Summary Microsoft Excel Notes – Basics to Advanced (With Shortcuts & Formulas)

MICROSOFT EXCEL NOTES
(Basics to Advanced)
Prepared by: Megha Mangulkar
MSc Bioinformatics | Data Enthusiast
Date: August 2025

, Microsoft Excel – Introduction
Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used spreadsheet
applications in the world.
It allows users to store, organize, and analyze data in a tabular
format using rows and columns.
Excel supports calculations, data visualization, and advanced
tools that make data management easy and efficient.



History of Excel
 Spreadsheet software started gaining popularity in the
1970s.
 1979 – VisiCalc was launched for the Apple II computer
and became the first spreadsheet program.
 1980s – Lotus 1-2-3 dominated IBM PCs and became
popular for business calculations.
 1982 – Microsoft introduced Multiplan, but it was limited
to specific systems and could not compete with Lotus 1-2-
3.
 1985 – Microsoft launched the first version of Excel for
Apple Macintosh computers. It introduced a user-friendly
interface and supported mouse interaction, which was
advanced at that time.
 Later versions – Excel was released for Windows and
quickly became the most widely used spreadsheet software
globally.