Reflection Week 10

Today's lesson (27th April 2013), I have learnt about Microsoft Excel. I have experience in using this software before. However, as I have been long time not using this software, I forgotten some of the function and formula. From this class, I can refresh back my memories. Here are some information about Microsoft Excel.

What is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used application software's in businesses today, is a spreadsheet software which uses graphs,charts, pies, rows and columns to organize data. It can also manipulated formulas and allow the software to perform mathematical functions on the data .

The advantages of Microsoft Excel

• Sent through Emails - Excel can be sent through email and viewed by most smartphones which makes more convenient .
• Part of Microsoft Office - Excel is a part of the Microsoft office which comes with most PC so there is no need to purchase or install it.
• An All in One Program - Excel is an all in one programme and does not need the addition of financial subsets.
• Availability of Training Programs and Training Courses - There is training programs and even training courses to make users more familiar with Excel.
• Secure - Excel files can be password protected for extra security. A user can create a password through Visual Basic programming or directly within the Excel file.[1]
• Easy connection to OLAP - Excel is capable of connecting directly to OLAP databases and can be integrated in Pivot Tables.

The disadvantages of Microsoft Excel

• Viruses - Viruses can be attached to an Excel file through macros. Macros are mini programs that are written into an Excel spread sheet.
• Slow Execution - Using only one file can make the file size very big and as a result the program might run slowly.
• Loss of Data - So you might have to break it into smaller files, by doing so there is an increased risk in Excel data being lost.
• Hard to Use - Although there are training programs, it is still hard to use and some users might not get the hang of it.
• Space Limit - It limits the number of rows and columns you can use.

Justification

Since Microsoft Excel provide more advantages than disadvantages, therefore it is worth to use and apply this software to our daily work. 

How to use Microsoft Excel

Feel free to watch the following video. 

Application

I can use Microsoft Excel to compute students' grade by using the suitable function and formula such as avarage, vlookup, multiply, percentage, pivot table and many more. Besides that, I also can plot the appropriate graph from the data provided. Here are some of the application.