• Microsoft Excel offers numerous uses for data sorting.keyboard image by red2000 from Fotolia.com
  
  Microsoft Excel offers a database program that is simple and easy to use. With the program, an individual can create programs for managing budgets, financial planning and detailed data sorting. Individuals can use it for running a home business or tracking a personal checking account. It just takes a few introductory steps to start working with the program.
  
  

Entering Numerical Data

• The first thing a person must master in Excel is entering the data. On the worksheet, click the cell where you want to enter your data. For this exercise, you are going to enter numbers. Type "2/3" into the cell and hit enter. Excel guesses what you want these numbers to represent. What results is "3-Feb" because Excel recognizes this as a date.
  
  In another cell, click on the "Home" tab at the top of the page and then click the "Font" dialog box. Click the "Number" tab and change the category from "General" to "Number." Click "OK." Now, type 2/3 into the cell. What results is "0.67" because you told Excel what type of data to expect.
  
  This is the way to make sure all your data is entered properly, whether as a date, a percentage, a fraction or as text.
  
  

Calculate Data

• Excel has a number of ways to create formulas. The easiest to type the formula you want to enter. Place your cursor in a cell and type "=100+200". Click "Enter" and the number "300" appears in the cell. The "=" key must always be used before any formula to indicate it is a number and not text.
  
  Another method is to create an accounting formula to work out a large sequence of numbers. Start by typing the number "5" in all the cells from A1 through A10. Next, place the cursor in the A11 cell. Type "=SUM(A1:A10)". This results in the number "50.00".
  
  The sum formula adds up all the numbers in the range you chose, in this case A1 through A10. If you use "Average" instead of "Sum" the number resulting is "5.00", which is the average of the ten cells.
  
  

Sort Data

• When using Excel to enter text, it is possible to sort the text in various ways. Start by typing a different name in each cell from A1 through A10. When you have entered the data, click on the "Data" tab at the top and then locate the "Sort" options.
  
  Click on the "A" cell head. Next, click on the ascending text button, which is an "A" over a "Z" with an arrow pointing down. All the text cells rearrange in alphabetical order.
  
  Now click on the "A" cell head and click the descending text button, which has the "Z" over the "A" with an arrow pointing down. The text cells now arrange in reverse alphabetical order.