Module 1 — Excel Interface & Workbook Basics

Day 1 · Morning · ~45 minutes Topics: Getting Started, Creating & Opening Workbooks, Saving & Sharing, Cell Basics, Modifying Columns/Rows/Cells

You need no prior Excel experience for this module. If you have never opened Excel before, start here.

📥 Practice files: Start workbook · Answer key

Learn it

What Excel actually is

Excel is a grid. That is the whole idea. Everything else is built on top of it.

A cell is one box in the grid. It holds one thing — a number, some text, or a date.
A cell has an address made of its column letter and row number: A1, C7, H24.
A worksheet (or just “sheet”) is one whole grid. Tabs at the bottom switch between them.
A workbook is the file itself (.xlsx). One workbook holds many worksheets.

Think of it like a filing cabinet: the workbook is the drawer, each worksheet is a folder, each cell is a line on a page.

The parts of the screen you must know

What you see	Where it is	What it does
Ribbon	Across the top	All the buttons, grouped into tabs (Home, Insert, Data…)
Name Box	Top-left, above column A	Shows the address of the selected cell. Type an address here to jump to it
Formula Bar	Right of the Name Box	Shows what is really in the cell — this matters enormously later
Sheet tabs	Bottom-left	Switch between worksheets; the `+` adds a new one
Status bar	Very bottom	Quietly shows Count, Sum and Average of whatever you have selected

The Formula Bar is the single most useful thing on the screen. A cell can display $1,000.00 while actually containing the number 1000, or a formula. The cell shows you the result; the formula bar shows you the truth. Get into the habit of glancing at it.

Typing into cells

Click a cell, type, then press:

Enter — confirms and moves down
Tab — confirms and moves right
Esc — cancels, leaves the cell as it was

To change a cell you have already filled, you have three options: type over it (replaces everything), double-click it (edit inside the cell), or click it once and edit in the formula bar.

Excel guesses what you typed

This trips up every beginner at least once. When you type, Excel silently decides whether it received a number, a date, or text:

1000 → a number, pushed to the right of the cell
29/08/2024 → a date, also pushed right (Excel stores dates as numbers)
MacBook Air M4 → text, pushed to the left

Alignment is your free clue. If a number you typed sits on the left, Excel thinks it is text, and no formula will add it up. That is the cause of a great many “Excel is broken” moments.

Moving around without the mouse

Keys	What happens
`Ctrl` + arrow key	Jump to the edge of the current block of data
`Ctrl` + `Home`	Back to A1
`Ctrl` + `S`	Save
`Ctrl` + `Z`	Undo — your safety net, use it freely

Ctrl + Down Arrow on a 10,000-row sheet takes you to the bottom instantly. It is worth learning today.

Rows, columns and cells

Select a whole row or column by clicking its number or letter.
Insert / Delete: right-click the row number or column letter → Insert / Delete. Everything else shifts to make room.
Resize: drag the line between two headers. Or double-click that line to auto-fit the column to its widest entry.
Seeing ##### in a cell simply means the column is too narrow. The data is fine — widen the column.

See it — worked example

Open d1_m1_interface_answers.xlsx and look at the Orders sheet. This is what a tidy basic worksheet looks like, and it is the shape all our data will take:

Row 1 holds the headers — Order ID, Order Date, Customer, and so on. One header per column, no blanks.
Every row below is one order. One record per row, always.
Every column holds one kind of thing. Dates in Order Date, money in Sales, and never the two mixed.
Columns are wide enough to read.
The header row is frozen, so it stays put when you scroll.

This layout — one row per record, one column per field, headers on row 1 — is called a flat table. Keep to it. PivotTables need it, Power Query needs it, and Power BI needs it. Nearly every Excel problem people bring to a trainer starts with a spreadsheet that broke this rule.

Now click on cell B2. The cell shows 17/01/2026. Look at the formula bar — it shows a date. Excel understands this is a point in time, not a piece of text, which is why it can later sort it, filter it by year, and chart it over time.

Do it — practice

Open d1_m1_interface_start.xlsx and follow the Instructions sheet inside the workbook. In summary you will:

Explore the Name Box and Formula Bar, and jump around with Ctrl + arrows
Fix two columns that are too narrow to read
Delete a duplicate row at the bottom of the list
Type in a missing order (O0008) and re-sort the list
Save the file with Ctrl + S

Check yourself: open d1_m1_interface_answers.xlsx. You should have 12 orders, no duplicates, and every column readable.

If you get stuck

Problem	Why	Fix
Cell shows `#####`	Column too narrow	Double-click the line between the column headers
Your date shows as `45528`	Excel is showing the underlying number	Home tab → Number dropdown → Short Date
Your typed number sits on the left	Excel read it as text	Delete it and retype without spaces or stray characters
You deleted the wrong row	It happens to everyone	`Ctrl` + `Z`

Check your understanding

What is the difference between a worksheet and a workbook?
A cell displays $1,000.00. What might the formula bar show instead?
You type a number and it appears on the left of the cell. What has gone wrong, and why does it matter?
What does Ctrl + Down Arrow do, and when would you use it?

Next: Module 2 — Formatting Cells & Numbers

© 2026 Global Academy. Prepared for the ZIMASCO (Kwekwe) workshop. Facilitated by Tapiwa Zireva. Licensed to participants for personal learning — not for redistribution, resale, or reuse in other training without permission.