As the downturn cuts there is the evitable squeeze on budgets. Not surprisingly, for many companies the training budget is on the list to be slashed. However, there are smart ways to train staff at next to no cost.
For example, Emily Coltman got in touch with me to point out a series of Excel videos that can be obtained for £7.50 (plus VAT). Add to this piece of information that the cost covers all users in a company then the £7.50 represents superb value.
The topic of the videos is Excel pivot tables. If you use Excel regularly then this is a vital topic. It does have an air of mystery to those not in the know, but is an indispensable skill once gained.
To conquer the topic there are four videos (each less than five minutes) together with supporting spreadsheet and manual. It is a very clear and concise approach that is a winning formula and at £7.50 it certainly won’t be a drain of the budget.
You can find out more at Glen’s Feechan site at http://www.feechan.co.uk/index.htm?page=excelvideotraining
09 January 2009
29 October 2008
Simon Hurst Excel Guru
If you are a budding Excel guru or you want to be able to achieve more in Excel faster and quicker then an online visit to Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales can help. There you will find the Excel Guru in the form of Simon Hurstat their online network IT Counts.
A selection of Simon's tips are listed below:
Useful Excel shortcuts
Office IT Quick tip – Excel data entry
Did you know? Random MS Office tips
Excel and instant year ends
Part 2 – the best ever Excel tip?
Excel functions: MATCH(), INDEX() and the Lookup Wizard
Roadshow day 4, Lancaster - Excel's OFFSET() function
Simon's tips come in bite size chunks at IT Counts. The online approach works well as many tips include animated screen shots which aids in grasping the concepts. The tips are also permanently online so if you forget a point then the answer is just a click of the mouse away.
If this has given you an appetite for more of Simon's tips then clicking on the link below. You will have to join the IT Counts online network first - membership is free and open to all.
Simon Hurst's Excel IT Counts Posts
29 April 2008
My favourite Excel function
I'm a self confessed Excel junkie. I've tried other spreadsheets, but to me they just don't have the flavour of the real thing.
The Excel vlookup function is rather useful. If you look above you can see it in action.
In
this example, we have a table of sales budget figures for each month
(in green). By changing the month number in cell D2 (in red) it gives
the corresponding sales figure for the month in cell D6 (in blue).
To do this all that is required is the vlookup formula as follows:
=VLOOKUP(D2,F3:G14,2,false)
So what does that actually do? The function looks up the value in D2 and looks for it in the first column in cells F3:G14. It then returns the corresponding value in the second column. Our our example the second column is the sales budget column. Adding "false" just ensures that Excel looks for exact matches.
Our example is quite simple, but it does give a taster for what is possible with the vlookup command
25 April 2007
Excel guru
Simon Hurst of the ICAEW's IT Faculty is undoubtedly an Excel guru. He has some excellent Excel tips that he shares online at his new blog, the Beancounters Guide to Technology.
The benefit of the online approach is that Simon has, rather neatly, included animation as well as screenshots and text. Well worth a look.
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24 November 2006
Excel tips
I should confess now. It's a problem I've had for some years now. I'm an Excel junkie. It's hard to kick the habit as it's everywhere I go. I've tried other spreadsheet brands, but they just don't have the depth and finesse of Excel. To me they just seem like Excel Lite. No wonder we're all using it.
I came across an Excel article in PC World called Who Knew Excel Could Do That? Ten Top Tips. It's good, very good in fact. If you are an Excel junkie or just an occasional user it is well worth checking out. If you're time poor then at least try tip 5.
N.B. Just in case you miss it (I did initially) tips 6-10 are on a second page clickable at the end of the first.
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Philip Woodgate
10 April 2006
Sorting & AutoFilter
Continuing with the Excel Tips series this video is on sorting and autofilter. Using these tips can 
make working with data much easier. In this case I've taken a slice of my ITunes music collection and used it to show how you can sort it and filter it as you wish. You may not like the music, but you should find the video is helpful.
Click here to download the Windows Microsoft Media version
This works with Microsoft Media player.
Click here to download the Real player version
You can download a free Real player here (right-hand side download screen).
Click here to download the Quicktime version.
You can download a free Quicktime player here.
Click here to download the Excel spreadsheet used in the video
Excel is a registered trademark of the Microsoft® Corporation.
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21 March 2006
Look me up
There is only one numerical software package I see practically all SME's use. It's everywhere. What's it called? Click here to find out and come back and let me know if you agree. If you do then you may 
find the below video useful. It's on an amazingly useful function called Vlookup. The Vlookup function has saved me a lot of work over the years
In the Excel help screen it explains it as "Searches for a value in the leftmost column of a table, and then returns a value in the same row from a column you specify in the table." That may make perfect sense to you, but watch the video to understand how it actually works in practice.
Click here to download Microsoft Media version (1mb)
This works with Windows Media player version 10.
Click here to download Real Player version (2mb)
You can download a free Real player here (right-hand side download screen).
Click here to download Quicktime version (20mb)
You can download a free Quicktime player here.
Click here to download the Excel Vlookup example spreadsheet
Excel is a registered trademark of the Microsoft® Corporation.
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Press play to view the small screen version as below:
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