Courses > Computer Applications > Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2007

Work with numbers? Then you need to learn Excel 2007. In this unique six-week online workshop, you'll discover dozens of shortcuts and tricks for setting up fully formatted worksheets quickly and efficiently. You'll also learn the secrets behind writing powerful mathematical formulas, using the function wizard to quickly and automatically calculate statistics, loan payments, future value, and more. You'll also learn the best ways to sort and analyze data, create custom charts and graphs, create 3-dimensional workbooks, build links between files, endow your worksheets with decision-making capabilities, and automate oft-repeated tasks with macros and buttons.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Craig Power.

Craig Power has worked in adult continuing education for more than 18 years. A UCLA graduate, he created custom accounting software for state and local governments; developed an online course delivery and marketing platform currently used by more than 1,500 colleges and universities in the US, Canada, and Australia; developed an interactive cellular biology video for the Los Angeles Unified School District; taught college-level information technology courses; started and grew a thriving small business; and served as an executive with a large academic publishing corporation.

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Requirements:

Microsoft Windows Vista or XP, Microsoft Excel 2007 or Microsoft Excel Home and Student 2007 or Microsoft Office 2007 (the Home and Student Edition, Standard Edition, Small Business Edition, or Professional Edition of Microsoft Office 2007 are all acceptable). Please be sure to install the software on your computer before the course begins, Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). This course is not suitable for Macintosh users, users of older versions of Microsoft Excel, nor for users of OpenOffice.

Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In our first lesson, you'll develop a solid understanding of the Excel interface. You'll become fluent in the secret language spoken only by Excel users, you'll discover the best way to correct just about any mistake you might make in Excel, and you'll find yourself gliding effortlessly from cell to cell, leaving behind expertly written labels, numbers, and formulas.

Friday - Lesson 02

In this lesson, you'll learn five simple steps you should always follow to ensure that your worksheets are always well-planned, well-constructed, and beautifully formatted.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Our third lesson will teach you the tricks of the Excel masters: a wide variety of useful shortcuts guaranteed to save you time, energy, and frustration. We'll also cover the art of file management in this lesson, so you'll have no trouble saving, retrieving, printing, and emailing your worksheets, or copying, renaming, and even deleting files. By the time you finish this lesson, you'll really start to feel like an Excel pro.

Friday - Lesson 04

Do you know the difference between a relative reference, an absolute reference, and a circular reference? You will after this lesson. Today, we focus on writing sophisticated formulas that can help ease us through some rather sticky scenarios.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

With enough practice, most Excel users quickly become adept at organizing their worksheets across two dimensions: rows and columns. But only a select few will learn how to take their worksheets into the third dimension. Today, you will join that exclusive group. Prepare to have your socks knocked off as you gain hands-on experience in the construction of three-dimensional workbooks.

Friday - Lesson 06

No Excel course would be complete without a discussion of Excel's amazing data-crunching capabilities. Today, you'll not only learn how to build a database in Excel, you'll also learn how to subtotal, sort, and filter.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson and the next, we'll explore the exciting world of charts. You'll build your first graph today, and you'll learn how easy it is to adjust the chart type, labels, titles, colors, and many other aspects of your chart.

Friday - Lesson 08

Today, we'll dig deep into Excel's charting capabilities. You'll explore everything from bar charts and line charts to more prosaic graphs like the pie chart, the bubble chart, and 3-D charts. You'll find out how to personalize your charts with photographs, text labels, and drawings, and you'll discover the best ways to print or otherwise display the truly impressive charts that you'll be creating.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Excel includes many powerful functions that can automatically perform some very complicated tasks for you. In today's lesson, you'll learn some very interesting ways to put these functions to work for you. You'll find out how to ask Excel to magically derive averages, modes, maximums, minimums, and other useful statistics from nothing more than a column or two of numbers.

Friday - Lesson 10

We'll continue our exploration of Excel functions with an in-depth look at Excel's handy financial functions today. By the time this lesson is over, you'll be able to figure out how much money you'll have when you retire, when your kids reach college, or just before your next vacation. You'll be able to calculate the monthly payment on just about any type of loan, and you'll know how to figure out how long it will take to pay off your credit cards. You'll even create an amortization table of your very own, just like the one lenders use to track a loan's payoff amount over time.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Students often rank this lesson as one of their favorites. Today, you'll find out how to automate just about any task you find tedious or time-consuming. You'll discover how to move your most frequently used commands from their present, obscure locations to a much more convenient place: the toolbar that's always perched at the very top of your screen. You'll also learn how macros can be used to reduce just about any complex task to a single keystroke.

Friday - Lesson 12

I think you'll be intrigued by our final lesson, in which you'll teach Excel not only how to make decisions, but also how to act upon those decisions. We'll use a special function in Excel that allows it to make comparisons and use that comparison as the basis for important decisions.

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