Top 10 Benefits of Microsoft Excel – Why YOU Should Learn it in 2024

- Written by Puneet

As a topmost spreadsheet application on this planet, Microsoft Excel has a lot of benefits for anyone who knows how to use it.

And if you are one of those people who want to learn it and wondering how this can help you in your work, when I have listed the top ten benefits of Microsoft Excel here.

10 Benefits of Microsoft Excel

  1. Best way to store data
  2. You can perform calculations
  3. All the tools for data analysis
  4. Easy to data visualizations with charts
  5. You can print reports easily
  6. So many free templates to use
  7. You can code to automate
  8. Transform and clean data
  9. Store data with millions of rows
  10. You can work with Excel online + mobile app

Don’t forget to download this EXCEL PRODUCTIVITY BUNDLE (E-BOOKS) from here to level up your EXCEL SKILLS this year.

1. The Best Way to Store Data

Even if you don’t use any of the options or any tool which Excel offers you, it is the best way to store data. Why I’m saying this because Excel is a kind of application that is used by millions of people.

Best-way-to-store-data

So when you store data in Excel and then share it with others, they can access it easily.

2. You can perform calculations

What makes Excel the best spreadsheet application on the planet is its ability to perform calculations. In Excel, you have a complete list of functions that you can use for the calculations.

perform-calculations

Basically, an Excel function is a predefined formula that returns a specific result based on the values you specify.

But apart from that, you can also create your own formulas by combining two or more functions or just by performing calculations using operators.

Quick Formulas: Calculate Time DifferenceCompound InterestCount Cells with TextCount Unique ValuesQuarter Formula

3. All the tools for data analysis

The core motive of having data is to analyze and get insights out of it. The good news is Excel has some of the most powerful tools to analyze data.

Imagine you have data with thousands of rows, you can insert a pivot table out of that data and create a summary table.

data-analysis

Some of the things you can do with pivot tables to analyze data: Grouping Dates in a Pivot TableConditional Formatting in a Pivot TableRank Column in a Pivot TableAdd a Date Timeline in a Pivot TableRunning Total Column in a Pivot Table

4. Easy to Create Data Visualizations with Charts

In Excel, you have all those options to create charts and present your data in a visual way. All those major types of charts that you need to use to present your data are already there and you can insert them with a single click.

If you go to the Insert Tab, in the charts group, you can find all the charts which you can insert.

data-visualization-charting

Not just that, there’s also a button called recommended charts that you can use to let Microsoft Excel recommend you the best possible chart to use for the data you have in your worksheet.

insert-chart

And if you think that you need something other than the default charts you have the option to create advanced charts using some specific methods.

Here we have a list of the top 10 ADVANCED EXCEL CHARTS that you can use in Excel. And you can also create in-cell charts to make your data easily understandable for anyone.

5. You can Print Reports Easily

Even if you are a person who likes to save trees but there could be a point where you need to print reports to share with others or present them to someone.

Well, Excel allows you to print with a lot of customization where you can change the margin, paper size, orientation, etc.

easy-printing

There are a whole bunch of options that you can use for page setup before printing a report.

6. So many free templates to use

One of the most popular things about Excel is you can create dashboards and templates.

use-templates

There are a whole bunch of free templates that you can download and use. Free Excel Templates to Start with

7. You can code to automate

Microsoft Office has its own coding language which is called VBA (visual basic for applications) and it allows you to write code for almost all the activities that you perform manually in Excel.

code-vba

You can automate all kinds of activities from simple (make a text bold) to complex (insert a pivot table) using a VBA code.

Start Learning VBA

Once you learn the basics of VBA, you can also create a custom function by writing code.

8. Transform and clean data

If you are one of those people who work with data a lot or you know someone who works, there are a lot of situations where you need to deal with messy data which you need to clean before you use it.

The process of cleaning and transforming data takes a big chunk of your time and it can be a tedious process.

For this, Microsoft has introduced the power query which is a data transformation and cleaning engine well you can load data from multiple sources, transform it, and then load it back to the worksheet.

transform-clean-data

What makes power query such a powerful tool? Check out this complete POWER QUERY guide to understand.

9. Store data with millions of rows

Well, there is no limit to data, but Excel has a limit in terms of rows and columns. So that’s why Microsoft came up with Power Pivot where you can store data with millions of rows and then you can perform calculations within Power Pivot.

store-data-with-millions-of-rows

See this (Power Pivot – Overview and Learning)

10. You can work with Excel online + mobile app

As most companies these days are moving to the cloud and Microsoft Excel has its own web version. It has so many features, like functions, pivot tables, and pivot charts just like the desktop app.

excel-online-mobile-app

And recently Microsoft has launched its all-in-one office app that you can use to work on spreadsheets and mobile as well.

all-in-one-office-app