Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
Get a quick tour of the Microsoft Excel user interface for Windows.
References
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
Most people using Excel will be on a PC.
0:01
We will use the PC version of Excel for
all our future courses on data analysis.
0:04
Let me take you through a brief
tour of the Excel interface.
0:10
So here we are looking at
a blank spreadsheet in Excel.
0:14
You can see the basic tabular
format of columns and rows.
0:18
Also, there's a sheet down below.
0:25
We can add more sheets by
clicking the plus button or
0:28
by going to the Insert command on the Home
tab and scrolling down to Insert Sheet.
0:33
Notice that in parenthesis there is
a keyboard shortcut of Shift+F11
0:42
to add a sheet that way.
0:46
At the top of the Excel interface, there
is what is called a Quick Access tool bar.
0:50
By default, it should have the Save,
Undo and repeat commands available.
0:55
If you click this arrow on the right you
can customize the quick access toolbar.
1:03
You can click different commands that
you wanna add so I just clicked open and
1:08
added it to the toolbar.
1:12
You can also click to remove commands.
1:14
Then we have what is called
the ribbon in Excel.
1:18
There's the Insert tab,
the Page Layout tab and so forth.
1:23
Each of these tabs has there
own tool bar beneath it.
1:28
For example if I click on
the Data tab in the ribbon
1:33
beneath it is the Data tool bar.
1:37
And this is where you can see the Sort
command, and the Filter command,
1:40
and other features and
commands related to data analysis.
1:43
Under the View tab, you can freeze panes,
or set page layouts.
1:48
You can adjust the Zoom level as well.
1:55
This is really helpful when
you're on a video call and
1:58
are sharing your screen with someone.
2:00
Then we have the Formula Bar
below the Tool Bar.
2:07
Excel has a ton of features and commands,
it also gives you several different
2:15
options to customize the software,
for your needs.
2:19
In just a few seconds, I'll briefly
cover some of the customization options.
2:23
In future courses we'll cover
more of the features and
2:28
commands available to you in Excel.
2:31
Some of you might have been wondering why
my ribbon has the developer cabinet and
2:34
yours does not.
2:39
Well it is because that
view isn't set by default.
2:40
If you click on the File tab and
go to Options down at the bottom, this
2:44
is where you can change default settings
and customize excel to suit your needs.
2:51
For example, if I click Customize Ribbon,
I can change what
2:57
tabs are visible on the ribbon and what
commands are on those tab's tool bars.
3:03
So here, Developer is checked.
3:10
If I uncheck it, and et's just
remove view as well then click OK.
3:13
Now you can see those tabs
are removed from the ribbon.
3:18
But I want those on there, so
I'm gonna go back and add them back in.
3:24
You can also create your own custom
tabs here, by adding new tabs and
3:30
then creating groups of
commands underneath them.
3:34
There's other ways that you can
change the preferences as well.
3:38
So if I go to general, I can change
the Office theme color for example.
3:41
There are lots of customization options.
3:50
As you continue to use Excel,
3:54
you may find yourself having to repeatedly
change certain formats or settings.
3:55
That is a good sign for
you to consider changing your preferences.
4:00
My favorite feature by far for
Excel on PCs,
4:05
is the robust Keyboard Shortcut
functionality.
4:08
You can get to almost any command
using Keyboard Shortcuts.
4:13
So, if I press Alt, you can see a bunch of
letters pop up across the different tabs.
4:17
Those are the keyboard shortcuts.
4:24
Let's go back and change our theme
again using only keyboard shortcuts.
4:27
So I've pressed ALT.
4:31
I pressed F to go to File.
4:33
You can see that, if I wanted to
go to Page Layout I'd press P.
4:34
But we know that we need to go to the
Options settings so I'm gonna do AL+ F.
4:39
And then again,
there's all these letters as shortcuts.
4:44
I'm gonna go down to options and
it says T.
4:47
Now here we are in this window and
4:49
you can see the underlined letters
signify keyboard shortcut.
4:53
So if I wanted to change this
show mini toolbar on selection.
5:00
I press Alt+M,
5:03
and you can see that without using my
mouse, I was able to change that setting.
5:06
I've just added it back.
5:10
But we wanna change the theme.
5:12
So if we look down here,
we can see Office Theme,
5:14
T is the keyboard shortcut so
I press Alt+T.
5:19
So now it has that selected
I press the up arrow.
5:23
And here I can go I can change it so
I'm going up and I'm gonna go back to
5:27
Colorful, return and- We're good.
5:32
This robust keyboard shortcut
functionality means you can speed up your
5:38
workflow by avoiding using your mouse.
5:42
As you use Excel try to memorize
the shortcuts for commands you use a lot.
5:45
It's even better if you can get in
the habit of starting by pressing Alt
5:50
to navigate around the spreadsheet
instead of using your mouse.
5:55
I have heard of some investment
banking analyst programs requiring
5:59
that their analysts don't use
a mouse as part of their training.
6:03
I want to leave you with my favorite
keyboard shortcut for Excel on a PC,
6:06
which is paste special.
6:10
So I'm just gonna create a very
simple formula here, 4+4, 8.
6:13
So I use paste special all the time,
and I'm just gonna copy this 8.
6:19
And then the shortcut for
paste special is Alt+E+S.
6:27
And then that gets us to paste special.
6:30
And then you can see there's all
these different versions of it.
6:34
But each of these all have underlined
letters which will allow you to continue
6:38
with the shortcuts.
6:42
So I'm gonna escape and then just
show you this real quickly again.
6:43
I'm going to copy this 8 and
then I'm going to paste the value here.
6:47
So paste special values Alt+E+S+V.
6:51
Return for OK and you can see that
we've pasted the value not the formula.
6:54
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up