Tips for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Other Applications

Microsoft Excel

I've developed a number of tutorials and articles for Excel, mostly for internal consumption. I'm porting some to HTML, just working my way down the list.

Every now and then I get asked, "where should I start?". If I had to pick out 5 things to learn, they would be AutoFilter, SUMPRODUCT, VLOOKUP, pivot tables, and stacking. That might strike some of you as an odd selection, but two of them really get at the heart of how you use Excel and how you're going to hand work off to others. The 4 functions listed are my basic tool kit for doing 90% of my work, though they are all predicated on having a good data set to work with.

Posted Discussions

  1. What is a Model?
  2. The 10-Day Test
  3. Stacking Data for Better Analysis

Posted Tutorials

  1. Excel 101
  2. AutoFilter
  3. Charting in Excel
  4. Excel Error Messages
  5. Selective Exclusion or Inclusion using SUMPRODUCT
  6. Introduction to Basic Pivot Tables
  7. 15-Second Pivot Tables - Building Proficiency
  8. Introduction to Logical Statements and Logical Math
  9. Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel
  10. Track Changes in Excel
  11. Creating Default Excel Workbooks and Worksheets
  12. Changing the Default Save Location For Your Excel Files
  13. Formatting Multiple Spreadsheets Simultaneously
  14. Basic Text to Column (Fixed Width)
  15. INDEX-MATCH Combos
  16. Introduction to VLOOKUP
  17. VLOOKUP and IF/ISERROR combos
  18. Using VLOOKUP to Match Lists
  19. Cell Parsing: LEFT, MID, RIGHT
  20. A Function is a Function is a Function ... Right?
  21. Naming Ranges
  22. Introduction to SUMPRODUCT
  23. Advanced SUMPRODUCT - part 1
  24. Advanced SUMPRODUCT - part 2
  25. Math with Dates, Why there are only 38711 - TODAY() days before Christmas
  26. Inserting Linked Data From Excel Into Word
  27. CONCATENATING Text In Excel
  28. Data Validation
  29. Basic SUMIF and COUNTIF
  30. SUMIF with wildcards
  31. Creating Custom Lists in Excel
  32. Introduction to Arrays
  33. Conditional Formatting: Cell Value Is
  34. Conditional Formatting: Formula Is
  35. Scorecards in Excel
  36. Introduction to Forms Tools
  37. Bullet Charts in Excel
  38. Using the Watch Function in Excel
  39. Cameras, Copy Picture, Paste Picture Link and more really cool stuff
  40. Fill Colors in the Office Suite
  41. Advanced Applications of SUMPRODUCT (part 3)
  42. Calculating Net Work Days in Excel
  43. A Quick Overview of Excel's Drawing Toolbar
  44. Introduction to INDIRECT
  45. VLOOKUP-MATCH Combos
  46. Matching Two Lists in Excel
  47. A Quick and Easy Way to Fill in Blank Cells
  48. Paste Special (aka ALT + E, S)
  49. Basic Data Cleansing
  50. Cleaning Data With Notepad
  51. LARGE, SMALL, and RANK
  52. Highlight Top N Values in a List