Become an Excel expert

A cell is a single box in the Excel grid where you can type one piece of information — either text or a number. Every cell has an address made of its column letter and row number, such as A1 or C7.

Columns run vertically (top to bottom) and are labeled with letters like A, B, C. Rows run horizontally (left to right) and are labeled with numbers like 1, 2, 3. In a well-organized spreadsheet, each row represents one record (like one expense) and each column represents one type of information about it (like the date or the amount).

The formula bar, located above the column letters, shows the true contents of the currently selected cell. This is useful when the cell displays formatted text (like '$4.50') but actually contains a plain number, or when a cell shows a calculated result while really holding a formula.

Press Ctrl+S on Windows or Cmd+S on Mac. The first time, Excel will ask where to save and what to name the file — choose a meaningful name like 'WeeklyBudget_2024'. After that, Ctrl+S silently saves changes to the same file.

Press Tab to move one cell to the right, Enter to move one cell down, or use the arrow keys to move in any direction. For entering rows of data, the typical flow is Tab across the columns and Enter to drop to the next row.

If you type any letters or symbols (other than allowed currency or decimal characters) along with a number — like '12 dollars' or '$4.50 (coffee)' — Excel will store the entire entry as text. Text values can't be summed in formulas. To fix it, retype the cell with just the number.