Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet management software developed by Microsoft. It is most commonly used to create spreadsheets and perform a huge variety of calculations and equations with its native formulas, but also supplies users with more and more things as the releases get better. Graphics capabilities, pivot tables, and the Visual Basic for Applications macro programming language are all featured within Excel by default - making it become the most recognized and used spreadsheet software on the market. It is now industry standard to utilize Excel when working in professional environments, meaning that even if you own a small business yourself, Excel is the perfect application to take care of business documentation and aid you when needed with its expert features being capable of speeding up multiple processes for its users.

Excel, much like different electronic spreadsheet management software is based on paper spreadsheets originally used for accounting. The layout of Excel is heavily influenced by this, both in older versions and newer releases. If you happen to be familiar with Excel 2007, you will feel right at home in Excel 2010, because the look and feel of the interface have not changed much. What changed is the expanded capabilities of the software, so let us dive right into Excel 2010’s new and exciting features.

No matter if you’re using Excel 2010 at home or at work, its new features will help you increase your productivity and allow you to easily work with basically any type of data.

• File tab: You might notice that the Office button is gone in Excel 2010 and was replaced by a File tab. When you access it, you can access commands you’d see in a regular “File menu”, however, it is extended to a full-page view, meaning that you can see and read things more easily. In this backstage view, you can quickly get a lot of useful information about your documents, such as its properties like the file size, the time and date of creation or the last time it was modified. You can also edit your workbook's permissions or prepare it for sharing from the Info page within the File tab. You can quickly Save your documents or Open new ones, and even Print them. You can also access the Share page, where you can forward your document via e-mail, publish to Excel Services, create a PDF, or share to SkyDrive and SharePoint.
• Templates: The File tab makes creating new documents much easier as well. When making a new file, the template categories are already listed and clearly visible. Using templates can save people a tremendous amount of time, as they supply you with many different things you might need to give your project a kick-start and spare yourself from having to worry about starting from scratch. You can quickly browse your recently used templates or the templates you've created yourself, but there are also many categories to choose from: budgets, calendars, faxes, forms, gift certificates, invoices, minutes, and planners - the list is almost endless.
• Customize the Ribbon: Even if you’re new to the Ribbon interface and need some time to adjust to it, you can easily customize it and make your own, custom tab. You can compile the commands and buttons you use frequently or would like to have easy access to without having to jump from tab to tab, thus increasing your productivity and making it easy to get work done in Excel.
• Sparklines: One of the most common tasks within Excel is making charts and graphs to visualize your data for easier understanding and to get a better look at different aspects within all the information you have in your spreadsheet. With the Sparklines feature, you can create a small chart that fits perfectly within one cell, allowing you to view data-trends for each row at a quick glance without taking up virtually any space. It is possible to choose chart style and type depending on the data you’re working with, as well as your very own preferences.
• Conditional formatting: Conditional formatting is a different way to visualize data, and within Excel 2010 you can choose from an extended amount of data bars, color scales, and icon sets that help you add visual impact to your worksheets.

• Processor - 1GHz and above with SSE2
• Memory - 1GB (minimum), 2GB (recommended)
• Graphics - DirectX 10-compatible graphics card
• HDD - 3GB available space
• OS - Windows 7 and above; Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and above