We are going to dig into not just the basics of Excel, but four advanced techniques and tools that can take your Excel skills to the next level: Data Analysis, VBA Programming, PivotTables, and Power Query.
Microsoft Excel is the industry standard for spreadsheets and is a part of the Microsoft Office suite of software. Excel consist of sets of rows and columns that feature:
The data analysis functionality in Excel is commonly underutilized.
By taking advantage of the built-in data analysis tools in Excel, you can instantly create different types of charts, including line and column charts, or add graphs. Analyzing large data sets with Excel makes work easier by being able to:
The first skill course included in our Microsoft Excel Learning Path, Complete Excel 2019 for Beginners, walks through the data analysis functionalities of Excel. In this course, a solid grounding in the basics of Excel is provided to guide you towards becoming more confident with spreadsheets and bring your knowledge to an intermediate level. Exercises and sample files are provided along the way to provide hands-on practice as you start performing data analysis to become more confident with spreadsheets.
Visual Basic for Application, VBA, is a macro programming language. VBA is a built-in programming language in Excel that allows you to write your own custom functions or commands in a spreadsheet. Once you master the VBA language, you can take the ease and speed of your work to a whole new level to improve efficiency and reduce repetitive work.
VBA will allow you to expand beyond the tasks you can perform with the built-in Excel tools to automate frequently performed tasks.
As you become more familiar with Excel, you will notice that while the built-in tools have already advanced your work productivity, additional customization will allow you to take your work to the next level. Using VBA allows you to create custom functions and automate tasks.
Using Visual Basic for Applications in Excel you will be able to write custom functions and commands whenever you need them.
Specifically, some things you will learn in the two SAP Visual Basic for Applications skills courses, Excel VBA Programming for Beginners & Excel VBA Programming – Intermediate, feature how-tos in the following areas:
PivotTables are a powerful data analysis function. A PivotTable is a table that consists of rows, columns, data fields, and pages. It is used to store the summary of a certain data set in a condensed manner so you can easily analyze data in a more meaningful way. The components of the PivotTable can be easily moved around which enables you to manipulate the data in real-time, view differences in a large amount of information, and organize a large amount of data.
You can advance your data analysis skills and organize information more efficiently with the use of PivotTables. Use PivotTables to perform advanced data analysis and make use of the following features:
Using PivotTables in Excel you will be able to perform advanced data analysis.
Excel PivotTables helps you to quickly organize customized tables from large data groups allowing you to analyze the data more efficiently. Manipulating the data once it’s organized in a PivotTable will help you identify recurring patterns, if any. Patterns and themes in the data will help in accurately forecasting and reporting on the data. PivotTables help to create reports efficiently, saving time from creating manual reports.
Specifically, some skils featured in the Microsoft Excel Advanced PivotTables course are how-to:
Ready to make your Excel spreadsheet even more powerful? Power Query allows you to analyze your data right from within Excel, while seamlessly connecting to a wide range of external data sources. You can easily reshape and transform your data along the way if necessary.
Power Query is a built-in feature that provides fast and easy data gathering and shaping capabilities.
Power Query allows you to:
With Power Query, you can find and connect data across millions of rows of data from Excel or other databases. Specifically, you can use Power Query to:
The last in-depth skills course in our Microsoft Excel Learning Path, Power Pivot, Power Query & DAX in Excel, explains all about Power Queries in addition to Power Pivot and DAX to advance your mastery skills of Excel.
Complete the Michael Management Company Microsoft Excel learning path to increase your excel skills from a spreadsheet novice to an Excel Master. After you complete this path you will be comfortable working with all of the basic to advanced techniques.