Excel (2003 preferred) self paced learning

I'm probably just an intermediate Excel user but have recently accepted a transfer out of IT into a Finance position which will require using and eventually creating/managing a lot of complicated Excel spreadsheets. The position starts in about 4 weeks so I was hoping to bone up on my Excel skills between now and then. I don't need a cert since I've already got the job, but I don't want to fall flat on my face or have to learn Excel AND business operations at the same time.

There's a chance my employer will pay for some training, but I'm on the fence whether it's needed. I feel that I could get what I need from some good quality learning software and text(s). I'm looking for suggestions along those lines. We're mainly using Office 2003 but have snagged a few 2007 OEM installs on the newest laptops (my current laptop has Office 2007, but I have Office 2003 at home). I'm thinking that my shortcomings are in fundamentals so I'm thinking of learning 2003. The only differences from what I can tell in 2007 is the layout.

There's some training available on Microsoft's site, but I was hoping for something a little more neatly wrapped (focused and comprehensive).

The community college I go to uses the "New Perspectives" series of books. I don't think its too bad, it walks you through how to do a task and then has several additional cases and problems at the end of the section, though without an "expert" checking your work I'm not sure how much the end of chapter tasks would help you.

The book partners with SAM, which is a online test of performing tasks. I hate it though, it is flash based which makes it fairly unresponsive. Also makes you perform the task 1, sometimes 2 ways to get it right, regardless if there are other methods. I recognize part of the problem is the radical layout change from 2003 to 2007, but it is still a PITA to use. I suggest staying as far away as possible from SAM for now.

Given all of this, I still got my Excel 2007 cert and hope to get my Access 2007 cert in the next month. Granted it does help that passing the cert gives me a 100 on the final

disk11 said:

The community college I go to uses the "New Perspectives" series of books. I don't think its too bad, it walks you through how to do a task and then has several additional cases and problems at the end of the section, though without an "expert" checking your work I'm not sure how much the end of chapter tasks would help you.

The book partners with SAM, which is a online test of performing tasks. I hate it though, it is flash based which makes it fairly unresponsive. Also makes you perform the task 1, sometimes 2 ways to get it right, regardless if there are other methods. I recognize part of the problem is the radical layout change from 2003 to 2007, but it is still a PITA to use. I suggest staying as far away as possible from SAM for now.

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Thanks for the lead. Congrats on the cert, having Excel AND Access would guarantee you never starve as those are in-demand skills and probably always will be.

I hear you about those flash based self paced training sites. That's why I'm asking here for suggestions. I'm off to look into New Perspectives.

Looks good to me, so I bought the Excel 2003 New Perspectives book. $35 shipped from Amazon (through one of their resellers)

Open excel, press "F1"

The help is really good. I'm not sure how complex the spreadsheets are, but most of the stuff is there.

Do you know if you will be using an embedded VB?

Oh, and I found some decent looking stuff here --> http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/9245/

{PMS}fishy said:

Open excel, press "F1"

The help is really good. I'm not sure how complex the spreadsheets are, but most of the stuff is there.

Do you know if you will be using an embedded VB?

Oh, and I found some decent looking stuff here --> http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/9245/

Click to expand...

Thanks Pete, that's how I currently work with Excel. I was hoping to have a more intuitive understanding as I will likely need to think quick and be creative to develop some proceses around how these worksheets will be used. Not sure if the existing spreadsheets have VB since I haven't started directly working with them, and won't know if we'll use VB in future solutions until we know exactly what we're going to need them to accomplish. We're basically reinventing some internal processes and it's part of my job to streamline them.

A good RTFM was in order though .

** edit - I see - thanks for the link, I'll be sure to keep VB in the back of my mind...

What do you want to learn to do in Excel? All the financial stuff I have ever used excel for ended up being more complexity in setting it up rather than in actually using excel.

ya, most complex stuff i see is making the file, using math to do various items.

lynda.com if you got some cash :d

Excell/F1 is good advice. Any book/CD/pre-packaged training is going to teach you a bunch of stuff you may never use. I've been doing spread sheets since '88 (Lotus 123!).

Learn to use the IF arguement..it makes spreadsheets "think". Macros are handy sometimes. VB script, well you might get into that later. And Trace Precedents, Trace Dependents will be your friends.

And, as others have pointed out, the initial set up of a spreadsheet is very important, but the only way to learn that is to make the mistakes.