Introduction

This course teaches Microsoft Excel — a spreadsheet program where you work in a grid of cells (rows and columns) to store numbers, labels, and formulas.

At Northgate Academy, James Okonkwo (School Administrator) tracks how much each department can spend each quarter. Excel is the right tool: type the budgets once, let formulas total them, format currency, filter expenses, and print a report for Dr. Helen Marsh.

Everything saves in one file: NorthgateBudget.xlsx. Small example figures for learning. A real school budget workbook may have many more rows and sheets. All three courses use the same fictional school so you can see how Word, Excel, and PowerPoint work together on one real-world project.

A workbook is the whole .xlsx file. A worksheet is one tab inside it — one grid. You will build NorthgateBudget.xlsx step by step across this course.

The Budgets tab shows English through Arts in rows. The Expenses tab logs individual purchases. Later you add a chart and PivotTable — all without retyping figures.

Example: When Science's Q4 budget in cell E4 rises, you change one cell on Budgets. The annual total in F4, the contingency column, the chart, and the printout all update from the same grid.

You will build NorthgateBudget in this order:

• 1Create a blank workbook and name the sheets.
• 2Enter quarterly budgets for English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Arts in cells like B2:E6.
• 3Write formulas — =SUM(B2:E2), =AVERAGE(B2:E2), =IF(F2>50000,"Review","OK") — with relative and absolute references.
• 4Apply number formats, borders, and conditional formatting.
• 5Sort and filter an expenses log. Turn it into an Excel table.
• 6Add a chart of department spending.
• 7Summarise expenses with a PivotTable.
• 8Set up page layout and print the budget summary.

Department heads do not each keep a separate spreadsheet. James Okonkwo needs one source of truth inside NorthgateBudget.xlsx:

• Budgets — planned spend per quarter (what governors approve)
• Expenses — what was actually bought (stationery, textbooks, trips)
• BudgetChart — visual comparison for meetings
• PivotSummary — totals by department and category

When English's Q1 figure in B2 changes, every formula, chart, and pivot that reads from the grid recalculates automatically.

Commands live on the Ribbon at the top. In this course you will use:

Click a tab to see its groups. Home opens by default when you start Excel.

You need Microsoft Excel on Windows or Mac (2016, 2019, or Microsoft 365). These pages work in a browser, but the click paths match the desktop app.

No prior Excel experience is required. If you know what a row and column are, you can start here.

Web Excel: Most steps work in Excel for the web. PivotTables and some print options differ slightly — the lesson notes call those out when it matters.

Each lesson is one page of short sections and prose paragraphs. Terms like workbook, cell, and formula appear in bold the first time they matter, with plain-English explanations woven into the text.

Near the end of a lesson you will often get a short Try this check. Answer from what you have just read.

Work through lessons in sidebar order. Each step assumes the previous lesson's sheet layout — skipping ahead makes formulas point at empty cells. Follow the steps on your own PC when you can. Typing the budgets yourself helps the skills stick.