Excel 2016 For Dummies. Harvey Greg

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      Greg Harvey PhD

      Excel 2016 For Dummies

      Excel^® 2016 For Dummies^®

      Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

      Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

      Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

      Published simultaneously in Canada

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      Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950638

      ISBN 978-1-119-29343-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-29733-8 (ePub); 978-1-119-29732-1 (ePDF)

      Excel 2016 For Dummies (9781119293439) was previously published as Excel 2016 For Dummies (9781119077015). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.

      Introduction

      I’m very proud to present you with Excel 2016 For Dummies, the latest version of everybody’s favorite book on Microsoft Office Excel for readers with no intention whatsoever of becoming spreadsheet gurus.

      Excel 2016 For Dummies covers all the fundamental techniques you need to know in order to create, edit, format, and print your own worksheets. In addition to showing you around the worksheet, this book also exposes you to the basics of charting, creating data lists, and performing data analysis. Keep in mind, though, that this book just touches on the easiest ways to get a few things done with these features – I don’t attempt to cover charting, data lists, or data analysis in the same definitive way as spreadsheets: This book concentrates on spreadsheets because spreadsheets are what most regular folks create with Excel.

      About This Book

      This book isn’t meant to be read cover to cover. Although its chapters are loosely organized in a logical order (progressing as you might when studying Excel in a classroom situation), each topic covered in a chapter is really meant to stand on its own.

      Each discussion of a topic briefly addresses the question of what a particular feature is good for before launching into how to use it. In Excel, as with most other sophisticated programs, you usually have more than one way to do a task. For the sake of your sanity, I have purposely limited the choices by usually giving you only the most efficient ways to do a particular task. Later, if you’re so tempted, you can experiment with alternative ways of doing a task. For now, just concentrate on performing the task as I describe.

      As much as possible, I’ve tried to make it unnecessary for you to remember anything covered in another section of the book. From time to time, however, you will come across a cross-reference to another section or chapter in the book. For the most part, such cross-references are meant to help you get more complete information on a subject, should you have the time and interest. If you have neither, no problem. Just ignore the cross-references as if they never existed.

      How to Use This Book

      This book is similar to a reference book. You can start by looking up the topic you need information about (in either the Table of Contents or the index) and then refer directly to the section of interest. I explain most topics conversationally (as though you were sitting in the back of a classroom where you can safely nap). Sometimes, however, my regiment-commander mentality takes over, and I list the steps you need to take to accomplish a particular task in a particular section.

      What You Can Safely Ignore

      When you come across a section that contains the steps you take to get something done, you can safely ignore all text accompanying the steps (the text that isn’t in bold) if you have neither the time nor the inclination to wade through more material.

      Whenever possible, I have also tried to separate background or footnote-type information from the essential facts by exiling this kind of junk to a sidebar (look for blocks of text on a gray background). Often, these sections are flagged with icons that let you know what type of information you will encounter there. You can easily disregard text marked this way. (I’ll scoop you on the icons I use in this book a little later.)

      Foolish Assumptions

      I’m only going to make one foolish assumption about you, and that is that you have some need to use Microsoft Excel 2016 in your work or studies. If pushed, I further guess that you aren’t particularly interested in knowing Excel at an expert level but are terribly motivated to find out how to do the stuff you need to get done. If that’s the case, this is definitely the book for you. Fortunately, even if you happen to be one of those newcomers who’s highly motivated to become the company’s resident spreadsheet guru, you’ve still come to the right place.

      As far as your hardware and software goes, I’m assuming that you already have Excel 2016 (usually as part of Microsoft Office 2016) installed on your computing device, using a standard home or business installation running under Windows 7, 8, or 10 (my personal favorite). I’m not assuming, however, that when you’re using Excel 2016, you are sitting in front of a large screen monitor and making cell entries and command selections with a physical keyboard