In the beginning there was the idea....The proposal to write about every single Microsoft Excel function with interesting and comprehensible examples came from Helmut Reinke—and everyone on the team agreed. “Yes, this is what Excel users need—a comprehensive reference book with all of the functions.” That was eight years ago, and the enthusiasm hasn’t diminished.

At the beginning of this year, the idea to translate our reference book into English arose. And what could we say? There they were again: the same enthusiasm as in 2007, and along with it the tremendous task of translation. But we have persevered, and now we are really proud and happy to present to you the first edition of our function book in English. Since we wrote the German edition, a couple of small Excel revolutions took place: A few years ago, Excel 2007 was launched with many new properties and possibilities. For a year and a half now, we also have had Excel 2010 at our disposal, which includes even more new possibilities. We will address them partially in this book.

We hope that you, dear reader, will welcome this concept, and that this reference work will give you many ideas and support you when needed.