Microsoft Excel SIG

Hosted by: Ron Dunbar

Basic topics focus on the most basic elements of spreadsheet design and implementation. Learn how to translate your ideas for simple, automated arithmetic into a practical, easy-to-use worksheet. We'll study the basic formulas and functions, and see how to duplicate and manipulate them. We will also spend a lot of time practicing the ways to navigate around the worksheet, use the program's many "tools" to work more efficiently, and format the application to fit and look good on a printed page.

Intermediate topics move into more complex structures, functions, and equations. This is where we begin to see and harness the enormous power that Excel (and comparable spreadsheet products) offers. We will study practical applications in depth to see how to organize, set up, and deploy the wealth of functions that Excel provides. In later sessions we may move into graphing and "macros". It is macros that really enable you perform complex, repetitive tasks with, literally, a single mouse-click. Although the dividing line between intermediate and advanced can be very fuzzy, these sessions will try to stay on the easier side.

Here's another way to look at the Excel Workshop: A spreadsheet program is the modern, computer-centric replacement for the reams of calculations you would otherwise have to do on columnar paper with a hand-held calculator. Whether it is taxes or budgets, investment tracking, an exercise log, or whatever, the pencil and calculator approach takes a lot of time and is error-prone. Then, if you change any number, you have to redo many or even all of the calculations.

Excel is the name of a widely used Microsoft program for PCs that largely automates the tedious pencil and calculator tasks. It enables you to "design" a series of calculations, to fit your particular needs, that will instantly recalculate the results any time you plug in a new number or change an existing value. It also makes it easy to show and print the results in chart or graphic form. The number-crunching applications that you can create and print with Excel are limited only by your imagination and growing skill.

This SIG is aimed at people who, while reasonably comfortable with their computers, may be apprehensive about dealing with equations and designing an application. As learning examples, we will look at practical, everyday tasks that you can do with Excel to make your life easier. Throughout the series of monthly sessions we will focus on the many functions and tools that Excel offers, and on the basic elements of spreadsheet design. The leader will work through the creation of typical applications, and illustrate the techniques with practical spreadsheets for daily use at home or work.

In due course, the participants in the workshop will be encouraged to demonstrate their own creations in Excel, and benefit from the observations and comments of the other members.