Any proficient Microsoft Excel user will agree that MS Excel is a very powerful analytical tool. Wouldn't it be great to learn how to effectively use all the advanced Excel features at your disposal? In this practical and information-packed course, you'll see how to maximize Excel's functions and capabilities.

Most organizations rely heavily on Microsoft Excel to consolidate, analyze, and report financial information. Your company is probably no exception. By learning these advanced techniques, you can become more valuable to your organization. Your ability to generate information with increased accuracy, timeliness, and usefulness will lead you and others to better decision-making.

Over the next six weeks, you'll see how to use the additional analytical tools provided by Excel add-ins. You'll become skilled in the use of validation to protect the integrity of your worksheets from other, less experienced users. You'll impress your coworkers by learning how to add functional and eye-catching controls to any worksheet and how to use scenarios and data tables to quickly perform multiple what-if analyses. You'll discover advanced techniques for PivotTables, such as creating calculated fields and calculated items. You'll become adept at consolidating and importing data from other sources, and you'll master the art of conditional formatting to highlight duplicate entries and other common worksheet problems. Learn how Excel 2007 table tools take the complexity out of table creation and management. As you become proficient at nesting functions within other functions, you'll be able to accomplish just about anything Microsoft Excel has to offer!

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Syllabus:

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Over the next six weeks, we're going to explore Microsoft Excel 2007's new and advanced features. You'll learn how to use data analysis tools and techniques to improve your decision making, and you'll practice generating accurate data more quickly. By the end of this course, you'll be well prepared to contribute more value to your organization with your advanced understanding of Excel. To kick things off, we'll spend this first lesson exploring how you can modify Excel to streamline processes and make your work easier. You'll use the Excel Options dialog box to customize some of Excel's behind-the-scenes behavior, set up your Quick Access Toolbar, and take a look at the new and improved status bar and its customizable features. Mastering these processes will lay the foundation for our exploration of advanced topics throughout the course.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today we'll explore the new table management features in Excel 2007, discuss how to use data forms with Excel databases, and look at a few alternative database techniques. You'll be glad to know that formatting and working with tables has gotten much easier in this latest version of Excel. Now, instead of applying filters, total rows, and formats separately, you can perform these actions through a single user interface. We'll delve into how it's done. You'll also learn how data forms provide a more user-friendly method for adding, deleting, and editing records in a table, and you'll practice using a data form to search for and view records that match specific criteria. We'll wrap things up with a brief look at some of the practical applications for data forms.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

In this lesson, we'll tackle data validation techniques—your first line of defense against incorrect or missing data and the logical next step after data forms. You'll practice using whole number, decimal, date, time, list, and other forms of validation. After that, we'll explore the possibilities of custom validation, which allows you to apply validation on a cell or range of cells based on a formula you create. The possibilities for using it are limitless! You'll also learn how to create input messages and error alerts to guide the user's data entry, how to keep track of validation rules, and how to apply a custom validation rule to other cells so you don't have to create it all over again.

Friday - Lesson 04

In the first three lessons, we covered what you might call intro-level advanced Excel topics, and now it's time to head into more complex territory. So, today, let's start working with custom controls—graphical objects that help facilitate data input and are sure to impress users. We'll start by getting your Ribbon set up to work with custom controls, and then we'll walk through some practice exercises. You'll learn how to create standard and drop-down list boxes, check boxes, option buttons, and group boxes. You'll also master the process of creating a dynamic list box, which allows you to control the values in one list box based on the values chosen by your user in a separate custom control.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Today you'll discover how to use conditional formatting. And I'm not just talking about creating validation based on cell values. We'll do a quick review of that process, just as a refresher, but after that we're going to focus on formula conditional formatting. We'll work through nine different practice exercises that explore row conditional formatting, and we'll briefly discuss how the formula works after each exercise. You'll see how to use conditional formatting to hide errors, to highlight records based on multiple criteria, to track and alert you about due dates, to find the differences between two lists, to shade every other row (my personal favorite), and more. I think you'll especially enjoy learning how to set up a scorecard, which will show you problem areas in red, possible problems in yellow, and everything running smoothly in green. (Your manager will love this.)

Friday - Lesson 06

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Excel's consolidation function to efficiently summarize data from multiple sources. A lot of people do this the hard way, but with Excel's automatic consolidation feature, you'll no longer need to develop a web of formula links to multiple sources. Good-bye, potential for human error! We'll begin with an exercise on consolidating data within the same workbook, and after that, you'll practice consolidating using an advanced technique with category labels and wildcards. Next, we'll step things up with a practice exercise on consolidating from multiple workbooks. You'll also learn how to use automatic and manual outlining to view or hide different levels or sections of your information.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Excel's functions (or predefined calculations) are too numerous to completely cover in one lesson, so today we'll just focus on a few important ones spanning four categories: Logical, Database, Math & Trig, and Lookup & Reference. We'll start today with an overview of functions, take a look at the Insert Function dialog box, and then practice working with the IF function, nesting functions, the DSUM function, and the VLOOKUP function—all of which will come in handy when you need to perform a quick, thorough analysis of your data. You'll also set up and use the Conditional Sum Wizard.

Friday - Lesson 08

In this lesson, you'll find out all about importing external data. We'll begin with a practice exercise to get you comfortable with importing data from another Excel file, during which you'll see how to use the Microsoft Query Wizard. You'll test two methods for refreshing the target area for the imported data and find out how to edit an Excel query. After that, you'll do an import from an external database. Finally, you'll learn how to perform a Web query, which—you guessed it—allows you to import data from the Internet. The Web query feature is another new feature in Excel 2007.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

It's time to look at data tables, which let you compare the outcomes of different versions of the same formula without slogging through the process of calculating each of them. Data tables are very powerful what-if analysis tools that are great for analyzing potential outcomes of personal or business financial decisions. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use two types of data tables: a one-variable data table (which lets you substitute just one variable into the formula calculation) and the two-variable data table (which allows you to change multiple aspects of the formula).

Friday - Lesson 10

Today we'll explore three more of Excel's what-if analysis tools: Goal Seek, Scenario Manager, and Solver. You'll find out how to use Goal Seek to solve formulas backward—for example, you might want to do this if you knew the result you wanted but needed to determine how to change a single input cell in order to get that desired result. After that, we'll practice using Scenario Manager to create and save different input values and their results as scenarios (great for working on budgets). And finally, you'll put Excel's Solver to work to discover the optimal solution to models that have multiple variables and constraints.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, you'll discover how to use PivotTables, which are excellent for summarizing massive amounts of data and viewing different cuts of the information quickly. There are two methods for creating PivotTables, and you'll practice using both. You'll also learn how to edit a PivotTable, how to filter the table to create individual reports, how to format a PivotTable to make it reader-friendly, and how to use calculated fields and items. After this, you'll create a PivotChart based on the data fields in your PivotTable. We may not be quite done with the course, but after mastering PivotTables and PivotCharts, you'll certainly be able to count yourself an advanced Excel user.

Friday - Lesson 12

We'll begin our final lesson with a look at the functions available in the Analysis ToolPak, including two of my favorites: the Moving Average and Sampling tools. You'll complete an exercise using advanced filters, and then I'll show you some of my favorite Excel tips and tricks. You'll find out how to work with the View Side by Side tool and how to use the Watch Window to keep tabs on your data when you're updating a workbook. We'll wrap things up with practice exercises using array formulas and the AutoSum Tool. When you're done with this lesson—and the course—you'll want to pass along the techniques you've learned to friends and colleagues who are still be wrestling with Excel!

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Chad Wambolt.

Chad Wambolt is a graduate of Boise State University, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in accounting. He has spent his entire professional career in the finance field, working for both privately and publicly held companies with sales ranging from $500 million to $3 billion. Through the course of his career, Chad has become an expert user of Microsoft Excel. His knowledge of Excel's capabilities has helped organizations streamline processes and save countless hours of labor. Chad has taught Excel to students of varying skill levels since 1997.

Requirements:

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (B000HCVR1M), Microsoft Office Excel Home and Student 2007(B000HCVR26), Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (B000HCZ8EO), Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (B000HCVR3A), Microsoft Office Professional 2007 (B000HCVR30), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 (B000HCTY26) are all acceptable (software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins); Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). Note: This course is not suitable for Macintosh users. Completion of the online Intermediate Microsoft Excel 2007 course or a similar course is recommended.

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