Are you looking for advanced Excel tips to help you get even more out of this software? The Excel program has finally become part of our daily lives, and a key component in the business world. No matter what job you have – whether you’re an accountant, sales manager, data analyst, or product manager – Excel always finds a way to play crucial roles and having the appropriate Excel skills have huge benefits.
Although basic Excel skills are gradually becoming a prerequisite for being employed, without a very good understanding of the Excel program and the ability to perform some tasks that require advanced skills or the inability to provide specialized and customized solutions with the software, you may find yourself being replaced by a better candidate in no time. A quick query on LinkedIn showed over 68,000 jobs worldwide requesting advanced Excel skills, as of January 2020.
Learning to manipulate and analyze tons of rows of data can be very stressful and intimidating at the same time. To do the job more efficiently and save you time and stress, you need some cool tricks, hacks, and advanced Excel skills.
To advance your skills, you need to challenge your current skills to force your growth and move to the next level. Luckily for you, We have gathered some advanced tips to challenge your Excel skills and shine the light on some advanced methods that will make you work smarter and faster, and benefit you in the long run.
Difference Between an Advanced and Average Excel User
An average Excel user is one who has a basic understanding of the Excel program, can navigate through it well enough, and is comfortable operating it at a low level.
An advanced Excel user is aware of most of the tools and features available and can apply the right tools for the right task. Not only do they find a solution to a task, but they also find the best and optimal solutions and they find them fast!
One way to become an advanced user is to challenge your skills every day and practice a lot.
Advanced Excel Skills and Tips to Challenge Your Skills
The need to challenge your skills and grow can not be overemphasized and so, without wasting time, I will dive right in.
Keyboard Shortcuts
A keyboard shortcut is a sequence or combination of keystrokes on a computer keyboard which invokes commands in software (Excel in our case).
Many users reach for the mouse to perform an action in Excel. However, using the keyboard is not only easy but also speeds up your work and saves time.
From Excel 2007 to Excel 2019, you can locate a keyboard shortcut by pressing the ALT key. On pressing it, it shows the shortcut keys for the options which are there on the ribbon. To know more about Excel keyboard shortcuts, a simple google search is all you need to do.
You may feel this should not be added to the list but, one of the characteristics of an advanced Excel user is working smart and fast, and keyboard shortcuts will help you achieve both.
Advanced Formulas
Formulas make Excel smart, and also help you perform tasks smarter and faster while boosting your productivity. By using formulas, you can manipulate and analyze data, add intelligent logic to it, and get answers to complex questions. While the average Excel user is comfortable using basic formulas on their own, the advanced user writes and combines these formulas such as VLOOKUP, IF AND, OFFSET, SUMIF, COUNTIF, and many more formulas to do more powerful and complex tasks.
Automate Complex Tasks with Macros
It takes only an advanced Excel user to notice the limited capability of the default Excel Software (without any add-ins or use of external tools). With the help of Excel’s own language, VBA, we can give instructions to Excel to make it do the things it can’t do previously. Macros (written with the help of VBAs) are powerful ways of extending Excel’s functionality and automating complex and day to day tasks.
With the help of Macros, you can complete tasks faster and save countless hours of time and money.
Advanced charts
Charts are excellent data visualization tools and Excel has got a lot of them. Charts are used to communicate basic data well enough but with advanced charts, you can do more than that.
Advanced charts such as Heat maps, milestone charts, and Gantt charts are used to display complex data in an impressive and stunning manner. As an advanced Excel user, you should know how to combine various charts into one, set up an interactive chart, and know how to pick the right chart for the right data.
Problem Solving
Problem-solving is a very crucial skill for advanced users. Without problem-solving skills, you will always remain an average user. You can only become a problem solver by tackling your problems yourself. Asking for help is okay, but you must do the majority of the work in solving the problem.
If you want to be an advanced Excel user, go solve problems!
Now that you are well equipped with tips to challenge your Excel skills and know one or two cool tricks to help you work smarter, you’ll start to wonder how you made it through without them. What are your favorite advanced Excel tips? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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