This is the single most powerful tool in Excel — and these courses can help you master it
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ShutterStock / Minstr-84Microsoft Excel is arguably the most powerful program on your computer, and those who know its inner workings can do some pretty amazing things with it. While managing your finances and constructing your fantasy football draft board are fair uses of Excel, neither task is utilizing the program to its fullest potential; Excel is usually working its hardest when large tables with tons of data are involved, and that is when it is important to know how to incorporate pivot charts and pivot tables into your Excel experience.
If you haven’t heard of pivot charts and tables you aren’t alone; it’s estimated that only 10% of Excel users use the feature within the program, but those that do can do wonders with it — it's a go-to tool for finance professionals for good reason. When you have a table filled with extremely large datasets, pivot tables allow you to simply compare segments of data without going through each cell.
For those looking to take their Excel knowledge to the next level, Udemy is offering a two-course series on pivot tables produced by Optima Train. The first course, entitled Practical Excel 2016 Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts, teaches students how to construct and incorporate pivot tables into their Excel usage. Once students have a working idea of how to use pivot, they can choose to move on to Excel 2013 PowerPivot and Advanced Business Intelligence Tools if they wish to further hone their skills
The phrase “work smarter, not harder” is extremely applicable to Microsoft Excel. If you’re looking to fine tune your Excel skills — be it for personal or work-related reasons — these two classes can help you do just that. Each are available for just $15 through the end of January with the promo code INSIDER2016.
Practical Excel 2016 Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts, $15 (originally $299), available at Udemy.