what's the best way to get good at Excel?

[Phokus]

I'm going to be a financial analyst soon and excel is really important. Whats the best book/software learning apps that teach you how to get real good at excel?

 

[her34]

find good excel files other people made and analyze how they did it

 

[mayest]

You've got a PM.

 

[corkyg]

Spreadsheets all work basically the same way. I learned on Lotus 1-2-3 - then "The Twin," then Quattro", then "Quattro Pro" and Excel just happens.

There are several decent tutorials around - here's a sample:

Excel

 

[jdoggg12]

As an analyst - pay special attention to array formulas, pivot tables, named ranges, and database functions. Those are the MOST important to understand in my experience.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I learned an insane amount just from poring over the Help index. Look up the different commands, see what they do, try some of them out on a made-up spreadsheet. That's just tasting the tip of the iceberg.

 

[fierydemise]

Experiment, spend a few hours playing with things

 

[WildHorse]

The BEST way is to confront & solve problems as you use it in your work.

The Walkenbach stuff is helpful to me sometimes.

A few years ago I participated in a google group dedicated to Excel.

It was pretty useful, but I don't have a link anymore. Maybe you could search it out.


Get a good book to learn VBA. To make Excel dance you need VBA.


I e-mailed you an Excel dictionary that contains some occasionally useful things.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
Experiment, spend a few hours playing with things

Excellent suggestion. Remember, . . . education is only a shortcut to experience. I learned 1-2-3 when I was made secretary of a small golf league, and I had to create a way to calculate and keep handicaps. You soon learn the ways to create active relationships between spreadsheet cells that contain mathematical formulas

 

[Phokus]

Thanks for the tips guys