Ian Lamont's Blog - Posts Tagged "excel"
Why “Excel Basics In 30 Minutes” took so long to create
Excel Basics In 30 Minutes, abasic Excel manual and the third In 30 Minutes™ title, was released about a month ago.
The writing and production processes associated with Excel Basics In 30 Minutes took twice as long as those for my previous two books about Dropbox and Google Drive. Why? I see three reasons:
The complexity of spreadsheets. Demonstrating something as simple as addition or calculating a percentage require several discreet steps and screenshots. All of this had to be explained, and the total length of the Spreadsheets book was about 40% longer than the Dropbox book — mostly because of extra screenshots (100 in all!)
Multiple versions of Excel. There is basically only one version of Dropbox and Google Drive floating around. Excel has many commercial versions currently in use. There are significant differences between them, which required additional writing and testing.
I included Google Spreadsheets as well. My reasoning: Most spreadsheets are basically the same, and not everyone owns or wants to own Excel. I thought including explanations of how to do the same tasks in Excel and Google Spreadsheets would be a good idea — but it took extra time to include those explanations.
Read the rest of this post ...
The writing and production processes associated with Excel Basics In 30 Minutes took twice as long as those for my previous two books about Dropbox and Google Drive. Why? I see three reasons:
The complexity of spreadsheets. Demonstrating something as simple as addition or calculating a percentage require several discreet steps and screenshots. All of this had to be explained, and the total length of the Spreadsheets book was about 40% longer than the Dropbox book — mostly because of extra screenshots (100 in all!)
Multiple versions of Excel. There is basically only one version of Dropbox and Google Drive floating around. Excel has many commercial versions currently in use. There are significant differences between them, which required additional writing and testing.
I included Google Spreadsheets as well. My reasoning: Most spreadsheets are basically the same, and not everyone owns or wants to own Excel. I thought including explanations of how to do the same tasks in Excel and Google Spreadsheets would be a good idea — but it took extra time to include those explanations.
Read the rest of this post ...
Goodreads Giveaway #1: Notes on sales and marketing
In early March, the Goodreads Giveaway for Excel Basics In 30 Minutes launched. As of today, 126 people have signed up. For the next two weeks, you can sign up for the giveaway and have a chance at winning one of 25 free copies of the paperback. The details to join the giveaway can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
I wanted to highlight the impact of the listing on the sales and marketing of the book. I have listed some observations and a hypothesis on the Excel guide's product site. I'd be interested in hearing from other authors about what they have experienced with Goodreads Giveaways.
If you're interested in signing up for a chance to receive a free copy of the book, use the form below:
I wanted to highlight the impact of the listing on the sales and marketing of the book. I have listed some observations and a hypothesis on the Excel guide's product site. I'd be interested in hearing from other authors about what they have experienced with Goodreads Giveaways.
If you're interested in signing up for a chance to receive a free copy of the book, use the form below:
Goodreads Giveaway #1: Notes on sales and marketing
In early March, the Goodreads Giveaway for Excel Basics In 30 Minutes launched. As of today, 126 people have signed up. For the next two weeks, you can sign up for the giveaway and have a chance at winning one of 25 free copies of the paperback. The details to join the giveaway can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
I wanted to highlight the impact of the listing on the sales and marketing of the book. I have listed some observations and a hypothesis on the Excel guide's product site. I'd be interested in hearing from other authors about what they have experienced with Goodreads Giveaways.
If you're interested in signing up for a chance to receive a free copy of the book, use the form on this page.
Read the full blog post here.
I wanted to highlight the impact of the listing on the sales and marketing of the book. I have listed some observations and a hypothesis on the Excel guide's product site. I'd be interested in hearing from other authors about what they have experienced with Goodreads Giveaways.
If you're interested in signing up for a chance to receive a free copy of the book, use the form on this page.
Read the full blog post here.
Is it possible to learn Excel in just 30 minutes?
Today I am pleased to announce the second edition of Excel Basics In 30 Minutes. Yes, it’s possible to quickly pick up the basics, and to that end the new guide concentrates on the features and skills which I believe will most benefit new users. It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide, and I am not making any guarantees that readers will be able to take over their companies’ accounting departments, but 30 minutes after starting, readers will hopefully have learned some core spreadsheet skills … and even a trick or two!
Don’t believe me? Then listen to what readers have to say. There is already one review of the second edition of Excel Basics In 30 Minutes from a Goodreads member. She said:
Nice guide to learning how to use Excel for most basic functions. As someone who only uses Excel occasionally, I found the tutorials to be easy to follow. Additionally the visual aids (images of what your screen should look like) were beneficial. It is an easy book to reference if you are having an issue with a particular Excel task.
This is a major update, not only because it covers the most recent versions of Excel (e.g., Excel 2013, Excel for Office 365, Excel Online, and Excel for Mac) but also because ...
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