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Beginner 6 hours of video 42 lessons Exercise files included Certificate of completion

Microsoft Excel Essentials

Build a solid, reliable foundation in Excel: structure, formulas, formatting and the habits that prevent broken spreadsheets.

About this course

Most people who say they "know Excel" have learned it by accident: a formula copied from a colleague, a shortcut picked up in a hurry, a template inherited from someone who left the company three years ago. It works, until the day it does not. Excel Essentials rebuilds that foundation deliberately, in the order a professional actually needs it.

What you will be able to do

  • Navigate and structure a workbook so that other people can use it without asking you questions
  • Write formulas that stay correct when rows are inserted, deleted or reordered
  • Use absolute, relative and mixed references with full confidence about what each one does
  • Apply the core lookup and logic functions: IF, IFS, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH
  • Clean imported data: text-to-columns, TRIM, duplicates, inconsistent dates and number formats
  • Format for readability rather than decoration, including conditional formatting rules that scale
  • Protect sheets and validate inputs so that a colleague cannot silently break your model
  • Print and export a spreadsheet that still looks correct on the other side

Course content

7 modules · 42 lessons · approximately 6 hours of video

Module 1 — Getting your bearings

The ribbon, the name box, the formula bar, and the settings that quietly change how Excel behaves. Workbook versus worksheet. File formats and when each one matters.

Module 2 — Data entry that scales

Tables, structured references, fill handles, flash fill, and why a proper Excel Table is the single highest-leverage habit a beginner can adopt.

Module 3 — Formula fundamentals

Operator precedence, cell references, named ranges, and the four errors that account for most broken spreadsheets (#REF!, #VALUE!, #N/A, circular references).

Module 4 — Logic and lookups

IF, nested IF, IFS, AND/OR, XLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH. When each one is the right tool and when it is the lazy one.

Module 5 — Cleaning real data

Imported CSVs, trailing spaces, dates stored as text, thousands separators, and duplicates. The clean-up checklist you can run on any file.

Module 6 — Formatting and presentation

Number formats, custom formats, conditional formatting, freeze panes, and print setup that survives contact with a printer.

Module 7 — Protecting your work

Data validation, sheet and workbook protection, versioning habits, and a short audit routine before you send a file to anyone.

Requirements

  • A computer with Microsoft Excel installed. Microsoft 365 is recommended; where a feature is version-dependent, the lesson states this and shows the alternative approach.
  • No software is provided with this course. Learners must hold their own licence for any Microsoft product used.
  • Roughly 6 hours of study time, which you can spread over as long as you like — access does not expire.

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