We are a beginner with the PC and with the Microsoft Office office suite "> How to use Excel Formulas and Functions 1) Download Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a set of programs provided for a fee, so to be able to download it to our PC we must first purchase a regular license from the Microsoft website available here -> Get Office .
As visible from the site, three Office packages are available: two concern the Office 365 package, which includes Microsoft cloud services and is available by subscription, while the actual suite (usable without a subscription) is Office Home & Student 2019, at the cost of 149 € (you pay only once).
We choose the most suitable package for our needs and click on Buy now to complete the purchase (by credit card or PayPal).
This is the only way to legally exploit Microsoft Office and the Excel program on our PC; given the importance of this suite and the power of the programs inserted, it is worth making an economic effort to equip our Office PCs for a fee, in particular if we have to perform many calculations, create documents for the office or study.
Once purchased Office, we will be offered the link where to download the ISO image with the program and the serial associated with it.
We install Office on our PC and, at the right time, insert the purchased license to use it without limits (or by subscription, if we had chosen this form of purchase on the Microsoft page).
The serial will link to the Microsoft account that we will use within Office, so we must not be afraid of losing the suite in case of formatting or change of PC.
2) How to make simple calculations on Excel
Now that you have Office installed on your PC, start the Excel program, looking for it in the Windows Start menu (it should immediately appear as the first result).
The Excel welcome window will open: here we click on Empty workbook to open an empty sheet.
The sheet is divided into cells, identified by a number (for the rows) and a letter (for the columns).
To perform a simple mathematical calculation within a cell, simply click on any cell and insert the symbol = (equal), so as to enable the calculation of numbers and the insertion of formulas (which we will see later).
Inserted the equal symbol inside the cell, insert the mathematical calculation to be carried out using the symbols + (for addition), - (for subtraction), * (for multiplication) and finally / (for division) .
Once all the numbers of the calculation have been entered, click Enter or Enter on the keyboard to confirm; Excel will automatically perform the predetermined calculation, showing the result in the cell.
The calculation entered can be viewed at any time by selecting the cell with the result and checking in the upper bar reserved for the formulas.
This is the easiest method to make calculations in Excel from numbers provided directly by us.
But if we wanted to use the numbers entered in other cells instead ">
By clicking Enter or Enter on the keyboard we will get the sum of all the numbers entered in the cells.
Of course, we can also enter numbers present in other rows and columns without any problem (they don't necessarily have to be lined up or lined up to perform the calculation).
To speed up the calculation, we can also select all the cells with the mouse and use the quick analysis button (lightning-shaped in a sheet in the lower right corner): in the drop-down window that we will see, let's go to the tab Totals and select Sum to immediately calculate the sum of all the numbers entered in the selected cells.
Excel will add the sum and show it in the cell immediately below the selected ones, with a nice bold (so as to be decidedly easier to identify, especially if we create tables with numbers).
Obviously other types of calculable totals are also available, for example we can average the numbers entered, a count, a conversion in percentage, a sum in a column etc.
4) How to insert formulas and functions in Excel
What we have seen before is a sketch of the features that we can use with Excel, which works very well when we have to perform complex calculations, averages between numbers, proportions and so on.
The formulas already shown allow you to perform basic operations, but if we wanted to study and use more complex mathematical formulas, it is not always necessary to "create" the formula by hand in the cell that we intend to use as a result.
To view the formulas that can be used in Excel, just select the cell to be used and click on the function symbol at the top, as shown in the image below.
The = symbol will be added automatically and we will see a new window appear, with all the functions and formulas already present in Excel.
The functions are so many that a small search engine is offered at the top, where we have to enter what we want to achieve in the cell; once inserted we click Go to see which of the functions available in Excel corresponds to what we have entered.
To insert the desired function, select it and click OK at the bottom; now Excel will ask us to select the cells with which to complete the function (we can do it both manually and using the mouse selection, thus speeding up the function creation process).
At the end we click OK and admire the final result!
Using the functions we can obtain trigonometric calculations, comparison between numbers of two columns or rows, estimated averages, calculations of roots, integrals etc.
A summary of all the functions that can be called in Excel is available here -> Excel Functions .
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