Originally posted by adam warlockThe best help is the one within Excel itself. There is a help bar to the top right of the screen, or press F1 to activate it. Type in your specific question. If you are online the options are even greater as the question goes to Microsoft Online Help.
Does anyone know of any kind of good, free, online material that will allow me to update and increase my excel skills.
BTW: Happy Easter!
There are some free Excel Addons as well on the Microsoft site that improve the performance of Excel. Plus some nice addons by independent sites as well.
You can fix and customise the buttons/icons so that the kind of Excel work you do becomes faster and easier.
But practice is the key.
Be very careful when installing add-ons.
Some may help with work, but my experience is add-ons just add far too much bloat to an already bloated piece of software, make the startup even slower and may leave behind a broken Excel when you try to uninstall/remove them.
Practice is the key, yes. Definitely don't pay for any courses. Start wrestling with small problems and then just search online (especially the Stack Exchange Network) when you get stuck. NEVER EVER go to experts-exchange.com
I'm an Excel god*, and all self-taught, with the help of the web. Excel is probably the biggest reason I still use Windoze.
* Among my peers at least 😉
Originally posted by coquetteIf you don't know how to do something e.g Macros, VBA, Pivot Tables or what something is then what are you going to practise? If you had a book you could work your way through the text and examples.
Practice Practice Practice!
That would be like telling someone (e.g. raw beginner) the best way to get better at chess is playing, playing, playing. They lose their Queen playing like a beginner and you say PLAY, PLAY, PLAY and they carry on making the same mistakes.
Thanks a lot for all of your input (Crowley specially)
Basically what I was doing so far was getting my hands dirty and looking for online help when doubts arose. The problem that I have with this approach is that it isn't structured and I really want to have some kind of plan.
After a few misses I found this guy in youtube and he's more or less what I was looking for:
Originally posted by adam warlockThat looks great.
Thanks a lot for all of your input (Crowley specially)
Basically what I was doing so far was getting my hands dirty and looking for online help when doubts arose. The problem that I have with this approach is that it isn't structured and I really want to have some kind of plan.
After a few misses I found this guy in youtube and he's more or less what I was looking for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TMaz521z3w
Once you get the basics down, do yourself the favour and get into the VBA. This is when you never look at Excel the same again.
ALT+F11 is your friend.
Record Macros from the Excel interface to do the mundane tasks, ALT+F11 into the VBA editor and then check the code the macro recorder generated.
Originally posted by CrowleyI started watching his beginner series, 12 or 13 lessons. I use excel at work but just basic stuff, making lists and such. Thanks for the links.
That looks great.
Once you get the basics down, do yourself the favour and get into the VBA. This is when you never look at Excel the same again.
ALT+F11 is your friend.
Record Macros from the Excel interface to do the mundane tasks, ALT+F11 into the VBA editor and then check the code the macro recorder generated.
One question: his tutorials are for excel 2010, will there be much difference in 2007 which I have at work or 2003 at home?
Originally posted by sonhouse2007 is much the same, 2003 very different (the interface - not the nuts & bolts), especially in that it can't open the newer formats by default (can install a compatibility pack for this) and obviously doesn't use the ribbon interface.
I started watching his beginner series, 12 or 13 lessons. I use excel at work but just basic stuff, making lists and such. Thanks for the links.
One question: his tutorials are for excel 2010, will there be much difference in 2007 which I have at work or 2003 at home?
The file types are now all basically zipped containers of XML files, which makes interoperability easier, Excel itself has not changed much in the last decade. The iterations have been mostly cosmetics, with the odd feature added here and there.
From 2007 onward there are a crap ton of columns and rows, where <2003 you were limited to 256 columns and 65,000 odd rows.
I have tried a few sites over the years and this is the best site I have found for posting specific problems, or searching their databases for solutions to your own problems.
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/index.php
Per a previous poster I second not using experts exchange.
I have been a member at MrExcel since 2004. I went there thinking I was an *expert* and quickly learned that I knew very little. There more I learn the more I realise there is to learn.
As a side note I recommend you don't use the macro recorder. It is only useful for very specific highly repetitive tasks - but as soon as the data varies in the tiniest way (an extra column for example) then the macro won't work. IMO it is better to learn VBA and code your macros from scratch so you don't have to re-write your macros when the data layout changes, or the sheet name changes etc.
BUT, there is usually a way you can solve (almost) any issue using a formula or two, without defaulting to using a macro. Learn the various formulas first and how they can be adapted and modified in such a way you wouldn't have thought possible.
In addition to the forum (link posted above), there are also a bunch of tips and tutorials here:
http://www.mrexcel.com/articles.shtml
Andrew