Microsoft Excel^®:
A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

What is this course about?

In this introductory course, you learn how to summarize data with Excel by incorporating formulas, formatting, and charts and graphs. You also gain the skills to efficiently navigate and manipulate multiple spreadsheets in a workbook, optimize your worksheets using templates, graphs and formulas, and design simple-to-complex formulas by nesting Excel functions.

Who will benefit from this course?

This course is valuable for anyone who uses Microsoft Excel and needs to acquire the skills to design formulas, create and edit worksheets, and present data results.

What background do I need?

No previous experience with Excel is assumed. Familiarity working in Microsoft Windows is assumed.

How is this course different from Course 195, Power Excel^®: Analyzing Data to Make Business Decisions,?

In Course 195, Power Excel^®: Analyzing Data to Make Business Decisions, you learn how to leverage features of Microsoft Excel to build sophisticated spreadsheets and facilitate business decisions.

By contrast, this is an introductory course providing you with the skills to create Excel worksheets, develop formulas, and apply formatting to capture and visually present your data.

I already use Excel. Should I take this course?

Yes. Most self-taught Excel users miss many of the important and time-saving features in Excel, or they don't know how to use the best tool for the job. In this course, you learn how to apply the most powerful Excel tools used by beginner and intermediate users.

Will I learn how to acquire and manipulate non-Excel data?

Yes. You learn how to integrate data from servers, other Excel worksheets and databases. You even learn how to remove data duplicates as you organize your corporate data in Excel.

Will I learn how to chart my data?

Yes. You learn how to present your data visually, which includes determining when charts are required as well as modifying charts, chart layouts, titles and labels. Upon completion of this course, you will even be able to change your data source after formatting your chart.

What version of Excel is used in the course? What if I use a previous version?

This course uses Excel 2010. The knowledge and skills you gain in this course are applicable to earlier Excel versions, including Excel 2007 and 2003. While the differences between Excel 2010 and 2007 are very minor, the changes between Excel 2007/2010 and previous versions are fairly significant. The primary distinction is the user interface, called the Ribbon, which was introduced in Excel 2007. However, even if you use Excel 2003 or an earlier version, you can still apply the same basic principles learned in this course. Furthermore, this course provides an electronic handout that maps the interface differences between Excel 2007/2010 and earlier versions.

I always have trouble getting my worksheets formatted properly. Will this course help me with that?

Yes. Formatting can be a difficult task in Excel with so many formatting options. In this course, you learn basic cell formatting-including text, numbers, currency and decimal places. You also learn how to efficiently format cells and ranges of cells, such as conditional formatting, cell borders, fonts and colors.

Will I learn advanced features of Excel in this course, such as PivotTables?

This course does provide a basic overview of PivotTables. However, for in-depth coverage of PivotTables, as well as for coverage of PivotCharts, the Solver, and other advanced features, please refer to Course 195, Power Excel^®: Analyzing Data to Make Business Decisions.

How much time is spent on each topic?

How much of this course is hands-on?

Throughout this course, exercises provide you with experience applying Excel features, formulas and formatting. Hands-on exercises include:

• Navigating the Excel interface for efficiency and speed
• Formatting existing data for greater visual impact
• Designing formulas to manipulate, summarize and refine raw data
• Troubleshooting and tracing formula errors
• Charting your data for clearer presentation
• Recording macros to streamline tasks
• Linking worksheet with references

I've often found formulas a bit daunting. Will we work with formulas in this course?

Yes. Using formulas properly is a core piece of this course. You learn how to create formulas from scratch as well as use the Expression Builder. You learn how to use many of the built-in functions in Excel, including VLOOKUP, MIN, MAX, COUNT and many others. You also create inline functions for more complex tasks in Excel.

I've heard that Excel has tables. Will we learn how to use these?

Yes. Excel tables are a powerful tool in data analysis. In this course, you learn how to import raw data and convert that into a table. You also learn how to manipulate the imported table, including using the sort, filter and add new features of Excel.

Will I learn how to create and use macros?

Yes. Macro recording and running macros from the Ribbon are covered in this course. To learn how to use the code generated by the macro recorder, please see Course 209, VBA Programming: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

The following Learning Tree courses may also be of interest:

• Course 195, Power Excel^®: Analyzing Data to Make Business Decisions, is the next step after completing this course. In Course 195, you use Excel techniques to build sophisticated spreadsheets to facilitate business decisions.
• Course 1372, Excel^® Macros: Increasing Productivity through Automation, is a half-day course that offers the skills to identify processes to be automated in Excel and gain practical experience creating and troubleshooting these automated solutions to save time and be more productive.
• In Course 970, Microsoft Access^®: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, you learn how to utilize Microsoft Access 2007 to design robust database applications.
• In Course 194, Hands-On Visio^®: Designing Effective Visual Solutions, you gain the skills to create professional diagrams for a wide range of applications with Visio.
• Course 209, VBA Programming: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, provides the skills to develop customized solutions using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
• Course 972, Microsoft Office^®: Streamlining Tasks for Improved Productivity, offers the skills to leverage the extensive features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• In Course 146, Introduction to Microsoft^® Tools for Business Intelligence: Hands-On, you learn how to achieve an end-to-end business intelligence solution using the Microsoft toolset.