Computing Group – The Basics Of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel was developed by Microsoft in 1982 and made part of the Microsoft Office Suite. Under the Microsoft banner it has become the best selling software for building professional spreadsheets.

A bit of history… Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982. Multiplan became very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and the first Windows version was 2.05 (to synchronise with the Macintosh version 2.2) in November 1987. Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by the early 1990s Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve its position as a leading PC software developer for spreadsheet software. This accomplishment solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing GUI software. Microsoft has maintained its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so. (The link below is a Wikipedia page which opens up in either a new window or tab, depending how you have your browser set up. This link gives much more information on Excel and its history.)

History of Microsoft Excel

IMPORTANT NOTE: It doesn't matter what type of computer you use. The YouTube video links work in the same way across ALL operating systems.

Source of the videos: We have used video links from the Goodwill Community Foundation Learn Free website. To see the Excel videos, and other software training in their portfolio, you can access it via the link below.

The videos in this series will give you excellent training on using Microsoft Excel. With practice it's easy enough to master, though it's a comprehensive program that requires time to learn it properly. This is especially so if you are to master the way to use functions and more complex features like the advanced formulas and Pivot Tables. In all there are 26 training videos; each one varies in length from a short three or four minutes to ones that are around seventeen minutes. You can replay them, or come back to them, as often as you like.

YouTube & Advertising

This is a Google owned business. They make their money through advertising. When some videos start to play there may be an advert appearing. Usually there is an option to click the advert ribbon off by clicking on the X in the top right hand corner and it should disappear.

At the end of each video there will be a reminder of who produced the video (in this case it's simonsezit.com but you can stop the video at anytime and go to the next one. Lots of businesses use YouTube to promote their services so it's not unreasonable if they promote their stuff!

Practice makes perfect…

If you have Microsoft Excel on your computer it may be useful to have the program open so you can practice what you learn.

By using the square symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the video you can make it play in full screen mode.

A suggestion… Work through the video training as your time allows. The running time for all of the training is around one hour and forty five minutes approx. By scheduling to watch them over several days you will soon be competent with this software.