Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is the meat and potatoes of data analysis. It’s where all of the grunt work gets done in building reports and dashboards, and can be used as either a flat- or 3-D-database. Whether you’re tracking a budget or a list of projects, you want to be fluent in all that Excel has to offer.

Dashboards with Pivot Charts, Power Query and Power Maps

A dashboard is the holy grail of data. You allow non-data users to interact with your data in a way that provides meaningful button-driven interfaces with visual Pivot Charts and Power Maps. Power Query is the behind the scenes beast that makes all of this possible, and even provides you Read more…

PivotTables for Data Geeks

When you’ve progressed beyond the bare basics of PivotTables you start to realize how much more is possible by linking information from disparate sets and formatting it for other users to understand. The world of data will open up as you learn about the 3-D data model and the building Read more…

Logical Functions in Excel

Microsoft Excel allows you to perform many amazing calculations by combining logical functions with operation functions. For example, “count how many projects were completed ahead of time,” can be restated as “if a project was completed ahead of time, then count it.” Once you understand the lingo, the world of Read more…

Lookup Functions in Excel

Matching data between two sets of information is one of the first tools that most advanced Microsoft Excel users learn. For example, it allows you to take an account number from one list and look up the payments from another list. It forever relieves you of manually filtering data and Read more…

Tables and PivotTables for Beginners

Many users assume that Microsoft Excel information is already in a Table. It has lines and rows and columns – oh my! Truthfully, the core power of Excel only comes out when you convert that information into Tables and PivotTables. It’s so easy to filter and sort your information that Read more…

Visualize Information with Charts

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why are you writing so much? Charts are a great way to convey complex data in a meaningful visual format. In fact, studies have proven conclusively that readers will look at a chart and trust it before they will the accompanying data. Read more…

Avoid Manual Formatting with Conditional Formatting

We’ve all seen the worksheet where someone painstakingly color-coded information based on its status, amount, or next steps. But what to do when the next set of data comes in? Why, re-do all that work, of course! But when you learn about Conditional Formatting, you’ll learn that all that work Read more…

Ten Must-Know Functions

There are almost 500 functions built into Microsoft Excel, but the vast majority of work is carried out by these top-ten powerhouses. Starting with the venerable Sum function, you’ll quickly move into Aggregate functions that will count how many, calculate the highest number and average large sums. But functions are Read more…

Quick Tips for Excel

People who can make Microsoft Excel dance are the envy of their co-workers. Truth be told, these 10 simple steps will propel you into their ranks as you learn that you don’t have to do everything the hard way. Come to the easy side of Excel and learn the secrets Read more…

Document Structure in Office and Acrobat

Most everyone has had the experience of groping around in a dark room trying to find the light-switch. People who use Assistive Technology (AT) to read our documents have that same experience if we don’t use the tools at our disposal to create a clear structure. Just like you might Read more…