Introduction to Microsoft Excel 365

Learn to quickly and efficiently use Microsoft Excel 365 as you discover dozens of shortcuts and tricks for setting up fully formatted worksheets. This introduction to Excel course, designed by an experienced Microsoft Excel instructor, provides in-depth knowledge for beginners that will help you use Excel efficiently.

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6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs
Starting  July 16, 2025
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Finger Lakes Community College

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Introduction to Microsoft Excel 365

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Course code: ix5

Excel is a powerful tool and indispensable for business, personal, and academic use. In this course, you will gain a strong foundation in Microsoft Excel 365, equipping you with the skills to confidently navigate Excel's features. Whether organizing data, creating professional spreadsheets, or generating insightful visualizations, this introduction to Excel course will provide the tools and techniques to maximize your efficiency with this industry-leading spreadsheet software program.

Beginning with the basics of how to enter labels and numeric data, you will learn ways to structure and format your worksheets for clarity and efficiency. This intro to Excel course will show you how to modify a worksheet's structure by inserting, deleting, and formatting rows and columns, and explore formatting options to make your data visually appealing and easy to interpret. From applying number formats to text styling, you will gain the skills to transform plain data into professional-grade spreadsheets.

Next, dive into calculation capabilities, starting with simple formulas and progressing to aggregate functions. You will practice using references to cells and ranges, troubleshoot formula errors, and explore tools like autofill and quick analysis to save time and streamline your workflow. You will also learn how to apply headers, footers, and themes to give your worksheets a polished, cohesive appearance, and how to prepare your spreadsheets for printing.

In addition to foundational skills, this course introduces advanced techniques like working with multiple sheets and referencing data across workbooks. You will create and format tables, sort and filter data, and generate dynamic charts to visualize trends and insights. Next, explore statistical and financial functions essential for analyzing data in a business context. Finally, you will practice creating business forms, using templates, and designing workbooks that maximize efficiency and usability.

By the end of this introduction to Excel course, you will have a solid understanding of Excel's core features and advanced capabilities. Hands-on practice and real-world examples boost your ability to successfully learn Excel online and enable you to tackle various tasks confidently. Get ready to unlock the potential of Excel and elevate your productivity!

What you will learn

  • Create and edit worksheets with text and labels
  • Modify the structure of a worksheet
  • Construct formulas and functions for data calculation and analysis
  • Format cells, cell content, and worksheets
  • Share data between worksheets, workbooks, and other applications
  • Organize data with tables and learn important keyboard shortcuts
  • Create and format charts for visual data summarization
  • Utilize templates for efficient workbook creation
  • How to create worksheets, charts, and graphs, as well as parse data with Flash Fill
  • Methods for sorting and analyzing automating often repeated tasks

How you will benefit

  • Leverage your Excel 365 knowledge to become a more productive member of your organization
  • Gain indispensable skills that will be useful for numbers-based reporting
  • Develop skills that can be used to simplify your life of calculating and displaying numbers both personally and professionally
  • Understand efficient data organization, customizable data presentation, and enhanced data visualization to make it easier to understand and interpret data
  • Create professional looking worksheets and time saving templates that you can customize as needed
  • Demonstrate skills to help you efficiently organize, analyze, and present data for professional and personal needs

How the course is taught

  • Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
  • 6 Weeks or 3 Months access
  • 24 course hours

This lesson introduces the fundamentals of Excel, including navigating its interface, understanding workbooks and worksheets, and mastering basic data entry. You'll learn how to input labels, numeric data, and fractions, move efficiently within a worksheet, and save your work in various formats, ensuring your files are well-organized and accessible.

In this lesson, you'll explore how to modify the structure of a worksheet by selecting, moving, and copying data. Topics include inserting and deleting rows, columns, and cells, merging cells, and using shortcuts to streamline tasks. These skills will enable you to organize and manipulate data effectively.

This lesson focuses on creating and using formulas and functions to perform calculations in Excel. You'll learn about simple formulas, essential aggregate functions like SUM and AVERAGE, and time-saving tools like AutoFill and Flash Fill. These techniques will help you automate calculations and save time.

Learn how to format cells, rows, and columns to enhance the readability and appearance of your data. This lesson covers text alignment, cell borders, fill colors, number formatting, and custom cell styles. These formatting techniques will give your spreadsheets a polished and professional look.

This lesson covers preparing your worksheet for presentation and printing. Topics include modifying page setup, applying headers and footers, using themes, and printing to PDF or other formats. You'll learn to optimize your worksheets for both digital and physical distribution.

In this lesson, you'll explore cell references, including relative, absolute, and mixed references, and learn to name ranges for clarity and ease of use. You'll also practice resolving formula errors and using tools to display and troubleshoot formulas effectively.

This lesson focuses on managing and linking data across multiple sheets and workbooks. You'll learn to add, delete, and group sheets, reference data across worksheets, and link content to other applications, expanding your ability to manage complex projects.

This lesson introduces Excel tables, showing you how to create, format, and manage table data. You'll explore sorting, filtering, adding totals, and using table styles to make your data more organized and interactive.

This lesson teaches you to visualize data with charts. You'll create and modify various chart types, format chart elements, and apply styles to make your data presentations clear and impactful. Topics include pie charts, bar charts, and advanced chart customizations.

This lesson explores several types of powerful functions. We start with a review of aggregate functions, and then turn our attention to statistical functions like AVERAGE and standard deviation, as well as financial functions such as PMT and PV to calculate loan values and payments.

This lesson explores using Excel to create professional business forms, including calendars, invoices, and purchase orders. You'll learn to design layouts, apply formatting, and incorporate formulas to create functional and visually appealing forms.

In the final lesson, you'll learn to create and use templates to save time and ensure consistency across projects. Topics include using Excel's built-in templates, designing custom templates, and creating chart templates for reuse. This lesson helps streamline your workflow and maintain professional standards.

Chad Wambolt

Chad Wambolt has spent his entire professional career in the finance field, working for both private and publicly-held companies with sales ranging from $500 million to $3 billion. He is a graduate of Boise State University, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in accounting. Through the course of his career, Wambolt became an expert user of Microsoft Excel. Since 1997, he has taught Excel to students of varying skill levels and helped organizations streamline internal processes.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to complete this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 10 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Microsoft Excel 365 for Windows or Microsoft Excel for Mac. Excel 365 Online can be used to study the features it includes, but you will not be able to practice certain skills. For the best experience, use Excel 365 for Windows or Word for Mac to complete this course. If that software isn't available, some exercises can be completed using Excel 365 Online in a web browser on Windows, MacOS, or ChromeOS.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.​

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.​

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.​

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

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