Microsoft Excel, Question
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SlyFerret
Minister of Fire
I'm back in school working on a Business degree. I'm taking an Excel class right now. We use 2007 at work, but the class is focused on 2010. You won't notice a whole lot of difference between the two.
I've used Excel quite a bit over the years, considering my field is IT. I figured this class would be all old news, but from the very first day, I have been learning new things. Enough that it is definitely worthwhile! Mostly features that I never knew existed that make life easier.
Enjoy the class! If you're like me, by the time you get done, you'll be saying "damn excel is cool!"
-SF
I've used Excel quite a bit over the years, considering my field is IT. I figured this class would be all old news, but from the very first day, I have been learning new things. Enough that it is definitely worthwhile! Mostly features that I never knew existed that make life easier.
Enjoy the class! If you're like me, by the time you get done, you'll be saying "damn excel is cool!"
-SF
Library card? Really? I thought thos places went away with cassette tapes and members only jackets I haven't been in a library in well over 20 years.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
I have a library card . . . but it's a plastic jobby, electronic and about half the size of the old style credit card. Once in awhile I'll wnader into the Bangor Library and go crazy . . . take out 4 or 5 books and plow through them in a few days . . . and then not take anything out for several months.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Auto Sum is your friend.
Never leave a blank cell, it throws off the formula. Formula's are key. A colon means thru and including.
To print a spread sheet with grid lines, to go "Page Preview", "Sheets", "Grid Lines".
They hid the print functions because they are a bunch of tree huggers, and didn't think that the stuff should be printed.
Never leave a blank cell, it throws off the formula. Formula's are key. A colon means thru and including.
To print a spread sheet with grid lines, to go "Page Preview", "Sheets", "Grid Lines".
They hid the print functions because they are a bunch of tree huggers, and didn't think that the stuff should be printed.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Eileen, you can still sum with a blank. Just look at what auto sum gives you. Now make that formula yourself. For example, you have a column with 20 figures but there is also a blank in there. So let's say you have a column with a range of 1 thru 21. Put in there like auto sum does: =sum(1:21) and bingo! It is there.
Teach said, to start, don't leave blank cells. It also makes it easier to find the cells that "need to be filled at a later date".
Formulas check at the top. Makes it easier to check a spread sheet that some one else made, so you can see what's going on.
BB, only you could bring Zappa into this
Formulas check at the top. Makes it easier to check a spread sheet that some one else made, so you can see what's going on.
BB, only you could bring Zappa into this
Jags, I gotta tell ya. They handed out a leaflet with "sorta instructions" before the class, and I started reading, and one page said "now we're going to apply the calculus we learned in school",and I said to my self "I'm dead"..I never took calculus !!
But it wasn't bad. I opened it at work today during lunch, and was able to duplicate most of what we did last night, so that's a good thing !!
I also learned where "help" was, which was a huge asset
I will say that I was helping the woman next to me find buttons, click, etc. She was who I thought I would be, and I wasn't
But it wasn't bad. I opened it at work today during lunch, and was able to duplicate most of what we did last night, so that's a good thing !!
I also learned where "help" was, which was a huge asset
I will say that I was helping the woman next to me find buttons, click, etc. She was who I thought I would be, and I wasn't
And then all of a sudden one day in the future it will "click" and come full circle and you will say "Ahhh, now I get it".
Don't leave any blank cells? Silly me, 20+ years with Excel I've been doing it wrong all these years.
Adios Pantalones
Minister of Fire
I don't have mad Excel kung fu, but I use it every day (and Lotu 123 before that- 20-25 yrs ago).
I'm not an organized person, so I force myself to do certain things in excel to keep it in order.
Start new sheets with useful names. Use blocks of color on a sheet to set apart sections. Learn to freeze panes for scrolling. There's more of that.
You will likely come out of this more efficient than I, because I am self taught and probably missed many basics and features in the newer versions.
I'm not an organized person, so I force myself to do certain things in excel to keep it in order.
Start new sheets with useful names. Use blocks of color on a sheet to set apart sections. Learn to freeze panes for scrolling. There's more of that.
You will likely come out of this more efficient than I, because I am self taught and probably missed many basics and features in the newer versions.
Crane Stoves
Burning Hunk
trial version??? i think anyone who wishes to use MS office 2007 can obtain it free on web at this point (not sayin' its right or wrong) but nobody i know pays for it anymore.
You do if your in business. The fine for an illegal copy outweighs the initial cost. I have 130 licenses right now (bulk licenses). I know a company that got pinged for 4 bad copies. Cost them over $20,000. Just say'in.
SlyFerret
Minister of Fire
Wow, they got of REALLY easy if 4 bad copies only cost them $20k in fines. Many business, 4 bad copies could have been enough to put them out of business!
-SF
First offense reported by a disgruntled employee. I make our employees KNOW that only licensed versions of ANYTHING is gonna reside on my computers. No questions asked and I carry a big stick.
I learned how to make my columns wider, and shorter, how to auto fill, how to make a column add top to bottom & side to side.
Figuring out mail merge (which I used to do In word, many moons ago).
I dunno about the blank cell thing, but it's working, so right now, I'm not going to change it.
Baby steps
I do have a friend who HAS Office, and told me I could load her copy
That's right, we bad
Figuring out mail merge (which I used to do In word, many moons ago).
I dunno about the blank cell thing, but it's working, so right now, I'm not going to change it.
Baby steps
I do have a friend who HAS Office, and told me I could load her copy
That's right, we bad
I do have a friend who HAS Office, and told me I could load her copy
That's right, we bad
Don't worry about it. There can't be over 30,000 people that just read this.
Adabiviak
Feeling the Heat
If you're just now cutting your chops on Excel, I'd recommend getting familiar with keyboard shortcuts, and perhaps that's why the instructor is advising against blanks in your data lists? Perhaps not if he's advising that the formulas be placed at the top of the data instead of the bottom. Anyway, if you put your cursor below a stack of data, hold the ALT key and press =, it will put the sum formula in for you, but will only include data until it reaches a blank cell. This will also not work if you put the formula at the top of the column.
Seriously, if you think you'll be using Excel on any kind of a regular basis, I can't stress enough how fast you can navigate a spreadsheet with the keyboard only - it will become an extension of your hands with practice. I use Excel every single day at work and am usually writing formulas from scratch several times a week, and it's agony watching someone else fumble through with a mouse... like watching a ball game where everyone is using crutches. There are a few things in Excel that are faster at with the mouse due to lousy design (the sort dialog box, for example), or due to the complex nature of some things (I'm not sure if there's an elegant way to edit charts with the keyboard that isn't better suited to the mouse, for example), but the bulk of the work in organizing, sorting, and creating formulas can be done easily without the mouse. It'll just take practice.
These keyboard shortcuts are available everywhere (the local help files, the Internet at large, and presumably your teacher), but if you're interested, just make a reply here with whatever you want to know and I'll see what I can do. As I type this, I'm working from home on a new spreadsheet to analyze some machine rentals.
Seriously, if you think you'll be using Excel on any kind of a regular basis, I can't stress enough how fast you can navigate a spreadsheet with the keyboard only - it will become an extension of your hands with practice. I use Excel every single day at work and am usually writing formulas from scratch several times a week, and it's agony watching someone else fumble through with a mouse... like watching a ball game where everyone is using crutches. There are a few things in Excel that are faster at with the mouse due to lousy design (the sort dialog box, for example), or due to the complex nature of some things (I'm not sure if there's an elegant way to edit charts with the keyboard that isn't better suited to the mouse, for example), but the bulk of the work in organizing, sorting, and creating formulas can be done easily without the mouse. It'll just take practice.
These keyboard shortcuts are available everywhere (the local help files, the Internet at large, and presumably your teacher), but if you're interested, just make a reply here with whatever you want to know and I'll see what I can do. As I type this, I'm working from home on a new spreadsheet to analyze some machine rentals.
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