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A spreadsheet is just a tidy grid for holding numbers and lists. That is the whole idea. Excel is the most common spreadsheet program, and when you first open it you are faced with a big grid and a lot of buttons. It looks busier than it is. Almost everything you will ever use lives in a handful of named areas, and once you can name them, the instructions, including the ones on this page, suddenly make sense.
This session is about getting comfortable: knowing what you are looking at, moving around without feeling lost, putting data into cells, and saving it safely. None of it is hard, and you cannot wear it out by practising.
You cannot break Excel by having a go. Almost everything can be undone with Ctrl + Z. The fastest way to learn a spreadsheet is to click around in one.
Excel comes in several versions and Microsoft updates it often, so the screen in front of you may not match this page exactly. That is normal. The core ideas, cells, formulas, formatting, work the same across versions; only the odd button moves. If a button is not where this page says, it has most likely moved, not disappeared. Ask your trainer, or use the "Search" box at the top of the Excel window and type what you want to do.
The Excel Window
Being able to name the parts of the window is half the battle. When the trainer or a handout says "go to the Formula Bar" or "look at the Name Box", you will know exactly where to look. These are the parts worth knowing:
The Ribbon
The strip of buttons across the top, organised into tabs: Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View. Each tab holds related tools grouped together. You will spend most of your time on the Home tab, which holds fonts, alignment and number formats.
The Name Box
The small box on the left, just above the grid. It shows the address of the cell you have selected, like A1. You can also type an address into it and press Enter to jump straight there.
The Formula Bar
The long bar to the right of the Name Box. It shows what is really in the selected cell. This matters: a cell might display 14 on the grid, but the Formula Bar reveals it is actually =A1+A2. When a result looks wrong, the Formula Bar is where the truth lives.
The Worksheet Area
The grid itself, made of rows, columns and cells. This is where everything you type actually goes.
The Status Bar
The strip along the very bottom. Select a few numbers and it instantly shows their Sum, Average and Count, without you typing anything. It is the fastest calculator in Excel.
The Quick Access Toolbar
A small row of handy buttons (often Save, Undo, Redo) that you can customise with the commands you use most.
Double-click any tab name to bring it back, or press Ctrl + F1 to switch it on and off. It is easy to hide by accident, and just as easy to get back.
Cells, Rows and Columns
Five words get used constantly, so it is worth pinning them down once. They nest inside each other like a set of containers:
- A workbook is the whole Excel file, the thing you save and share. One workbook can hold many worksheets.
- A worksheet (or "sheet", or "tab") is a single page inside the workbook. The tabs appear along the bottom. You might keep January on one sheet and February on another.
- Rows run across, left to right, and are numbered down the side: 1, 2, 3.
- Columns run up and down and are lettered across the top: A, B, C. After Z they double up: AA, AB, and so on.
- A cell is a single box where a row and a column meet. It is the basic unit of Excel, the place where everything you type goes.
Every cell has an address made of its column letter and its row number. The cell where column B meets row 5 is called B5, column first, then row. This naming is what lets a formula point at data: =B5+B6 means "add whatever is in B5 and B6". Click any cell and the Name Box (top left) shows its address.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name | Town | Phone |
| 2 | Mia | Nightcliff | 08 8900 1234 |
| 3 | Jack | Casuarina | 08 8900 5678 |
| 4 | Grace | Karama | 08 8900 9012 |
| 5 | Noah | Parap | 08 8900 3456 |
In the grid above, the cell holding "Nightcliff" is B2. "Karama" is in B4. The whole block of names is the range A2:A5, written with a colon, which means "A2 through A5".
Moving Around and Selecting
A spreadsheet can have hundreds of rows. Scrolling with the mouse gets tedious fast, and selecting exactly the cells you want is the thing you do before almost every action: formatting, sums, charts. A few keyboard habits make this much quicker, and they are worth building early.
Moving around
- Arrow keys move one cell at a time.
- Ctrl + an arrow key jumps to the edge of your data in that direction. In a long list, Ctrl + Down leaps to the last filled row instantly.
- Ctrl + Home goes to the top-left, cell A1. Ctrl + End goes to the bottom-right corner of the used area.
- The Name Box is a teleport: type
B250and press Enter to jump straight there.
Selecting
- Click and drag to select a block of cells.
- Shift + arrow keys extend the selection one cell at a time.
- Ctrl + Shift + an arrow key selects everything from here to the edge of the data, perfect for grabbing a whole column of figures in one move.
- Click a column letter or row number to select the entire column or row.
Ctrl + Shift + Down selects a whole column of data in one keystroke, ready to sum, format or chart. Then Ctrl + Home shoots you back to A1.
Entering Text, Numbers and Dates
Excel quietly sorts everything you type into one of a few types, and it treats each differently. The three you will meet constantly are:
- Text, words and labels: names, towns, notes, anything not meant for arithmetic.
- Numbers, values you might calculate with: amounts, quantities, hours.
- Dates, which Excel actually stores as special numbers behind the scenes, and just displays as a date.
Why care? Because Excel will only do maths on things it considers numbers. A figure that is secretly stored as text will not add up, even though it looks identical on screen. The fastest clue is alignment: by default Excel lines text up on the left, and numbers and dates up on the right. If a column of "numbers" is sitting on the left, they are probably stored as text.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Quantity | Date counted |
| 2 | Hi-vis shirts | 24 | 12/05/2026 |
| 3 | Safety boots | 8 | 12/05/2026 |
| 4 | Hard hats | 15 | 12/05/2026 |
Entering data
- Click a cell and start typing.
- Press Enter to confirm and drop down to the cell below, or Tab to confirm and move right. This makes typing across a row, then down to the next, smooth and mouse-free.
- Press Esc at any point to cancel what you were typing and leave the cell unchanged.
Excel can be too helpful. It drops leading zeros (it reads 007 as 7) and it will quietly turn things that look like dates into dates. If a column must stay exactly as typed, like a phone number, an ID, or a product code, format those cells as Text first (Home tab, Number group), then type. We come back to number formats in Session 3.
A curious thing about dates
Behind the scenes, Excel does not store a date like "21 May 2026" as words at all. It stores a plain number counting the days since 1 January 1900, and just dresses it up to look like a date. So 1 January 1900 is day 1, and a date in 2026 is around 46000. You can see this for yourself: type a date into a cell, then change its format to Number (Home tab, Number group), and the date turns into a five-digit number.
This is not just a curiosity; it is genuinely useful. Because dates are really numbers, Excel can do maths with them. Subtract one date from another and you get the number of days between them, which is how a spreadsheet works out someone's age, or how many days until a deadline.
The "1900" system is why a date can be added, subtracted and sorted like any other number. It also explains the odd moment when a cell you expected to show a date suddenly shows something like 46164: the value is fine, the cell has just lost its date format. Set it back to Short Date and the date reappears.
Editing and Deleting
Putting data in, changing it when it is wrong, and removing it when it is not needed: none of this is complicated, but a few small habits make it fast and mistake-free.
Changing what is already in a cell
- Edit in the cell: double-click it (or select it and press F2) to put the cursor inside, then change the contents.
- Edit in the Formula Bar: select the cell and click into the Formula Bar at the top. Handy for long entries where there is more room to see what you are doing.
Press Enter to save the change, or Esc to abandon it.
Deleting and clearing
- The Delete key removes the contents of the selected cells but leaves the formatting behind.
- To remove an entire row or column, right-click its number or letter and choose Delete. The remaining rows or columns shift to close the gap.
Ctrl + Z undoes your last action, and you can press it repeatedly to step back through several. Ctrl + Y redoes. This is your safety net: it is why you cannot really break anything by trying.
AutoFill and Custom Lists
AutoFill is the feature that finishes repetitive typing for you. Type Monday, drag, and Excel writes out Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on. Type 1 and 2, drag, and it counts up. It works for numbers, dates, days, months, and copies of a single value, anything with an obvious pattern.
The tool you use is the fill handle: the tiny square at the bottom-right corner of a selected cell. When your mouse is over it, the cursor turns into a thin black cross. Click and drag it down or across, and Excel continues the pattern.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day | Month | Quarter | Count |
| 2 | Monday | January | Qtr 1 | 1 |
| 3 | Tuesday | February | Qtr 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Wednesday | March | Qtr 3 | 3 |
| 5 | Thursday | April | Qtr 4 | 4 |
Counting in steps
To count in steps other than 1, give Excel two cells to learn from. Type 5 in one cell and 10 in the next, select both, then drag the fill handle. Excel sees the gap of 5 and continues 15, 20, 25.
Custom lists: teach Excel your own list
Excel already knows the days and months. You can also teach it a list you use often, so AutoFill finishes it for you, for example a set of local suburbs, your team's names, or the categories in a budget. Go to File then Options then Advanced, scroll to "Edit Custom Lists", type your list (one item per line) or import it from cells, and click Add. After that, type the first item and drag, and the rest fill in.
| A | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Community |
| 2 | Alawa |
| 3 | Brinkin |
| 4 | Coconut Grove |
| 5 | Durack |
| 6 | Galiwinku |
Instead of dragging, double-click the fill handle and Excel fills down as far as the column next to it has data. You will use this a lot in Session 2 to copy a formula down a whole column at once.
Saving and Naming Your Work
Saving is the unglamorous skill that saves you from the worst spreadsheet experience there is: losing an hour's work. It is worth doing properly from the very start.
How to save
- Save with Ctrl + S keeps the current file up to date. Do this early and often, it costs a second and prevents disasters.
- Save As (F12) creates a new copy. Useful when you want to keep the original and branch off a version. You choose the name, the place, and the file type.
- The normal file type is Excel Workbook (.xlsx). It keeps your formulas and formatting and can be reopened and edited. Choose PDF only when you want a fixed, read-only snapshot to share, and keep the .xlsx as your editable master.
Naming files, and where they live
Give files clear, dated names like Team Roster 2026-05.xlsx rather than Book1.xlsx or final final v3. Your future self will thank you. A good name says what it is and when it is from.
When you save, you also choose where the file goes. The two everyday places are:
- The Documents folder, or a folder you make, on the computer in front of you.
- Make a clearly named folder so you can find your work again.
- Remember the file only lives on that one computer.
- Save or copy your file to a USB stick to carry it between computers.
- Always close the file and "eject" or "safely remove" the stick before pulling it out.
- A USB stick is small and easy to lose, so keep a copy of anything important in two places.
Press Ctrl + S every few minutes, give the file a clear dated name, and know which folder or USB stick it is on. Do those three things and you will never lose your work.
Try It at the Keyboard
Open the starter workbook for this session (or a blank workbook) and have a go. There is nothing here you can break.
Build a small contact list
- Click cell A1 and check the Name Box agrees. Type the headings Name, Town, Phone across A1, B1 and C1, pressing Tab between them.
- Enter three or four people down the rows, pressing Enter to drop to the next line. Notice the names sit to the left and any all-number phone fields behave differently.
- Type Monday in a spare cell, then drag the fill handle down five rows and watch AutoFill write the rest of the week.
- Double-click a cell to fix a spelling, then press Ctrl + Z twice to watch your changes reverse.
- Press Ctrl + S, give the file a clear name like My Contact List 2026.xlsx, and choose a folder or USB stick you will remember.
That is a real, useful spreadsheet, built from nothing, saved where you can find it. Everything else in this course builds on these same moves.
Knowledge Check
A few quick questions to see what has landed. Have a think first, then click "reveal" to check your answer. There is no mark and no rush.
Q1What is the address of the cell where column C meets row 4, and how do you read it?reveal
It is C4. Cell addresses are always written column letter first, then row number. So it is C4, not 4C. Click the cell and the Name Box (top left) confirms it.
Q2You type a list of phone numbers and they line up on the left of their cells. What does that tell you?reveal
Excel is treating them as text, not numbers, because by default it lines text up on the left and numbers on the right. That is fine for phone numbers (you are not doing maths on them), and in fact formatting a column as Text first is the safe way to stop Excel dropping a leading zero or "tidying" the number.
Q3You want to fill cells with January, February, March and so on. What is the quickest way?reveal
Use AutoFill. Type January in one cell, select it, then drag the small square at the bottom-right corner (the fill handle) down. Excel already knows the months and writes the rest for you. The same trick works for days of the week and for counting numbers.
Q4What is the single most important thing to do every few minutes while you work, and how?reveal
Save, by pressing Ctrl + S. It keeps your file up to date and prevents losing work. Pair it with a clear, dated file name and knowing which folder or USB stick the file is on.
Q5The Ribbon disappears from the top of your screen. How do you get it back?reveal
Double-click any tab name (Home, Insert, and so on), or press Ctrl + F1. The Ribbon is easy to hide by accident and just as easy to bring back; nothing is broken.