What is a cell in Excel?

A cell in Microsoft Excel is a rectangular-shaped box on a worksheet. Any combination of numbers or words can be entered in the cell; however, Excel is generally used as a calculation tool.

The cells on a worksheet have a default gray border, but a user can change the border color. The cells are identified by a cross section of letters and numbers. The top row contains letters across the top of the worksheet. There is a column on the left that contains numbers. The combination of the letter and number provides a cross reference of a cell's location. A single worksheet contains over 17 billion cells in the 2007 version of Excel.