How to Learn Excel Basics in a Weekend

Excel appears in countless job adverts and everyday tasks, yet many people only ever type into it like a table. This guide is for complete beginners who want a structured, hands-on way to learn the essentials over a single weekend. By Sunday evening you will be able to build a tidy spreadsheet, write basic formulas, sort and filter data, and make a simple chart. Most of what you learn also works in Google Sheets and other spreadsheet apps.

Before You Start: What You Need

You need a computer and access to Excel. That could be the desktop app that comes with a Microsoft 365 subscription, or the free web version at Microsoft's Office website, which needs only a free Microsoft account. The web version covers everything in this guide. If you prefer, Google Sheets is free with a Google account and works almost identically for these basics; menu names may differ slightly.

Set aside about three hours on Saturday and three on Sunday. The plan is built around a single practice project: a simple household spending tracker. Working on one real file is far more effective than reading about features in the abstract.

Saturday Morning: Find Your Way Around

An Excel file is called a workbook. Each workbook contains one or more worksheets, shown as tabs along the bottom. A worksheet is a grid of cells. Columns are labelled with letters across the top and rows with numbers down the side, so every cell has an address, such as B3 for column B, row 3. Above the grid is the ribbon, the toolbar with tabs such as Home, Insert and Data, and the formula bar, which shows exactly what is inside the selected cell.

1. Create and name your file Open a new blank workbook and save it straight away as Spending Tracker. Saving early, and often, protects your work.
2. Type your headings In row 1, type Date in A1, Item in B1, Category in C1 and Amount in D1. Press Tab to move right and Enter to move down.
3. Enter some data Fill in 15 to 20 rows of made-up or real spending. Use a few repeated categories such as Food, Transport and Bills.
4. Resize columns Double-click the line between two column letters to make a column fit its contents automatically.
5. Format the headings Select row 1 and make it bold, then add a fill colour from the Home tab so the headings stand out.
6. Format numbers Select the Amount column and choose Currency or Number with two decimal places from the Number group on the Home tab.
7. Format dates Select the Date column and choose a date format. If dates show as odd numbers, that is normal: Excel stores dates as numbers and formatting makes them readable.

• Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) undoes your last action, so experiment freely.
• Ctrl+arrow key jumps to the edge of your data.
• Ctrl+S saves the file.
• Right-click a row or column heading to insert or delete rows and columns.