About

Learning advanced Excel functions and macros helped advance my career...


You’ve probably found your way to this blog from a Google search, or maybe a friend passed it along to you. Either way, I’m happy you’re here. I wrote this guide because when I was in a time of desperate need, not too long ago, becomming super profficient with Excel helped advance my professional career.

I was working as a new mechanical engineer at a struggling company where everyone else at my company was much more experienced than I was. I realized that made me expendable. When the economy took a turn for the worse, and coworkers began getting laid off, I feared for my job and my family’s future. I needed a way to set myself apart to prove my value to the team. Learning how to write VBA macros in Excel gave me a huge advantage over my coworkers. Additionally, once I was able to create Excel macros I was able to apply that knowledge to other software, such as CAD systems, which helped to quickly earn my colleague’s respect, leading not only to me keeping the job but also to quicker promotions, along with more job freedom and flexibility. Not only did it help me bounce back from a low point but it opened my eyes to the world of automation and the opportunities that it can create for anyone's career. And if I can do it then you can too!

Excel Spreadsheets Help is my way of giving back for all of the fortunate things that have happened to me ever since. This Excel blog is a guide, and the purpose of this guide is to do just that – guide you. If I can help just one person learn one thing that will help them in their career and/or life, all the time and effort I have put into writing these Excel tips will have been totally worth it! If at any point while you’re reading any of my articles and you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Even if you don’t have any questions, I’d love for you to come by and say hello!

Why Use Excel?


With its wide variety of extreme uses, Microsoft Excel is the Swiss Army Knife of software tools. From a hand-made quilt designer to a 3D graphics engine, Excel is one of the most versatile and user friendly programs around. It doesn't matter what your skill level is - anyone can learn to use Excel! See a wide variety of uses for Excel on my Downloads page where you can download my Excel spreadsheet templates.

One Way to Use this Blog


A reader recently told me my Excel tips are great but when you don’t need to use them for a long period of time they are easily forgotten. My response to her was I don’t remember specific formulas either. I like to use what’s called Just In Time (JIT) learning. It’s one of the reasons I created this blog as well. I may not remember a specific function or formula but I do remember I wrote a blog post about it so now I just have to find that blog post. If you see an Excel tip you think is cool, useful, and will save you time in the future but may not necessarily need right now then bookmark the post and come back to it later.

Pinterest is a great tool for doing this. Create a board called Excel and pin each of my tips you think you might need in the future. Be sure to add a good description when you pin it so you can search for the post when needed. Or simply follow my Excel board here where I pin each and every one of my own posts as well as others I find useful.

If you're just getting started check out this post, 20 Excel shortcuts you need to know (number 15 is my favorite).

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Please feel free to subscribe to my email newsletter below to get notifications when I add something new as well as to get exclusive Excel formula and macro tips that you cannot find here on the site. As a thank you for signing-up I'll give you free access to my master project management template.
 




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If you can't get enough Excel info, check out my Resources page for other related Excel tools I use on a daily basis. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope to see you on the blog sometime soon!

Cheers!
Nick

9 comments:

  1. hey nick are you still doing this??
    i will tell you what i am looking to do.
    i was thinking of running a crazy but cool square pool!
    you have the left side for loser top winner, every baseball game during the reg season counts, just the last digit, and it goes from opening day until the last game of the season, and it will keep count of how many times your square has been hit with the final score. so it would keep a point total. anyway to do this??

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  2. Are you going to develop a NCAA Helmet schedule this year?

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Hi Nick,
    Do you know if it is possible to present hierarchal data to excel? It would be ideal if excel can use collapsible rows to handle hierarchal data. I look on the internet and couldn't find any example to do that. Do you think it is possible to have regions of collapsible rows to handle parent child structure? Like a small square with a plus and minus sign. If it is a plus sign you can click on it and expand and show the children rows. If it is a minus sign you can click on it and collapse to hide the children rows. Thanks.

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    1. Would using grouping work for what you're trying to accomplish? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V4G7H2u538

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  5. Would using grouping work for what you're trying to accomplish? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V4G7H2u538

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  6. Are you going to post a College football helmet schedule this year?

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  7. Nick
    Can you unlock or update and provide a new version for the 2023 Superbowl. And, any possibility you have a spreadsheet for the World Cup?

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I'd love to hear from you!
-Nick