1.1 The grid: cells, rows, columns, sheets
You can build a small table from scratch and move around it without the mouse.
Before:00. Getting Your FootingUnlocks:02. Excel — Formulas & Functions04. Excel — Cleaning & Power Query
Excel begins with the grid itself: cells, ranges, rows, columns and sheets, and how to move through them with the keyboard instead of the mouse. It is the first Excel topic because everything later — formulas, tables, pivots — assumes you can select and navigate without thinking about it. Control plus an arrow key, which jumps to the edge of the data, is the move that changes how the grid feels. The common confusion is between a cell's address and its contents; the name box quietly shows the first, and the formula bar the second.
Work through these
Cells, ranges, rows, columns and the name box
A cell has an address, a group of them is a range, and the box showing the current address is also how you jump anywhere. These names are used constantly for the rest of the subject.
Navigating with arrows, Ctrl+arrows, Ctrl+Home and Go To
Moving around a large sheet with the keyboard is far faster than scrolling. Jumping to the edge of a block of data is the move you will use most. It is also how you find where your data actually ends.
Selecting, inserting, deleting and moving
Selecting, inserting, deleting and moving rows and columns are the basic edits, and each one shifts everything around it. Understanding the shift is what stops formulas breaking unexpectedly.
Multiple sheets, renaming, colouring and grouping them
A workbook holds many sheets, and naming and colouring them is what keeps a file navigable six months later. Sheets named after their contents beat sheets named after their creation order.
Practice file
- xl-01-first-workbook.xlsx
A blank-ish workbook with an instructions sheet and a small list to type up. Navigation, entry and sheet handling.
Opens in Excel. Every name, number and address in these files is made up. No account needed to download.
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Links last checked 29 Aug 2026.
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