MS Excel Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: A formula has been given an argument of the wrong type

#VALUE! means a formula has received the wrong kind of argument - most often text where a number was expected, as when =A1+B1 meets a cell containing a word or a stray space. The commonest hidden cause is a number stored as text, which looks identical to a real number but aligns left rather than right and is ignored by arithmetic. Text to Columns, or multiplying by 1, converts such a column. Invisible non-breaking spaces from pasted web data produce the same result and need SUBSTITUTE with CHAR(160) to remove. Date arithmetic against a text date fails the same way. The remedy in a formula is IFERROR, though it is better to find the offending cell with Trace Precedents or Evaluate Formula than to hide the symptom. The other errors have distinct causes: #REF! for a deleted reference, ##### for a narrow column, #NAME? for a misspelt function.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Serial Number 50771

A value is something Excel can compute with, and a number, a date and a percentage all qualify. Serial Number 50771 begins with letters, so the whole entry is text - a label rather than a value.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Add effect

Motion paths are applied from Add Effect > Motion Paths in the Custom Animation pane, which offers both the preset paths and a Custom Path tool for drawing one.

Answer: A

Correct answer: select the box and text, then make changes

In an organization chart you must first click the box to select it and then click into its text before typing; selecting the box alone gives you the shape, and there is no text to highlight until the box is active. That is why only the option naming both steps is correct.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Choose 90 Degrees in Orientation of Format Cells dialog box

Setting the orientation to 90 degrees rotates the text so it reads bottom to top. The Vertical setting on the same tab governs where text sits between the top and bottom of the cell, which is a different thing.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Common tasks toolbar

The Common Tasks toolbar changes according to the master being edited, offering the commands relevant to the slide, title, handout or notes master. The other toolbars stay the same in every view.

Answer: A

Correct answer: When you use multiplication, division or exponentiation in a formula

Binary floating point cannot represent every decimal fraction exactly, and the tiny errors are magnified by multiplication, division and exponentiation in a way that addition and subtraction do not produce on their own.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Formula

A formula is the expression that tells Excel how to compute a value from the contents of other cells. A field and a query belong to databases.

Answer: B

Correct answer: SUM(A1:A5)

A formula must begin with =. Without it, SUM(A1:A5) is entered as ordinary text and simply sits in the cell as typed. Excel also accepts a leading + or - and converts it silently to an equals sign, which is why +A1+A2 works - a concession inherited from Lotus 1-2-3, whose users typed the plus out of habit. The commonest reason a formula appears as text is a missing equals sign, and the second is that the cell was formatted as Text before the formula was typed. In the second case adding the equals sign changes nothing: the cell must be reformatted as General and the formula re-entered. A third possibility is that Show Formulas is switched on, with Ctrl + `, which displays every formula instead of its result across the whole sheet. Text entries align left by default and numbers right, which is the quickest visual check.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Click format painter on the Formatting toolbar twice then click in each cell you want to copy the formatting to

A single click of Format Painter applies the formatting once and switches off; double-clicking it keeps it on until Esc is pressed, so several cells can be painted in turn.