Get Free Help With Your Excel Problems

Do people email you, asking for Excel help? Co-workers? Family members? Strangers from the Internet?

Email Message

Here’s a favourite “Email Help” message from my mailbox this week:

Subject: help me in excel
Dear sir,
I have a problem in excel i requesting to you solve this. I am sending the data of excel sheet pls look in to that
If you have want any information on that please get back to me
I am waiting for your reply
Regards
Anonymous

Those “Dear Sir” emails make me feel like Peppermint Patty. At least the attached Excel file was small, unlike some of the multi-megabyte files I’ve been sent.

Sorry Anonymous, but I can’t help with your Excel problem today. My desk is piled high with work, and I won’t have any extra time to decipher your file.

Where to Get Help

Fortunately, there are places where Anonymous, or you, can get free help with your Excel problems, or ask questions about other Microsoft products.

• You can post questions in the online Excel help forums, which provide free peer-to-peer support
• You could even post a short cry for help in Twitter, and it’s likely that someone will respond. Use the hashtag #Excel in your tweet

Ask Questions in Public

These are much better options than emailing me, and asking for private help. Why?

• There are people reading those messages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – you have a much better chance of getting a quick reply.
• Thousands of people are reading the messages, and probably some of them are experts in the area where you need help.
• Responses are usually very quick, and you’ll sometimes get multiple replies, giving you a variety of solutions.
• When you post a question and get a response, it might help someone else who has the same question later. They can find your question and answer by searching in Google.

Good luck, Anonymous! I hope you find someone who can help with that Excel question.
_______________________