Software Articles

March 12, 2011

Organizing Training For Microsoft Excel Professionals

Filed under: Excel, Software — Tags: , , , — admin @ 7:51 pm

There are a lot of different resources available for Microsoft Excel training. You can find training on how to use all parts of Microsoft excel as well as very specific training on how to use certain parts of Microsoft excel. There are many different excel professionals that provide training and tips about using excel. You can do a lot with excel but most people don’t know how to use certain functions.

The individuals in your company that use excel may have different skill levels and this can make getting a project done difficult as you will need to train different individuals and this can cause problems with productivity. By having everyone on the same skill level you will find it is much easier to complete all of your projects.

Many different job positions require some Microsoft excel knowledge as this include accountants, office managers, small business owners, teachers and students. If you need something for a business career day or other employee training then a seminar on Microsoft excels training can be a great addition. You can learn how to use Power excel, how to create charts, actions that can be used from the data menu and learning how to use pivot tables.

If you don’t have a seminar in your future then there are several online courses on how to use excel. The time length of these courses last from 30 to 60 minutes. The online topics you can find courses are filtering external data, excel macros, importing text files into excel, creating charts, different printing options and other excel features.

There are other books and texts that are Microsoft excel training guides. Many of these books have supplement cds that provide examples and tutorials on using excel. There are even books that can help you gain your certification as an excel specialist or expert.

Some additional and more advanced training can be found for analyzing data and other content, how to manage workbooks, creating data and formatting content and data.

Excel VBA training classes in London.

November 30, 2010

Anatomy Of An Excel 2007 Formula

Filed under: Excel — Tags: , , , — admin @ 11:16 pm

As you probably know, to create an Excel formula, you begin by typing an equal sign: this distinguishes it from other types of data. A formula consists of a series of expressions. There are three key components in these expressions: arithmetic operations, such as add and subtract; Excel functions; and cell references.

To create a formula which gives us the total of two of the numbers in a spreadsheet (say 24 and 12), we could simply type “=24 + 12″. When we press the Enter key, we would get the correct result. However, the formula would have no link to the two cells containing the numbers. If the content of the cells were to change, the formula would still return the old result.

Obviously, what we need to do is to ensure that our formula contains a reference to the two cells in question. The easiest way of doing this is to click on the first cell having typed “=”. Excel then automatically creates a reference to that cell. Next type the “+” sign and click on the second cell to pick up its reference. Excel puts in a reference to the second cell and we then enter the formula either by clicking on the Enter button (on the left of the formula bar) or pressing Enter on the keyboard.

Now that our formula contains a reference to these two cells, any time the cell contents change, the result returned by formula will be updated.

If this was the only way of performing calculations in Excel, formulas would very quickly become extremely long and very complex. To avoid this, we can use Excel’s built-in functions. Functions perform complex mathematical calculations without us having to worry about how the result is arrived at.

For example, imagine that we wanted to total the contents of a hundred different cells. If we relied purely on the “+” sign, we would end up creating a formula with a hundred different arguments; in other words, a reference to each of the cells containing the numbers. Instead, we can use the SUM function.

To use a function in a formula, type “=” followed by the name of the function. Next type open brackets and enter the arguments of the function. The arguments of the function are the values required by that function in order to return a result. In the case of the SUM function, we simply need to specify which cells contain the numbers we want to total. We can do this by clicking or dragging across the cells that contain those numbers.

When you have finished entering references to all the cells containing numbers that we want to total, you can enter the formula. You don’t even need to put in the closing brackets. Excel will do this for you.

Microsoft Excel VBA training courses in London.

November 13, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 Column Charts Don’t Have To Be Boring

Filed under: Excel — Tags: , , , — admin @ 10:15 am

In this tutorial will look at the creation and customisation of a column chart. The first step is to select the data that we want to plot, taking care to include any column and row headings. Row headings will be used as the names of the chart series and will be displayed in the legend. Column headings will be used as category labels. If the selection includes two sets of column headings, Excel will automatically recognize this and create two sets of headings on the category axis for us.

The next step is to click on the Insert ribbon tab and from the Column drop-down menu choose the option that we require. The very first option is the omnipresent scattered column chart. Excel creates our chart and places it in the worksheet as an embedded chart. If we want to change it to a standalone chart, click on Move Chart in the Location section and then choose New Sheet and enter a name for the new chart sheet.

Having selected a chart, you can of course customise it to suit your requirements. To change the colour of the columns, simply click once on any column to highlight the whole series and then choose a colour from the Shape Fill drop-down menu in the Format contextual tab. As well as Shape Fill, the drop-down also offers Shape Outline and Fill Effects. The Fill Effects includes preset effects such as shadow, glow and bevel.

There are several subtypes to choose from within the column chart type. The most basic and probably the most widely used is the clustered column chart type. To change the chart type, go to the Design contextual tab and click on Change Chart Type.

In the Stacked Column type, the overall total of all series within each category takes precedence over the individual value associated with each series. The second type of stacked column is 100% Stacked Column. Here, the height of each column becomes 100% and so all columns have exactly the same height. This type of chart shifts the emphasis away from the number or quantity represented by each series to the percentage split between series.

Excel also offers 3-D versions of its three different column chart types. You will notice that these chart tpes are not strictly 3-D charts; they simply have a 3-D effect on the columns. It is the 3-D Column option which gives us an actual three-dimensional chart. Here, Excel adds depth to the chart and places the series along the z axis (the third dimension). The remaining column options are simply variations on these basic themes. For example, if we want to go for a 3-D chart, we might choose to have pyramids instead of rectangular blocks.

Microsoft Excel training classes in London.

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