Learning to use Excel

I must admit, Google is your best friend. Some functions you might only use once or twice and you will have forgotten how to do it the next time you need it....

Just learn what you need, when you need it.

I always think learning Excel on a course is pointless - you don't really know what you need to know until you need it, and by virtue of the fact that you don't know what it can do, you might not ask the right questions.

Learning the core basics is essential though. All the sums, countifs, some vlookups and stuff. Without an understanding of that you're going to struggle with anything more complex. Guess it depends on what you're doing. You can self teach all of the above fairly easily I'd have thought.
 


So I have had a bit of a career change and I'm more involved with sales these days. As a result I am now being confronted with excel spreadsheets. Lots and lots of spreadsheets, and I'm expected to create my own. Being a millenial I assumed that I was "ok with Excel" but now working with people who are actually good with it, I realise that I basically haven't got a clue.

What's the best way to learn? Online presumably? Anyone got any recomendations?
I've got a workbook if you want it, I created it for my kids from beginner to advanced.
 
NO!

People who ask rather than take the initiative to figure it out are the absolute worst.
You are both right probably.
We had new softwear and some I actually had to work out for myself and yes being self taught on a particular area has made me understand better, but it is always worth asking questions (if they are relevant) a) because likely he won't need to use all excel options and b) handy tips can save a lot of time
 
In addition to the good advice on here relating to where to look for tutorials and that the best way to learn is to use the program, there is also some ‘etiquette’ which comes with using it regularly that makes your life far easier long term.

One example would be to forward plan how a document is laid out and how it interacts with other documents. Repetitive formatting is an easy way of getting data to talk to other tabs/ files as a common cell reference is easily linked across many, whereas random formatting is a pain.
 
I find learning is easier when you have a specific task to learn the various functions. If I had someone just reel off dozens of them over a short period of time, I'd just completely forget them a week later.

Everything I've learned from excel has been "I want it to do this, how do I do this?" Googling for it, then fiddling about till it works. I doubt I'd have a clue just being told out of context.
Advice I was going to give but you saved me the effort.
Back in the day (about 20 years ago) I used the Dummies guides but you should be able to Google most things now.
have you tried to format the fucker?

Power Query Editor, mate. Power Query Editor.
Conditional format the fucker. ;)
 
Any of these resonate with what you would need to do in the workplace...

1. Navigation using the keyboard (combinations of CTRL, arrow keys, home and end);
2. Switching worksheets CTRL+pg Up/pg Down
3. Selecting text using Shift and arrow keys (or CTRL for large blocks)
4. CTRL + A select all
5. Shift + Space - select row
6. CTRL + Space - select column
7. Shift+CTRL+ + - insert row/column
8. CTRL + - delete column
9. Change number format - ALT + H - n
10. Change to percent ALT+H - P
11. Auto fit column ALT+H - O - I
12. Edit cell - F2
13. Goto cell - F5
14. Add $ sign F4
15. Functions Sum, Max, Index, Match, Sumif, Sumifs, countif, countifs, len, left, right, find and Rank.
16. CTRL+C, CTRL + V for copy and pasting
17. Embedding one function within another.

1. Insert new sheet - ALT H I S or SHIFT+F11
2. Autosizing to avoid columns being too narrow. CTRL + A to select everything then ALT H O I
3. Deleting duplicate values - ALT A M
4. Sorting ALT A SA
5. Data filter ALT A T
6. Copying right CTRL+R
7. Copying down CTRL+D
8. New functions TYPE and VALUE
9. New functions AVERAGEIF, MAXIFS, MINIFS
10 New functions ISNUMBER and IF
11.New functions TODAY(), NOW, ROUNDDOWN, YEARFRAC, DATE, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, DATEDIF.
12. Referencing values on a different sheet WSName!Cellref or if the worksheet name has spaces 'WS Name'!Cellref.
13. Paste Special/values - ALT H V V
14. Changing cell format to currency ALT H AN.

Sparklines
- Paste Special - Transpose (ALT H V T)
- Doughnut diagrams
- Fitting a trendline
- Scatter diagrams
- New functions - correl, interecept, rsq, slope, trend and forecast
- Our first array function, LINEST, requiring use of CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
- Data tables (ALT A W T)
- Autofit columns (ALT H O I)
- Conditional formatting (ALT H L)
- Merging cells (format cells - alignment - merge)
 
Yea I've used a few of them to do specific things, but some of the "courses" on there were a bit shit. I'm quite happy to pay for something if it is well structured.
I use excel to a fairly advanced level. My honest opinion is it can only truly be learned through use. My advice would be to get the common files used by yiur colleagues together and have a look at the most commonly used formula, learn what they are used for, and how to apply them. I bet you will end up using a small handful regularly I.e. sumif/ sumifs, vlookup, sumproduct, index&match. Unless youre doing project finance or something, it shouldnt be overky complicated and the majority of them aren't worth remembering as you'll use them once in a blue moon.
What’s a VLOOKUP?
It returns a value in a specified range of based on a set criteria.
 
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What’s a VLOOKUP?

It’s Dutch for upskirting I think .
Any of these resonate with what you would need to do in the workplace...

1. Navigation using the keyboard (combinations of CTRL, arrow keys, home and end);
2. Switching worksheets CTRL+pg Up/pg Down
3. Selecting text using Shift and arrow keys (or CTRL for large blocks)
4. CTRL + A select all
5. Shift + Space - select row
6. CTRL + Space - select column
7. Shift+CTRL+ + - insert row/column
8. CTRL + - delete column
9. Change number format - ALT + H - n
10. Change to percent ALT+H - P
11. Auto fit column ALT+H - O - I
12. Edit cell - F2
13. Goto cell - F5
14. Add $ sign F4
15. Functions Sum, Max, Index, Match, Sumif, Sumifs, countif, countifs, len, left, right, find and Rank.
16. CTRL+C, CTRL + V for copy and pasting
17. Embedding one function within another.

1. Insert new sheet - ALT H I S or SHIFT+F11
2. Autosizing to avoid columns being too narrow. CTRL + A to select everything then ALT H O I
3. Deleting duplicate values - ALT A M
4. Sorting ALT A SA
5. Data filter ALT A T
6. Copying right CTRL+R
7. Copying down CTRL+D
8. New functions TYPE and VALUE
9. New functions AVERAGEIF, MAXIFS, MINIFS
10 New functions ISNUMBER and IF
11.New functions TODAY(), NOW, ROUNDDOWN, YEARFRAC, DATE, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, DATEDIF.
12. Referencing values on a different sheet WSName!Cellref or if the worksheet name has spaces 'WS Name'!Cellref.
13. Paste Special/values - ALT H V V
14. Changing cell format to currency ALT H AN.

Sparklines
- Paste Special - Transpose (ALT H V T)
- Doughnut diagrams
- Fitting a trendline
- Scatter diagrams
- New functions - correl, interecept, rsq, slope, trend and forecast
- Our first array function, LINEST, requiring use of CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
- Data tables (ALT A W T)
- Autofit columns (ALT H O I)
- Conditional formatting (ALT H L)
- Merging cells (format cells - alignment - merge)


Pass me a biro !
 
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So I have had a bit of a career change and I'm more involved with sales these days. As a result I am now being confronted with excel spreadsheets. Lots and lots of spreadsheets, and I'm expected to create my own. Being a millenial I assumed that I was "ok with Excel" but now working with people who are actually good with it, I realise that I basically haven't got a clue.

What's the best way to learn? Online presumably? Anyone got any recomendations?

Probably find out exactly what you need to do with it then ask around on forums or on here

watch YouTube videos for hacks

learn basic VBA - once you get your head around it it’s pretty easy and people who can’t use it think you’re mint

If there’s one thing to learn though - NEVER use vlookups. Learn how to use index/match instead. Loads better and faster.
 

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