Top 10 things I learned using Excel for a decade
Sometime during the 2nd half of 2013, I finished 10 years of Excel usage. In the last 10 years, I completed my studies, got my first job, married, had kids, visited 15 different countries, quit my job to start a business, bought first car, first house, made dozens of new friends, read 100s of books, wrote a book and learned 1000s of new things. And all along, Excel stayed a true companion. Right from MBA entrance exam preparation in 2003 to making my summer internship project reports in 2005 to planning my wedding expenses in 2007 to getting a promotion in 2009 to planning my kids feeding schedule in 2010 to running a successful business in 2014, Excel helped me in every step.
So today, I want to tell you the top 10 things I learned using Excel in last decade. Grab a hot cup of coffee, buckle your belts and get ready for time travel.
Closing gaps in this Gender Equality Gap chart…
Today lets close some gaps.
Recently I saw this interesting chart on Economist Daily Charts page. This chart is based on World Economic Forum’s survey on how women compare to men in terms of various development parameters. First take a look at the chart prepared by Economist team.
So what are the gaps in this chart?
This chart fails to communicate because,
- All country charts look same, thus making it difficult to spot any deviations.
- We cannot quickly compare one country with another on any particular indicator.
- It does not provide a better context (for eg. how did these countries perform last year?)
But criticizing someone’s work is not awesome. Fixing it and making an even better chart, that has awesome written all over it. So that is what we are going to do. You can see the improved chart above. Click on it to learn how you can create it.
Last day for enrollments – Join our Power Pivot class & become awesome analyst
Hi folks,
I have a quick announcement & a creative dashboard to share with you. First the announcement.
Only few hours left to join our Power Pivot course…
As you may know, I have opened enrollments for our 2nd batch of Power Pivot course few days ago. The aim of this course is to make you awesome in Excel, Advanced Excel, Dashboards, Power Pivot & Advanced Power Pivot.
We will be closing the doors of this program at midnight, today (11:59 PM, Pacific time, Friday, 16th of August).
If you want to join us, click here and enroll now.
How to create a Then vs. Now interactive chart in Excel?
You have been there before.
Trying to compare last year numbers with this year, or last quarter with this quarter.
Today, let us learn how to create an interactive to chart to understand then vs. now.
Demo of Then vs. Now interactive chart
First, take a look the completed chart below. This is what you will be creating.
Excel Links for you – Busy busy edition
As the launch date for our 2nd batch of Power Pivot class nears, my plate looks fuller than ever. Fine tuning the course details, preparing our online classroom for new batch of students and coordinating with Rob for video recording etc.
But I wanted to take a few mins today and share with you some really useful Excel tricks, ideas and examples from web. I found these really useful and inspiring. I am sure you will learn from these links as much as I learned.
Are you ready for 2,000 miles, 15 days & 10 Excel tips road trip?
Finally my Excel classes in USA are over. It was a lot of fun traveling to new cities, teaching Excel & dashboards to enthusiastic crowds and making new friends. As if that is not fun enough, we (Jo, kids & I) are going on a 2,000 mile, 2 week road trip starting today.
Although I am enjoying all this, I also feel bad for not taking enough time to share new tricks, ideas & techniques with you here. So, I have a wacky, wild & awesome plan for you. Join us on our road trip.
That is right. You can join me on our road trip and see what I see, learn some pretty cool Excel tricks, all while sipping coffee and stretching legs in the comfort of your office cubicle.
How to create an Interactive Chart in Excel? [Tutorial]
Imagine you have a worksheet with lots of charts. And you want to make it look awesome & clean.
Solution?
Simple, create an interactive chart so that your users can pick one of many charts and see them.
Today let us understand how to create an interactive chart using Excel.