10 lessons Complete beginners, ages 10+
Excel for Beginners
10 lessons, no lectures. Do each task in the live sheet and the site checks it right away.
All lessons
- ✍️ 1. Typing in cellsCells, typing, fixing and deleting · 2 tasks
- 🎨 2. Format a tableSelect a range, bold and dollar format · 2 tasks
- 🧮 3. Your first formulaMultiply, add and subtract between cells · 3 tasks
- ➕ 4. SUM and AVERAGEThe total and the average of a column · 3 tasks
- ⬇️ 5. Drag and fillThe fill handle, and $ to lock a cell · 3 tasks
- 🔢 6. MAX, MIN and COUNTThe most, the least, and how many filled in · 2 tasks
- 🔀 7. IF: if... then...Pass or fail, and COUNTIF · 2 tasks
- ↕️ 8. Sort a tableHigh to low, and alphabetical · 2 tasks
- 📊 9. Your first chartA bar chart and a pie chart · 2 tasks
- 🏠 10. Project: a family budgetEverything we learned in one sheet · 4 tasks
✏️ Want a blank sheet to play with? Open the online spreadsheet.
About this course
The course goes from easy to hard: type in cells, format a table, write your first formula, then SUM and AVERAGE, dragging and filling with $, MAX, MIN and COUNT, IF and COUNTIF, sorting, charts, and finally a family budget project. Each lesson takes 5 to 10 minutes.
The sheet works like Excel: Enter moves down a row, Tab moves to the next column, F2 edits a cell, Ctrl+B makes text bold, Ctrl+D fills down and Ctrl+Z undoes. While you type a formula you can click a cell or drag across a range, and the address is typed into the formula for you.
Questions & answers
- Do I need Excel installed on my computer?
- No. All the practice happens in the live sheet inside the page, and the site checks every task right away. After each lesson, try the same thing in Excel or Google Sheets — the formulas are the same.
- Who is the course for?
- Complete beginners: parents, teachers, job seekers and students from about age 10. Each lesson is a sheet with a real-life task, like a shopping list, test scores or a budget.
- Which formulas will I learn?
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, COUNTBLANK, IF and COUNTIF, absolute references with $, AutoFill by dragging, sorting, dollar formatting and charts.
- Do the formulas here work in real Excel?
- Yes. They use the same function names and commas as Excel and Google Sheets in the US, so you can copy them straight in.
- Is my progress saved?
- Yes, in the browser where you practiced. A finished task gets a ✓, and a finished lesson gets a ✅.