Why do people still ask what is MS Excel in 2024? Why does your intern think it’s just for budgets? Why does the finance team keep rebuilding the same report in Google Sheets?
Because Microsoft Excel isn’t what most people think it is — and its history, pricing, and core purpose are wildly misunderstood.
The Setup
You’re handed a raw export from your CRM: 972 rows of sales leads from Q1 2024. No formatting. Mixed date formats. Blank cells where phone numbers should be. And three columns named 'Contact', 'Contact2', and 'contact (alt)' — all containing overlapping names.
| A | B | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Chen | Acme Corp | 3/15/2024 | $45,200 |
| Michael Torres | Nexus Labs | 03-18-2024 | $12,800 |
| Jiayi Lin | Skyward Systems | 2024/03/22 | $67,900 |
| — | Veridian Group | Mar 25, 2024 | $31,400 |
| Alex Rivera | — | 3/28/24 | $22,100 |
| Tanya Patel | Orion Dynamics | 2024-04-02 | $89,600 |
| — | — | Apr 5, 2024 | $18,300 |
| Diego Morales | Lumina Tech | 04/08/2024 | $54,700 |
| Rina Kim | Apex Innovations | 2024.04.11 | $73,200 |
| — | Stellar Solutions | 3/15/24 | $41,000 |
The Challenge
You need to turn this into a clean, sortable, shareable report — but not by copying and pasting manually. You need formulas that auto-update, consistent dates in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), and a way to flag missing names or companies without scrolling through 972 rows.
This is where knowing what is MS Excel matters — because Excel isn’t about typing data. It’s about building logic that survives edits, imports, and handoffs. And it’s been doing that since 1985.
How old is MS Excel?
Excel 1.0 shipped on November 19, 1985 — two years before Windows 1.0 existed. It ran on Mac first. The first Windows version (Excel 2.0) arrived in 1987, alongside Windows 2.0. So yes — Excel predates Excel’s own native OS environment. That longevity explains why it has layers of legacy behavior (like how Ctrl+Shift+~ applies General format, not Number) and why some shortcuts feel unintuitive today.
How much is MS Excel?
It depends entirely on how you use it — and whether you realize there’s a free option. Excel Online (via OneDrive or Outlook.com) is fully functional for basic work: formulas, charts, up to 10,000 rows. No credit card needed. Desktop Excel starts at $6.99/month as part of Microsoft 365 Personal — or $12.99/month for Business Standard. Standalone perpetual licenses (like Office 2021) cost $165 one-time but get no feature updates after release. Most people pay for Excel without ever opening the desktop app.
Walking Through It
We’ll clean the table above using only built-in Excel tools — no add-ins, no Power Query (though it helps later). Start with the raw data in A1:D11.
| Step | Action | Result | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Select B1:B11 → Home tab → Find & Select → Go To Special → Blanks → type "N/A" → Ctrl+Enter | All blank company cells now say "N/A" | Alt+HFDG → Tab → Enter → Ctrl+Enter |
| 2 | In E1, enter =IF(A1="—","Missing",A1). Drag down. | Names like "—" become "Missing"; real names stay intact | Ctrl+D (to fill down) |
| 3 | In F1, enter =TEXT(DATEVALUE(C1),"yyyy-mm-dd") | All date variants convert cleanly to 2024-03-15, 2024-03-18, etc. | F2 → Enter (to edit cell) → Ctrl+Enter |
| 4 | Select E1:F11 → Copy → Paste Values over A1:B11 → Delete cols E:F | A and B now hold cleaned names/companies; C holds ISO dates | Alt+E+S+V → Enter |
Here’s the counterintuitive tip: Don’t try to fix everything in one column. Excel works best when you build intermediate columns (E and F), verify them, then paste values back. Trying to cram logic into a single formula makes debugging impossible — and wastes more time than adding two helper columns.
The Result
After those four steps, your data is ready for filtering, charting, or exporting. No manual editing. No risk of missing a row.
| A | B | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Chen | Acme Corp | 2024-03-15 | $45,200 |
| Michael Torres | Nexus Labs | 2024-03-18 | $12,800 |
| Jiayi Lin | Skyward Systems | 2024-03-22 | $67,900 |
| Missing | Veridian Group | 2024-03-25 | $31,400 |
| Alex Rivera | N/A | 2024-03-28 | $22,100 |
| Tanya Patel | Orion Dynamics | 2024-04-02 | $89,600 |
| Missing | N/A | 2024-04-05 | $18,300 |
| Diego Morales | Lumina Tech | 2024-04-08 | $54,700 |
| Rina Kim | Apex Innovations | 2024-04-11 | $73,200 |
| Missing | Stellar Solutions | 2024-03-15 | $41,000 |
What Could Go Wrong
Three things I’ve seen derail this exact workflow — all in real team settings last month:
- DATEVALUE fails silently: If your source date says “Mar 25, 2024” but your regional settings expect “25-Mar-2024”, DATEVALUE returns #VALUE! — and dragging the formula down hides it. Fix: Wrap in IFERROR, or test one cell first with F9 while editing.
- Ctrl+Enter fills blanks, not values: When you select blanks and type “N/A”, pressing Enter fills only the active cell. You *must* press Ctrl+Enter to populate all selected cells. This trips up 7 out of 10 new users.
- Paste Values overwrites formulas you still need: In Step 4, if you paste values over A1:B11 *before* verifying E1:F11, you lose the logic. Always check helper columns first — even if it adds 12 seconds.
Next step: Try this on your next messy export. Use Alt+HFDG to jump to blanks. Type “Missing”. Hit Ctrl+Enter. Then build one clean date column using TEXT and DATEVALUE. That’s all you need to start — and it’s been working the same way since Excel 4.0 in 1992.
