Microsoft Excel 2013 Open License

Microsoft Excel 2013 is a spreadsheet software, allowing you to work with data and make powerful, professional spreadsheets while also performing equations, creating colorful charts and easily share your documents with other people. Excel can be used for financial purposes, to keep track of lists, information, analyze data and much more. Excel is now one of the leading and most used applications across many platforms and has become an industry standard for spreadsheet creation over the years. It is part of and is acquirable through the Microsoft Office suite, or as a standalone product.

 

Electronic spreadsheet programs such as Excel were originally designed after paper spreadsheets which are used for accounting - to this day, the basic layout of these computerized spreadsheets is heavily based on the paper equivalent. Excel's project file is referred to as a workbook, and within one workbook you can create many different and separate worksheets to keep your work as organized as possible. Inside of these worksheets, data is stored in tables, which are divided into small rectangular boxes called cells, and then organized into labeled rows and columns to help you navigate through huge chunks of data and perform calculations and other functions easily.

Although Excel 2013 does not have any huge, groundbreaking features, it received some quality of life enhancements that will help the software to be more functional and easy to use for both new users, as well as those who have been working with Excel for an extended amount of time. Some tasks that were previously considered tedious and required workarounds are now easy to perform, and tools like Recommended Charts or Recommended PivotTables make it easy for new users to decide how to visualize their data without having to look up any help outside Excel.

 

• New start screen: Whether it be a first impression or the thousandth time you open up Excel, the start screen is extremely important and a vital part of how you're going to start your work with the application. Excel 2013's start screen allows you to set things up fast and easy, with a compact view of everything you need: recently opened files, opening workbooks from your local disk or from the cloud, and even displays Excel's integrated templates when you are looking to create a new file. This is most useful to new users, and if you don’t like it, the start screen can be disabled at any given time through Excel’s settings.
• Backstage view: Introduced all the way back in Office 2010, the backstage view is here to stay. You can access it through the File tab, and it shows really important commands such as Save, Info, Share, and Print. When looking at the Info tab, you can see basic information about workbooks such as its creation date, the author(s), when and who modified last, as well as file size and even tags attached to the file. You can also edit permissions and prepare for sharing here. When on the Share tab, you can easily and quickly send your file to other people via e-mail, SkyDrive, and SharePoint, or even save it as a PDF.
• Flash Fill: A new feature based on data prediction - it can detect patterns within your data, follows the recognized pattern, and extracts more data through it. For example, if you have a huge list of full names but you want it to be split to two individual columns containing the ‘First name’ and the ‘Last name’, you can use Flash Fill to do the job for you by recognizing the names and dividing them to their respective columns. Previously, this was possible to be achieved through formulas, but that is quite a tedious process and requires some adequate knowledge about Excel.
• Quick Analysis: This new tool helps you find different options in regards to your selected data with a range of tools that help you analyze such as Formatting, Charts, Totals, Tables, and Sparklines. When you select either option, more choices will be presented to you which can be previewed when you hover your mouse over them, allowing you to weigh your options before you have to commit to something. This helps users speed of many repetitive aspects of working with Excel, thus greatly increasing productivity.
• Power View: Power View started as an add-in to previous Excel releases, however, it's integrated into Excel 2013. With this tool, you can analyze large amounts of data that originate from external sources. When using this tool, a different Power View sheet will be created in your workbook, as well as the analysis report. You can filter and organize your data to display it however you like, and even use styles and formatting options on it.