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.

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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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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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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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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Once you get used to using Excel, you can find that using the mouse to select data in your spreadsheet is somewhat slow and time consuming. Here's a quick technique for selecting a range of cells in Excel.

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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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If you need a free option to create a PDF of a Microsoft Office document, your options will depend on which version of Microsoft Office you are using.

This lesson shows you how to calculate a running total between two dates in a column of data. An example might be calculating the total sales for the last 30 days up to today. Each row in the spreadsheet will calculate a new total based on the date in that row, counting back a specified number of days.

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COUNTBLANK allows you to count the number of empty or blank cells in a range in Excel. This lesson shows you how to use COUNTBLANK, and also shares a couple of things to watch out for when you use COUNTBLANK in an Excel formula.

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One of the last keyboard shortcuts I mastered in Excel was moving between worksheets. Fortunately it's easy, and you don't need to wait as long as I did.

This lesson shows you a way to calculate the number of times a single character occurs in a cell in Excel, and provides a real-life example where I needed to split a column of cells containing part numbers into individual components for each part number.

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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