I am a secretary, by trade (Administrative Assistant, now) and have been out of the workforce for many years raising my kids. I've worked from home to keep up my computer skills and have even developed some new computer skills, but I haven't developed Excel.

Seems every Administrative or Clerical job now requires expert Excel skill.

Can you please give me an example of what employers use Excel for? I know they use it to make pie charts, but beyond that, why is it so in demand as a skill?

Thanks a bunch!

-Jean

 

OMG! Excel is awesome! if you have it on your computer, just open it up, get a blank spreadsheet open & start playing around with it. you'll love it too in no time! it's mostly used for spreadsheets, although charts & graphs are done on it, too, by pulling the information automatically from your data in the spreadsheet!!! it's so easy. anytime you need to type columns of something, it's easier in Excel. you can highlight blocks of data & move them anywhere. whereas in Word, you can't do that sort of thing. it's also great for any kind of form or sign. you could actually type a letter on it, if you had to, but mostly it's just great for columns & numbers, like an address data base or phone list. you will probably use it more than you will Word. it's just so versatile.

if you have it, just open it up. it's very very user friendly. you'll figure it out just from playing. or, if you have something already in Excel, open it up & look at it. click on each box & see what the formula was or how it's formatted. you'll see that you can just enter a column full of numbers & by using the Sum function, you'll get a total instantly. you can do the same for rows of numbers. it's just so cool. play with it & post any specific questions you have!

 

http://www.mrexcel.com/

Anytihng you want konw or ask about excel can be found here.

 

Excel has a formula for quick additions if you need it
you can multiply, divide ,subtract there is a hidden formula for each
Access is good you can make up a chart for most anything
keep track of certain bills
I run office 2000 it doesn't have a product key like 2003

2
+2
---
=sum(3a:3b)
4

 

I am a retired administrative manager for a large company which had a plant in my town.
We used Excel almost exclusively to do all of our finanacial reporting. It has a vast array of formulas which can be used for various types of calculations. These formulas make use of algebraic logic.
If your software includes a tutorial. take the time to go through it. It will help tremendously.

 

I use it for comparative calculations:
I have fixed numbers and apply formulas to them to get the output numbers I would like, or I can use it to experiment with formulas. Sometimes monetary and/or time values (to track prices over time, and compare various forumlae against each other), and sometiomes other things, for engineering and whatnot.

I use it as a ledger, to track my ingoing and outgoing funds, and to project spending and earning (or the funsd I need to add to my acount to not come out in the red).

I also use it as a simple table cell data organizer, charting wiring pinouts and things, kind of like a database with no filtering or sorting.
(I used that to organize connector wiring data when I made my A/V switcher).

 

Excel is one of the best programs ever! About a month ago, my company left it behind for some crap program called open office.

 

A sample Annette spreadsheet....
Shoes
1
1
1
1
1
1
-------
=sum(a1:a6)
6

 

I think you're underestimating that number.

Wannabefree: Excell isn't rocket science so don't be intimdated by it. It can do wonders for a spread sheet.

 

Jean, Everything said previously is very true. However, it can also be used for data. An example of a great use is names and addresses. You can build a list (database) of addresses of customers, or a Christmas list. For business or personal use.

A hint for the spreadsheet is the "Columns have alphabetic characters at the top. The rows across have numbers across. You can see from Annette's shoe spreadsheet it refers to a:1...a:6......
a:1 is the cell or a position located in the first row, and the first column.
a:6 is the cell in the first column but the 6th row down.
Once you are half way proficient with excel you can do a mail-merge. You can send a letter, notice, or a spreadsheet to hundreds of people or companies with just a few clicks. Prints the letter with individual names and addresses and will even do your envelopes.
Good luck.

 

Hi Jean,

Excel is an excellent tool for manipulating numbers, in business, this usually equates to dollars or product quantity (or both!).

Besides the obvious use of entering in data by hand it also has capabilities to retrieve data from shared corporate databases. So all this means that reports (usually run on a periodic basis) are created by running an excel spreadsheet to "crunch the numbers" into a simple summary, be it the sales for the western region, or current budgets. This then gives management the feeling that they are actually controlling their business and doing something productive! (American business is sooo screwed up! .

If you want to learn how to use Excel I suggest you go to your local bookstore are peruse the multitude of books on Excel until you find one that suits your level of understanding. Sit down with your book, PC and Excel and spend some quality time together. I don’t recommend taking courses as usually the person teaching the course knows little more than you do!

Chris

 

excel has thousands of built in formulas e.g =sum(a5:c5)

i love playing around with these formulas!