What Is Microsoft Excel Used For

Microsoft Excel Basics. Sometimes, Excel seems too good to be true. Need to combine information. Whether you work in an office or need to manage your own data, Microsoft Excel 2019 is the most common spreadsheet software for business or personal use. Even if you choose to work with another spreadsheet solution, most software is compatible with Excel format and can export any data into an Excel spreadsheet. Spreadsheets help you manage data.

1. Excel For Beginners
2. What Is Microsoft Excel Used For In Work
3. What Is Microsoft Excel Used For In Business
4. What Is Microsoft Excel Used For Definition

Excel. Adobe voice pc. Chances are, that word alone inspires visions of lengthy spreadsheets, complicated macros, and the occasional pivot table or bar graph.

It's true—with more than one billion Microsoft Office users globally, Excel has become the professional standard in offices across the globe for pretty much anything that requires management of large amounts of data.

But, if you think Excel is only good for making you cross-eyed while looking at a bunch of numbers and financial reports, think again. As Tomasz Tunguz points out, there are tons of uses of Excel in business (and beyond) outside of simple spreadsheets. In fact, the potential uses are seemingly endless.

There's no way for us to compile a list that captures every one of Excel's possible applications (even if you were up for reading a War and Peace-sized listicle). Adobe premiere 6 5 release date.

However, in an effort to demonstrate the power and flexibility of everybody's favorite spreadsheet tool, we've pulled together different ways that you could use Excel—both professionally, personally, and just for the fun of it.

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All about numbers

Of course, the core purpose of Excel all boils down to numbers. If you need to sort, retrieve, and analyze a large (or even small!) amount of data, Excel makes it a breeze.

Here are a few broad categories to keep in mind when it comes to implementing Excel for anything numbers-related.

1. Calculating

Find yourself running the same calculations over and over again? Build yourself a totally customized calculator in Excel by programming your commonly-used formulas. That way, you just need to punch in your digits and Excel will spit the answer out for you—no elbow grease required.

2. Accounting

Budget plans, forecasts, expense tracking, financial reports, loan calculators, and more. Excel was pretty much designed to meet these different accounting needs. And, considering that 89 percent of companies utilize Excel for its various accounting functions, it obviously fits the bill.

Excel even has numerous different spreadsheet templates to make all of those processes that much easier.

3. Charting

Pie charts, scatter charts, line charts, bar charts, area charts, column charts—the list goes on and on. If you need to find a way to represent data in a more visual and digestible way, Excel's ability to transform rows and columns of digits into beautiful charts is sure to become one of your favorite things about it.

Want more information about the types of charts you can create in Excel? This article is a helpful resource.

4. Inventory tracking

Tracking inventory can be a headache. Fortunately, Excel can help to keep employees, business owners, or even individuals organized and on top of their inventory—before any major problems crop up.

Making a plan

Let's move on from the numbers—there are plenty of things that Excel can help you plan and organize that don't necessarily involve endless rows of digits.

5. Calendars and schedules

Need to map out a content calendar for your blog or website? Lesson plans for your classroom? A PTO schedule for you and all of your co-workers? A daily schedule for you or your family? When it comes to various calendars, Excel can be surprisingly robust.

6. Seating charts

From a large corporate luncheon to a wedding, arranging a seating chart can be a royal headache. Fortunately, Excel can make it a total breeze. If you're a real whiz, you'll be able to automatically create your seating chart using your spreadsheet of RSVPs. Need help getting this done? This article provides a detailed walkthrough of how you can create a seating chart in Excel.

7. Goal planning worksheet

From professional goals to fitness goals to financial goals, it helps to have something to keep you focused and on track. Enter the beauty of Excel. Using the tool, you can create various worksheets, logs, and planning documents to help you monitor your progress—and, hopefully, cross the finish line.

8. Mock-ups

Excel might not be the first platform you think of when it comes to design. But, believe it or not, you can use the tool to put together various mock-ups and prototypes. In fact, it's a surprisingly popular choice for creating website wireframes and dashboards.

Getting stuff done

Want to kick your productivity into high gear? Well, Excel can swoop in and save the day with a variety of uses that can help you tackle your tasks and to-dos with ease and organization.

9. Task list

Say goodbye to your standard pen and paper to-do list. With Excel, you can make a far more robust task list—and even track your progress on those larger to-dos that are currently on your plate.

10. Checklist

Similarly, you can create a simple checklist that allows you to tick off the things you've purchased or accomplished—from a grocery list to a roster of to-dos for an upcoming marketing campaign.

11. Project management charts

We've already touched on the fact that Excel is a total beast when it comes to creating charts. And, this concept holds true when it comes to various charts for project management.

From waterfall charts to manage your team's progress to kanban style boards (just like Trello!) to keep things organized, there are tons of ways that Excel can help keep your project on track.

12. Time logs

You know that tracking time can be a huge asset to you and your productivity. While there are plenty of fancy apps and tools to help meet that need, you can think of Excel as the original tool for logging your time. And, it still serves as a suitable option today.

Involving other people

Need to collect information from other people? Survey tools and forms are one option. But, rest assured, you can also create your own in Excel.

13. Forms

From simple to complicated, Excel is a great option for creating forms. You can even program various drop-down menus so that users can select their choice from a pre-set list.

14. Quizzes

Trying to test somebody else's—or even your own—knowledge of a subject? In Excel, you can create a bank of questions and answers in one worksheet, and then instruct Excel to quiz you in another.

Staying in touch

Managing relationships is crucial to your success both professionally and personally. Fortunately, Excel makes it easy to keep in touch.

Excel For Beginners

15. CRM

Need a lightweight CRM to stay top of mind for your customers? You can make one in Excel. And, the best part? Building your own means it will be totally customizable. Sales Hacker also put together a nifty set of free sales excel templates you can use to help get started!

16. Mailing list

Data doesn't just have to involve numbers. Excel is also great at managing and sorting large amounts of names and addresses—making it the perfect solution for your invite list for that company holiday party or the mailing list for that large promotion or campaign.

Using Excel, you can also mail merge—which makes it that much easier to print address labels and other necessary materials.

You can also apply a similar concept to create things like directories, RSVP lists, and other rosters that involve a large amount of information about people.

Just for fun

Excel doesn't need to be all work and no play. There are plenty of other fun things you can create using the spreadsheet tool.

17. Historical logs

Whether you want to keep track of the various craft beers you've tasted, the workouts you've completed, or something else entirely, you can think of Excel as your go-to resource for keeping those things sorted and logged.

18. Sudoku puzzles

Love Sudoku puzzles? As it turns out, you can make your own in Excel. Or, if you find yourself stuck on a particularly challenging one, you can enlist the help of Excel to help you get it figured out!

Need help creating the Sudoku solver and generator? This post will get you well on your way!

19. Word cloud

Word clouds might not be the most scientific representations of data. But, they're a fun (not to mention beautiful way) to gain an understanding of what words are being utilized most. You guessed it—you can create one using Excel. Here's how to use information from Excel to create a word cloud in Wordle.

20. Art and animations

The capabilities of Excel likely extend far beyond what you'd initially anticipate. In fact, many people have used the tool to create some downright awesome art—from pixelated portraits to animations.

21. Trip planner

Have a vacation coming up? Make sure you have everything covered by creating yourself a helpful itinerary before you pack your bags and head out. Excel even has a handy trip planner template you can use to make sure you don't miss anything (from your budget to airline information!).

Over to you

This might seem like a lengthy list. But, rest assured, it barely scratches the surface of all of the different things—aside from simple spreadsheets—that Excel is capable of. From lists to charts to design mock-ups, the different uses of Excel are seemingly limitless.

Feeling intimidated? Don't worry - you can learn Excel online, all at your own pace, and become a spreadsheet ninja in no time.

Do you have something cool you like to create using Excel? Let us know in the comments!

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Excel is a spreadsheet application developed and published by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

Unlike a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Excel organizes data in columns and rows. Rows and columns intersect at a space called a cell. Each cell can contain a single of data, such as text, a numerical value, or a formula.

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

• Microsoft Excel help and support.

Excel overview

Excel is a tool for organizing and performing calculations on data. It can analyze data, calculate statistics, generate pivot tables, and represent data as a chart or graph.

For example, you could create an Excel spreadsheet that calculates a monthly budget, tracks associated expenses, and interactively sorts the data by criteria.

Below is an example of Microsoft Excel with each of its major sections highlighted. See the formula bar, cell, column, row, or sheet tab links for further information about each of these sections.

Where do you find or start Excel?

If you have Excel or the entire Microsoft Office package installed on 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.

What Is Microsoft Excel Used For In Work

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 OfficeXX 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.

How can Excel be formatted?

Each of the rows, columns, and cells can be modified in many ways, including the background color, number or date format, size, text font, layout, etc. In our above example, you can see that the first row (row 1) has a blue background, bold text, and each cell has its text centered.

Download an example of a spreadsheet file

We've created a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded and opened in any spreadsheet program including Microsoft Excel. This spreadsheet illustrate some of the capabilities of a spreadsheet, formulas, and functions and allows you to experiment more with a spreadsheet.

Why do people use Excel?

There are many reasons people may use Excel (a spreadsheet program). For example, someone might use Excel to keep track of their expenses. For a full list of reason and examples of how people use a spreadsheet, see our spreadsheet definition.

Why would someone use Excel over a different spreadsheet program?

Today, there are many different free spreadsheet options that someone could use instead of Excel. However, even with the available free options, Excel remains the most-used spreadsheet because of all its available options, features, and because many businesses still use the program.

Even with all Excel's options, a free spreadsheet program like Google Sheets is often all most users need.

If you want to get Excel because it's a job requirement, it's still okay to learn all the basics in a free spreadsheet program. However, there are still many differences between Excel and a free spreadsheet program.

Excel file extensions

The following file extensions are supported by Microsoft Excel. The default format for saving a Microsoft Excel workbook is .xlsx.

What are the different versions of Microsoft Excel?

Goodnotes windows alternative. Microsoft Excel has had several versions throughout its history. The different releases, along with their release dates, are listed below.

Windows versions

What Is Microsoft Excel Used For In Business

• Excel 2019, released in 2018
• Office 365 and Excel 2016, released in 2016
• Excel 2013, released in 2013
• Excel 2010, released in 2010
• Excel 2007, released in 2007
• Excel 2003, released in 2003
• Excel 2002, released in 2002
• Excel 2000, released in 2000
• Excel 97, released in 1997
• Excel 95, released in 1995
• Excel 5.0, released in 1993
• Excel 4.0, released in 1992
• Excel 3.0, released in 1990
• Excel 2.0, released in 1987

What Is Microsoft Excel Used For Definition

Mac versions

• Excel 2019, released in 2018
• Excel 2016, released in 2016
• Excel 2011, released in 2011
• Excel 2008, released in 2008
• Excel 2004, released in 2004
• Excel 2001, released in 2001
• Excel 2000, released in 2000
• Excel 98, released in 1998
• Excel 5.0, released in 1993
• Excel 4.0, released in 1992
• Excel 3.0, released in 1990
• Excel 2.2, released in 1989
• Excel 1.5, released in 1988
• Excel 1, released in 1985

What came before Excel?

Microsoft Excel was not the first spreadsheet program, Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc were popular spreadsheet programs released before Excel.

Related Excel pages

• Microsoft Excel help and support.

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