Microsoft Excel Core Concepts and Functions Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Microsoft Excel commands, formulas, chart types, lookup functions, referencing styles, and worksheet management based on lecture review questions.

Go To Command

An Excel navigation feature used to jump directly to a distant cell, such as moving from active cell D10 to cell D50.

Auto Fill

A feature that completes a sequence of words or values (such as entering days of the week down a column) using the fill handle.

Fill Handle

A small green square located in the bottom-right corner of the active cell used to implement the Auto Fill command.

Pound Signs (###)

A cell display symbol indicating that the column width is too narrow to show the numbers or formula results, resolved by increasing the column width.

Insert Cut Cells

The context menu command selected after right-clicking a column heading to paste and relocate cut column data before that column.

Merge & Center

An alignment command that centers the contents of the upper-left cell across a selected range while deleting any data stored in the remaining cells of that range.

Percent Style

A number format that multiplies values by $100$ and adds a percent sign, displaying a value like $1.2546$ as $125.5\%$ when formatted with $1$ decimal place.

Move or Copy (Sheet)

A sheet tab command where clicking OK without changing settings inserts a copy of the active worksheet to the left of the original sheet, named with a (1).

Sheet Name Field

A dynamic header/footer code inserted so that each printed worksheet displays its specific tab name rather than a static text entry.

Formula AutoComplete

An Excel feature that automatically displays a pop-up list of matching functions and defined names when you begin typing an expression (such as =AV).

MAXA Function

An Excel statistical function that evaluates text and error labels as $0$, returning $0$ when provided with a dataset consisting of negative numbers and non-numeric text like NA.

NOW Function

The built-in date/time function structured as =NOW() that inserts both the current date and the current time into a worksheet cell.

PMT Function

A financial payment function structured as =PMT(rate, nper, pv) where the first argument represents the periodic interest rate.

1900 Date System

Excel's date system in which dates are stored as serial numbers starting from the date 1/1/1900, which corresponds to the number $0$.

F4 Key

The keyboard shortcut used when editing a formula to toggle a cell reference into an absolute reference.

Recommended Charts

A command that opens the Insert Chart dialog box to display curated chart types selected specifically for the layout and values of the chosen data.

Bar Chart

A chart type with horizontal bars that provides optimal readability for displaying long category names, such as city names, on the category axis.

100% Stacked Column Chart

A column chart type suited for comparing proportions by showing the relative percentage contributions of multiple divisions across multiple consecutive years.

Alt Text (Charts)

A descriptive accessibility property added to charts to ensure compliance and readability for screen reader software.

Show Axis in Thousands

A value axis display unit option that divides axis numbers by $1{,}000$, displaying increments such as $50{,}000$ and $100{,}000$ as increments of $50$ and $100$.

Data Labels

Chart elements that place the exact numerical values directly on or above individual data points or bars in a chart.

Switch Row/Column

A chart tool used to reverse how data is plotted, switching categories from the horizontal axis into the legend and vice versa.

Win/Loss Sparkline

A compact, single-cell sparkline chart designed to visually depict positive versus negative point differentials or game outcomes.

Freeze Panes

A view option that locks designated rows and/or columns in place, keeping labels visible on the screen when scrolling through distant columns or rows.

Asterisk (*)

A wildcard symbol in Excel used in search, filter, and lookup operations to represent any number of characters.

Remove Duplicates

A data management command used to inspect a table and delete identical rows to ensure each record is unique.

Unqualified Structured Reference

A formula reference inside an Excel table that refers directly to column headers (such as =[Purchase_Price]-[Rebate]) without specifying the table name.

Worksheet

A single spreadsheet page within an Excel workbook containing descriptive labels, numeric values, formulas, functions, and charts.

Relative Cell Reference

A cell reference format (such as =C3+X50) that adjusts automatically based on the formula's new position when copied across rows or columns.

VLOOKUP

A lookup function that searches vertically down the first column of a table to retrieve data from a specified column in the matching row.

HLOOKUP

A lookup function that searches horizontally across the first row of a table to retrieve data from a specified row in the matching column.

XLOOKUP

A lookup function that searches a specified lookup array and returns matching items from a separate return array, supporting exact, next larger, or approximate matches.

Sparkline

A miniature line, column, or win/loss chart embedded directly inside a single cell to give a quick visual representation of data trends.

Structured Reference

A table referencing feature that substitutes standard cell addresses with table and column names (e.g., =[@[Total Revenue]]-[@[Total Cost]]).