Required:

• Know how to operate a PC under Windows 95 / Windows.
• Know how to use Microsoft Excel.
• Know how to use a text editor (Notepad, WordPad, Edit or a wordprocessor and save file in text format).
• Know how to download files from a WWW or FTP site (e.g., Ws_ftp).
• Know how to uncompress files (e.g., WinZip)
• Know how to use Internet browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, or others).
• Know how to use a wordprocessor (MS Word is preferred).
• Know how to view and/or print PDF (e.g., Acrobat Reader) and Postscript files (e.g., Gsview).

Optional:

• Know a programming language (C, JAVA, Visual Basic, Pascal, or Fortran).

Basic Knowledge of Using Excel:

• How to read and save files in ASCII (text) format.
• How to enter formula (use mathematical functions).
• How to revise (edit) data.
• How to format data.
• How to sort data.
• How to randomize data.
• How to move, copy, delete, and paste a range of data.
• How to move, copy, insert and delete the whole row or column of data.
• How to use statistical functions, such as sum, average, standard deviation, max, min, etc.
• How to plot data.

The elite way of using Excel is to develop standalone decision support systems (DSS) or "Add Ins" using its Visual Basic Application (VBA) capability. PRODSS, a decision support systems for production, is an example of such a venture. A prototype of PRODSS can be found in my course server under "prosim" directory.

Commonly Used Excel Menus and Function:

Menus	Description
File / Open	To open an Excel, Lotus, or text file
File / Save As / Formatted text	To save file in text format
File / Page Setup	To setup the page format for printing
File / Print	To print a file
Edit / Clear	To delete data in a range
Edit / Delete	To delete the whole column or row of data
Edit / Copy	To copy a range of data
Insert / Rows	To insert rows of data
Insert / Columns	To insert columns of data
Insert / Function	To insert a function
Insert / Chart	To plot the data
Data / Sort	To sort data
Format / Cells	To change the format of cell (s)
Format / Row / Height	To set the row height
Format / Column / Width	To set the column width

Functions	Description
Sum	Summation
Average	Average
Max	Maximum
Min	Minimum
Stdev	Standard deviation
Count	Count the number of data
Rand	Return a random number between 0 and 1
Date	Return Today’s date
Abs	Absolute value
Int	Round to the nearest integer
Exp	Exponential
Power	Power of a given number
Sqrt	Square root
Sin	Sine
Sinh	Hyperbolic Sine
Cos	Cosine
Cosh	Hyperbolic Cosine
Tan	Tangent
Tanh	Hyperbolic Tangent
Ln	Nature logarithm
Log10	Logarithm with base 10
Log	Logarithm with any base