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Beyond Advanced Excel: Building Analytical Applications Using Excel
Intended ReadershipThis is a book for the advanced Excel user who wants to move to the next level. As an advanced user you know your way around Excel and are respected for your skills...but you know there's more and you want to take the next step.
This book challenges you to re-think what Excel is capable of. It aims to help you build the best Excel application you've ever built. If the next application you build has been a pleasure to construct, looks amazing and is rich in functionality for analysing data then the book will have succeeded.
Scope of ContentsThe author lays out four sets of techniques and a guiding philosophy to lead you to the next level. The techniques are those which the author has found most beneficial or which, in his experience, are most under-used. The techniques cover look, functionality, construction and storytelling. An additional two sections add a collection of resources including short, powerful VBA macros. The philosophy and techniques covered are
Philosophy Challenge YourselfDon’t Make Me Think, Work or WaitA Single Line of VBA Can Change EverythingBuild Applications, not SpreadsheetsAsk “What Problem are you Trying to Solve?”LookUse Excel Colour PalettesUse Style GalleriesUse a Design FrameworkBuild the UI SystematicallyBuild Charts SystematicallyFunctionalityUse SlicersUse Drill-DownUse HyperlinksUse Form ControlsUse Shapes as Interactive UIAutomate Data RefreshConstructionUse ShortcutsUse NamesUse TablesUse Lots of Pivot TablesUse Power PivotUse TemplatesStorytellingApply Sound PrinciplesMaintain a High Information to Ink RatioUse Shapes as Data HoldersUse Conditional FormattingEnhance your Chart VocabularyVBA code may be downloaded from the book's website.
About the AuthorGeoffrey Collins builds professional-grade data analysis applications using Microsoft Excel and Power BI. His conviction is that the skills and passion of the individual building an application are far more important than the tool used to build it. He is particularly interested in the visual representation of data.
He has worked in telecommunications, automotive electronics, industrial development and the utility industries. His roles have included software engineering, systems engineering, quality management and IT management.
Geoffrey is currently a senior data scientist and holds a MA in Natural Sciences from King's College, Cambridge.
This book challenges you to re-think what Excel is capable of. It aims to help you build the best Excel application you've ever built. If the next application you build has been a pleasure to construct, looks amazing and is rich in functionality for analysing data then the book will have succeeded.
Scope of ContentsThe author lays out four sets of techniques and a guiding philosophy to lead you to the next level. The techniques are those which the author has found most beneficial or which, in his experience, are most under-used. The techniques cover look, functionality, construction and storytelling. An additional two sections add a collection of resources including short, powerful VBA macros. The philosophy and techniques covered are
Philosophy Challenge YourselfDon’t Make Me Think, Work or WaitA Single Line of VBA Can Change EverythingBuild Applications, not SpreadsheetsAsk “What Problem are you Trying to Solve?”LookUse Excel Colour PalettesUse Style GalleriesUse a Design FrameworkBuild the UI SystematicallyBuild Charts SystematicallyFunctionalityUse SlicersUse Drill-DownUse HyperlinksUse Form ControlsUse Shapes as Interactive UIAutomate Data RefreshConstructionUse ShortcutsUse NamesUse TablesUse Lots of Pivot TablesUse Power PivotUse TemplatesStorytellingApply Sound PrinciplesMaintain a High Information to Ink RatioUse Shapes as Data HoldersUse Conditional FormattingEnhance your Chart VocabularyVBA code may be downloaded from the book's website.
About the AuthorGeoffrey Collins builds professional-grade data analysis applications using Microsoft Excel and Power BI. His conviction is that the skills and passion of the individual building an application are far more important than the tool used to build it. He is particularly interested in the visual representation of data.
He has worked in telecommunications, automotive electronics, industrial development and the utility industries. His roles have included software engineering, systems engineering, quality management and IT management.
Geoffrey is currently a senior data scientist and holds a MA in Natural Sciences from King's College, Cambridge.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 28, 2020
6 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 25, 2021
This is the first book by Geoffrey Collins. Its free from froth and pomp that most first time authors attempt to inject into their books to build their brand. Its straight to the point in delivering the reader into a conversation about taking the next steps to advance their excel skills.
Whilst the title "Beyond Advanced" may give you pause for thought in attempting the book it is very accessible and when you do find gaps in your knowledge Geoffrey provides signposts to other books and websites that will help to address the gaps, all without disrupting the flow of the conversation.
If I had to critique the book I would have a little concern over the formatting, the use of tables sometimes sees the Kindle e-reader split them over multiple "pages" and some charts in colour shown perfectly on the kindle phone/computer app are displayed on the e-reader in greyscale thus making it a bit more difficult to separate out.
To summarise, if you are looking for an improvement in your excel skills you find this book a worthy addition to your tool kit.
Whilst the title "Beyond Advanced" may give you pause for thought in attempting the book it is very accessible and when you do find gaps in your knowledge Geoffrey provides signposts to other books and websites that will help to address the gaps, all without disrupting the flow of the conversation.
If I had to critique the book I would have a little concern over the formatting, the use of tables sometimes sees the Kindle e-reader split them over multiple "pages" and some charts in colour shown perfectly on the kindle phone/computer app are displayed on the e-reader in greyscale thus making it a bit more difficult to separate out.
To summarise, if you are looking for an improvement in your excel skills you find this book a worthy addition to your tool kit.
Displaying 1 of 1 review