Introduction

Microsoft Excel is the most widely used data communication and calculation tool in business. Microsoft Excel has powerful plotting and data organization abilities that are widely known. However Excel also has many time saving features such as VBA Macros that are not as widely known. This document will provide you with the knowledge about some of those basic time saving features.

The following instructions will guide you on how to build a Gantt chart, create custom table headers, and merge tables in Microsoft Excel.

Table of contents

1. Benefits of developing Excel skills
2. Knowledge requirements
3. Software and System requirements
4. Typography

Benefits of developing Excel skills

Excel spreadsheets have become a standard in the Business community and is used to exchange data and perform various calculations. As most businesses use Excel, any additional skills learned can be beneficial for standing out amongst your peers. Additionaly many of these feautures can be used personally to improve organization and planning your schedule or finances.

Knowledge requirements

This instruction is tailored towards a user with previous knowledge of Microsoft Excel. As such, no instructions about basic skills and terminology will be provided in this document.

Basic knowledge of Excel features includes the following:

• creating and saving Excel spreadsheets,
• understanding the different formats in a cell’s value, such as General, Date, Scientific,
• cutting, copying, pasting, and entering values in cells, and
• using aggregate functions (SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX) across a range of cells.

If you cannot perform the features described above, please familiarize yourself with Microsoft Excel before proceeding with this guide.

Learn basic Excel skills and terminology.

Software and System requirements

• Microsoft Office 365 version of Excel

Typography

• Note symbol which indicates important information.
• Alert symbol which indicates caution is necessary when proceeding.