Newbie

Just registered today. I'm a longtime user of Excel. I am also "self-taught". ...Qualified in quotes because even though I never attended a training class, I learned from books written by people who teach -i.e. technical writers. And not all of them are equally gifted at imparting knowledge to others -so I greatly admire good tech writers.

I have acquired knowledge of XL for the most part by trying to find solutions to workplace problems. For example, early in my exploration of Excel years ago, I came across instruction about pivot tables. At that time, the concept was rather obtuse and I could not relate the tool to any aspect of the work I was doing. And so, I think I subconsciously filed the terminology away in my head. A few years later, there was a major structural change in the process flow and data transmission of a task I performed. The way I performed this task would no longer be efficient. So I remembered reading about pivot tables and I made that murky connection that problem-solvers often make when a solution is sought after. I went to the books again and found that pivot tables were the answer. And in coming to this conclusion, I realized how powerful a tool that they were.

The reason why I finally joined this forum is because from time to time I have encountered the need to employ some function of Excel to solve a problem, but need more expert and tailored advice from those with advanced developer, programmer, or power user skillsets.

Hopefully, I've come to the right place.