Excel for the Real World: Gain the Basic Skills of Microsoft Excel

Spend less time formatting and manipulating data, and more time presenting insights.

Microsoft Excel is an essential tool for organizing and understanding data about the world you live in! This is the first part of a 3-part series on learning to use Excel from the producers of KeyCuts. In this first class, Excel I, we will walk through the interface to help you become familiar with Excel. You will learn to navigate your way through all necessary functions of the software, understand practical applications, and gain the confidence to use it for your information needs. Whether you are new to Excel or are looking for a refresher on how to use Excel to analyze data, this class is for you.

Learn by doing.

You'll follow along with me in the Excel for the Real World file I have provided under the "Projects & Resources" tab (in this tab see the "Resources" section). Then, it's your turn to submit a project! Find some data from a project you are working on (or someone sent you some data in Excel) and filter/sort the data, write some formulas, and apply the techniques that data analysts use every day!

What You'll Learn

• Using the Ribbon. Use the Ribbon to your advantage by clicking on different buttons and customizing the ribbon to fit your needs.
• Structuring Your Workbook. We'll cover cells in a worksheet and how worksheets fit into a workbook.
• Formatting. Get a little artsy in Excel!
• Selecting Data. Select the data and smartly "autofill" data.
• Writing Formulas. Write basic formulas and do a deep dive on the popular VLOOKUP formula.
• Listing and Sorting. Organize your data so that it's easier to analyze.
• Using Paste Special. We will see how the Paste Special menu lets you do things above and beyond copy-and-paste.

The next 2 classes in this series:

• Excel for the Real World II: Double Your Excel Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts
• Excel for the Real World III: Create a Data-Driven Presentation from Excel to PowerPoint

Ready to go to the Intermediate Excel class?

• Intermediate Excel for the Real World: Cleaning Data for Analysis and Forecasting

Data drives all decisions, regardless of the business or industry you work on. You need to know how to organize it! Data is power! This Excel series will not only develop your technical skills, but also help you work with data in an efficient, smart way.

Note: The version of Excel used in this class is Max Excel 2011, but the concepts apply to both PC and Mac.