I feel like I'm the only person in my department who can do vlookups and use $ to make cell references fixed... it's like the more power you have the less you have to know about Microsoft Office. I bet Obama can't even change his font in word

1/22/2010 4:27:00 PM

you can also use F4 to fix cells too

1/22/2010 4:27:49 PM

dude awesome, never knew that. nice protip!

1/22/2010 4:28:30 PM

No, we let the people like you do our dirty work

1/22/2010 4:28:31 PM

go do your jared allen cowtie dance, slave

1/22/2010 4:28:55 PM

I could definitely use some tips and pointers on Excel. I use it everyday and I'm not that proficient.

1/22/2010 4:29:24 PM

so our accountant gave me a sheet with dollar amounts and employeeID's that needed sorting and some summing. Well, it wasn't hard to figure out that the sheet was everyones salary, and then just lookup the employee ids in our database.... this is why she should have taken the course

1/22/2010 4:33:20 PM

If you aren't tracking your bills and finances in Excel, you aren't very smart, in several ways.

1/22/2010 4:34:07 PM

Our accountant handles that...I probably haven't opened excel since college

1/22/2010 4:35:55 PM

excel is one of the most awesome programs.. i like to use it to show my superiority to my friends, because none of us are very smart, and i do ok with it

1/22/2010 4:36:33 PM

I got a cheap laptop in school and it came with one of excel knockoffs, everything was ass backwards

1/22/2010 4:38:19 PM

great story, slave. quality posts, as always

in fact, I was just thinking... "hmm, I wonder if slave famous ever had a crappy laptop with an excel knockoff"

1/22/2010 5:10:19 PM

Don't teach your coworkers how to do it


Job security, yo!

1/22/2010 5:11:10 PM

E115

1/22/2010 5:11:33 PM

Slave I use Excel to track my MW2 stats

true story

1/22/2010 5:13:03 PM

=IF(W329="Y"|"FOLLOW-UP NEEDED"|IF(ISBLANK(G329)|""|IF(K329="N"|"NO CHANGES ("&M329&")"|IF(AND(J329="y"|K329="y"|ISBLANK(S329))|RANK(X329|X:X|1)|IF(J329="N"|"UNREADABLE"|IF(K329="N"|"NO CHANGES"|IF(ISBLANK(S329)|"?"|"COMPLETE")))))))

1/22/2010 5:13:25 PM

I think schools should teach spreadsheets on open-source software.

1/22/2010 5:14:08 PM

mother fuckers where i work can't even do basic formulas by hand.

i'm talking like =sum(a1:b2) level shit

[Edited on January 22, 2010 at 5:16 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/22/2010 5:15:45 PM

=IF(W329="Y"|"MADMAN"|IF(ISBLANK(G329)|""|RODE(K329="MY"|"NUTS("&M329&")"|ANY(J329="y"|K329="y"|HARDER(S329(X329|X:X|1)|HE(J329="WOULD"|"BE"|(K329="N"|"BALLS"(S329)|"?"|"DEEP")))))))

1/22/2010 5:16:15 PM

1/22/2010 5:16:33 PM

you're such a fucking loser

1/22/2010 5:17:06 PM

somebody is jealous

1/22/2010 5:17:38 PM

I made a graph of my weight once

[Edited on January 22, 2010 at 5:23 PM. Reason : .]

1/22/2010 5:20:23 PM

i liked your post better before the edit

1/22/2010 5:26:13 PM

me too, but it was some serious nut riding

1/22/2010 5:35:27 PM

Is there a way to change the fields for a pivot bar graph but keep the pivot table fields all visible? I need to show both and I'd rather do it on one sheet rather than having to copy and switch when I'm going over it..

12/8/2010 10:23:40 AM

Quote :

" I bet Obama can't even change his font in word"

lol, this was definitely true of my old boss. I showed him how to change fonts and he literally went

Quote :

"If you aren't tracking your bills and finances in Excel, you aren't very smart, in several ways."

Mint automatically does it for me so I don't have to spend my time manually updating Excel sheets.

12/8/2010 10:25:51 AM

ClassicMixup likes this.

[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 10:32 AM. Reason : i]

12/8/2010 10:31:14 AM

This thread made a comeback!

12/8/2010 10:40:16 AM

I would take this class.

12/8/2010 10:42:04 AM

I definitely agree about Excel....especially for engineers. Excel is an invaluable tool and not enough engineers know how to use it very well. Excel + actually utilizing VB in the background is extremely powerful.


and bingo with the finances:

Quote :

"Mint automatically does it for me so I don't have to spend my time manually updating Excel sheets."

But as far as NyM410's question goes...unfortunately I hardly ever utilize pivot tables for the kind of stuff that I do so I can't answer your question . Definitely some other experienced Excel users in Tech Talk though.

12/8/2010 10:45:58 AM

I'll admit... I know nothing about excel (never needed to though)

12/8/2010 10:46:01 AM

the engineering curriculum should allow a VBA/excel class to replace fortran

12/8/2010 11:14:29 AM

agree with the OP, and I wish I had more than cursory skills with excel.

Of course, back when i was an engineer, I had very little need for excel, but it seems that in management, we live and die by it.

I still can't wrap my mind around pivot tables.

oh and the Mac version of excel is dogshit. I pretty much have to do anything that's remotely complicated in excel in a VM.

12/8/2010 11:23:32 AM

Quote :

"I bet Obama can't even change his font in word"

12/8/2010 11:29:18 AM

it's not that people need a class, it's that they just don't feel like figuring anything out for themselves

i figured out a lot of excel keyboard shortcuts/macro usage/ etc on my own when i was working... still useful shit today in some cases



pivot tables are just drag and drop

[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 11:31 AM. Reason : ]

12/8/2010 11:30:26 AM

that's probably a good point.

I really haven't taken the time to figure a lot of things out on my own, and have found ways to get by without it.
I tend to learn new things when learning those new things takes less time than working around having to know that new thing or doing it manually.

12/8/2010 11:32:50 AM

if im taught stuff in a class, i probably wont remember it because it feels like a class and i just want to get it over with

i usually learn something when i have that 'aha' moment and figure something out on my own

12/8/2010 11:42:30 AM

that is true. 99% of what I do with excel I taught myself including actually writing VB. I just wish more people I worked with were as familiar with it. We've had vendors pitch us software over the past few years for different certified engineering calculations and other things and I've pretty much told my boss after some of the meetings: "I can do that in Excel in my spare time over the next month if you don't need it right away."

12/8/2010 12:13:47 PM

Us higher-ups forget about excel bc we never have to use it... that is what the underlings are for.

12/8/2010 12:15:40 PM

There is. It's called E115. The problem is, most people hate it and forget it immediately because they make the students learn random stuff about security and networking and coding that no one but a compsci major or ECE cares about.

12/8/2010 12:22:03 PM

Theres a lot of things that should be a mandatory class that you probably dont know about.

12/8/2010 12:23:31 PM

I wanted to take a class on the advance techniques on excel. I am the type of person that i play around with a program for a day or two and catch on real quick. so kinda did that with excel. That and youtubing excel questions so i get a vid. walk through. but yes i am surprised how some people don't even know the basics.

12/8/2010 12:24:28 PM

different people consider different things basics!

thats for sure, you guys go out on a limb and tell us what you consider basic?



[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 12:27 PM. Reason : V see what i mean]

12/8/2010 12:25:05 PM

Quote :

"There is. It's called E115. The problem is, most people hate it and forget it immediately because they make the students learn random stuff about security and networking and coding that no one but a compsci major or ECE cares about. "

if you think e115 gives you a basic understanding of excel you don't really have a good understanding of how much you can do with excel

12/8/2010 12:25:51 PM

I would say in my field everyone in the organization, from underlings to managers to SVPs absolutely must have an intermediate to advanced understanding of Excel.

I simply couldn't quantify proposals without it... Well I guess I could but it'd be incredibly inefficient.

12/8/2010 12:31:42 PM

^^Yea, everything you learn in E115 you should already have learned to do years ago (especially kids today). I think everything taught in E115 I learned by my sophomore year in HS...probably earlier (I can't remember what all was taught in E115 exactly, but I know my HS computer class got into vlookups and macros and goal seek etc.)

Quote :

"Us higher-ups forget about excel bc we never have to use it... that is what the underlings are for."

Depends on the company/organization/industry and what type of position you have. If you are just looking to manage, then sure. But, I am hoping to move up to be a senior/principal engineering specialist here. So those "higher-ups" in my desired career ladder are using excel on a daily level.


[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 12:40 PM. Reason : .]

12/8/2010 12:31:53 PM

rbrthwrd - It gives a basic understanding for what most people need. I'm taking a class on modeling with excel and visual basic. I'm not saying E115 does everything, but it at least helps.

12/8/2010 12:34:22 PM

E115 is definitely good for someone who hasn't used Excel before, but for people who are going into engineering, I'd be surprised if most of them don't already know everything taught about Excel in there as well as understand most of the basic computing/programming concepts discussed in there.

12/8/2010 12:37:23 PM

if you're the type that struggled with the cell reference questions on the FE maybe it helps, but its stuff most people figure out in grade school.

12/8/2010 12:37:27 PM