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Ask HN: Best way/resources to learn Excel?

41 points| goatherders | 8 years ago

I am an average Excel user. Work and whatnot necessitate that I need to get closer to expert level, particularly with regard to pivot tables and pulling data from one sheet/column/row And feeding it into other places as a sum, percentage, ratio, etc.

I would prefer an actual course with structure and a coherent curriculum instead of random YouTube videos. I know there was a startup here about 8 months ago touting Excel training. Any suggestions? Thank you.

13 comments

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[+] garyclarke27|8 years ago|reply
Search for ExcelIsFun You Tube Channel. This guy is a truly incredible teacher, thousands of videos from basic to guru level. I suggest you learn: Excel Tables, Index Function (lookup and reference versions) Match Function, SumIfs, CountIfs - inside out - better than Pivot Tables - plus how to write UDFs and Macros in VBA - then maybe PowerBI now part of data tab in Excel 2016.
[+] tjt|8 years ago|reply
ExcelIsFun helped me so much! Working with Excel and trying to make more complicated solutions is what got me interested in programming and led to the job I have now.

I've also really enjoyed "Excel 2013: Power Programming with VBA" by Walkenbach.

[+] mathattack|8 years ago|reply
I don't know anyone who has learned it well via a course. It's almost always a group activity, looking at how peers solve problems in their spreadsheets in Excel. Perhaps the courses are worse than programming courses because they tend to assume a lower starting point, and can be too abstract without trying to solve a specific problem at hand.
[+] spinchange|8 years ago|reply
This isn't strictly a recommendation because I've never used it, but this always looked helpful to me. They have some self-contained tutorials and courses that are all within an Excel workbook

https://exceleverest.com/

[+] ixacto|8 years ago|reply
Excel couses on EdX are good if you are interested in Excel pivot & BI features.
[+] krembo|8 years ago|reply
Look for Dany Hoter. He will take your skills to a complete different level much above all others.
[+] therojam|8 years ago|reply
Took a look the dummy books or at udemy?
[+] edimaudo|8 years ago|reply
Check r/excel and youtube - excelisfun.
[+] JamesBarney|8 years ago|reply
Pluralsight has a couple of videos that are ok. But they mostly focus on vba.