Excel is the most popular data and spreadsheet software. Learn to use it with an online course.
Learn how to use MS Excel proficiently. Mastering at least basic, and preferably advanced, spreadsheet skills can be incredibly beneficial for your productivity and career. Excel is used everywhere for its versatility and power.
Affordable online training options are available, from free tutorials to certified diploma courses. Once you become skilled in Excel with an online course, it becomes a valuable tool that can enhance your abilities for years to come.
Excel is widely used professionally, including for data management, calculations, and list-building. Top analysts and professionals are well-versed in this software. The ability to navigate spreadsheets with ease is liberating, allowing you to confidently execute your ideas and streamline work.
Why Learn Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is the easiest and best way to do many tasks. Being comfortable using Excel is a great skill to have. You have the power to organise and manipulate almost any kind of digital information.
Once you have mastered Excel, you'll never look back. You will be more productive and employable. With Excel, you can:
- Do quick calculations and create charts
- Organise personal information, such as accounts and usernames
- Create budgets and record expenses (accounting)
- Create plans and timetables
- Read information supplied to you as data
- Sort downloaded information, such as bank transactions
- Build databases and do analysis in a work setting.
How to Learn Excel
Learning and becoming better at using Excel can be done in multiple ways.
- It's important to play around with workbooks and try out different functions.
- You can look up how to do things using the help menu or by finding an online tutorial.
Online training courses are also popular. They're particularly useful if you're a new or intermediate user. Training courses:
- get you started by teaching you how to do common tasks
- show you the possibilities of the software.
MS Excel is something you can become good at but never truly master. It evolves, along with the potential uses for it. The best Excel users make learning an everyday part of working with spreadsheets.
Free Online Training Courses
Free Excel training courses often use video presentations organised into modules. You can learn about a specific topic by watching a video and trying to repeat the actions in Excel.
For free online Excel training, you might want to try
- GCF LearnFree.org (they have a well organised set of video modules)
- excel-easy.com has 300+ illustrated examples for quick learning
- Another option is to use Microsoft's official training videos.
Free training tutorials are effective when you know which bit of Excel you want to learn about. But it can be boring to learn just by working through videos one by one.
Online Microsoft Excel Courses
For an engaging and satisfying learning experience, there are some affordable online courses. High quality self-paced or interactive MS Excel courses can be found for below $200 (USD).
Excel University - Online Excel Training
Excel University offers self-paced training that's geared towards finance and accounting activities. Designed by a CPA, the programs show how to leverage Excel to automate financial tasks and produce accurate, well-presented results. The courses feature lecture videos, homework activities, and instructor-moderated forums (where you can ask questions). The training combines self-paced study with an interactive, social online experience.
Excel Everest - Interactive Workbook
Excel Everest's online course transforms Excel training with an all-in-one interactive workbook. Learn through a dynamic, hands-on approach. The course covers 41 essential topics and includes over 160 auto-graded exercises. Features like a real-time scoreboard enhance tracking and motivate learners. It offers a comprehensive way to master Excel, from basic operations to advanced data analysis. The workbook comes with a satisfaction guarantee and 90-day refund policy.
Why Excel Courses Are Worth It
Learning workbook skills gives you the power to transform and analyse data easily and efficiently. Everybody seems to agree that these skills are useful.
While you can't really go wrong with a free course, your time also matters. That's why it is often worthwhile investing in an affordable paid course. Fee-based Excel programs beat free courses because the providers have invested more in learning materials.
Paying for a course produces better learning outcomes for two main reasons, First, paid courses are superior in general, with more highly developed content. Secondly, you're much more likely to finish because you're financially invested. That investment encourages you to keep learning, complete the course, and get the valuable skills payoff.