Excel topics you'd want to teach a Noob you were mentoring

[riaz]

In Luxembourg where I live, the Ministry of Employment encourages further education to improve people's chances of getting a better job through better skills. Among other things, they organise courses in excel, spread over 10 to 12 weekly sessions of three hours each per module, so absolute novices, sometimes learning in what may not be their mother tongue, are eased into the use of whatever skill they are trying to obtain.

The site is in French, but I have copied the links to the detailed descriptions in english of the three modules they offer for excel - which one can join only after one has passed the module on knowing your way around the pc.

This may give an idea of where to pitch for which level of students.

http://www.lllc.lu/up/01-csoir/2006/modules/1054-EN.pdf
http://www.lllc.lu/up/01-csoir/2006/modules/1055-EN.pdf
http://www.lllc.lu/up/01-csoir/2006/modules/1056-EN.pdf

 

[DreamAlchemist]

Being an instructor of Excel these are the things i teach my newbs err new students outside the basic: new open save close.

Proper structure (When and when not to skip rows and columns).
The evilness to merging cells.
Formating numbers( dates, commas, custom )
Explaing when a number is not a number (When it's ajar of course :D oh wait that is a door)
Absoulte, mixed and relative referencing.
Order of operations (PEMDAS)
Printing, print areas, rows/columns repeating
Named ranges
Charts (basic charts, not pivots)

I rarely will give keyboard shortcuts (unless they ask specifically)
I reference VBA and what can be done, but hold off til later to show them coding or the recorder.

 

[riaz]

The evilness to merging cells.

Hi Dream

Why do you consider merged cells an evil? I am an accountant and use them to write entire financial statements. We have to follow a set template, which I have written out using merged cells and auto row height, and a macro to hide unused rows and renumber notes accordingly (with grateful acknowledgement to this board's members - oops, wrong thread ). I think merged cells are beautiful.

Do you know anything I should?

Kind regards

 

[Cbrine]

riaz,
I think Dream is referring to the problems with trying to insert and delete rows and columns, and how this is prevented by merged cells.(Which I've found to be a major pain in the past, usually with someone else's workbook, where there was no ryhme or reason to the merge's) Merged cells are OK, if you know how to use them, it's when you don't that they become a problem.

Cal

 

[lenze]

Answering for Dream
Merged cells make a sheet LOOK pretty, but are not friendly to the many data analysis tools in Excel. I avoid them when I can. You can usually use Center Across Range instead.

lenze

 

[riaz]

I see your point about data analysis, but I only merge cells with text in them, where there is no data to analyse. I then protect the sheets and hand them out like confetti for everyone else to fill in underlying data sheets, and they are ever so grateful to the Excel guru they have just discovered in their midst - little do they know I am an avid reader of this forum :wink:

That is also the reason centre across selection does not do the job for me.

 

[Oaktree]

It's not just the data analysis tools...

1) Merged cells are VERY annoying for keyboard shortcut users. (e.g. if A1:B1 are merged and you are in A2, CTRL+Spacebar to select column A will unwantingly select column B as well)

2) Copying and pasting with merged cells is a PITA.

3) Autofitting row height, while possible, requires (IMO) non-intuitive workarounds.

etc...

 

[just_jon]

Good spreadsheet and workbook layout.

You can save yourself hours of convoluted formula writing by starting with good up-front design. Get 'em to think through the project, not only today's specs but what the beast might look like in a year or two.