Microsoft Office documentation
Excel 2010 for Windows
- What's New in Excel 2010
- Basic Tasks in Excel 2010
- Create a chart from start to finish
- Quick start: Chart your data in a worksheet
- Create your first spreadsheet in Excel 2010
Excel 2011 for Mac
- Learning roadmap for Excel for Mac 2011
- This page provides links to videos and articles walking you through the functions of Excel
- Excel for Mac 2011 Basics .pdf tutorial
- Excel for Mac 2011 Training
- Another page linking to both articles and videos guiding you through specific features of Excel
- VLOOKUP: What It Is, and When To Use It
Excel 2013 for Windows
- What's New in Excel 2013
- Excel functions (by category, 2013)
- Tutorial: Import Data into Excel 2013, and Create a Data Model
- Create your first Excel 2013 workbook
- Training courses for Excel 2013
What's the Difference between a Spreadsheet and a Database?
Microsoft Exel is a spreadsheet program. Other spreadsheet programs include Calc (OpenOffice.org - Mac and PC platforms), Numbers (iWorks for the Mac), Lotus 1-2-3 (IBM for PCs, though this will no longer be supported after September 30, 2014), and many others. The most important information to know about spreadsheets is that they have limits and a spreadsheet is not the right tool for every for every project. Spreadsheets are great for doing calculations for small data sets, tracking small data sets over the short term, and visually presenting data. Databases are better at tracking large data sets with complex relationships and are meant to be used over long periods. They can also perform calculations on large data sets.
Penn State University Libraries Technology Training's has created a set of guidelines for determining whether or not your project is suitable for a spreadsheet or a database.