Ed Bolton

Copy and paste. In Windows, there are very few functions that everyone will use, but the ability to copy data in one place, and put it in another is considered to be one of the most basic IT skills. Even the keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) are known by office workers all across the world.

There are lots of reasons that people use Microsoft Excel. However, these reasons fall into three basic categories; storing data, analysing data and displaying data. Often a single spreadsheet will be used for all three, and it is the display of data that forms the basis for this article.

Microsoft Excel is a phenomenally powerful calculator. You can create spreadsheets with 10,000 lines of data and calculate subtotals instantly. Indeed, if you change your data, any totals will get automatically updated. Arguably that’s not too impressive. If we have quarterly revenues of $1m, and we secure another $20k, we can update our subtotal without summing revenues from scratch.