Top Excel Templates for Accounting
Monday, 20 March 2017
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
History of Microsoft Excel 1978 – 2013 [Infographic]
How long have you been using Microsoft Excel?
Have you ever thought how Excel or the other electronic spreadsheet softwares came to existence?
In today’s post, we will go back in time to trace the origin of Excel. So, here we go:
While the origin of electronic spreadsheets can be traced back to 1978, but it wasn’t until 1982 when Microsoft jumped into the arena of Electronic spreadsheets with a product known as MultiPlan.
Muliplan was Microsoft’s first electronic spreadsheet program. It was introduced in 1982 as a competitor for VisiCalc (the first ever electronic spreadsheet program). The key difference between Multiplan and its competitors was Microsoft’s decision to use R1C1 addressing instead of the A1 addressing which was introduced by VisiCalc.
Muliplan was very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost fame to Lotus 1-2-3. This thing motivated Microsoft to develop another spreadsheet product Excel.The first version of Excel was released in 1985 for Mac. Later in November 1987, the first Windows version was released.
Have you ever thought how Excel or the other electronic spreadsheet softwares came to existence?
In today’s post, we will go back in time to trace the origin of Excel. So, here we go:
While the origin of electronic spreadsheets can be traced back to 1978, but it wasn’t until 1982 when Microsoft jumped into the arena of Electronic spreadsheets with a product known as MultiPlan.
Muliplan was Microsoft’s first electronic spreadsheet program. It was introduced in 1982 as a competitor for VisiCalc (the first ever electronic spreadsheet program). The key difference between Multiplan and its competitors was Microsoft’s decision to use R1C1 addressing instead of the A1 addressing which was introduced by VisiCalc.
Muliplan was very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost fame to Lotus 1-2-3. This thing motivated Microsoft to develop another spreadsheet product Excel.The first version of Excel was released in 1985 for Mac. Later in November 1987, the first Windows version was released.
HISTORY OF MICROSOFT EXCEL?
Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan
in 1982, which was very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS
systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3.
This promoted development of a new spreadsheet called Excel which started with the intention to 'do everything 1-2-3 does and do it better'.
The first version of Excel was released for the Mac in 1985 and the first Windows version was released in November 1987.
Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by 1988 Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve the position of leading PC software developer.
This accomplishment, dethroning the king of the software world, solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing graphical software.
Microsoft pushed its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so. The current version for the Windows platform is Excel 11, also called Microsoft Office Excel 2003. The current version for the Mac OS X platform is Microsoft Excel 2004.
This promoted development of a new spreadsheet called Excel which started with the intention to 'do everything 1-2-3 does and do it better'.
The first version of Excel was released for the Mac in 1985 and the first Windows version was released in November 1987.
Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by 1988 Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve the position of leading PC software developer.
This accomplishment, dethroning the king of the software world, solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing graphical software.
Microsoft pushed its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so. The current version for the Windows platform is Excel 11, also called Microsoft Office Excel 2003. The current version for the Mac OS X platform is Microsoft Excel 2004.
Monday, 13 March 2017
Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #1 - Overview
Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #1 - Overview
Bringing the selection into view
It's possible you've selected some areas of cells and the scrolled
away so you can't see it any more. CTRL/Backspace brings that selection
into view, and shift/Backspace brings selection into view as well but
reduces the selection to the active cell. So, if this is the before
picture:
Then shift/backspace will simply have cell B3 selected.
Then shift/backspace will simply have cell B3 selected.
See all characters in font set
-
Enter =CHAR(ROW()) in row 1
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=ROW() return the row you're in. =ROW() entered in cell G23 returns 23.
-
=CHAR(97) returns the 97th character in the character set for that font, usually a lowercase "a" (picture fonts like Wingdings or Webdings return something else).
-
-
Fill down to row 255.
-
Easy to see things like ●, ¢, £:
-
When you see that "●" is in row 149, you can then know that holding Alt while typing 0149 on the numeric keypad will create this character as soon as you let go of the Alt key! And this holds true for all of Office, not just Excel! You can copy/paste special characters for the character(s) you want, and you can then copy the resulting character from the formula bar.
Selecting a random sample of data
If you have a database with many records and you want to take a
random sample of that data, here are a few techniques you can use.
One way to get a random sample is to use a computed criteria and advanced filter.
Suppose you want to take a random 10% of the data. Enter the formula as shown in C2 (keep C1 blank). By entering the formula = RAND()<0.1, every time this worksheet calculates, the =RAND() will return another random number. So RAND()<0.1 will return true, about 10% of the time.
(Rand() returns a random value between 0 and 1, not including 1).
Using the Advanced button from the Data tab: [Excel 2003:Date|Filter|Advanced Filter]
You can filter like this:
and that will create a random selection:
This will be different each time. You may notice that there are only 9 items shown not 10, and that's because the values RAND returns are random! It's best to use this on larger databases!
A second way to select a random 10% of your data is to still use the RAND function, but not use filtering. Look at this:
Cells B2 thru B101 contain = RAND(). All you need do is select A2:B101 and sort by colum
One way to get a random sample is to use a computed criteria and advanced filter.
Suppose you want to take a random 10% of the data. Enter the formula as shown in C2 (keep C1 blank). By entering the formula = RAND()<0.1, every time this worksheet calculates, the =RAND() will return another random number. So RAND()<0.1 will return true, about 10% of the time.
(Rand() returns a random value between 0 and 1, not including 1).
Using the Advanced button from the Data tab: [Excel 2003:Date|Filter|Advanced Filter]
You can filter like this:
and that will create a random selection:
This will be different each time. You may notice that there are only 9 items shown not 10, and that's because the values RAND returns are random! It's best to use this on larger databases!
A second way to select a random 10% of your data is to still use the RAND function, but not use filtering. Look at this:
Cells B2 thru B101 contain = RAND(). All you need do is select A2:B101 and sort by colum
Formatting comments
When most people create a comment (Review Tab, New Comment, or Shift/F2), [Excel2003:Insert|Comment], they accept the shape and color and just enter the information they want. So most comments look something like this:
But how about a comment like this?
Or even this: (It's me!)
Here's how you can do it:
When you first create a comment, the cursor is right after whatever you typed. You need to select the comment itself, not the text inside. So, select the border of the comment.
You need the "Change Shape" tool. This can be placed on the Quick Access toolbar: [Excel 2003: View|Toolbars| Drawing|Draw Menu|Change AutoShape]
When the comment is selected by the border, click the new Change Shape tool.
From that, you can select basic shapes, block arrows, flowcharts, stars and banners, or callouts, each of which has yet another set of shapes to choose from. Shown here is the Cloud callout:
Once you have the new shape, (cloud, here), right-click the border once again, and choose Format comment as shown, if you wish to format this comment even further:
That will bring up yet another dialog, from which you can choose Fill Effects:
From this dialog box you can select the Picture tab and import any picture (I chose me!).
But how about a comment like this?
Or even this: (It's me!)
Here's how you can do it:
When you first create a comment, the cursor is right after whatever you typed. You need to select the comment itself, not the text inside. So, select the border of the comment.
You need the "Change Shape" tool. This can be placed on the Quick Access toolbar: [Excel 2003: View|Toolbars| Drawing|Draw Menu|Change AutoShape]
When the comment is selected by the border, click the new Change Shape tool.
From that, you can select basic shapes, block arrows, flowcharts, stars and banners, or callouts, each of which has yet another set of shapes to choose from. Shown here is the Cloud callout:
Once you have the new shape, (cloud, here), right-click the border once again, and choose Format comment as shown, if you wish to format this comment even further:
That will bring up yet another dialog, from which you can choose Fill Effects:
From this dialog box you can select the Picture tab and import any picture (I chose me!).
Using Pictographs
Anything in the clipboard can be pasted onto a chart
Clicking on the coins, copy (ctrl/c), click on a series, Home/paste (or ctrl/v):
Right-click on the series, use Format Data Series:
Click these options: [Excel 2003:Patterns tab|Fill Effects]
There are 3 format options:
If we select Stack and scale, we can enter a number into the Unit/Picture box. Again, this is something you can experiment with.
You also may have noticed these options in this dialog:
The new chart:
On the picture tab there was a button to select a picture−you can use any picture you have on your computer! You can experiment with the other tabs as well.
Clicking on the coins, copy (ctrl/c), click on a series, Home/paste (or ctrl/v):
Right-click on the series, use Format Data Series:
Click these options: [Excel 2003:Patterns tab|Fill Effects]
There are 3 format options:
-
Stretch (default)
-
Stack
-
Stack and scale to
If we select Stack and scale, we can enter a number into the Unit/Picture box. Again, this is something you can experiment with.
You also may have noticed these options in this dialog:
-
Gradient fill
-
Picture or texture fill
-
And others
The new chart:
On the picture tab there was a button to select a picture−you can use any picture you have on your computer! You can experiment with the other tabs as well.
Change dates like 20050923 to one Excel can "understand"
Suppose you are looking at a worksheet which contains dates which
can't be formatted as "real" dates because of their structure:
Select the date(s), and use Data tab, Text-to-Columns, [Excel2003:Data|Text to Columns]
Which brings up the Text-to-Columns wizard:
Even though the dates are fixed width, in this case you can simply click "Next" twice.
In step 3 of wizard Select Date, YMD:
If you click Finish now, the result will replace the dates. You can select another destination cell:
Here's the result:
Select the date(s), and use Data tab, Text-to-Columns, [Excel2003:Data|Text to Columns]
Which brings up the Text-to-Columns wizard:
Even though the dates are fixed width, in this case you can simply click "Next" twice.
In step 3 of wizard Select Date, YMD:
If you click Finish now, the result will replace the dates. You can select another destination cell:
Here's the result:
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Microsoft Excel shortcut keys
Below is a listing of all the major shortcut keys usable in Microsoft Excel. See the computer shortcut page if you are looking for shortcut keys used in other programs.
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