Meaning and definition of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used to store and retrieve numerical data in a grid format of columns and rows. Excel is ideal for entering, calculating and analyzing company data such as sales figures, sales taxes or commissions.

Reports

You can use Excel and Word individually or in combination to create company reports. Word is ideal for presenting reports in written form by summarizing and formatting data using a table of contents, headings, font changes and pagination. Excel can be used to create the supporting data for a written report which might include selecting a particular range of data by date, department or personnel. For example, monthly sales reports can be created according to customer, manufacturer, sales person or product using Excel's data sorting and selection capability which is based on previously defining data by attributes such as department name, manufacturer or acquisition date. Examples of company reports might include financial summaries, compliance documents or personnel reports outlining vacation and sick days.

Research

Companies often investigate and research possible business or production models in “what-if” scenarios. These scenarios might illustrate comparisons among pricing structures, the cost of doing business in different markets or geographical locations or the cost of producing next year's holiday products through different manufacturers. Excel can store and calculate the data as directed using existing or new data. The data and calculations can be stored in separate workbooks -- a workbook is a collection of spreadsheets accessed through a single file with each page of the file being a separate spreadsheet added as a new tab in the workbook.

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft, a component of its Office product group for business applications. In common with similar products, such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Corel's QuattroPro, Excel is an automated version of the paper-based spreadsheet that makes it easier to manipulate, process, and view the data. Although Lotus 1-2-3 was reportedly the first spreadsheet to introduce cell names and macros, Excel implemented a graphical user interface and the ability to point and click using a mouse.