Easiest way to improve my Excel skills

ferry

Can anyone suggest a way I could build on my currently basic Excel knowledge?

I would like to mainly be able to do formulas quickly when required and be able to confidently edit spreadsheets.

Any tips?

Thanks as usual
F

Bollotom

Some good tutorials on this site.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/office

mavisangelica

:cool:Microsoft do free tutorials which are quite good.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/training/

Just choose the version of Excel that you have.

I am a bit of a saddo when it comes to Excel and spreadsheets and have a bit of a reputation at work. :cool: I have done some formal courses in the past but find that unless you use the particular functions regularly then you forget how to do things. The way I work now is that I decide what I want the spreadsheet to do and then google it.

What also helped was I set up a spreadsheet for 'fun'. I created a personal finance spreadsheet which kept a track of my income and spending. It grew and grew as I added more functions (for instance I had a summary page in the first sheet and then individual pages for each month.) I had drop down boxes and lookup tables.

InsideInsurance

Practice really.

Dont want to come across as arrogant as it isnt meant that way but as long as you are below pivot tables and VBA then Excel is a fairly straightforward tool to use as long as you are using it for what its meant for. When people try to stretch it is then the problem but thats also when VBA normally comes in anyway.

A couple of the formulas are a little daunting initially, like VLookUp but after a small amount of use you'll understand them

Mr_Toad

A really good place to start is Mr Excel or to give him his name, Bill Jelen.

Google for him, there are tips, tutorials and videos, YouTube is really excellent. The tutorials show different ways to do the same things and the reasons you might want to use one or the other method.

As I started to need to be able to do more complicated stuff my first port of call was YouTube as I like to be shown stuff.

There are loads of people doing tutorials on there but Mr Excel's stuff was some of the best and it was really well explained and well produced rather than some really smart teenager who's brain was doing 150mph but who's mouth was er, like, dude, man, only doing 30mph and recorded on a mobile phone with heavy metal playing in the background. I'm sure you get the picture. :rotfl:

I actually bought one of his books, Excel in Depth as a reference and it has been invaluable.

EchoLocation

I learnt by teaching myself. Reading about formulas will only get you so far, you need to get hands on - make up a project, plan it out then build it. When you get stuck use the function help within Excel or just Google it.

For example, make a list of names, addresses, codes, numbers, volumes, whatever... etc. then analyse it...

Start with simple counts and sums, then move to counts and sums based on single or multiple conditions.

Create validation lists to control the codes in the data.

Use conditional formatting to highlight records that meet a certain condition.

Add additional columns to join some data together, then join some with different formats together or try and join only parts of data together.

Have a cell where you enter or select a reference and a formula looks up the name of the person with that reference etc.

Expand your data and think about what other information you could get from it. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to do it, or even if you don't know if it can be done, just think outside the box then take what you do know and see if it can be adapted.

Mr_Toad

I agree with Echolocation about learning.

I would also add that Excel is a fantastic tool but never ever rely on it, just because Excel gives you a figure doesn't mean it's correct. One small error can throw calculations right out.

When learning always check the results manually to prove the formula and what you entered is correct. If it's wrong finding out why can teach you an awful lot.

cherryblossomzel

One more to agree with EchoLocation: virtually everything I know about Excel I taught myself by googling specific questions I had as I needed answers. I personally find it easier to learn by solving an actual, real-life problem. Tutorials can be useful, but often the examples they use are not similar enough to what you will eventually use it for yourself.

Practice, practice, practice