VERSION NOTE
This material works for all versions of Excel, except where noted. XML use in Excel, including List technology, is covered in Chapter 9, “XML and Office.”
Excel applications generally cover three basic tasks: data entry, analysis, and reporting. Data entry is simple in Excel; navigating through its structure of cells, rows, and columns is straightforward. As an alternative to manual entry, Excel is often populated with data from other external sources, such as databases, text files, or XML files.