MS Excel | eLearning DevCon

Learning through Reading: Four Books You Can Pick Up About Excel

July 29, 2018June 5, 2018 Derick Bennett 0 Comments

A few months ago, we discussed some of the ways in which you could obtain further information regarding MS Excel. One of those ways that we mentioned included books. We’ve been asked to share our recommendations of the better excel related literature that we’ve come across and today is the day where we deliver!

Tune in to see our picks for the best sort of MS Excel books for anyone who is aiming to better understand this awesome piece of software. Mind you, these are the books that WE found to be useful. You’re free to have your own favorites or have strong opinions about the ones we chose—all that’s important is that you share your opinions respectfully and we’ll all be better for it.

Without further ado, here are our picks:

Microsoft Excel 2016 Bible

This book was put together by John Walkenbach. Don’t let the year 2016 fool you! The information that this text holds a lot of useful information about building charts and streamlining reports! One of the biggest issues that people tend to have is to integrate information between spreadsheets.

If that’s one issue that you’ve been having yourself, you may want to pay attention to what Mr. Walkenbach has to say about it.

Excel 2016 All-in-One for Dummies

You might be quite familiar with the “For Dummies” series of books. They’ve spawned a lot of helpful discussions about a wide variety of subjects which most people may be unfamiliar with. It’s a great precursor to a more advanced level of discussion.

The 2016 version of this book is a pretty big leap from its first incarnation. This version includes all the updates that have been done on the software since 2013. It includes certain shortcuts and formulas which weren’t available before. So if you’re looking to obtain pretty recent information, this is one book that you should consider buying.

Excel 2016 from Scratch

If you’re a complete beginner or already have an understanding of Excel and would like to refresh your knowledge, this is a good book to get. Not only does it have some fairly comprehensive and friendly discussions about the software, but it comes with exercises and demos.

This can really help those who learn best by doing rather than just by reading about it.

Points to Remember

There are more books published every day so it’s good to keep an eye out. You should always try to further improve your understanding of Excel since they are regularly running updates to further improve it. If books aren’t your cup of tea, there are a lot of other sources of information out there. Just be sure to pick the one that’s really going to help you grow your knowledge.

Do you have any particular MS Excel book that you would recommend? Which one?

MS Excel Training

Getting on the Same Page: How You Can Open the Minds of Others into Accepting MS Excel Training

June 27, 2018June 5, 2018 Derick Bennett 0 Comments

If we all lived in a perfect world, there wouldn’t be any worry regarding the rejection of new information. Sadly, it is something that has been known to happen. This is particularly true in the classroom environment. Learning doesn’t exactly end once you’ve earned your diploma. When you’re out holding down a job, you can come across a situation wherein learning something new is highly critical.

Of course, in this context, we’re referring to having to train people for MS Excel. We’re not denying that this piece of software is highly intimidating at first glance. Actually, even 10 glances later it can still be pretty anxiety-inducing. So if you’re taking on the task of training people and teaching them how to learn this software, we’ve got a few tips for you.

Explain the Need

While it would be ideal for people to just be open to the idea of learning, this isn’t something that happens all the time so it would be important to be prepared. What we do is at the start of it all, we explain why this training is necessary.

Getting people on the same page in terms of understanding what there is to gain from this is important. Make the learners feel that this is not something that is just going to benefit the business (if in a work environment). This is going to be something that they will be able to use in their personal lives.

Have a Clear Syllabus or Learning Plan

People like to see what they are about to go through. In a learning environment, this means that if you’re planning on teaching them MS Excel, you better break up your lessons into stages starting with the basics.

At least then, your learners will be able to use that as a guide to determine what they will be learning.

Give them Free Exploration Time

People need to navigate through new technology on their own in order to really understand how it works or see what they need further work on. Having free exploration time as a part of your learning plan or class, would highly benefit your learners.

Not only will they get to practice what they’ve learned so far but be able to retain it better because they’re doing a trial and error.

Points to Remember

Do not let your frustration affect your interactions—especially with the people who you are hoping to open up to the idea of learning something that they’ve written off. In an ideal world, everyone would be willing and eager to learn more but that is not the case a lot of the time. We simply need to be able to adjust your training method and carry on.

Have you come across individuals who weren’t as open to learning something new? How did it work out for you?

Learning MS Excel Training

Where Do You Go For Microsoft Excel Help and Training On Site?

April 30, 2018June 6, 2018 Derick Bennett 0 Comments

When you’re seeking additional knowledge, it is important to know where to obtain it from. After all, it isn’t enough to find a source—you need to make sure that it is legitimate and credible. MS Excel is a program that a lot of people—even us—needed help to really understand. Back around ten years ago or so, it wasn’t all that easy to secure trusted sources for excel tips.

Thankfully, today’s world has a completely different story when it comes to this. There are a lot of different places where you can go for further knowledge about MS Excel.

You can learn about Microsoft Excel Training on site at places like:

YouTube

This one surprised us, too. As it turns out, there are a lot of YouTube channels which focus on providing video tutorials for a wide variety of things. One of those things happens to be MS Excel. There are those that range from beginner levels to those of a more complex nature.

There are several channels to choose from that you can almost be spoiled for choices. We just want you to remember that each of them has a different approach in discussing the topic so it would be important to find a content creator with a certain flow to the lesson that suits you best.

After all, you should not force yourself to sit through a tutorial of someone whose teaching style is incompatible to your learning style.

Financial Literacy Classes

If there was anything that more and more banks and financial firms are doing nowadays, it would be to ramp up their offerings for financial literacy classes. They understand that in order for the economy to get better—and therefore providing a better environment for everyone—they need to help the populace in gaining a firmer grasp of their finances.

You can choose to go online and check the websites of organizations in your area to see if they have any information regarding upcoming financial literacy classes. A usual part of those classes would be a basic or even advanced utilization of MS Excel.

Books

Of course, literature would always be a prime resource for additional knowledge. What’s great about now is the fact that you do not need to purchase a physical copy of a book in order to utilize it. There are now electronic copies of Excel discussion and guide books.

We have quite our own collection of such books. For further specific recommendations, we think we’ll develop an article at a later date to talk about them—so do stay tuned for future discussions!

Points to Remember

Just because someone is presenting you with “knowledge” does not mean that you should automatically accept it to be the truth. You must be more discerning about your sources of information. After all, one of the biggest downsides of the internet is the fact that misinformation is now rampant. This, however, should not scare you off the trail of better working knowledge.

Do you have a trusted resource when it comes to MS Excel?

Basics MS Excel

MS Excel: What Do You Use It For?

April 16, 2018June 5, 2018 Derick Bennett 0 Comments

When someone mentions MS Excel, most people tune out of the conversation. This is unfortunate but highly likely due to the fact that not a lot of people consider the uses of this truly useful program. Today, we wanted to talk about some of its uses.

These examples are some of the ways that we personally utilize excel for. Let’s get started!

Keeping Records

One of the best things about MS Excel is the fact that you can input more than just numbers in it. You can use words and even build charts using this program. This makes it quite prime to be utilized for keeping records.

If you have a business, excel can be used to help keep track of logistics processes and even the finances! If you’re a student, you can utilize this to keep a clear and organized record of activities, classes, and projects. The applications are varied and are highly useful.

Budgeting

The term budget may not sound like something you’d want to get into but it is wholly necessary if you are going to be financially astute. Building a budget through excel is simple and can really help you keep track of your finances and even set a goal you’re working towards.

Having a budget is important if you’re ever going to be fully financially literate. It also helps keep things in order when you’re planning a major shindig like a wedding or a birthday party. Excel can really help you keep track of things—if you use it right, it can even turn into your planner or sorts.

Points to Remember

MS Excel does have a lot of practical uses—even when you are not running a business or a corporation. It can be used for something as simple as making a guest list or creating a budget for your home. We believe that if more people really tried to improve their understanding of this program, it would be a generally better situation for all.

Do you use Excel? What particular ways or things do you use it for?

Basics MS Excel

The Basics: What Exactly Is Microsoft Excel?

April 2, 2018June 6, 2018 Derick Bennett 0 Comments

Welcome to our very first article in eLearning DevCon! We’re quite excited to get started on our discussions! Today, we wanted to stick to basics before we jump into the deeper jargon. After all, it is important to get a hold of the basic information in order to open the door toward further understanding.

In the case of MS Excel, opening that door is truly important. After all, you need only to mention the name of this program and people will more than likely roll their eyes up with disdain or defeat. MS Excel has a reputation that reaches extremes. There are people including staff in corporate environments who love it and there are those that simply cannot make heads or tales of it.

What is MS Excel?

Developed in 1985, this program was created with the purpose to help users better organize data and to even to do calculations with. On a more advanced level, people were able to create their own formulas to suit what they needed the program to do. You can even have it as the tool that you use to create your graphs, charts, and tables for you. All you need to do is to program it properly.

When you open up the program, you’ll be greeted by spreadsheets—tabs and tabs of them—all for your usage. The spreadsheets are usually thought to be intimidating because of the sheer number of the rows and all the columns just seemingly waiting there.

Points to Remember

MS Excel is a just a program—much like many others that you use on a daily basis. This means that it there is a learning curve and training that you need to receive (on-site is sometimes better than remote training) which will allow you to become a proficient user of the Microsoft software. MS Excel may be intimidating but that’s only at the start. Once you get past your discomfort with the formulas, you will find that there was nothing to be worried about at all.

Do you make use of MS Excel? Did you think it was highly intimidating at first?