Looks good! I'll soon be using the clever in-cell graphing, and conditional formatting examples 2 & 3 on some larger tables.

A quick note: check cell F17 of "Absolute vs. Relative references." It looks like the formula should be $c$10, not $c$60.

Hey, I just started reading your company's blog. Some really interesting stuff, keep up the good work!

Loved the Excel tips. The only thing I would add is that if you are doing sheets of numbers and want to include the REPT function to add some nifty graphs, you can add a full block (under add symbol) to once cell in the sheet and use that as the character in REPT. This actually gives you solid bars that look exactly like Excel charts. Repeating the "|" character looks a little strange, imho.

Looks like there will be no need for this in the new Office release though, I think there is some type of cell shading function/bar function based on the cell's numeric value. Haven't played with a beta release so not too sure what it does exactly.

Paul

lol, I've just seen the original thread for the in-cell Excel graphics - I think my idea has already been mentioned previously - at least 100 times!

Paul

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Some quick comments:
- Very useful to a quick and basic understanding what you can do with Excel. Many people tell me they know Excel, but often not so quite ...
- I like the what-why-how pattern.
- I miss general sheet design principles. There is barely a structured approach available (a huge lack - and a genuine opportunity), e.g. to separate parameters in different cells, to plan ahead, to document yr formulas, to colour input cells, to breakdown into more cells to facilitate troubleshooting, to use names for parameters rather than referenced cells to ease reading formulas, etc.
- In "absolute vs relative references", I wld add the other two options (relative col- absolute row, and v.v.) Also, mention F4 to toggle (I see many people manually add the $).
- I don't like "always FALSE" in yr VLOOKUP instruction. Especially in huge dBases this can be painfully slow. I do agree that TRUE can give problems, but I think the absolute statement is a step too far. I suggest to change into "always use FALSE, unless you hv a reason not to" (ok, this looks like I am a lawyer - forget it).

I hope these comments don't sound negative. Overall it's very useful. You guys continue to impress me. Keep up the good work!

This is a great idea, and I'll be using it with my stat computing class this week.

The only thing I don't like are the charts with two axes - this is a bad idea! It's very easy to manipulate the scales to mislead. I think it is better to use two charts, clearly illustrating that there are two different data sources (and leaving no doubt which axis belongs to which series).

on Keyboard Exercise 3, Control-Shift-* selects the current region, so you don't need to use the arrows keys.

Good as far as it goes. It's the kind of thing I feed as tidbits to colleagues when I am feeling generous :)

But I too (like Henck) am waiting with bated breath for more on Data-Transform-Present, sheet design and so forth.

Keep up the good work

The document looks great, but I might add a tab on managing printing from Excel. Kill the gridlines; center Horizontally; fit to 1 tall 2 wide; and, columns or rows on multiple pages are everyday things that users may need an introduction to.

Keep doing what you are doing. Great stuff.

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Just a minor point. In your keyboarding examples, you use Alt-E-D-R and Alt-E-D-C. In my experience, Ctrl+- (Control and minus key) instead of Alt-E-D is easier to remember, as well as being one keystroke less.

Several comments:
1) Just discovered your site. Love it. Been wanting to get some Excel chops, and this seems a good starting point.
2) Shout out to my homeys (I live in Reston).
3) Wahoowa! (PhD in CS, 1995).

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I regularly have to export contact information from our database, and I never knew a function could split the full name into two columns. Thank you for sharing this tip!

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This is a great summary and found some things i didn't know. I would consider covering Index/Match as it is totally essential for real excel mastery and much more robust than VLookUp. It's a bit tougher concept, but that's all the more reason to include it. I think that you guys would do a good job explaining it.

Very nice for beginners. But I thought you guys were hardcore. Where's SUMIF? The database functions? Pivot tables? Using SUMPRODUCT to do SUMIFs with multiple criteria?

Great start!

But I have to echo Aaron on VLookup vs. Match + Index. Not only is Match+Index more robust, it also uses less memory and calculates more rapidly. Rather than being an advanced tool, Match + Index should be taught to the exclusion of Vlookup & Hlookup in any excellent Excel training.

Also needed are Indirect() and Offset(), although these are only indispensable for more complex worksheets.

Then there is the little known trick with aggregate functions (such as {=SUM(IF(a1:a10>0,a1:10,0))} ). This is far more powerful than the SUMIF() function. To get the curly braces, use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER after typing the formula.

I realize you may not choose to include the above, but I figure mentioning them might inspire others.

Finally, the chartjunk example still has an unnecessary 3-D component. Reducing the graph to 2-D, eliminating the grey background, etc. would be an improvement.

I love this site!!!

I just got a new computer with Excel 2007. Confusing?
Where is "HELP"
Where is "Format"
Where is "Tools" "Insert"
How do I "unhide a column"
Is there an instruction manual on line?

.
J - Just
U - Umazing
I - Interesting
C - Complete
E - Excel

Package....

Kudos to team !!!

Great set of worksheets. One complaint - while some of the exercise worksheets contain an answer key, others (notably the conditional formatting one) do not, making it difficult to verify if the correct solution was used.