Book of Functions & Formulas

[tsroque]

I love my Excel books, but I wish there was a book that concentrated solely on formulas and functions for intermediate to advancd users, and then another for advanced to expert users which talks about merging different functions. A book that's like a dictionary/reference guide for Excel users. I would never claim to be an Excel Expert, but my skills are pretty advanced, so when I buy a new book, I don't need a refresher on toolbars and cell referencing. I only use 1/3 of the book, and feel like I'm wasting my money. Any sugestions from the Experts?

Love the site, and it's truly been extremely helpful in making my work easier.

 

[Richard Schollar]

In many ways I know exactly what you mean - even a good book like Excel 2007 Formulas by John Walkenbach is 80% minimum focused at Intermediate or less users. Unfortunately, I don't think the book you want has been written yet (possibly because it would likely only have a narrow target audience). The best thing you can do is to answer questions on a forum like MrExcel and read the answers that the other formula experts give (eg anything by Aladin, Barry Houdini, Domenic, Krishnakumar, PGC01 and Fairwinds).

 

[tsroque]

Hi Richard - thanks for your quick response. I definitely get alot out of the forums, and it's a great tool for learning from real world situations. I went to the bookstore today and spent a great deal thumbing through the books while the kids did the same in the children's section. I finally came across a pretty good book.

MS Excel Functions & Formulas by Bernd Held. It's divided into chapters based on the functions (date & time, logical, statistical, etc...). Each function is easy to find in the table of contents, is listed on a single page with a brief description, has step-by-step instructions, includes an illustration showing how it was used with the formula showing, and, best of all, it's under $25!

If anyone knows of a better book, please let me know!

Here's a link to the one I bought today: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exc...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200192941&sr=1-3

 

[Arts]

Hi Guys

Carrying on from this

Would you be able to recommend a book for users such as me who only understand the above basics of Excel. A general guide of all around excel i.e Formulas and funcitions but also perhaps introductry to macros, pivot tables etc.

My excel knowledge is weak but would understand the basic examples.

Using this forum is great for solutions as mentioned earlier but the problem being when coming to understanding of how the formula works and even at times the terminology used.

Arts

 

[Richard Schollar]

Two generalist books I have are:

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Excel 200X

where the X is either 2003 or 2007. It covers a lot of ground and touches every area. The VBA sections are necessarily brief. I like these books (the 2007 one is actually written by Bill Jelen). Because of their nature, don't expect deep coverage on any particular topic, but as an introduction and guide to using the various functions and tools, I've found them to be very useful.

 

[Arts]

Thanks for that Richard I'll shall go take a look, I can do a VLOOKUP and basic formulas, but thats about as good as it gets.

Just so i dont come back after a few months and ask agian, what would be the next step after the book you mentioned, or incase (a big incase) the book you mentioned is slightly basic for me

P.s you were being humble earlier, you forgot to mention yourself on that list of excel experts

Arts

 

[Richard Schollar]

Arts

I think it's not so easy to make a suggestion in that case, because as you get more advanced and have more experienced, what you want greater depth of coverage on will very much depend on how you yourself use Excel: for example, I have fairly rarely had to use charts, hence a pretty basic book on charting would be suitable for me. However, I have used and can use pretty advanced VBA and so a more detailed VBA book would be appropriate for me. What I will give you are my favourite books for different areas (but note this is a personal thing, so others might well disagree!):

Starting out in VBA:
Excel VBA Programming For Dummies, by John Walkenbach

Intermediate VBA:
Excel 2002 VBA: Programmers Reference, by Rob Bovey,Stephen Bullen, John Green and Robert Rosenberg

Advanced VBA (and advanced everything else to do with Excel):
Professional Excel Development, by Bullen, Bovey, Green

Very Advanced VBA:
VBA Developers Handbook, by Getz and Gilbert

Pivot Tables:
Excel Pivot Tables Recipe Book, by Debra Dalgleish (some topics very advanced)
Pivot Table Data Crunching, by Bill Jelen and Mike Alexander (friendlier, more tutorial-based content than above, but isn't as advanced)

Excel Reporting (covers MSQuery in some depth):
Excel Advanced Report Development, by T Zapawa

Excel formulas:
Excel 2007 Formulas, by John Walkenbach

 

[tsroque]

If you want an online tutorial that's graphical, each session is minutes long which is great for adult learning (LOL), and it's convenient...use www.vtc.com

I do like my new book, but it would have been nice if they would have shown the "Funtion Aguments" screen for each function. But there's plenty of room for me to write notes in it.

I guess what we're learning from this question, like Richard stated, is that there are many books out there to cover just about everyone's taste and needs.

I know when I was a "beginner", even as an advanced user, it's always best to just go to the bookstore and thumb through different books. Style of writting is also crucial. The authors are obviously extrememly talented people, but some authors are too "wordy" and takes them several pages to get to the point.

I agree with Art... Richard...thanks for your humbleness and we appreciate your expertise.

Happy Monday! :D

 

[Arts]

Hi Guys

Thanks for your replies, I guess you are right Richard (which is what i was thinking) it all depends what you would use excel for as i dont really see myslef doing a lot of charts so i wouldnt have a need for it (but then again saying that if i was an expert or knew more about them, im sure i would be producing them even if i didnt have to )

But thanks for the books you mentioned, i guess i shall go into the book store and gander a few and see which one takes my liking (and which ones explain it like explaining something to a 4 year old)

I shall also try the online adult learning mentioned (tsroque),..you never know

Appreciate the feed back

P.s how do i use the icon in the messages, when i select the icon it puts it up by the title

Arts

 

[Richard Schollar]

Do you mean a smilie within the message like:



Or a Post Icon at the bottom of the reply screen? (that results in the smilie in the title)