On which level am I?

[Galuppo]

Hello everyone,

As a freshman in college I learned how to love Excel and couldn't be more amazed by it. My question is: which level am I at currently?

I've done a bit of learning in class and I'm now very familiar with:

Absolute referencing, nested functions, conditional formatting with formulas, graph plotting, data import from text/links, paste special, COUNTIF, SUMIF, IF, PMT, MAX, MIN, AVERAGEIF, SUMPRODUCT, AND, OR, goal seek, subtotal, what if summary, sort by, filters, and the other basic functions.

Where should I start from now? I'm still a little bit uncomfortable with table editing and still need to use my mouse for all of my actions. Neither do I know how to merge and move cells around without screwing things around.

Does anybody have any recommendations?

Thanks a lot!

 

[hiker95]

Galuppo,

Welcome to the MrExcel forum.

See if something, in the below link(s), of my most up to date list will help you:

Training / Books / Sites as of 1/17/2015

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/829893-macros.html#post4048295

 

[xenou]

Where should I start from now? I'm still a little bit uncomfortable with table editing and still need to use my mouse for all of my actions. Neither do I know how to merge and move cells around without screwing things around.

1) on "moving around with the mouse"
Generally, experience is a good teacher. If you use Excel every day, you can aim to learn a new keyboard shortcut each week until you are satisfied that you don't need to use a mouse most of the time. It's somewhat a matter of preference, anyway. Personally, I keyboard filters, sorts, many kinds of selects and navigations, and copy/paste actions - probably a few others I've forgotten. But I use the ribbon for things that I don't do a lot. I also recommend customizing your quick access toolbar. With keyboard shorts and a well selected quick access toolbar, you get a lot of "quick action" and very little need for the ribbon at all (which I keep minimized most of the time). Also you can customize the ribbon itself and your right-click menus (and even custom keyboard shorts), with a little extra fiddling and a little programming know-how. BTW some basic skills in custom formatting, conditional formatting, and a formatting in general can go a long way -- both for clean presentation and also for leveraging some simple tricks to "highlight" potential problems.

Customizing right click menus:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-...izing-excel-right-click-menu-still-works.html
ribbon customization and others customization:
Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar(QAT) pages
Easy Menu for macros on the QAT:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/qat.htm
Changing built in groups:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/xmlribbongroups.htm


2) On not screwing things up
This is where you just need experience and some thoughtfulness about things that can go wrong. There's probably a lot that can be said on the subject. I try to just never cut and insert rows or columns. I use dummy first and last rows so that if there is cutting and inserting it is always inside these first and last rows. I avoid linked workbooks as much as possible - which in my case is very close to never. Merged cells are not good for anything but decoration - never to be used for cells involved in calculations. Use check figures as much as possible so that if something isn't right you get immediate red flags, and by the same token try to find ways of verifying accuracy of results independently. Also use your nose - does a result fit expectations? If not, why not? Get in the habit of thinking about what you are looking at. Does it make sense? Can you compare it to something else that would demonstrate that the result is reasonable?

I personally tend to look towards database integration when there are large amounts of data to deal with, although Excel is getting better at handling large datasets. So if you want to put some extra kick in your Excel skills, then developing some skills with SQL/MSAccess can make for a very good combination. You can in fact integrate Excel with any kind of database so you can even put very powerful programs like SQL Server or other programs behind your spreadsheets.

Hope that helps - not much I'm afraid but some ideas for you.

 

[juankalsa]

Hi Galupo

Welcome...


Depends on Why do you need to use Excel it's the level you are...

Basic excel has over 400 functions + VBA + Add Ins you can handle over 5000 functions and create a nested formula to do a new function etc etc so....


For me there is no way to be always a noob in excel, even the more experienced seniors using excel has question from other functions they don't generally use..

(I have learned excel from Quatro Pro in DOS 5.0 and Lotus 1-2-3 Same OS and currently stucked in Excel 2013 jajajajajajaja)

 

[makably]

You Are a Learner... But What I Can See Is You Are Passionate About Learning These...
That Is What Should Be In Every Learner !