Glossary

An absolute cell reference provides a permanent reference to a specific cell.

The active cell is the current cell. Excel displays a dark border around the active cell in the worksheet window, and the cell address of the active cell appears in the Name Box.

An application software, application, program, or simply app for a small application is a computer program designed to carry out a specific task other than the operation of the computer itself, such as word processors, graphic editors, and web browsers.

The AVERAGE function is used to calculate the arithmetic mean of a given set of arguments. For example, if the range B1:B20 contains numbers, the formula =AVERAGE(B1:B20) returns the average of those numbers.

Each cell has a unique cell address, identified by first its column letter and then its row number. For xample, the cell at the intersection of column A and row 9 is cell A9.

A chart allows you to illustrate your workbook data graphically, so it is easy to visualize comparisons and trends.

A column in an Excel worksheet file runs vertically across a worksheet's grid structure. Columns are labeled by capital letters known as column headings. There are 16,384 columns in Excel.

The COUNT function counts the number of cells that contain numbers and counts numbers within the list of arguments. Use the COUNT function to get the number of entries in a number field that is in a range or array of numbers. For example, to count the numbers in the range of cells from cell B1 until cell B20, the formula is =COUNT(B1:B20).

A formula in Excel calculates numbers into meaningful results that can update as values changes.

The IF function allows you to make a logical comparison between a value and what you expect by testing for a condition and returning a result if True or False. So an IF statement can have two results. The first result is if your comparison is True, the second if your comparison is False.

The MAX function returns the largest value in a set of values.

Microsoft 365 is suite of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It was formerly called Microsoft Office which include applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

The MIN function returns the smallest number in a set of values.

The PMT function calculates the payment for a loan based on constant payments and a constant interest rate.

The PV function calculates the present value of a loan or an investment, based on a constant interest rate.

A relative cell reference indicates a cell's relative location, such as one row up and one column to the left, from the cell containing the formula.

The ribbon is a set of toolbars at the top of the window in Office programs such as Word or Excel designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. On Excel, you will find Home, Insert and Formulas ribbons.

A row in an Excel worksheet file runs horizontally across a worksheet's grid structure. Rows are labeled by numbers known as row headings. There are 1,048,576 rows in Excel.

The SUM function totals the values in two or more cells and then displays the result in the cell containing the function. For example, the formula =SUM(M2:M10) adds the values in cells M2 until M10.

The VLOOKUP function is used when you need to find things in a table or a range by row.

A workbook is a spreadsheet program file that you create in Excel.

Excel lets you create spreadsheets with multiple pages. Each page is called a worksheet. A collection of one or more worksheets is called a workbook (which is also sometimes called a spreadsheet file).