Computer E-Learning

Welcome to the Office 365 Excel Web App Essentials workshop. With Office 365, you can access your spreadsheets anywhere, and make some basic changes without using a computer where your desktop Office applications are installed. In the Office 365 Excel web app, you can collaborate on a spreadsheet with anyone, no matter what version of Excel they have, and your changes are automatically saved.

While the Office 365 Web Apps are available to anyone who has either a Windows Skydrive account or a SharePoint site, in this course, we will assume that your organization is using the SharePoint site. In this module, we’ll introduce the web apps by discussing the Home Page, the Team Site, and the Shared Documents list. We’ll also explain how to upload one of your existing Excel spreadsheets to the site.

The Office 365 experience is designed to allow you to open your spreadsheets from nearly anywhere in the world. In this module (and the next), we’ll take a closer look at the reading view for the Excel web app. First, you’ll learn how to open a spreadsheet for review and get an overview of the Reading View. You’ll learn the difference between worksheets and workbooks. This module explains how to download and reload workbooks to the Reading view. Finally, you’ll learn how to close a spreadsheet without closing the Excel web app.

In this module, we continue working with the Reading View. First, you’ll learn how to use the Find command. Next, you’ll learn how to save a copy of the file. You’ll also learn how to open a document for editing in the browser. When we look at the Editing View (in the next module), you’ll see that you can only perform certain types of edits in the web app. In this module, you’ll learn how to open the spreadsheet in Excel from the Reading View so that you can use the more advanced features of Office 2010 Professional to polish your spreadsheet.

Now it is time to start learning how to use the browser for making minor editing changes to your shared spreadsheets. First, a word about saving in the Excel web app, as well as how to use the Save As command. Then we’ll look at starting a new spreadsheet from the Home Page. This module also explains how to enter and edit data in a worksheet. Finally, you’ll learn how to use the command that wraps text in cells.

You can perform some basic editing functions in the Excel web app to make sure that your spreadsheet is perfect. This module covers how to cut, copy, and paste. It explains how to undo and redo tasks. You’ll learn how to add rows and columns and delete cells. This module also explains some handy shortcuts for use in the Excel web app.

The backbone of Excel is its ability to perform calculations. While the Excel web app does not include the full array of tools for working with formulas that you can find in Excel 2010, you are still able to enter and work with formulas in the web app. Formulas are mathematical expressions that you build yourself. You need to follow proper math principles in order to obtain the expected answer. Building the formula is simply a matter of combining the proper cell addresses with the correct operators in the right order. This module will explore how to build, edit, and copy formulas. This module will also explain the difference between relative and absolute references.

The Excel web app does not include the Function tools that you can find in Excel 2010. However, if you know a function name, you can still enter it in the web app. It’s also a good idea to know about the differences, in case your spreadsheets include functions. This module introduces Excel functions, which are a little like templates for common formulas. There are many different types of functions. You’ll learn about the Autocomplete feature for using functions in your worksheets. We’ll look at how to use the SUM function and a few other basic common functions.

This module introduces sorting and filtering your data to efficiently find the data you need. You’ll learn about collaborating in the Excel web app, including how to refresh and recalculate your data.

In this module, we will look at how to make your worksheet more appealing by changing the font type and size, alignment, formatting numbers, and by adding color and borders.

This module will introduce the Insert tab on the Ribbon. You’ll learn about inserting a table, a chart, or a link. We’ll also spend some time looking at charts in more detail.

Although this workshop is coming to a close, we hope that your journey to improve your Excel skills is just beginning. Please take a moment to review and update your action plan. This will be a key tool to guide your progress in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. We wish you the best of luck on the rest of your travels!