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What Is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a productivity tool for creating spreadsheets, and for performing statistics and analysis. It features over 100 functions and more than 235 built-in formulas, 1D and 2D charting, pivot tables for cross-tabulation analysis, multiple worksheets, mail merge capabilities and macros. Use Excel to analyze data and reports in order to discover patterns, trends and gain new insights. With a robust set of tools, you'll be able to create, format and share spreadsheets without difficulty. This application comes with a multitude of slots for storage and types of storage, including audio files and word processors. It also has many different functions, which allow the user to do a large range of tasks.

Who Uses Microsoft Excel?

Designed for businesses of all sizes, it is a spreadsheet solution that helps manage and organize data using templates, perform calculations, create analytical charts, and more.

Microsoft Excel Software - Mobile and desktop interface
Microsoft Excel Software - Power BI import
Microsoft Excel Software - Table tools
Microsoft Excel Software - Multiple chart formats

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Reviews of Microsoft Excel

Average score

Overall
4.8
Ease of Use
4.3
Customer Service
4.3
Features
4.7
Value for Money
4.6

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Dave
Dave
Website Specialist in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Nonprofit Organization Management, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

The industry standard

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Honestly, I love Excel. The truth is, once you unlock the various features there is very little you can't do. For fun I've created a dynamic resume', a slide presentation and even a couple of games inside Excel just to see if I could.

Pros:

Excel's greatest value is its ability to be many things for many people. I would say 90% of the people I've seen use Excel only use about 10% of its capabilities, and it's great for that. People are making quick budgets, schedules, to-do lists and even recipes books with excel and don't need many "pro" features for that. Then there are the people who use it for contact management and data-processing, I've even seen an Excel instance that used extensive scripting to handle CRM, inventory and mail-merge marketing. I don't suggest it, but if you really want to get into it, it's very possible. I'd say the greatest advantage of using Excel is that it's the industry standard for spreadsheets. If send someone an excel sheet you can bet that they will have a way to open it.

Cons:

For cons, it does annoy me a bit that the Mac version isn't nearly as good as the Windows version. It's not surprising, of course, but it is annoying. I use Excel on different platforms and operating systems and the difference is striking. Also, if you do plan on getting in the weeds with excel for business intelligence and data processing, you can literally spend years studying ti and getting proficient with the all of the capabilities. And finally, it can be a huge processor hog and slow down everything else on your computer if you aren't careful. Even a simple spreadsheet with a simple formula involving whole columns can suddenly bring a stop to your workday.

Nicholas
Nicholas
IT Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Education Management, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

The Go-To is still the most capable

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: I enjoy using and learning more about Excel. There are so many ways in which to use it that no review can truly capture the breadth and depth of its capability. When it is frustrating it is because of an inability of process or lack of me as a user being able to achieve what i know to be possible and thus I approach it as a puzzle to be unpacked.

Pros:

Excel is a versatile spreadsheet application that continues to benefit from its age, the weight and momentum behind it, and the continued focus on it as core Office app. The variety of applications of this application are what continue make it a winner.

Cons:

Stemming from the same positive attributes of its age and flexibility are the downsides to its age and flexibility - its overlapping years of feature additions and subtractions to the building more on top of pre-existing structures mean that somethings need to be unpacked in order to work how you'd like them too and the robustness of the product can be daunting. Knowing that you'll never know ALL that it is capable of and that the best way to achieve anything is to picture it and then hunker down for an evening of searching and learning.

Souleymane
Souleymane
Training assistant in Mauritania
Verified LinkedIn User
Mining & Metals, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The software for managing your data, calculations, and analyses.

5.0 last month New

Comments: Excel is a calculation and management software that I highly recommend, especially for businesses. I have been using it for at least 2 years, and I believe it is the best software that Microsoft has offered.

Pros:

Excel is considered one of the best software for management, and I particularly enjoy the built-in formulas and functions that allow me to perform complex calculations and analyses quickly. The formulas can handle arithmetic operations, statistics, filtering, and even graphing.

Cons:

From my point of view, Excel doesn't have any drawbacks but rather several advantages. It allows for task automation and the development of custom applications, and it even integrates with other Office applications.

Loide
Administrator in Namibia
Military, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

My review on Microsoft Excel

3.0 2 years ago

Comments: The principal project that I truly scholarly a great deal about Excel in was building an accounting page to track and plan my course enrollments with as a rookie in school. I needed to figure my aggregate GPA and GPA by term, and I needed to design the entirety of the courses I would take every semester from my first semester in school to my final remaining one. By that point I realized how to utilize rotate tables and some other information decrease recipes, yet I didn't actually have a clue how to utilize query works yet. I assembled a large portion of that bookkeeping page around a capacity to naturally ascertain letter grades dependent on rates, and afterward essential SUM capacities for the GPA computations. The subsequent case was for designing and cleaning a humungous fix of information in my last semester of school. 32 cycle Excel wasn't made for the errand I was utilizing it for around there, however it worked effectively with some content cleanup that I would not like to figure out how to do utilizing standard articulations somewhere else. This experience was and stays educational for me. I learned more a long time of doing those undertakings than my companions who took classes to learn Excel.

Pros:

Colossal degree as Excel has mathematical and literary capacities; you can add hyperlinks and pictures thus significantly more. Numerous sheets can assist it with acting practically like a social information base when joined with separating and arranging capacities. Mistake catching should be possible utilizing.

Cons:

The one fundamental hindrance of the extent of MS Excel is that an excessive number of individuals are self trained and the manner in which they have made the accounting page is undocumented so over the long run individuals attempt to alter and present mistakes. Naming cells makes formulae more significant and simpler to fathom. I once attempted to figure out an accounting page individuals had been utilizing for a very long time and found there was an entire section of qualities incorrectly being remembered for an equation. Somebody had been advised to erase a section however they had quite recently concealed it from see so every one of the qualities were all the while being included messing genuine up. Knowing the contrast between concealing qualities and erasing them is quite major.

Faris
Faris
Cyber Security in Yemen
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer & Network Security, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Life is easier with Excel

5.0 2 months ago

Comments: It was and still is a wonderful, interesting and light experience

Pros:

Ease of use + collaboration tools + sharing with others online and allowing modification and creation directly

Cons:

There are no negatives in Excel, everything you find great in Excel