Online Excel course recommendation needed
December 16, 2020 8:14 AM Subscribe
My Excel skills are pretty basic, and I am looking to upgrade them in specific areas, for work.
I get Excel files from other teams that, due to the # of rows or volume of information are not easy to quickly digest. Or, they are missing a variable (column) that would be helpful for readability - for example, reports that include a customer number but don’t have the customer name.
I don’t need to present out my work, it’s more for me to make decisions off of, managing by exception type of stuff. It doesn’t need to be pretty, I just needs to supplement the reporting that is provided to me. Most of the thinking work I need to do is around understanding how are sales compared to last year, or compared to two years ago, or compared to forecast, or compared to a goal. Goal and forecast and historical data is often on separate reports, that need combining.
I want to learn how to
• V-look up
• Add subtotals based on common variables ie. State, month
• Compare data to easily find the ‘best’, or ‘worst’
I don’t need to know how to use fancy, conditional formulas or anything in that vain. Mostly just summing, averaging, and comparing to another data point ie. Sales this year vs. last year. I don’t really need to automate reporting, this mostly one off analysis. I can export lots of data from a couple of tools, into Excel as a starting point, but said data rarely has all the fields I need, the way I’d prefer to see them. I dislike pivot tables (but is that because I don’t really know how use them, or does everyone hate pivot tables?). I don’t need much graphing, but maybe some.
Is there a free or $ online course that you would recommend I take?
I get Excel files from other teams that, due to the # of rows or volume of information are not easy to quickly digest. Or, they are missing a variable (column) that would be helpful for readability - for example, reports that include a customer number but don’t have the customer name.
I don’t need to present out my work, it’s more for me to make decisions off of, managing by exception type of stuff. It doesn’t need to be pretty, I just needs to supplement the reporting that is provided to me. Most of the thinking work I need to do is around understanding how are sales compared to last year, or compared to two years ago, or compared to forecast, or compared to a goal. Goal and forecast and historical data is often on separate reports, that need combining.
I want to learn how to
• V-look up
• Add subtotals based on common variables ie. State, month
• Compare data to easily find the ‘best’, or ‘worst’
I don’t need to know how to use fancy, conditional formulas or anything in that vain. Mostly just summing, averaging, and comparing to another data point ie. Sales this year vs. last year. I don’t really need to automate reporting, this mostly one off analysis. I can export lots of data from a couple of tools, into Excel as a starting point, but said data rarely has all the fields I need, the way I’d prefer to see them. I dislike pivot tables (but is that because I don’t really know how use them, or does everyone hate pivot tables?). I don’t need much graphing, but maybe some.
Is there a free or $ online course that you would recommend I take?
For free content, YouTube is your friend. Start by searching on VLookup, since that's an easily contained topic, and you'll see dozens of videos explaining it in various levels of detail. Watch a few and find some folks who you enjoy and who offer explanations and illustrations that resonate with you. From there you can explore their archives. In a similar vein, you can often find good explanations by googling the problem and, again, you'll find people whose style works for you.
posted by carmicha at 8:58 AM on December 16, 2020
posted by carmicha at 8:58 AM on December 16, 2020
vlookup and pivot tables have changed my working life, seriously. and i use them only in the most basic of ways!!
honestly, for vlookup, the microsoft page and messing around a bit were enough to get me using it. (i have not yet delved into xlookup but it sounds great.)
this is a good intro to pivot tables, though a little spammy.
my best advice is to google around, read two or three tutorials, and then mess around yourself to see how it works (on a COPY of your spreadsheet in case you mess everything up). i personally hate video tutorials for this kind of thing unless it's my only option.
i also wanted an excel course, but everyone told me to "just google it." which i was frustrated by, and you will likely be frustrated by, but really is the answer these days apparently.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 8:58 AM on December 16, 2020
honestly, for vlookup, the microsoft page and messing around a bit were enough to get me using it. (i have not yet delved into xlookup but it sounds great.)
this is a good intro to pivot tables, though a little spammy.
my best advice is to google around, read two or three tutorials, and then mess around yourself to see how it works (on a COPY of your spreadsheet in case you mess everything up). i personally hate video tutorials for this kind of thing unless it's my only option.
i also wanted an excel course, but everyone told me to "just google it." which i was frustrated by, and you will likely be frustrated by, but really is the answer these days apparently.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 8:58 AM on December 16, 2020
I've found Lynda.com to be a great source of educational videos. Granted I've used it mostly for design work, but it should translate to Excel for you. Some instructors are better than others, but don't be afraid to drop a course and try another.
You can take a full course, or just watch the videos that are pertinent to your needs. Most 'courses' are broken into small easy-to-digest chunks.
See if your local library offers free access. If not, a 1-month subscription should be well worth the price.
posted by hydra77 at 8:59 AM on December 16, 2020 [2 favorites]
You can take a full course, or just watch the videos that are pertinent to your needs. Most 'courses' are broken into small easy-to-digest chunks.
See if your local library offers free access. If not, a 1-month subscription should be well worth the price.
posted by hydra77 at 8:59 AM on December 16, 2020 [2 favorites]
Seconding YouTube! Go slow and follow along and it's a great way to learn. I say this as someone who HAS taken an excel class, and got a D even with an open book exam. It's much easier to learn excel when you're working with your own data and using it to answer actual questions than the weird hypothetical situations the coursebook presented - and it didn't even get to some of these super useful tricks.
Keywords for your second bullet are SUMIF/SUMIFS or COUNTIF/COUNTIFS, and the highlight cells feature will allow you to easily highlight best/worst by count or percent.
These leveling-up tricks are well worth spending some time learning. I use vlookups literally every day and they have changed my working life. Concatenate is another favorite.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:21 PM on December 16, 2020
Keywords for your second bullet are SUMIF/SUMIFS or COUNTIF/COUNTIFS, and the highlight cells feature will allow you to easily highlight best/worst by count or percent.
These leveling-up tricks are well worth spending some time learning. I use vlookups literally every day and they have changed my working life. Concatenate is another favorite.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:21 PM on December 16, 2020
Pivot tables were a game changer once I understood how to make them. I learned by doing a google search and landing on one the many websites that explain Excel. Free.
You don’t mention using filters. Again, a total game changer and an excellent way to focus on certain data. When it gets right down to it, a pivot table is just another way to filter your data.
I have found exceljet to be particularly helpful. They provide templates and explain things quite well.
posted by ashbury at 6:46 PM on December 16, 2020
You don’t mention using filters. Again, a total game changer and an excellent way to focus on certain data. When it gets right down to it, a pivot table is just another way to filter your data.
I have found exceljet to be particularly helpful. They provide templates and explain things quite well.
posted by ashbury at 6:46 PM on December 16, 2020
The Maven Analytics courses on Udemy are excellent - if they're not on sale right now, they will be in a week or so.
posted by my log does not judge at 7:27 PM on December 16, 2020
posted by my log does not judge at 7:27 PM on December 16, 2020
related tip: if you want to buy a udemy and other course and the cost is super high, try browsing without cookies and it will often show up at the typical sale price. I got my Google Sheets course that way. Also libraries or big companies often have free access to lynda.com that doesn't require you to pay the linkedin membership fee.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 1:42 AM on December 17, 2020
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 1:42 AM on December 17, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, if I have one particular problem I'm trying to solve, I usually google it. There's loads of free tutorials on specific topics on the internet.
posted by allnew at 8:56 AM on December 16, 2020 [2 favorites]