Home

Learning Hub

Articles

Features of MS Excel – Exploring the Top Ones

Excel is a spreadsheet program developed and released by Microsoft as a part of the productivity software called Microsoft Office. Microsoft Excel is considered one of the most used Microsoft office programs. Excel’s original development codename was Odyssey. The first edition was launched on September 30, 1985 and the major task of this application was to store and examine numerical data. In this article, we’ve covered the key features of Microsoft Excel in this post, along with an introduction to the application, its advantages and other pertinent information.

Features of MS Excel

Data in tabular form is processed using Microsoft Excel, which is then used to perform mathematical operations and analyze the data. It is an instrument for organizing and calculating data. An Excel spreadsheet can be formatted and edited in a variety of ways. It can analyze data, produce pivot tables, compute statistics, and display data as a graph or chart.

In Microsoft Excel, a cell is formed by the intersection of a row and a column. Every cell is a distinct data unit. Every cell has a cell address, which is the row and column number in which it appears. There is never an identical address in two cells. The different MS Excel features are covered below:

Home and Insert

Microsoft Word and Excel share a similar Home & Insert menu. Users can utilize the insert menu to add tables, pie charts, and other data-related files, as well as to modify the content’s formatting from the comfort of their own homes.

There are additional options for insertion, deletion, and editing in the cells, as well as font size, color, styles, alignment, background color, and formatting options and styles. It is possible to attach graphs, equations, and symbols in addition to adding pictures, figures, charts, headers, and footers.

Formulas

Data & Formulas are two of MS Excel’s special features. Users can quickly analyze data by applying the formula to it. For that, users must choose the cells, and each cell becomes a single data unit.

Thus, the user will obtain an average of the data output from those 10 cells if they choose 10 cells and apply an average formula to them.

The user must select all of the data without any spaces in order to apply a formula to it. The user then needs to enter “=” and the formula’s abbreviation in the function bar in order to apply the formula.

Data

The user can carry out operations from the Data menu without modifying the original data. Users can sort data without altering it, add external data from the web, and filter it. The user has the option to arrange the data alphabetically, for instance.

The user can execute sophisticated statistical operations such as correlation and t-test, starting with fundamental operations like addition and subtraction. Additionally, users can quickly turn them into graphs or Pie charts. Data analysis is made simple by this.

Also read: Data Validation

Page Layout

With the page layout option, users can adjust orientation, apply themes, and verify the page setup.

Review

In the review section, a user can add comments or remarks to an excel sheet and proofread it using tools like spell check.

View

The user can choose from a variety of views and layouts here for how the spreadsheet is displayed. This section contains options for pane arrangement, full screen mode, and zoom in and out.

Benefits of Using MS Excel

MS Excel is widely used to store and analyze data because there is no limit to the amount of data that can be stored in a spreadsheet. Data has to be kept in separate files and registers when working in pen-and-paper mode. Since multiple worksheets can now be attached to a single MS Excel file, this has become useful.

Explaining the data is made simpler when it is gathered in the form of a table. As a result, the spreadsheet’s data is easier to read and recognize. With the selection of the formula in Microsoft Excel, performing various mathematical calculations, such as addition, subtraction, average, and other operations, has become more manageable and less time-consuming.

Since the data is written down on paper, it might take longer to find something there; however, excel spreadsheets eliminate this problem. Finding and retrieving data is a straightforward process.

Because it is simple to save data and remove information with minimal effort, Microsoft Excel is widely used for a variety of purposes. Below are a few advantages of Microsoft Excel:

• Simple Data Storage: MS Excel is frequently used to store and analyze data because it has no upper limit to the amount of data that can be saved in a spreadsheet. Excel makes information filtering simple and convenient.
• Simple Data Recovery: Locating information on paper may take more time, but Excel spreadsheets make it easier to locate information. It is simple to locate and retrieve data.
• Application of Mathematical Formulas: With Microsoft Excel’s formulas feature, performing calculations has become quicker and simpler.
• Increased Security Compared to Data Recorded in Registers or Sheets of Paper: These spreadsheets are much less likely to be lost and can be password-secured on a laptop or desktop computer.
• Information in One Location: Data used to be stored in various files and registers after paperwork was completed. With the ability to add multiple worksheets to a single MS Excel file, this has become more convenient.
• Crisper and More Efficient Information Visibility: It is simpler to analyze data that has been stored as a table. Information is therefore a more readable and intelligible spreadsheet.

Common Excel Use Cases

Business contexts are the ones where Excel is used the most frequently. For example, it’s used in business analysis, operations management, human resource management, and performance reporting. Excel uses a large set of formatted cells to perform mathematical operations in order to organize and manipulate data. Users can arrange data in the spreadsheet by using graphing tools, pivot tables, and formulas. The spreadsheet program comes with a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. Organizations use Microsoft Excel for the following:

• Collection and verification of business data
• Business analysis
• Data entry and storage
• Data analysis
• Performance reporting
• Strategic analysis
• Accounting and budgeting
• Administrative and managerial management
• Account management
• Project management
• Office administration

• Cell: A worksheet’s rectangular blocks or boxes are called cells. Any type of information that a user enters into the worksheet needs to be organized into cells. Depending on the operations, cells can display text, numbers, and the results of calculations in addition to being color-coded.
• Workbook: The workbook is connected to a record in an Excel spreadsheet. All of the data that have been sorted, listed, and computed are included. A shared workbook is one that can be viewed and edited by multiple users on the same network.
• Worksheet: The documents we refer to as worksheets are located inside the workbook. Workbooks, which are also known as spreadsheets, allow a user to have many worksheets in one document.
• Workspace: A workspace allows users to open multiple files at once, much like worksheets in a workbook.
• Formula Bar: The data of an active cell is shown in the Formula Bar. When it comes to formulas, the formula bar will display every part of the formula.
• Toolbar: The toolbar containing quick shortcuts for actions like save, repeat, and undo.
• Chart: An item used to graphically or visually represent data.
• Data validation: It is an MS Excel feature that helps prevent inaccurate data from being entered into the worksheet. Consistency and accuracy in the data to be entered are aided by data validation.
• Ribbon: Over the workbook is a section of command tabs named the Ribbon. Several options are present behind every tab of the ribbon.

Also read: 15 Excel Tips & Tricks

MS Excel – Key Points to Remember

Let’s now explore the applications and usage of MS Excel:

• xls extension is used to save Microsoft Excel files.
• MS Excel is used by organizations with a large workforce because it makes storing employee data easier.
• Hospitals also use Excel spreadsheets because they make patient data easier to store. and, once their medical history is clear, can be easily removed.
• A worksheet is the sheet that you are currently working on.
• It is possible to add more than one worksheet to an Excel file.
• This application processes data.

Excel Alternatives

Even though Excel might be one of the most recognizable spreadsheet programs, other vendors offer competing products. Examples include the following:

Google Sheets

With comparable features and layouts to Excel, Google Sheets is a free alternative. Google Sheets is available to users who have a Gmail account. Because Google Sheets are cloud-based, users can access their spreadsheets on multiple devices and from any location. The same spreadsheet can be used collaboratively by several users.

Numbers

With every Mac, there is a free spreadsheet application that offers pre-made templates, charts, and graphs. Although Numbers is great at graphics and charts, it is not as adept at handling big data sets as Microsoft Excel. Additionally exclusive to Apple products is Numbers. A Windows user can still open a Numbers spreadsheet in Excel thanks to this feature, which allows users to save spreadsheets as Excel files.

Apache OpenOffice Calc

This free open-source spreadsheet program has several features, including DataPilot, which retrieves data from corporate databases; natural language formulas, which let users create formulas using words; and style and formatting tools, which provide various cell formatting options. There are fewer chart options in the software and it uses a different macro programming language than Excel. Both Mac and Windows can use OpenOffice Calc. Additionally, OpenOffice Calc only offers restricted support for Microsoft’s XLSX format and instead defaults to the Open Document Format.

LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc is a free, open-source program that has many features similar to Microsoft Excel, much like Apache OpenOffice Calc. It utilizes the Open Document Format (ODF) by default and supports a number of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. Users of LibreOffice Calc can also save and open Excel files in the.XLS and.XLSX formats.

Conclusion

Microsoft Excel stands out as a versatile and powerful tool for data organization, analysis, and visualization. Its wide range of features, such as formula application, data sorting, and chart creation, make it essential in various industries. Excel’s adaptability, combined with its ease of use, allows users to efficiently manage large datasets, ensuring accuracy and security. Additionally, its numerous alternatives, like Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, offer users more flexibility depending on their needs.