Excel Tips For Beginners

Microsoft Excel is home to so many exciting and useful features that you may find it difficult to figure out where to start from once you set out to explore MS Excel. MS Excel tips can be a never ending list as it has a huge number of functions that can be carried out using it. Here are few MS Excel tips that will provide you with straightforward answers on ways to carry out various tasks related to functions of MS Excel.

1. Date Functions

Excel offers a number of date functions. You can use these functions to return to current date, time or day of the week.

2. COUNT Function

COUNT function is one of the “Count Functions” and can be used to arrive at the total number of cells containing data falling in a selected range. The COUNT function will return the total number of cells that contain numbers under a specified range.

• · COUNTA function

COUNTA function is different from COUNT function in the sense that it can return the count of cells containing not only numerical data but also labels within the specified range.

3. AVERAGE Function

One of the most widely used statistical functions of MS Excel is AVERAGE. As the name suggests, it is used to find the arithmetic mean or average of the values contained in the selected range of cells.

4. The OR function

One of Excel’s logical operator is the OR function. As with all logical operators, it also returns either true or false as an answer. It is used to ascertain whether the contents of a cell adhere to a specified criteria or out of it. If they do, this function returns a True response, else a False statement is returned.

5. IF Functions

One of the most useful Excel functions is �IF’. It tests a certain condition for its correctness and based on the response, carries out either of the two sets of tasks mentioned after the function. Out of the two tasks, the function will do one if the condition is correct and the other if the condition is incorrect.

This function can be used in a number of ways described below:

• · Using the IF Function to leave blank cells

IF function can be used to leave a blank cell depending on the correctness of the tested condition.

• · Using the IF Function To Enter Text

It can also be used to enter certain text into a cell based on correctness of the condition or otherwise.

• · Using the IF Function to Enter Data

You can also use IF function to enter numbers or values into certain targeted cells depending on the outcome of the IF function.

• · IF Function To Perform Calculations

It can also be used to carry out calculations depending on whether the tested condition is true or false.

There are no two ways about the fact that MS Excel is one of the front runners of Microsoft Office applications. With these simple Excel tips, you can use Excel to your advantage and benefit from the multitude of features that this program has to offer.