Excel Glossary – Basic Excel Terms

Following are the Basic Excel Terms and Terminologies

Workbook – Refers to an an Excel Spreadsheet file.

Worksheet – A collection of rectangular blocks called Cells organized in Rows and Columns.

Cell – Building block of a Worksheet. The rectangular space where data is entered, stored and displayed.

Column – Cells aligned Vertically

Row – Cells aligned Horizontally

Cell Reference – Each cell in an Excel worksheet have an unique address which is a combination of its Column and Row Indexes. This address can be used to refer that particular cell and is called Cell reference. Eg-A1, D25, etc.,

Array / Range Reference – An address that refer to a group of cells. Eg-A1:E10, D7:K20, etc.,

Formula – An expression created inside a Cell which can return a value or values. This can be arithmetic expressions, reference to other cells, data ranges etc.

Function – Functions are predefined formulas. Eg-SUM function, IF Function, etc.

Error – The code returned, when Excel finds a problem in a formula. Each error code has a specific meaning which is a hint to troubleshoot the formula.

Ribbon – A series of tabs (Home, Insert, Formulas etc.,) containing command buttons arranged in different groups

Formula Bar – The area which can be used enter, display or edit data in a cell.

Active cell – Active cell refers to the currently selected cell.

Name Box – Area which displays the address of the active cell.

AutoFill – Feature which enables us to effortlessly copy data into adjacent cells

Pivot Table – Data Summarization tool of Excel which is used to slice and dice data

Data Validation – A feature that will validate the user input into a cell or cells. Commonly used to create Drop-Down Lists

Conditional Formatting – Feature that can be used to highlight cells that satisfies a particular condition or criteria.