This chapter is necessarily basic and is intended for readers new to Excel or with little Excel experience. Experienced users may skip this chapter without loss of continuity. The aim of this chapter is to get you acquainted with Excel's interface and the main features and capabilities that we'll use throughout the remainder of this book. I'm also going to show you several techniques that will help you create presentable spreadsheets and allow you to work efficiently in Excel. The techniques and features summarized in this chapter will be put to use in the recipes throughout the remainder of this book.
Using Excel
Getting Acquainted with Visual Basic for Applications
Collecting and Cleaning Up Data
Charting
Statistical Analysis
Time Series Analysis
Mathematical Functions
Curve Fitting and Regression
Solving Equations
Numerical Integration and Differentiation
Solving Ordinary Differential Equations
Solving Partial Differential Equations
Performing Optimization Analyses in Excel
Introduction to Financial Calculations
Index