I'm Lost - Need Resource for Excel 9Training

I want a resource that provides problems where I can try to solve the problem, with answers provided to help me along.

You've come to the right place -- that's exactly what this Excel forum and others offer.

Read other peoples' questions and attempt to answer. Compare your results to those of others.

I'm clearly not among the cognoscenti you seek, so carry on, Brother.

Hi koolxx,

On this forum we take all kinds of Excel questions and try to answer them. Our MO is to get a question and answer it. You have a spreadsheet that needs formulas or macros and we try to help with those things. Shg is one of our top people. He knows more about Excel than most of us.

Now, I used to teach and it seems like you want to learn Excel. You mentioned a business needs. Did you have a specific question we could try to answer for you? If you simply want to teach yourself Excel, perhaps another non-problem solving site would be better.

How about:
http://www.skilledup.com/articles/free-excel-tutorials/ or one of these
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...rial&FORM=VDRE

When you get stuck on a problem, come back and hit us "problem solvers" with the question.

I hope this helps you discriminate what we try to do on this site.

I almost forgot... We do this for free.

What shg was referring to, is that this is an excellent to learn from. While we do not offer training courses or have books you can read, what we DO has, is real people, asking real questions, and these people get help from the extremely high level of expertise that members here bring with them. Members come from all walks of life, and from pretty much every business field you could imagine.

They share their knowledge for free, and all members are here to learn and help. If that is something you think would benefit you, then stick around and ask all teh questions you want

Hi, MarvinP, I apprecaite your response. Just to let you and everyone know, I posted a specific request about needing intermediate training exercises. And shg was the first to acknowledge that this site provides these as his answer dictates:

You've come to the right place -- that's exactly what this Excel forum and others offer.

And again, as I said in my first post, I need finance training exercises with answers on an intermediate level. That is, vlookup, macros, pivot tables and graphs. These are the only things finance cares about. If you can provide exercises along these themes, I'd appreciate it hugely.

To everyone, no offense, but I'd appreciate it if you guys would put in the effort to actually read the threads instead of skimming through them. Its very frustrating to have to repeat what was already posted in simple terms to those who are suppose to be geniuses in complicated excel. Again, I say this with all due respect. Thank you, hope you all understand and hope you guys can still help.

I greatly appreciate all your time and contribution to helping me..

No offence meant here either, but perhaps you skimmed shg's post as well?

he quoted your comment of

I want a resource that provides problems where I can try to solve the problem, with answers provided to help me along.

with a response based on that comment...

You've come to the right place -- that's exactly what this Excel forum and others offer.

No reference was made to this site - or others - containing training material or training exercises, just that problems are posted here, and members (in most cases) solve them.

(I would also suggest a little more patience with the replies given. This is a free site, offering free help, by volunteers who offer such help as they are able to,when they can )

So, I guess to answer your question, no this site does not offer training courses, but I entered "excel course for finance" in a google search and found over 20 million returns. Some look promising and perhaps they may be of further assistance to you

I think your question has been answered

I guess we don't know exactly what you want, or what your definition of "intermediate" is.

As Ford has suggested, Google is very helpful: excel free online training courses

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/office

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/training/

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/Excel2007.html

... are some of those links listed first.

shg is ranked first by reputation and second by number of posts on this site and also answers questions elsewhere. His knowledge is exceptional, and given freely to anyone who needs it. The site offers you the opportunity to test yourself, develop your knowledge and skills, and be helped by others. But no, it doesn't offer training exercises and tutorials specifically.

In my experience, anyone who says, "no offence", or, "with all due respect", has already offended or insulted their audience, or is just about to do so. I feel that you score highly on both counts.

Good luck with your search for finance specific training that meets your specific needs. I'm sure it's out there, but you might find it more practical to undertake more general training and then adapt it to your requirements.

Regards, TMS

Look at post #7 and post #13.

Whatever you're looking for, I hope you find it. It seems that I, and others who have tried to offer suggestions, will not be able to help you.

Probably best if we all draw a line under this one as it doesn't seem to be working out for any of us.

Hi koolxx,

I too learn by working on problems and seeing if my answer is correct or not. I've learned that I need to "own" the problem and try to solve it before seeing how others might do it. I've learned tons of very good techniques on this forum by reading answers. In your post #1 you wrote:

I'm not looking for tutorials or guides. I want a resource that provides problems where I can try to solve the problem, with answers provided to help me along.

If I was you there are a few ways to use this forum. Using the Advanced Search on the top right of the main screen, you could search for VLookup in a thread title. I'd only look at the ones that had an attached file and download the file and try to understand the problem that was being asked. Then I'd see what answers were given to see if I could understand those also.

VLookup can be used with a True or False as the forth parameter and knowing those would be important for you to understand.
Because VLookup also uses a Range as a parameter, you could learn about Dynamic Named Ranges (DNR) to expand on your knowledge.
Excel also has many Finance functions. If I had a "finance" job, I'd be sure to know these first.

I believe that shg in post #2 said that we work with "problems" and suggesting answers. We don't "teach" or do "tutorials" but focus on problems and answers. If that is what you really desire, I believe you can learn lots from this forum.

Now for your test.
1. What is the difference between $A1, A1, A$1 and $A$1?
2. What are the 4 parameters (arguments) needed in a VLookup() function?
3. Why would you need a Index(Match()) solution instead of VLookup?
4. Create a DNR using the Names Manager and the Offset() function.
5. What are the parameters of the Offset function.
6. What does date grouping do in a Pivot Table?
7. How do you use Events to automatically REFRESH a pivot table?

I give the above questions so you can use the terms in an Advanced Search on our site. See the questions and see if you can solve them. If not then see what answers have been suggested and if you understand the answer. If not then learn why the answer is right or wrong.

The above method is neither "tutorial" or "guides" but "problem focused" learning.

I hope the above gives you a good start to your finance job and doing it with Excel.

Its amazing that this Excel site exists and people here can answer any Excel problem, yet no one can come up with links to actual Excel exercises. Its like Excel exercises dont exist for people who want to learn. Its like a school that cant offer work books for math problems. Its amazing.

This is not a school, it's a free forum where volunteers help people with their actual problems.

You can learn Excel, then create all those tutorials, and it will never be an issue again.

koolxx, on this site we expect and require a level of respect, courtesy and politeness that, quite frankly, most of your posts are lacking. I strongly urge you to take note of this with any further posts you make, or, if you feel that this would be too much for you to do, then by all means, feel free to seek what you want on other forums

Members here have been more than polite in their replies to you, and despite your claims to the contrary, have offered quite a few resources for you to look into. Again, if these are not to your liking, or not what you want, please avail yourself of the help offered on other forums

koolx, let me be the first to say you are right... it was inferred in the original responses to you that we had what you were looking for... prepackaged tutorials. It wasn't stated outright, but I see how you got that. So let's not argue that point again.


However, everyone else has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to answer the better question, "How does one learn advanced techniques here on the Excel Forum", which is also easily inferred from your original post. In that regard you have been given wonderful encouragement, examples and pointers. I would appreciate you're acknowledging the suggestions given to you for what they are, quite detailed and well-intentioned, and not exactly what you're looking for.

You will find Tens of Thousands of threads here dealing with virtually any topic you care to research on. I taught myself VBA from the ground up, here, on the forum, reading the threads and the questions and the answers, then taking tips directly from the members here when I wanted specific assistance. So the quality and usefulness of the database and the membership is unquestionable.

But, no, you won't find point and click tutorials here.

Good day all, keep doing what you do.

There are not Excel exercises here because it's not what we do. It is not the best way to learn, it is a way to learn, apparently your preferred way. I hope you find what you seek out on the interwebs.