Excel is a powerhouse! I have used Excel for years, and I am always amazed when I discover something new about it!
First and foremost, of course, Excel is a powerful program for mathematical calculations. This is where it really shines. There are too many functions to detail here, but when you have data that you need to manipulate, Excel can handle the process with ease.
Sorting, searching, and creating tables and charts are basic abilities that Excel is well known for.
Pivot tables are very useful when analyzing data. Many people use the SUM function to add a series of numbers.
If you dig even deeper into what Excel can do, you will find that you can use algorithms to perform statistical calculations.
Less spectacular but still useful, Excel can be utilized with alpha characters, putting information in alphabetical order.
This is especially helpful when you have client information that you may want to manipulate, sometimes in order by date or other numerical value and sometimes in alphabetical order.
One cool feature I found was that I could “teach” Excel what I wanted it to do, and it “learned” the function and applied it to other cells. In this case, I had a list of names in alphabetical order by last name. I needed to change the order of each person’s name so that the first name was first. I taught the first cell in the column what I wanted done, then applied it to the rest of the cells in the column. That saved me a lot of time retyping all those names.
There are multiple ways you can use Excel. Next time you are working with Excel, look up how Excel can help you accomplish your tasks. You’ll be glad you did.