your computer. If there is no root folder, look for and open a folder having "Office" in the name.

5.      Look for a file named EXCEL.EXE and click or double-click that file to start the Excel program.

Excel overview

Below is an example of  Microsoft Excel with each of its major sections highlighted. 

Title Bar contains title of application and workbook

Sheet Tabs Scrolling Button on the bottom left of the worksheet you will find the sheet tab scroll buttons to move to the first sheet, previous sheet, next sheet, and last sheet. They are followed by the tabs for the worksheets in your workbook and the insert worksheet button or tab, depending on the version of excel you are using.

Status Bar is a name for the lower edge of the worksheet window, which displays various information about an excel worksheet. The status bar can be configured to display things like sum, count, and average of the currently selected cells.

Select All Button the upper left of all worksheets, at the origin of row and column labels. You can use the select all button to quickly select all cells in a worksheet. 

Sheet Tabs used to display the worksheet that a user is currently editing. Users may move between the various worksheets. Every excel file may have multiple worksheets

Vertical Scroll Bar on the right side of a window that is used to move the window contents up and down

Horizontal Scroll Bar at the bottom of a window that is used to move the window contents left and right

Zoom Control quickly zoom the document, use the minus and plus symbols in the status bar. you can also use ctrl + mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out on both windows 

Active Cell selected by the click of a mouse, surrounded by a frame. 

Microsoft Excel Ribbon is the row of tabs and icons at the top of the excel window that allows you to quickly find, understand and use commands for completing a certain task. 

Name Box used to display the location / address of the specific cell as it is almost difficult to point out the location of any single cell on a workbook 

Formula Bar all formulas that calculate the value based on the data from cells

Column Headings The names of columns are signed with letters (a,b,c…)

Row Headings The names of row are signed with numbers (1,2,3..)

Worksheet Window contains the rows and columns

Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is located at the top left hand corner of the ribbon and has the most commonly used commands, like the save, undo and redo.  The shortcut is the Alt key, followed by a number. The Quick Access Toolbar (or QAT) allows you to create an easily accessible group of shortcuts to the tools you use most frequently.