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.

In this lesson, we cover how to print an Excel spreadsheet with page numbers on each page. Excel has changed a lot over the years, but one thing that hasn't changed is the way that you insert page numbers into a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, Excel 2010 does not make it easy to find the options for doing this. This lesson covers the basics of inserting page numbers as well as providing an overview of some more advanced options.

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This lesson shows you a formula to convert a month name into its corresponding number (i.e. Jan = 1, Feb =2, etc).

When printing in Excel, it is sometimes useful to print a set of rows (e.g. column headings) on each page in the print out. There is nothing worse than having a printout that runs to multiple pages, with the column headings only printed on the first page. This lesson shows you how to get header rows printing at the top of every page in Microsoft Excel 2011 for Mac. You will also learn how to print header columns on the left of every page in your printout.

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Autofilter is one of the most powerful features of Excel if you need to work with data in tabulated (table) format. It lets you treat a range of cells as a table and then filter out certain rows based on different criteria. It is very powerful if you need to "mine" data in a list and find out specific information about the data in that list. This tutorial covers how to set up a data table in Excel to use with Autofilter, and also shows you how to enable Autofilter and use it for basic filtering. This lesson is applicable for all versions of Excel (including Excel for Mac) although the visual presentation of the options may change from version to version.

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Entering the same formula or value into multiple cells can be time consuming and boring. Most people, if they want to enter the same formula into a row or column of data, will enter the formula in the first cell, then copy and paste it into the rest of the cells where they need the formula. This lesson shows you an even faster way to do it.

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Excel offers a number of ways to find rows that contain duplicate values. However, most of them focus on finding rows where the value in just one column is repeated. In this lesson, we look at how to use the COUNTIFS function to find rows where values in moree than one column is repeated. We then use the COUNTIFS function in combination with Excel's Conditional Formatting feature to highlight duplicate and even triplicate rows.

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This lesson shows you now to extract text from a cell in Excel. This is useful when you have a cell containing combining numbers and text, such as a part number, or several text values separated by commas. It introduces the RIGHT() and LEFT() functions, which are essential text manipulation functions in Excel.

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The WORKDAY.INTL() function extends the WORKDAY() function so that you can specify which days are weekend days when adding days to dates. This lesson shows you how to use it.

When printing in Excel 2010 for Windows, it is sometimes useful to print a set of rows (e.g. column headings) on each page in the print out. There is nothing worse than having a printout that runs to multiple pages, with the column headings only printed on the first page. This lesson shows you how to get header rows printing at the top of every page.

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This lesson shows you how to group data in your pivot table by date. You can group by day, week, month, quarter or year. If your date fields include a time value, you can also group by seconds, minutes or hours. You'll also learn how to collapse and expand data groups in your pivot table so you can quickly see a summary of your data.

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There are many scenarios where you may need to use the current date and time in your spreadsheets. You may simply need to display the current date in a spreadsheet report. Or, you may need to perform a calculation that uses the current date or time. This lesson shows you how to enter a formula into a cell in Excel that outputs the current date and/or time, and updates automatically as time passes.

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This lesson shows you how to use Excel to calculate the number of days between two dates. It also shows you how to exclude weekends and holidays from the total.

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This lesson introduces the LEN() function, which allows you to calculate the number of characters in a cell. This formula is useful on its own, or can be combined with other text functions such as RIGHT(), LEFT(), MID() and FIND().

This lesson explains how to use Autosum. Autosum is a powerful feature that can save you time if you need to add up cells or columns of data. It is often faster than creating a formula by hand, especially when you have a large amount of data to add up. In this lesson you'll learn how to use Autosum, and some of its limitations.

The SUMPRODUCT function allows you to multiply two arrays of numbers together (e.g. Quantity Sold and Price Per Unit) and add the results each individual calculation together. Without the SUMPRODUCT function, you'll find yourself having to create a third column in which you multiply the Quantity by Price for each row, and then find the sum of all the individual formulas. This lesson shows you how to use SUMPRODUCT to do all that with just one formula.

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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