MASTERING EXCEL
WHAT TO MASTER
To become awesome in Excel, you need to master key areas/topics in Excel. For me, following are the key areas. In my blog I will share my knowledge in each of these areas. Please do subscribe to my website
1) Formulas
2) Pivot Tables / Excel Tables
3) Visual Basic for Application (VBA)
4) Userforms / Form Controls/ Active X controls
5) Excel Dashboards/ Charts / Data Visualization
6) Power Query / “M”
7) Power Pivot/ DAX
8) OTHERS (SQL, Regular Expressions, ADO etc)
HOW TO MASTER
“If you Work on Something a Little Bit Every Day, You End Up With Something That is Massive” – Kenneth Goldsmith
Learn something new everyday. Whenever you read something interesting (tip or trick) about Excel just write it down by area/topic in an Excel File and try to apply that tip or trick with your own data or with your own situation.
I maintain
- A folder in my PC by the name of “Things I learnt” where I dump all the new things by KEY AREAS which I learn from others or from my own experimentation
- An Excel File where I maintain a log of Skills I learnt, Source of Learning, and Application of that skill
I also feel that blogging is great way of learning. Writing a blog post or an article forces you to think critically and logically and requires you to do good research on the topic.
Following are my sources of learning
1) Books
Books provide an organized way of learning Excel whereas through BLOGs, Websites and Forums, you haphazardly learn new skills. Here are the books I have learnt a lot from
- Excel Power Programming with VBA (Mr. Spreadsheet’s Bookshelf)
- Building Data Models With Power Pivot
-
Learn to Write DAX: A practical guide to learning Power Pivot for Excel and Power BI
-
M Is for (Data) Monkey: A Guide to the M Language in Excel Power Query
2) Websites and blogs of Microsoft MVPs
3) Excel Forums
Excel Forums are a great way to learn new techniques in Excel. Whenever you get stuck somewhere ask a question in one of these forums.
But before asking first google your query because more often than not, you will find that same question has already been asked and answered to satisfaction.
Experts in Excel also use these forums to sharpen their skill. Every now and then, new and challenging questions/problems are posted. By trying to solve these problems and by following the solutions posted, you learn a lot of new things in Excel
www.mrexcel.com/forum
www.excelforum.com
https://stackexchange.com/
4) Google 🙂
Google anything and everything you want to learn. Not because Google is an Excel expert itself. But because Google directs you the Right Place for learning
You will get to know so many wonderful people on this planet and wonderful Excel Stuff by Googling