Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2013
Chad Wambolt
Course Summary
A new session of this course starts monthly. Become proficient in using Microsoft Excel 2013 and discover countless shortcuts, tricks, and features for creating and formatting worksheets quickly and efficiently.
-
+
Course Description
Do you work with numbers? Then you need to master Microsoft Excel 2013—and this is the place to do it. Even "non-techie" beginners will find it easy to learn Excel in this fun, step-by-step online course.
These lessons will teach you dozens of shortcuts and tricks for setting up fully formatted worksheets quickly and efficiently. You'll also learn the secrets behind writing powerful mathematical formulas and discover how to use the function wizard to quickly and automatically calculate statistics, loan payments, future value, and more.
In addition, you'll get tips on sorting and analyzing data, designing custom charts and graphs, creating three-dimensional workbooks, building links between files, endowing your worksheets with decision-making capabilities, and automating frequently-repeated tasks with macros and buttons. This informative course covers the new Quick Analysis, Flash Fill, and charting capabilities available in Excel 2013.
This is not a tutorial, but an in-depth class where you'll get training, help, and personal support from an experienced instructor as you're learning Excel basics step-by-step. By the time you're done, you'll be using this vital Office 2013 tool like a pro.
-
+
Course Syllabus
Week 1
Lesson 01
In our first lesson, you'll develop a solid understanding of the Excel interface. You'll become fluent in the secret language spoken only by Excel users, you'll discover the best way to correct just about any mistake you might make in Excel, and you'll find yourself gliding effortlessly from cell to cell, leaving behind expertly written labels, numbers, and formulas.
Lesson 02
In this lesson, you'll learn five simple steps you should always follow to ensure that your worksheets are always well-planned, well-constructed, and beautifully formatted.
Week 2
Lesson 03
Our third lesson will teach you the tricks of the Excel masters: a wide variety of useful shortcuts guaranteed to save you time, energy, and frustration. We'll also spend some time working with the Quick Analysis and Flash Fill tools, introduced in Excel 2013. By the time you finish this lesson, you'll really start to feel like an Excel pro.
Lesson 04
Do you know the difference between a relative reference, an absolute reference, a mixed reference, and a circular reference? You will after this lesson. Today, we focus on writing sophisticated formulas that can help ease us through some rather sticky scenarios.
Week 3
Lesson 05
With enough practice, most Excel users quickly become adept at organizing their worksheets across two dimensions: rows and columns. But only a select few will learn how to take their worksheets into the third dimension. Today, you'll join that exclusive group. Prepare to have your socks knocked off as you gain hands-on experience in the construction of three-dimensional workbooks.
Lesson 06
No Excel course would be complete without a discussion of Excel's amazing data-crunching capabilities. Today, you'll not only learn how to build a table in Excel, you'll also learn how to subtotal, sort, and filter.
Week 4
Lesson 07
In this lesson, we'll explore the exciting world of charts. You'll build your first graph today, and you'll learn how easy it is to adjust the chart type, labels, titles, colors, and many other aspects of your chart.
Lesson 08
Today, you'll dig deep into Excel's charting capabilities. You'll explore everything from bar charts and line charts to more prosaic graphs like the pie chart and 3-D charts. You'll find out how to personalize your charts with photographs, text labels, and drawings. You'll also discover the best ways to format your chart for print or otherwise display the truly impressive charts that you'll be creating.
Week 5
Lesson 09
Excel includes many powerful functions that can automatically perform some very complicated tasks for you. In today's lesson, you'll learn some very interesting ways to put these functions to work for you. You'll find out how to ask Excel to magically derive averages, modes, maximums, minimums, and other useful statistics from nothing more than a column or two of numbers.
Lesson 10
We'll continue our exploration of Excel functions with an in-depth look at Excel's handy financial functions today. By the time this lesson is over, you'll be able to figure out how much money you'll have when you retire, when your kids reach college, or just before your next vacation. You'll be able to calculate the monthly payment on just about any type of loan, and you'll know how to figure out how long it will take to pay off your credit cards. You'll even create an amortization table of your very own, just like the one lenders use to track a loan's payoff amount over time.
Week 6
Lesson 11
Students often rank this lesson as one of their favorites. Today, you'll find out how to automate just about any task you find tedious or time-consuming. You'll discover how to move your most frequently used commands from their present, obscure locations to a much more convenient place: the toolbar that's always perched at the very top of your screen. You'll also learn how you can use macros to reduce just about any complex task to a single keystroke.
Lesson 12
I think you'll be intrigued by our final lesson, in which you'll learn how to use Excel to aid you in decision making. We'll use a special function in Excel that allows it to make comparisons and use those comparisons as the basis for important decisions.
-
+
Recommended Background
Requirements
• Internet access
• Email
• One of the following browsers:
o Mozilla Firefox
o Microsoft Internet Explorer (9.0 or above)
o Google Chrome
o Safari
• Adobe PDF plug-in (a free download obtained at Adobe.com .)Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows 8; Microsoft Excel 2013 or Microsoft Office 2013 are acceptable. A free 30-day trial of Office 365 Home Premium may be available at (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/). Then, a subscription can be purchased for as little as $9.99 per month. Please be sure to install the software on your computer before the course begins.
Note: This course is not suitable for Macintosh users who are using the Office Mac Home versions or for users of older versions of Microsoft Excel. "Starter Version" and "Web App" versions of Microsoft Excel 2013 will not work with the full version of Excel taught in this course. -
+
Course Format
Online, self-paced, instructor monitored. Each course contains a discussion area to submit questions to a real instructor.
-
+
Suggested Reading
