If you're using Excel to calculate dates, it is useful to know how to add (or subtract) a certain number of working or business days to a date. This lesson introduces the WORKDAY() function and shows you how to use it.
Learn Microsoft Excel
If you want to learn Microsoft Excel, you're in the right place. There is a lot to learn about Microsoft Excel, and not everything is in the manual. We've got a range of free online lessons on how to get the best out of Excel, starting from the basics right up to advanced subjects. We'll help you to do your job better - with the right Excel skills you could even get a raise or a better job! If you don't see what you want to learn, why not get in touch and suggest a lesson we should write.
Excel offers a couple of handy functions that you can use to calculate the smallest and largest values in a range of cells. They are simple functions that go by the names of MIN() and MAX(). This lesson shows you how to use them. It also introduces SMALL() and LARGE(), functions which duplicate what MIN and MAX do, plus more besides.
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Printing from Excel can be very frustrating, especially if your spreadsheet is too wide or too tall to fit on a single page.
You can use the Scaling option in Page Setup to set limits on how many pages wide and tall your document should be when you print it. The problem with that is that you can find your page fits onto one page, but becomes too small to read. Not only that, but Excel ignores any manual page breaks you've entered. This lesson explains how you can print your spreadsheet so it automatically scales to be one page wide without forcing the rows into a single page.
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Rounding in Excel refers to reducing the number of digits in a number to make it easier to work with. A common example is rounding a price to two decimal places. Rounding errors can cause havoc with your spreadsheets without you even realising it. A common mistake occurs when you change the display format of a number to show fewer digits after the decimal point and assume that the number has been rounded for use in other calculations. This lesson explains how rounding in Excel works, and shows you how to use the different rounding functions available in Excel.
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Creating charts in Excel can be a frustrating process. This lesson starts with the basics, and shows you the simple steps you need to follow to create a basic column or bar chart in Excel.
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When you create a formula in Excel that refers to other cells in the worksheet, Excel will store the information about those cells as relative references. Relative references and their counterpart, absolute references, are one of the things that make spreadsheets such a powerful tool.
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When writing a formula that references other cells, it can sometimes be useful to check that those cells contain a valid value. In this lesson, we'll look at Excel's ISNUMBER function as a way of doing this.
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The SUM function in Excel allows you to add up the values in a range of cells. However, sometimes you only want to add up the cells that meet certain criteria. That's where the SUMIF function comes in handy, along with the more capable SUMIFS function.
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Sometimes you need to count the number of cells in a spreadsheet that contain a value or set of values. The COUNTIF function allows you to do this by counting only those cells in the range that meet the criteria you set. This lesson explains how to use COUNTIF, and provides an example of how you can use it.
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If you work with large Excel spreadsheets, you'll probably know the hassle of scrolling left and right, up and down as you try to work with all that data. You can use the Zoom feature to make the spreadsheet smaller and fit more onto the screen, but that doesn't always give you the result you want. Often, it will make your spreadsheet too small or not small enough.
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When creating a chart in Excel, Excel will default to inserting your new chart on the same worksheet that contains the data you created it from. This lesson shows you various options for moving or resizing your chart so it looks how you want it to, where you want it to be.
If you have formatted a cell and want to use the same formatting for another cell or cells, you can easily copy the formatting from that cell to as many additional cells as you like.
The COUNTIFS function in Excel counts the number of cells in a range that match a set of multiple criteria. COUNTIFS extends the COUNTIF function which only allows one criteria. It is similar to SUMIFS, which will find the sum of all cells that match a set of multiple criteria. This lesson shows you how to use COUNTIFS and provides some practical examples to help you understand how it works.
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The SUMIFS function in Excel allows you to sum the values in a range of cells that meet multiple conditions, or criteria. For example, you might use the SUMIFS function in a sales spreadsheet to to add up the value of sales of a specific product by a given sales person (e.g. the value of all sales of a microwave oven made by John). This lesson explains how to use SUMIFS.
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The MATCH() function allows you to find the position of a value in a list. For example, in a list of weekdays starting with Monday, MATCH() would return a value of 3 for Wednesday. This lesson explains how to use the MATCH() function in Microsoft Excel, explains where you might use it, and provides a real world example of the MATCH() function in action.
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Excel Formulas
Do you need help with an Excel formula or function? We have lessons on a range of different Excel functions, and the list is growing all the time.
Click here to see the full list of Excel Formulas and Functions