OT: another form of enabling

Not sure about a book. I learned Excel in a college computer literacy course and was required to learn Office 2007. Of course, four months later, 2010 comes out.

But I *can* recommend excellent on-line tutorial resources:

I will say that, for $25/month you do not get the exercise files. I've done tutorials with and without them. It's doable without them, but you'll have to work a little harder.

Excel is complex. Many people use it rather than make tables - which seems to me a waste. I get student lists from EGA for my courses which could have just as easily been done inside Word or WordPerfect as a table.

Good luck!

Dianne

Start using it at home for projects and all will become clear, if not, the Help section is excellent, if still stuck, MS has a great online service these days which has basically replaced all their old usenet groups.

I recently did a publishing job (never thought to get a pay check at my age, far less for something done on the computer) and was very nervous as I was winging it with Publisher. All went well until I got stuck on one little (but vital) thing. Went online to the group and within minutes had the answer and was away. Excel is really very useful.

I am one who works with excel every day, and at a level which is higher than most. It is a very powerful, and easily manipulated, mathematical program, and if you can think of it as that it makes it much easier to grasp!

I don't mean to sound snobbish, but experience has shown me that most people want excel competent people generally because they're not!

Like all complex things it is challenging to learn from a book, though working through tutorials is probably the easiest way to get a feel for it. It is much easier to work through it if there is a point to the exercise, and also easier to do in company as there are lots of little tips that make things so much easier which I've seldom seen mentioned in print.

Overall - don't get disspirited, most users only use about 1% of the capacity of excel!

Good Luck

Joanne in Western Australia

(Then I'll have to think of a project to make it relevant...hmmm, lots of you have used it to organize stash, so that might be a good project, but not necessarily for a beginner, LOL!)

sue

I agree with Joanne in Western Australia in saying that most folk only use a tiny portion of Excel.

You could try the "For Dummies" excel book. The "For Dummies" books are great, with lots of worked examples in their explanations and a very logical layout. There are also some similar titled series which are good if your local library doesn't have the "for dummies" series.

A really good beginner exercise is working out your household budget. Set up the spreadsheet so that the weekly, monthly and annual payments are clearly defined and then work out how much you'll have for savings and optional spend each month for the next year.

If you have the basics from a "For Dummies" worked out then you will have enough excel knowledge to get you going in most admin-like jobs. Anything else you need can be learnt from the free Microsoft tutorials on the web, which you can do as you need the skills.

Regards, Annette

Others have helped with tutorials, so I'll answer the 2nd part.

I use Excel for keeping track of DS's finances while he's at National Guard basic training and schooling. I have one page of all his bills and when they're due and another page where I keep track of his checking account. I'm sure I'm in that group Joanne mentioned who only uses 1% of its capabilities!

Good luck!

Joan

Same thing here. I have a couple of spreadsheets on Excel, but simple ones. I knew a little more when I was working but never really got past the beginning.

By the way, I hate it.

Joanne,

Thanks....you've confirmed two of my theories!

sue

Thanks for those recommendations and your comments about Lynda.com. I'd looked at that one, and if I decide to pay for it, I'll keep your comments in mind.

I've poke around this afternoon on the microsoft website and start with their tutorials for the very basics. Then check out totaltraining and the Dummies books.

Thanks, everyone, for your recommendations and your encouragement!

sue

I'm not a huge Excel fan, but I live with the "King of Excel" - DH does amazing things with it. For most of us, just doing the basics is straightforward, and using the tutorials on the Microsoft site will do it. But, if someone wants you to be "expert" - that's another ball game. DH writes a lot of macros (formulas, linked programs) which let you get a lot of power from the spreadsheet. If you're looking to be able to do those kind of things (it's not hard - just a way of thinking and learning the tools/shortcuts that aren't so obvious), I like the "CUE" books.

I basically ask DH about stuff WRT Excel, a lot - to do anything other than the basics. OTOH - I'm the one who plays with Illustrator - which is not so easy to really use.

Because I've seen the really great stuff he's managed to do in using the power of Excel (which most of us don't do) I don't hate it. But I do hate when people try to use Excel for what should be done by a database program, or a word processor, or graphics program. It's very weird to me when people send me little simple lists in Excel, rather than using their word processor.

Oh, well - good luck, Sue. I know this job search thing all too well. Ping me directly if you want DH to give you some assistance - he'll be happy to.

Ellice