Smitty
Legend
- Joined
- May 15, 2003
- Messages
- 29,536
Welcome to the Board!
In addition to what everyone's said, check out the: Microsoft Template Gallery.
It's full of good exapmples of what could probably be termed "proper spreadsheet design."
If you like, I'd be happy to send you a workbook that details every native Excel function with working examples and how to's. I also have a wb with loads of VBA UserForm examples. Both can make you go: "Oh, that's how they did that!"
As for how long with Excel/Spreadsheets, well I first started using Quattro in the early 90's when I was ranching. It was good for doing herd counts, pasture allocations, crop rotations, etc., but I never had enough time to do with it what I realized a ss was capable of. SUM was about as complicated as I got. When I came to work in a coat & tie environment, I was sat down with 1-2-3 and developed stuff that drastically made my life easier, but in retrospect, it would have been much better managed in a database application (essentially list management). I didn't really get into starting to utilize ss's until I got Excel in 96/97 and started developing interactive forms for sales people when I saw how much time they wasted doing paperwork. I got into VBA in 98/99 or so largely by using the recorder and also taking great advantage of Microsoft's "free" assistance program (I think it was 3 support instances per valid license #, so I took my Boss', VP of Marketing, etc.). They essentially wrote all of the code for my first big project, which is still being used company-wide (albeit updated just a wee bit since then...
)
I have no formal PC training other than a few books, and most of the things I know about Excel, I either learned by accident, or here. Mr.Excel is definitely the reason I know what I do about VBA and advanced formulas.
Unfortunately, I'm in a somewhat similar spot as Zack in that I've streamlined my work (and others') so much that I've actually created a great deal more of it for myself, with daily/weekly/monthly reports & analysis, etc., that it has put somewhat of a kibosh on expanding/experimenting further. I.E. Being the go-to Excel guy in a company isn't always a good thing, as I find myself sucked into projects all the time that despite my desires to be more, have to be essentially computerized Etch-A-Sketches for our sales people and support staff. My euphamism for it is "Sales Automation Development", although technically I'm a Financial Analyst.
This is probably the best resource that I can think of and everyday I see answers that just blow me away!
Good luck and if you ever have a question, just ask away! You'll find that the folks here are probably the friendliest around and have a genuine desire to help you find the fastest/most efficient answer possible.
Smitty
In addition to what everyone's said, check out the: Microsoft Template Gallery.
It's full of good exapmples of what could probably be termed "proper spreadsheet design."
If you like, I'd be happy to send you a workbook that details every native Excel function with working examples and how to's. I also have a wb with loads of VBA UserForm examples. Both can make you go: "Oh, that's how they did that!"
As for how long with Excel/Spreadsheets, well I first started using Quattro in the early 90's when I was ranching. It was good for doing herd counts, pasture allocations, crop rotations, etc., but I never had enough time to do with it what I realized a ss was capable of. SUM was about as complicated as I got. When I came to work in a coat & tie environment, I was sat down with 1-2-3 and developed stuff that drastically made my life easier, but in retrospect, it would have been much better managed in a database application (essentially list management). I didn't really get into starting to utilize ss's until I got Excel in 96/97 and started developing interactive forms for sales people when I saw how much time they wasted doing paperwork. I got into VBA in 98/99 or so largely by using the recorder and also taking great advantage of Microsoft's "free" assistance program (I think it was 3 support instances per valid license #, so I took my Boss', VP of Marketing, etc.). They essentially wrote all of the code for my first big project, which is still being used company-wide (albeit updated just a wee bit since then...
) I have no formal PC training other than a few books, and most of the things I know about Excel, I either learned by accident, or here. Mr.Excel is definitely the reason I know what I do about VBA and advanced formulas.
Unfortunately, I'm in a somewhat similar spot as Zack in that I've streamlined my work (and others') so much that I've actually created a great deal more of it for myself, with daily/weekly/monthly reports & analysis, etc., that it has put somewhat of a kibosh on expanding/experimenting further. I.E. Being the go-to Excel guy in a company isn't always a good thing, as I find myself sucked into projects all the time that despite my desires to be more, have to be essentially computerized Etch-A-Sketches for our sales people and support staff. My euphamism for it is "Sales Automation Development", although technically I'm a Financial Analyst.
This is probably the best resource that I can think of and everyday I see answers that just blow me away!
Good luck and if you ever have a question, just ask away! You'll find that the folks here are probably the friendliest around and have a genuine desire to help you find the fastest/most efficient answer possible.
Smitty
