Excel for Beginners: the 10 things to learn first

This is day one. Do these ten things in order, in a blank workbook, and you will be comfortable in Excel within an hour.

1. Know the words

A workbook is the file. It holds sheets (tabs at the bottom). A sheet is a grid of cells. Columns have letters, rows have numbers, so the top-left cell is A1.

2. Type and move

Click a cell, type, press Enter to go down or Tab to go right. Press Esc to cancel what you were typing.

3. Fix a mistake

Double-click the cell, or press F2, edit, Enter. Ctrl + Z undoes anything.

4. Make a small table

In A1 type Item, B1 Qty, C1 Price. Under them add three products with numbers.

5. Your first formula

In D1 type Total. In D2 type =B2*C2 and press Enter. A formula always starts with =. Full lesson: multiply formula.

6. The fill handle

Click D2. Drag the small square at its bottom-right corner down to D4. The formula copies and adjusts itself for each row.

7. Add it up

Click D5 and press Alt + =. Excel writes =SUM(D2:D4). Enter. Lesson: SUM formula.

8. Make it readable

Click row 1’s number, press Ctrl + B. Double-click the line between column letters A and B to auto-fit the width.

9. Save

Ctrl + S. Name it. Excel files end in .xlsx. Save often.

10. Move faster

Ctrl + Arrow jumps to the edge of your data. Ctrl + Home goes to A1. The rest: 25 shortcuts worth learning.

What next

The Start Here page lists every lesson in order, easy to complex. Take the next one.