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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Broke NCO on July 14, 2013, 09:45:13 PM

Title: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Broke NCO on July 14, 2013, 09:45:13 PM: Mustachians,
Any of you guys/gals know of a good/free location to learn the in and outs of MS Excel? I have some ideas I would like to work into a budget / financial planning workbook but I lack the know how for proper and efficient implementation. Just wondering if there are any good online resources, if not, I will head to the library to see what I can dig up. Thanks for any info.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Russ on July 14, 2013, 09:52:09 PM: Read the manual
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Broke NCO on July 14, 2013, 10:04:45 PM: Valid.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: dragoncar on July 14, 2013, 10:20:10 PM: Here's a really good tutorial on googling free excel lessons:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=free+excel+lessons
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Broke NCO on July 14, 2013, 10:58:03 PM: Ok. Got it.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: yolfer on July 15, 2013, 03:37:56 PM: I'm a bit of a spreadsheet nerd, so if you have specific questions (e.g. "how can I do ...?" or "why doesn't it show me the sum of ...?"), feel free to PM me.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Eric on July 15, 2013, 04:21:11 PM: I'm also an Excel nerd. If there's a specific thing that you're having trouble with, post it here and we can probably help you out.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Broke NCO on July 15, 2013, 05:55:36 PM: Eric / yolfer,
Thanks for the offer and I will most certainly take you up on it in the coming days as I continue to mess around.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Zamboni on July 15, 2013, 06:01:03 PM: you can also google just about anything you want to do in excel. For example, "t-test in excel" probably has a step by step guide written by some kind soul.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: MoneyLifeandMore on July 15, 2013, 07:37:11 PM: There are many good books out there that you can probably borrow from your library. Just make sure you get the one specific to your version of excel. I've also seen some decent youtube videos if you're looking for something specific or a high level excel tutorial.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: oldtoyota on July 15, 2013, 08:06:50 PM: Some libraries offer free classes if you prefer to learn in an in-person setting.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: davisgang90 on July 16, 2013, 05:57:43 AM: One way to learn excel is to tear apart other's spreadsheets.

I was in charge of keeping an excel workbook I had inherited. It was used to run a Navy Mess. The guy who created it understood macros and had links back and forth throughout the work book. It took me a while of just messing around with it to figure out what he had done. At the end, I had a much better understanding of excel.

This site has a lot of free spreadsheets to download and modify/learn from.

http://www.vertex42.com/ (http://www.vertex42.com/)
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: NCoffey on July 16, 2013, 06:33:56 AM: I have always used Youtube to learn how to do things like that because I am a visual learner. If I watch someone else do it, I can do it. Youtube can be pretty limited if you are vague in your search though.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Stashasaurus on July 16, 2013, 06:51:41 AM: Without fully knowing what your looking to learn about, I would still recommend excel is fun on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ExcelIsFun (http://www.youtube.com/user/ExcelIsFun). The videos should give you a good grounding on what excel can do.
Title: Re: Beef up Excel knowledge
Post by: Cinder on July 16, 2013, 02:42:00 PM: With respect to having people help you with things, there is a fair bit of excel features that are a part of the Google Docs spreadsheets. You could share a spreadsheet with someone here who knows how to things, and you can cooperatively edit it.