There’s always something new and interesting to learn in Excel. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently, and links to new and updated Excel resources.
Power BI
- Learn about the pitfalls of Power Query, in this series of articles from Gil Raviv. He previously led the Power Query team at Microsoft, so he’s certainly well-qualified!
- If you want to learn more about Power BI, Ken Puls is writing a series of free Do It Yourself (DIY) BI ebooks. The first one has Excel tips for Power BI, and other books are coming soon.
- For more information, I’ve put together a Power BI Resources page on my website. There are links to helpful sites, and a couple of video playlists, to get you started. You can also download the resource list (in PDF format)
Pivot Tables and Excel Tables
- On his Let’s Excel blog, Don Tomoff shows how easy it is to format a pivot table with one click. He included one of my videos, so he must be very smart! 😉
- Chandoo shows a problem with Excel Table formulas that refer to a cell in the row below. Have you run into that problem before? To fix it, I refer to the row above instead. (Level – Intermediate)
Excel Charts
- The Science Goddess explains how to build a backwards bar chart, with an example of where she would use one, and why.
- Ann K. Emery shows the steps for planning and building an Excel chart, from the sketching phase, to the completed chart. What works, and what doesn’t? There’s a video that shows the process too.
- On his Clearly and Simply blog, Robert Mundigl shows an amazing interactive Excel dashboard. Usually you have to click on something to run a macro, but Robert makes things happen on the selected chart, when you simply hover over a data point with the mouse.
Excel Tips
- On his Engineering Excel blog, Charlie Young shows two quick ways to troubleshoot broken Excel formulas. He uses an engineering example, but the tips are useful for any formulas.
Excel Skills
- If you’re looking for a new adventure in Excel, the latest Office 365 Developer Podcast covers the basics of getting started with Office 365 Development. The “Getting Started” section starts at about the 22 minute mark, and the page has many links to resource material that you can use. My favourite link — Modern JavaScript for Ancient Web Developers.
- On Daily Dose of Excel blog, Dick Kusleika posted a few questions that he used to test a job applicant’s Excel skills. On a similar topic, Nick Larsen has great advice on how developers can talk about themselves in interviews.
- Mike Girvin (ExcelIsFun) has a free two-hour video course, Excel for Accountants. It starts with some basics, and covers Pivot Tables, Power Query, functions, and more. Download the workbook to follow along, and go at your own pace. There is a list of topics, and times where they start in the video.
Excel Resources and Tools
- Andrew Engwirda has updated his Excel VBA tools, to add a few more features. It’s an amazing collection of tools, at a surprisingly low price.
Excel Humour
After all that heavy reading, take a break and read the weekly collection of Excel tweets, to see what people are saying about our favourite spreadsheet.
- For example, “I try to break Microsoft Excel at least once a day or I feel like I wasn’t working hard enough”
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