Excel Overview

Owned by Kyle Warchuck (Deactivated), created
Aug 26, 2021
4 min read

Excel is a spreadsheet program for data analysis. It’s very powerful and commonly used in many organizations. This article will discuss some of the basic operations you can perform with Excel, as well as how to troubleshoot common issues with excel.

Data Entry

Excel can process text and numeric data. You’re able to compare strings of text or perform mathematical operations across numeric data. To do this you must first get data on your spreadsheets.

  1. To begin open excel. From the ‘New’ tab there’s many different templates you can chose from. You can also search for specific templates if you have something in mind

  2. Data can be manually entered into Excel or copied and pasted

  3. Many times when working with data in a website there’s an option to download data to a .CSV file. These files can be opened and analyzed with Excel

  4. For instance you can download all the users within an Azure AD tenant as a CSV file. You can then compare this with other lists of users

     

 

Data Manipulation (text)

Excel can process text and numeric data. You’re able to compare strings of text or perform mathematical operations across numeric data. These are some of the basic operations you can perform.

  1. Lets say you need to get a list of all users who received an email from a specific sender. To start you can get a list of all users in an organization from AD

  2. You can then get the list of users who received the email from the explorer of the Security and Compliance center

     

  3. Copy and paste both lists next to each other in excel, and highlight both rows

  4. From home you can select ‘Conditional formatting’ and select to ‘Highlight>duplicate values’

  5. Select to highlight unique values

  6. This will highlight any unique values in red. This will show which users didn’t receive the email since they’re not on both lists

 

Data Manipulation (numbers)

Excel can process text and numeric data. You’re able to compare strings of text or perform mathematical operations across numeric data. These are some of the basic operations you can perform.

  1. Formulas in excel always begin with an equals = sign

  2. You can select 2 cells and perform operations on them such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

  3. Select the next cell, or type its address in the selected cell.

  4. Press Enter. The result of the calculation appears in the cell with the formula.

Enter a formula that contains a built-in function:

  1. Select an empty cell.

  2. Type an equal sign = and then type a function. For example, =SUM for getting the total sales.

  3. Type an opening parenthesis (.

  4. Select the range of cells, and then type a closing parenthesis).

  5. Press Enter to get the result.

There’s a ton of different operations you can perform to large data sets. Feel free to search online to find different formulas to perform what actions you need completed.

Troubleshooting issues

Excel can have an array of problems. Here are some basic steps to take that generally fix most minor issues

  1. Have the user close/re-open Excel

  2. Have the user turn off and on their computer

  3. Start Excel in safe mode
    If you are running Windows 10, choose Start > All apps > Windows System > Run > type Excel /safe in the Run box, then click OK.

  4. Install the latest updates

  5. Check to make sure Excel is not in use by another process
    If Excel is in use by another process, this information will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the Excel window. If you try to perform other actions while Excel is in use, Excel may not respond. Let the task in process finish its job before attempting other actions.

  6. Investigate possible issues with add-ins
    Select COM Add-ins, and click Go.
    Clear all the check boxes in the list, and click OK.
    Close and restart Excel.
    If the issue does not occur when you restart Excel, start enabling your add-ins one at a time until does. This will allow you to figure out which add-in is causing the problem. Be sure and restart Excel each time you enable an add-in.

  7. Investigate Excel file details and contents

    Excel files can exist on the computer for a long time. They are upgraded from version to version, and frequently travel from one user to another user. Frequently, a user inherits an Excel file but doesn't know what is included in the file. The following things can cause performance or crashing issues:

    • Formulas referencing entire columns.

    • Array formulas referencing an uneven number of elements in the arguments.

    • Hundreds, or perhaps thousands of hidden or 0 height and width objects.

    • Excessive styles caused by frequent copying and pasting between workbook.

    • Excessive, and invalid defined names.