Best Way To Learn Excel 2010 (Self Study)
 

Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to learn Excel without having to attend a classroom course? (Looking for something like online, DVD, etc.)

Oh, and please don't say the Microsoft "Getting Started" link in the Excel Help section. :)

What level of user do you need to be when you are done studying? Basic, intermediate, advanced?

What will you use Excel for? As a consumer of spreadsheets or as a creator of spreadsheets with pivot tables and multi-linked tabs?

Probably intermediate.

Consumer, but certainly would like to create some basic stuff, e.g. expense ledgers, etc. Honestly, I don't even know what the terms you used mean.

That sounds elementary to me, if you're just going to work with tables of numbers on the screen. The main thing then is to learn about formatting, basic formulas, and know the difference between absolute and relative references, which aren't too hard.

Go to the bookstore and flip through the pages of some books to see which have a style and level of difficulty that is appropriate for you.

I worked with a couple of people who swore by the courses over at lynda.com

It's not free, but it's pretty cheap and you can take as many courses as you want. It's $25 a month, and over 1,200 different courses.

Uh, the reason I posted my message was to get some recommendations from members here who have used specific methods and I did not ask for books. If someone wants to endorse, let's say David Pogue's book, fine.

Thanks for coming through as usual, Mike. Were you thinking of this one?

Excel 2010 Essential Training

Excel is extremely simple. It is just a bunch of cells. In each cell you enter one of the following:

Nothing - Just leave it blank
A number
Text
A formula

Something like that or some of the others if you needed more advanced stuff.

They used them mostly for the adobe training, but said it was excellent.

Microsoft also offers some basic and very specific training off this page

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...010369467.aspx

you can for example get basics and create a worksheet, or very specific courses dedicated to just certain functions. You can also download them as powerpoint documents to do offline work.

Note that if you are using a powerpoint version prior to 2010 you will also need to download the 60 meg viewer for 2010, and to view it online you will need to have silverlight installed

Thanks for posting that, it looks like an interesting offering. There's always more to learn.
I'm guessing you've never used any error checking functions, created pivot tables, or done any VBA programming.

Exactly. Just like flying a plane is extremely simple. You're either:

ascending,
descending,
cruising,
and sometimes you need to put the wheels down.

I think this analogy could be extended to many other activities that are actually quite simple.

Kinda like brain surgery:

cleaning
opening
cutting
closing
and sometimes you have to do it again.

Easy-peasey

:D

I would go get a copy of Excel for Dummies at your local bookstore. It seems like the level of expertise you need is about what the books in that series are good for. At least, start there, and see how you feel.

For me, I've found that I learn more from doing. I seem to remember that the exercises in the "for Dummies" series were useful.

My public library has a lot of courses (classroom) as well as a ton of books, DVDs, and CD-ROMs for excel, powerpoint, word, etc. Haven't tried any of them, personally, but they do have at least 30 different resources at all different levels (beginner through advanced).

My point is the approach to take to learning the program. Do not make it any harder than it is. Once again it is just a bunch of cells. One of four things go in each cell. Once that is mastered one may move on to more complex tasks. I rather doubt someone that is just learning it cares about pivot tables or macro creation. For example, when I learned to fly as this is a flying related forum, we do not practice spin recovery during the first lesson.

I agree completely - I think that the snark you got earlier in the thread is more because, for you and me, this is simple, so it really does just amount to the four things you mentioned. But if you're not familiar with Excel then saying that "these four things are all you need to know" is akin to reducing brain surgery to four simple things. I've found that a lot of people lack the foundation to be able to relate to Excel in four simple things.