MBA Guide to Excel_2000.pdf

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

However, you’ll richly benefit by taking a few minutes to read through this introduc-

tion. Its purpose is to help you maximize your return on the investment you’ve made in this

book—your investment in money and especially your even more costly investment in time.

Why This Book

Bookstore shelves are packed with guides to Microsoft® Excel, the world’s most popular spread-

sheet program. So why this book? Because although many fine books have been written about

Excel, there really isn’t a book specifically for business users of Excel. In fact, if you don’t count

this title, only two types of books are available: One, you have the books such as Excel for

Dummies™, which are really for beginners with computer anxiety (and perhaps not something

that you want out on your desk even if you fall into the targeted audience). Two, you have books

such as Microsoft Press’s Running Excel, which cover at least a bit about every feature of Excel

and thereby provide a wonderfully encyclopedic explanation of Excel’s features but often don’t

give the detailed commentary and advice useful to business people.

I don’t want to take anything away from these other categories. Many of the existing books

in these two standard categories are very good. I heartily recommend both Excel for Dum-

mies™ and Running Excel, for example, as general references. But business users of Excel

benefit by having a reference that emphasizes, talks from the point of view, and focuses on

the business applications of Excel. In short, business users of Excel need a book that talks

about Excel as a business tool.

Y ou are unique among readers. Almost nobody reads the introduction to a book like this.

Why This Book

MBA’s Guide to Microsoft ® Excel 2000 is the only book that specifically describes how you

can more easily, more productively, and more powerfully use Microsoft® Excel 2000 in

business.

Although this book’s title references the popular business professional degree MBA., this

book will also be of use to people without MBAs. MBA students, for example, will find this

book useful. People with graduate degrees in accounting, public administration, econom-

ics, and related fields will find this book useful as well.

In addition, anyone who’s finished a good undergraduate program in business or a related

field (like accounting) will feel comfortable and gain skills using this book as a desktop

reference.

What’s in This Book

s in This Book

The easiest way to see what’s in this book is to turn to the table of contents. It lists each

chapter and each chapter’s contents in rich detail.

s in This Book

The chapters in this book fall into three parts:

Part One includes Chapter 2, “QuickPrimer™ on Using Excel,” and Chapter 3,

“QuickPrimer™ on Charting,” which provide fast-paced but friendly tutorials on Excel. In

a nutshell, these two QuickPrimers™ move you to professional proficiency in Excel—even

if you’re new to Excel. (If you don’t need this help, of course, you can easily skip it.)

Part Two includes Chapters 4 through 9, which provide rich, detailed coverage of topics of

interest to Excel business users—topics that are shortchanged in books that have to be ev-

erything to everybody. Chapter 5, for example, describes how you easily and correctly make

financial and other business calculations in Excel. Chapter 6 describes how Excel’s advanced

modeling tools work in business settings. Other topics covered in richer detail include sta-

tistics analysis, sharing data, and using the Small Business Finance Manager.

NOTE When appropriate, discussions in Chapters 4 through 9 start with EasyRefreshers™

that let you update old skills or acquire new core business skills.

Part Three includes Chapters 10 through 15, which describe how to build real-life busi-

ness workbooks using Excel and provide (via the companion CD at the back of the book)

working examples of each. For example, Chapter 10 describes how to build a business plan-

ning workbook based on the BIZPLAN.XLS starter workbook included on the compan-

ion CD. Chapter 11 describes how to perform profit volume analysis and break-even analysis

using the PROFVOL.XLS starter workbook also included on the companion CD.

MBA’s Guide to Micr

s Guide to Microsoft Excel 2000

osoft Excel 2000

What’

NOTE

MBA

s Guide to Micr

NOTE The companion CD provides copies of the starter workbooks discussed in Chapters

10 through 15 and copies of each of the example workbooks discussed in the text.

s Not in This Book

Two topics aren’t covered to any great detail in this book. MBA’s Guide to Microsoft ® Excel

2000 doesn’t describe how to create a flat-file database (also known as a list) in Excel.

(However, you can download a free booklet that explains how Excel databases work. This

booklet is available from Redmond Technology Press’s web site at www.redtechpress.com .)

One other topic that’s not covered is Excel’s built-in programming language, Visual Basic

for Applications®. VBA, as it’s called, requires its own book. (If you’re interested in learn-

ing VBA, several excellent references exist, including any of Michael Halvorson’s books on

programming with Visual Basic. Halvorson’s books, which are published by Microsoft Press,

are available from walk-up and online bookstores.)

That’s it! That’s all you need to know before you begin using this book.

Stephen L. Nelson

steve@stephenlnelson.com

Chapter 1 Introduction

NOTE

What’

What’s Not in This Book

s Not in This Book

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

QUICKPRIMER ™ ON USING EXCEL

ON USING EXCEL

In This Chapter

• Workbook Basics

• Using Formulas and Functions

• Editing Workbook Data

• Formatting Workbooks

• Printing Workbooks

T his chapter provides a primer on Excel. Which means you may not need to read this

NOTE With the information provided by this chapter and the next one, you could handily pass

the Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) certification at the proficient user level and

perhaps even the expert user level. You might not be interested in receiving this certi-

fication yourself, but it is useful to understand just what knowledge is required. MOUS

certification may be relevant for hiring and training decisions you make.

orkbook Basics

If you’re new to Excel, you’ll benefit most from a quick tour of Excel, including how you start

Excel, work with its windows, and create and save a workbook. That’s what we’ll do here.

NOTE This discussion assumes you’re comfortable working with Microsoft Windows. You

should know, for example, how to start and stop programs, choose commands, and

work with dialog boxes.

QUICKPRIMER

In This Chapter

chapter if you possess a lot of experience using Excel. If your Excel skills could use a little

polishing, however, or if you’ve never used Excel, read this chapter to learn how Excel works.

NOTE

W orkbook Basics

orkbook Basics

NOTE

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