Mr Excel, other forums and general Excel forum history

[Domski]

This thread has been officially hijacked!

I promise I won't cause any trouble, just leave me with the drinks trolly and a couple of stewardesses

Congratulations as well Rory. I love hearing about other people's bundles of joy, and the sleepless nights, huge childcare bills, lack of social life etc.

Only kidding of course

Dom

 

[Smitty]

"blessed with big boobs"?

Close, Blonde with Big Boobs.

This thread has been officially hijacked!

I studied under the best.

 

[Jonmo1]

I came accross MrExel in 2006.

I was (still am) working at a call center. I was just an average Joe on the phone doing customer service for an unnamed client. My manager asked if I was good at Excel. I said I was, but in fact was not. My extent of knowledge at the time was that I knew Excel COULD do really cool stuff, but I didn't have the first clue how. I think at the time the best I knew how to do was a SUM formula. I had created a Paycheck calculator that summed my hours and multiplied by my wage, minus taxes. Pretty basic formulas. But I knew it could do much more, but never had a need to do more, so never learned it.

But then my manager got me into a new position where I would use use excel for statistics like Call Volume and Agent Performance Metrics. Fortunately the stuff I was doing was spreadsheets that someone else had already created, but that person left the company. So I just had to continue processing the spreadsheets. I caught on pretty quick by looking at the formulas and reading the code. And everyone thought I was a "Guru". Even at that point of about 6 months in the new position I was still just a novice. I learned on my own things like Vlookup / Conditional Formatting and using the Macro Recorder.

I think the first question I had that led me to MrExcel.Com was how to make a macro run when a value in a specific cell is changed. I thought it was going to be impossible, boy was I wrong. That just opened a floodgate to all the possiblilites of Excel. And I've been pretty much LIVING on MrExcel.Com ever since. Everything I've learned beyond Vlookup and the Macro Recorder I owe to this forum. Kudos.

Now I spend most of my extra time Reading and Learning stuff on the forum. And alot of time spent answering questions. For me that is the best way to learn, by helping others.

Anyway, that's my story. And I'm sticking to it.

 

[Michael M]

Kids.....when you've had 'em for about 20 years, you realise most of 'em don't come good 'til they're about 30.

There are some great times in between though !!
Good luck Rory

Regards
Michael M

 

[Peter_SSs]

I came across MrExcel in 2005 - before that I didn't even know Excel forums existed. I thought I was good with Excel before I arrived here - boy was I in for a rude awakening!

I personally like MrExcel.com because it is by far and away the friendliest Excel forum I have visited.

This is almost exactly my experience as well and I joined about a month after Richard (only he was 'Parsnip' back then).

The catalyst for me was a question about vba (I didn't even know what vba stood for then) which nobody at work could answer. Somebody I knew suggested searching for a forum and they 'thought' they had heard on one called Mr Excel. After finding out what a forum was, I soon found MrExcel and posted my question: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143560
Within half an hour I had 3 helpful responses.

I gradually started trying to answer some questions as I thought it was a good way to learn. Many of those answers were 'corrected' or 'improved' by MVPs or other experienced members. I have tried to learn from those responses and thank all those who did so!

I have visited a few other Excel forums looking for answers but I don't remember joining or posting on any of them. Most don't seem as friendly or as simple and 'clean' to look at and navigate.

Nate
I enjoyed reading your short 'history', thanks.

Rory
1. As far as bookmarking threads go, I just use the facility in my browser for that, and rename and categorise them into folders there. The downside of this method of course is that it isn't much use if you are working on another computer, but that is rarely the case for me.

2. Congratulations!
Hope all goes well in January - and beyond.


Hijacked

This thread has been officially hijacked!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27822368@N02/2781947364/" title="hijacked by ravenwlfpc, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3152/2781947364_60e703afdc_m.jpg" width="125" height="100" alt="hijacked" /></a>

... and Truby hasn't even poked his head in the door!

 

[NateO]

You're welcome, Peter.

 

[dave3009]

I came accross MrExel in 2006.

I was (still am) working at a call center. I was just an average Joe on the phone doing customer service for an unnamed client. My manager asked if I was good at Excel. I said I was, but in fact was not. My extent of knowledge at the time was that I knew Excel COULD do really cool stuff, but I didn't have the first clue how. I think at the time the best I knew how to do was a SUM formula. I had created a Paycheck calculator that summed my hours and multiplied by my wage, minus taxes. Pretty basic formulas. But I knew it could do much more, but never had a need to do more, so never learned it.

But then my manager got me into a new position where I would use use excel for statistics like Call Volume and Agent Performance Metrics. Fortunately the stuff I was doing was spreadsheets that someone else had already created, but that person left the company. So I just had to continue processing the spreadsheets. I caught on pretty quick by looking at the formulas and reading the code. And everyone thought I was a "Guru". Even at that point of about 6 months in the new position I was still just a novice. I learned on my own things like Vlookup / Conditional Formatting and using the Macro Recorder.

I think the first question I had that led me to MrExcel.Com was how to make a macro run when a value in a specific cell is changed. I thought it was going to be impossible, boy was I wrong. That just opened a floodgate to all the possiblilites of Excel. And I've been pretty much LIVING on MrExcel.Com ever since. Everything I've learned beyond Vlookup and the Macro Recorder I owe to this forum. Kudos.

Now I spend most of my extra time Reading and Learning stuff on the forum. And alot of time spent answering questions. For me that is the best way to learn, by helping others.

Anyway, that's my story. And I'm sticking to it.

I really hear this. My actual capacity in my paid job does not require me to have any knowledge of Excel other than filling out predefined sheets.

I thought great a wee spreadie no bother - then one day I realised there was some major power there, serious power. So I bought a few books and got to work

I still have no contractual capacity to use it in my paid work but I do now own and operate my own companies so I designed systems for sales, accounts, orders and all that stuff.

BTW, in a similar note when asked I will say basic knowledge of Excel and if probed I'll swiftly advise what a basic user is and what a form filler is.