In the past I have mentioned how I have spent and continue to spend a lot of time improving my Excel skills. Developing these skills has helped me take on more at work (and spend less time doing it), improve processes, and generally be capable of doing things in Excel that others are not able to do.
Needless to say, if you use Excel at your job or plan on eventually having a job that uses it, I highly recommend developing your skills as much as possible so that you will stand out at your work place.
After spending the past two-plus years using Excel almost nonstop at my job I have not only developed advanced Excel skills but also have found the best resources to improve my skills. For me it has been a mix of books and websites. I will start by showing great resources for beginners and people just starting out and then show the resources that have allowed me to develop advanced skills that few people pursue.
Beginner to Intermediate Skill Level
The following books are great resources for becoming better at Excel:
These two books are great introductory and reference books for Excel. They are comprehensive and are almost guaranteed to cover almost any topic within Excel you are looking for information on.
There are tons of websites out there that cover various Excel topics. Most of these websites focus on more advanced topics, so I will list them below. In all honesty if you just Google a specific question you have you are almost certain to find the answer within the first few results.
Advanced Skill Level
If you are looking to take Excel to another level, learning Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) will take you from being a regular user to a power user. The VBA coding language does not only allow you to automate tasks in Excel, but if desired allows automation of Access, Word, and Outlook.
Here are three great books for developing VBA skills:
- Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA
- Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET
- 101 Ready-To-Use Excel Macros
I am currently working through the first book on this list and as soon as I’m done I will start on the second one which focuses more on application development within Excel. It builds off of Power Programming, so I would recommend starting with that book.
The following websites I visit on a daily basis:
- Chandoo – Chandoo dives into VBA and advanced topics, but also has tons of information about the basics of Excel. He gets deep into formula analysis, dashboards, and just about anything Excel-related. I would highly recommend taking a look at some of the content on this site regardless of your current skill level.
- JP Software Technologies – This site is run by Jimmy Pena, who is a freelance/contract VBA programmer. He focuses on advanced topics and best practice.
- Mr. Excel – The link I put on here goes straight to the Mr. Excel forums. On a regular weekday there can be upwards of 1,000 people viewing the forums at any one time, and if you post a question there will usually be a response relatively quickly. Just roaming the forums can provide you with a ton of new information about Excel. There are also resources on the rest of the site as well.
Gaining a full understanding of Excel takes a lot of time and effort. Thankfully, between books, websites, and video tutorials, there are a ton of resources out there that will help you become as good as you desire. Best of luck!
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I don’t have mad excel skills, but I can certainly get around. I don’t need to use it much at my work, but I did use it some at my old job. Our library also has free online classes that you can take to tighten up your excel knowledge.
I love Execl, but I know there’s much, much more I could be doing with it. I just not have taken the time to teach myself more about some of the more advanced things, thanks for the resources.
Excel rules the world!! I wish everyone knew more about it, it would make life better, haha.
What kind of work do you do that involves advanced use of Excel? My knowledge of this software extends to basic functions and url extractions :) = everything I use in web development.
@Veronica @ Pelican on Money Mainly automating tasks and creating new reports and dashboards. I pretty much use Excel over 75% of my day :0
I use Excel for simple calculations and to make graphs. It’s nice to know that the information is readily available if I ever want to take it to the next level.
I use Excel everyday but not to its full capabilities. I use to have all of the functions memorized, but lost track through all of the upgrades over the years.
I’ve been meaning to advance my excel skills. I can make basic graphs and about 10 years ago I took a computer class for college, but forgot half of those equations. I’ll be looking into the more basic books. It’s one of those programs that can help you at home or when you want to advance your career.
I use excel a lot too and it is amazing how much it can automate a lot of tasks you wouldn’t think it could. Saves me hours upon hours each month at work once I set something up once.
I can do minimal Excel. It hasn’t been relevant to work very much. I think with rental property, there are some things I need to learn. One more thing on the list!
@Eyesonthedollar Most people don’t need to know VBA unless they need it for their job, but you can make some pretty impressive spreadsheets just with formulas. Let me know what you think of with the rental property, because I need to make something for our rental as well!
Great resource. In my engineering job the ability to whip up models to solve complex problems using simple tools like Excel is a huge advantage. This is definitely a skill set I am really wanting to get better and better at!
Thanks for sharing some great resources
Thanks for the resources. This is definitely one of my weak areas.
If I need advanced Excel work i just hire this guy I know named David Carlson. He’s pretty good with da spreadsheets.
moneymatters Haha thanks man! Now I just need a website so I have a connection point for potential clients…