Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft Excel Beginners (1 day)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft Excel Beginners (1 day)
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Next Public Course Date:
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Length: 1 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 5,654 EX VAT 3 Person R 3,982 EX VAT 10 Person R 2,954 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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Microsoft Excel Beginners (1 day)
Staff who have never built a spreadsheet leave able to set up, format, calculate, chart and print a clean workbook on their own.
Most offices have staff who open Excel every day without ever having been shown how it works: a register typed in by hand, totals added on a calculator, a sheet that prints across five pages. This one-day Excel beginners course gives new users a solid, practical start. It is built on BOTI's licensed Excel Essentials workshop kit, the first rung of our Excel ladder.
Delegates work on a computer all day. They build a workbook from scratch, enter and format data properly, and turn a list into an Excel table they can sort, filter and total. They write their first formulas – SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX, IF, SUMIF and COUNTIF – and use text functions to tidy names and codes. The day ends with charts, the company logo on the sheet and printing that fits the page.
The examples are the sheets South African offices keep every week: an attendance register, a petrol and expense claim, a stock count and a monthly sales summary by branch. Delegates who finish this day are ready for the Intermediate day, which picks up with data cleaning, decision formulas, Power Query and pivot tables.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Registers, claims and summaries that add up and print correctly
- Less time lost to rework and to colleagues fixing other people's sheets
- New staff and interns productive in Excel within a day
- A common way of laying out and formatting workbooks across the team
For your delegates
- Confidence to open Excel and build a sheet from a blank workbook
- Formulas that copy correctly instead of breaking
- Tables, filters and charts you can use the next morning
- A workbook of completed exercises to keep as a reference
What delegates will be able to do
- Create, save and organise workbooks and worksheets, including opening a CSV export from another system
- Enter, edit, move and AutoFill data without disturbing the rest of the sheet
- Format numbers, dates, text and cells so a report reads clearly and consistently
- Convert a list into an Excel table, then sort, filter, total and remove duplicates
- Write formulas with SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX and IF using relative and absolute references
- Total and count on a condition with SUMIF, COUNTIF and AVERAGEIF
- Tidy text with LEFT, RIGHT, MID, UPPER, LOWER, PROPER and CONCATENATE
- Build and format a column, line or pie chart and insert shapes, text boxes and images
- Set a print area, repeat titles, scale to one page and save as PDF
Who should attend
Administrators, receptionists, clerks, new recruits, interns, supervisors and anyone who uses Excel for registers, claims, stock sheets or simple reports and has never been taught it properly. Delegates should be comfortable with a Windows computer, keyboard and mouse; no Excel experience is needed. Staff who already use formulas and tables should start with the Intermediate day instead.
Course outline
Day 1 – Beginners – the Excel Essentials kit: build, format, calculate, chart and print
Getting around Excel and setting up a workbook
- The Excel screen: ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, name box, formula bar and status bar
- Creating, saving and opening workbooks, and what the different file formats are for
- Adding, renaming, colouring, moving and copying worksheets – one sheet per branch or per month
- Moving around a large sheet quickly and searching for a value anywhere in the workbook
- Opening a CSV export from your payroll, point-of-sale or accounting system
- Hiding and unhiding sheets, rows and columns; zoom and window views
- Adding a hyperlink to a supporting document or another sheet
Entering and editing data cleanly
- Typing, correcting and replacing data without breaking what is already there
- AutoFill for dates, months, employee numbers and repeating patterns
- Cut, copy and paste, and Paste Special to paste values only or transpose a list
- Inserting and deleting cells, rows and columns in a live register
- Adjusting row height and column width so everything shows
- Find and Replace to fix a supplier name across a whole sheet
Formatting so a manager can read it at a glance
- Number formats: currency, percentages, decimals and South African date formats
- Alignment, indenting and wrapping text; when to merge cells and when not to
- Format Painter and cell styles for a consistent look
- Workbook themes and sensible colour choices for printed reports
- Conditional formatting to flag overdue accounts, low stock or absences
- Sparklines to show a month-by-month trend inside a single cell
Working with lists as Excel tables
- Turning a range into a table and why it makes sorting and filtering safer
- Table styles, banded rows and the total row
- Sorting by more than one column, for example by department and then by surname
- Filtering a staff list, stock sheet or sales register down to the records you need
- Removing duplicate records such as repeated ID or invoice numbers
- Subtotals and outlining to collapse detail under group totals
- Converting a table back to an ordinary range
Formulas and functions for everyday calculations
- How a formula is built: cell references, operators and the order of calculation
- Relative and absolute references so a formula copies correctly down a column
- SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN and MAX on an expense claim or a sales sheet
- IF to show Pass or Fail, Paid or Outstanding
- SUMIF, COUNTIF and AVERAGEIF to total sales per branch or count staff per shift
- LEFT, RIGHT and MID to pull a code out of a longer reference
- UPPER, LOWER, PROPER and CONCATENATE to tidy names and build e-mail addresses
- Showing formulas on the sheet to check your work
Charts, pictures and printing
- Choosing a column, line or pie chart for the numbers in front of you
- Adding a second data series and switching rows and columns
- Quick Analysis for an instant chart, total or formatting
- Chart titles, labels, legends, layouts and styles, and moving a chart to its own sheet
- Inserting shapes, text boxes and the company logo, with alt text for accessibility
- Print area, print titles on every page, scaling to fit, headers and footers
- Saving as PDF and checking a workbook for hidden personal information before it goes out
How it is delivered
One day, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each working on a computer with Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021/2024; laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Course manual, exercise files and sample data included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“The training was very informative and practical, leaving our employees feeling confident in their ability to leverage Excel more effectively.”
“The facilitator effectively encouraged participation and used practical examples, discussions and interactive activities to ensure that the concepts were understood and could be applied in the workplace.”
“Business Optimization Training Institute facilitated Microsoft Excel Training for our company. The course was efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa, on your own computers or on laptops we bring. We can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online.
Do delegates need any Excel experience?
No. The day starts with the Excel screen and a blank workbook. Delegates only need to be comfortable with a Windows computer, keyboard and mouse.
How many people can attend?
From one delegate to groups of 20, each working on their own computer. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table, or ask us for a quote.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. If you need an accredited route, ask us about BOTI's End User Computing skills programmes (QCTO accreditation pending).
What comes after the Beginners day?
Microsoft Excel Intermediate (1 day) picks up with data cleaning, decision formulas, Power Query and pivot tables. Groups that want both in one booking choose Microsoft Excel Beginners to Intermediate (2 days), or Microsoft Excel Beginners to Advanced (3 days) for the full ladder.
Which version of Excel do you train on?
Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021/2024 on Windows. Power Query, the dynamic array functions and the Data Model need a current version; tell us what your office runs and we adjust the exercises, or we supply laptops with the software.