Excel Fundamentals: The Basics for Working Efficiently
Excel Fundamentals is a beginner-level course of 5 lessons (about 1 h 30 min), with 16 exercises and 15 quiz questions. No prerequisites. The course needs a Windows virtual machine with Power BI, planned for a later phase of the platform.
- Excel
- Beginner
- 5 lessons
- 1 h 30 min
- 16 exercises
- Windows virtual machine (phase 2)
The course in brief
This course gives you the essential foundations for working with Excel day to day, with no prerequisites. You learn to enter and present data, write reliable formulas using relative and absolute references, use your first functions, then sort, filter, highlight and chart your data. Every lesson relies on a small dataset to recreate and exact results to check.
What you will be able to do
- Enter text, numbers and dates that Excel recognizes correctly, and apply the right formats
- Write and copy formulas, choosing between relative, absolute and mixed references
- Calculate totals, averages, extremes and counts, and make a decision with SI (IF)
- Sort and filter a table, and total the visible rows with SOUS.TOTAL (SUBTOTAL)
- Highlight values with conditional formatting
- Build a readable chart that fits the question being asked
Syllabus: 5 lessons
- Find your way around a workbook: sheets, columns, rows, cells and ranges
- Enter text, numbers and dates that Excel recognizes correctly
- Apply the common number formats without changing the values
- 02
Formulas and Relative, Absolute and Mixed References
- Write a formula that refers to other cells
- Copy a formula and predict how its references change
- Lock a cell, or a row/column, with the $ symbol
- 03
First Functions: SOMME (SUM), MOYENNE (AVERAGE) and SI (IF)
- Use the basic statistical functions on a range
- Write a simple condition with SI (IF)
- Combine functions, references and parameters in a summary table
- 04
Sorting, Filtering and Conditional Formatting
- Sort a table on one or more criteria without scrambling it
- Filter rows and calculate a total that follows the filter
- Make values stand out with conditional formatting
- 05
Simple Charts
- Choose the chart type that fits the question being asked
- Create and format a column chart, a line chart and a pie chart
- Make a chart readable: title, labels, axes
Final project
Purchase Tracking Table for a Department
Your manager hands you the department's supplies purchase list (the course's fournitures.csv file). Build a clean, reliable workbook: correctly typed and formatted data, pre-tax amounts, parameterized VAT and VAT-inclusive amounts, a validation status based on a parameterized threshold, a summary block, sorting by descending amount, highlighting of purchases to validate, and a chart of the breakdown of amounts by category (Papeterie, Informatique, Bureau).
Deliverables
- An .xlsx workbook with an Achats sheet (data, formulas) and a Synthèse sheet (indicators and chart)
- A Taux TVA cell and a Seuil de validation cell, referenced as absolute by the formulas
- A summary block showing total 846, average 84,6, maximum 128, minimum 60 and 5 purchases to validate
- A column chart of amounts by category (Papeterie 315, Informatique 308, Bureau 223) with a title and labels
Assessment criteria
- Accuracy of the numerical results
- No hard-typed value in the formulas: rate and threshold in parameter cells
- Appropriate formats (dates, amounts in euros) and a table without merged cells
- Restrained, justified conditional formatting
- A chart that fits the question, titled and readable
Frequently asked questions
Do I need any prior knowledge to take this course?
No. The course starts from how a workbook is organized and how to enter data; being able to use a computer is enough.
Which version of Excel do I need?
Everything in this course works with recent versions of Excel for Windows and Mac, as well as Excel for the web. Function names are given in French, with the English equivalent.
Why use semicolons in formulas?
In a French version of Excel, the argument separator is the semicolon, because the comma is used as the decimal separator.
What comes after this course?
The course on lookup and logical functions (RECHERCHEX (XLOOKUP), SOMME.SI.ENS (SUMIFS), SI.CONDITIONS (IFS)), then the one on PivotTables.
This course, told for your job
Say what you want to be able to do: “Excel Fundamentals” takes its place in your path, with examples from your field. The concepts stay those of the course.