Advanced Excel Formula Techniques, Time-Saving Functions and Charting Tips

It is not difficult to come across several courses in MS Excel. However, one has to be meticulous in the choice of an advanced course, because an advanced course is expected to deliver a lot more than an ordinary one.

When choosing an advanced MS Excel course, you should look out for the course content, the teaching methodology, the reputation of the learning platforms offering the course, the real-life, industry experience and expertise the tutor carries, and of course, how engaging the course is.

One course that meets all of these criteria is this advanced Microsoft Excel course from SimplivLearning, It is easy to see why this course stands out: it has all the course requirements mentioned above, and more: it offers very handy advanced Excel formula techniques, time-saving functions and charting tips. And yes, the learner earns a certificate of learning, which helps her jump the line of job applicants.

We would rate this the best MS Excel advanced course in the market today.

An advanced MS Excel course is one that offers a clear understanding of the advanced features of this software program. It should familiarize learners with a lot more than what they are already expected to know, being professionals who put their knowledge of this tool in their daily work.

An advanced Excel course should help learners get a thorough understanding of the advanced features, such as:

·      Creating advanced formulas

·      Analyzing data with logical and lookup functions

·      Visualizing data with charts

One cannot guarantee this, but yes, with proper guidance and application towards the learning, one can gain substantial learning of MS Excel in three months.

That depends on many factors, such as what you want to learn from the advanced Excel course, how much use you want to put that learning at your work, and many more.

A few learning platforms offer MS Excel courses that span a few hours, and some others have courses that stretch into six months. So, this question has a broad answer.

Completion of an Excel course is no assurance of a job, but one thing that is for sure is that employers look for people who earn certifications in their relevant skills. A certification in Excel from a good, reputable provider can greatly increase your chances of landing a decent job.

At present, a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) is the highest certification that Microsoft offers. This is not a certification purely meant for Excel; rather, it validates industry-fit mastery of the entire Microsoft Office suite, of which Excel is a part.

One should pass lower exams such as MOS Expert and MOS Master to take up the MOS certification.

To obtain an advanced certificate in MS Excel, you should pass the Excel section of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exam. The minimum score that a candidate has to get to pass this exam is 700.

Unlike in the case of a university bachelors or master’s degree, there is no fixed duration or length to determine if an MS Excel course is an advanced one. An MS Excel course that lasts a few hours, or one that spans months, can both be classified as advanced Excel courses.

So, the point is that the fee for an advanced Microsoft Excel course depends on factors such as these. Just like the long stretch of a course duration, an advanced Excel course could charge anywhere between double and four figures.

However, the fee for the MS Excel advanced certification, the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS), is $ 100.

With innumerable industries and sectors using MS Excel for their most important tasks such as data management, payroll, accounting, office management, and lots others, people who master Microsoft Excel and gain an advanced certification are in pretty high demand. Those with an advanced MS Excel certification make an average pay of $ 65,000.

It is very likely that the demand for those with advanced Excel expertise is going to stay for many more years to come. This makes Advanced Excel a growth oriented career.

A professional in MS Excel should keep abreast of the changes in the features of this tool that successive versions carry.

Yes, online Excel certification exam is a more convenient way to get certified from the comfort of your home or office, rather than at a testing center. By this way you can save valuable time.

Yes, you can. However, a few learners are more comfortable taking up classroom training. The choice finally, is the learner’s.

The key to passing the advanced level of Microsoft Excel is to get a hang of the major shortcuts. This is the prime area in which your advanced Excel proficiency is tested.

This said, with the software being pretty comprehensive, it does aspirants a world of good to equip themselves with all the major features of this program. This calls for a lot of practice with its features such as drop down lists, freeze panes, VLOOKUP, data formatting, Pivot Tables, and so on. 

To gain mastery of Excel at the advanced level, a preparation of one week is far from sufficient, even for very proficient users of this program.

The MS Excel advanced level is considered the developer level, and hence, tests the candidate’s ability to look beyond the basic functions and features of this program.

If you are planning to take up the Excel advanced certification, you should prepare to get thorough with core functions such as data analysis, complex calculations, etc.

You should also be prepared to answer questions relating to write VBA codes in the form of sub procedures, how to use all the features of the DEVELOPER tab, how to use and interpret user defined functions, how to build entry forms for data inputs and updates, and so on. As mentioned, an advanced Excel user carries out the role of a developer.

An MS Excel assessment test tests your knowledge of this program. The surest way of preparing for this test is to become familiar with all that goes into this program.

The Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) certification program, which will decide if you should take up the Excel crash course, and Excel Modeling Fundamentals, are important preparation tests for advanced Excel.

Well-directed, fervent practice should complement a well-planned effort. 

Well, there is no unanimity about which set of Excel’s features can be considered part of advanced techniques in this program. However, by and large, you can be said to have mastered the advanced techniques in Excel if you know how these work:

·      Statistical Modeling

·      VBA and Macros

·      Advanced Excel Formulas used in Data Analytics, such as Sum If, If Error, Conditional Formatting, Count If, Index Match, etc.

·      Pivot Tables

·      Forecasting and Prediction

·      Model Historic Stock Trends.

Well, this question too does not have a single answer. Excel is loaded with features designed to make work easier, and hence, what one person considers a useful feature that makes her work easier may not be so for another person.

Yet, if one were to pick up five random MS Excel functions that make life at work easier and whose learning is indispensable for any advanced level MS Excel user, they would be:

·      AutoSum

·      IF function

·      LOOKUP function

·      VLOOKUP function

·      HLOOKUP function.

A broad question such as this can have multiple answers. We, in answering this question, look at the most advanced Excel formula from the standpoint of what it can do for Data Analytics, because this discipline is absolutely indispensable for businesses.

So, seen from this perspective, CONCATENATE should be the most advanced MS Excel formula, because with it, the user can combine different Data Analytics components such as numbers, dates, and text. One can combine the components of a URL or the lines of a website address, which can drastically enhance our understanding of the data that goes into any virtual entity such as a website.

The way of using each advanced formula in MS Excel is unique to it. Microsoft has enabled a set of commands for using advanced formulas in Excel, just like how these are enabled for features in its other programs.

If you are using advanced Excel features, the general way is to enable them, which will open up the ways by which to use and apply them.

This is how to do it:

·      Open the File menu

·      Select Options from the left navigation pane

This opens the Excel Options dialog box, which has categories, most of which can be considered part of advanced Excel features. You can start using them according to the instructions and your needs.

The total number of formulas in Excel exceeds 500.

A pivot, or a PivotTable, is a super important Data Analytics tool in MS Excel. It is used for analyzing, exploring, summarizing, and presenting summary data.

In combination with PivotCharts, a PivotTable can be an enormously insightful feature in helping businesses discern patterns, trends, and comparisons in their data, which can lead to critical business decisions. 

An autofill function is primarily a data classification feature. Using this helps the user to summon related data from a heap of data, saving time and effort.

A time autofill allows the user to calculate the difference between two times.

This Microsoft page shows how time increments are auto filled in most versions of MS Excel:

TEXT (B2-A2,"h: mm: ss") Hours, minutes, and seconds between two times with the cell formatted as "h:mm: ss" by using the TEXT function.

This depends on the user. By most accounts, the VBA, macros and automation are considered complex functions in MS Excel. Why? Because setting these functions to work is akin to coding. You have to know exactly what kind of repetitive tasks you would want these features to perform, for which you have to be completely aware of all the aspects of these entities, in all their depth and range.

We all know that Microsoft Excel has innumerable features for office work. But how many of us are aware that it also comes with a few extra fun features?

Microsoft Excel has games related features by which you can play games such as Monopoly, sudoku, Arena, automaton, flight simulator, and lots more.

Generally, gaining in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Excel is tough, because if you want to work on advanced Excel, you are expected to have this. Learning advanced Excel to its full extent can take time and effort, especially if you are new to the program.

Learning platforms such as SimplivLearning can ease your advanced MS Excel journey and make it painless and fun.

Starting from beginner level and going up to the most advanced levels, an MS Excel profession can earn anywhere between $ 42,000 and $ 88,000, with an average of around $ 65,000.

Yes, very much. This is because Excel is used in innumerable industries.

Data Analytics, marketing, sales, finance, retail, administration, human resources, staffing…well, the list of jobs that require advanced MS Excel skills is endless!

Very much. It has been updating itself with changes into technologies for more than three decades since its introduction.

With the sensational arrival of ChatGPT in early 2023, there has been widespread alarm over what it can do for a vast range of jobs around the world.

It is becoming clear that with ChatGPT, the functions of MS Excel can be enhanced in ways that were unthinkable earlier. ChatGPT can complement Excel in a huge way.

This means that far from declining, MS Excel is expected to rise. How this will affect jobs needs to be seen for some time in the future.