Herein i would like to share my basic learnings over the past years which have helped me build my Excel related skills:

1.  - One must try and use the Help menu as much as possible.  Do not underestimate the usefulness of Excel’s help menu.  In all probabilities, you will either be able to figure out the exact function to be used to obtain the solution or you would be directed to other functions which may guide you to the solution.  You must cultivate the habit of seeing all the related functions by clicking the See Also link at the bottom of the search page.

If you do not get a satisfactory answer through the Help menu, try visiting the sources as outlined in the “Resources” section of this website 

2.  - It may be a good idea to browse through the available functions in Excel to know their usage.  Navigate to the Insert > Function and as you browse through the various functions, you will see a brief description of each function.  While this may appear to be a passive way of learning the various functions in Excel, going through the list of functions repeatedly would help you register and recall at least some of the functions.

3.  - Try to keep your formulas as granular as possible i.e. avoid creating gigantic formulas.  If you think the only way to obtain the solution is to combine a couple of functions, then try to key in the sub functions in different columns and then plug the results of these function in the main formula.  You may then hide these support columns which you used.

Essentially, you should try to follow the KISS principle (Keep it Short and Simple) when creating your worksheets or formulas.  Herein, I must admit that I myself do not follow this rule very strictly at times.

4.  - Try to tag those cells with comments which would not apparently be clear to a third person.  To insert a comment, just add right click in the cell and click on “Insert comment”.

5.  - Many a times, we associate the problem which we are trying to solve in Excel, as an Excel problem.  What I essentially mean is that, the task of solving the problem through Excel can be made easier if, in the first place, we could solve it manually i.e. we must ask ourselves the question, “how would we have solved the problem if Excel or any other spreadsheet program did not exist”.

Example:

If I were to search for a Name in a long list and return the amount outstanding against that person (which is in some other column), I would ask the following questions:

a) Where can I find the name in the list i.e. which function can I use to return the position of the searched name in the list

b) How can I reference the column of the list which houses the outstanding amounts?

One may then formulate the problem as follows – “Is it possible to determine the amount at the intersection of the name and the relevant column.  After one has framed this query, one may be able to single out that one is essentially searching or finding the amount against the desired name.

Now type Search or find in the Help menu dialog box to get a description of the function.  If you think that the particular function does not answer your question, try clicking on the “See Also” link at the bottom of the search page.

6.  - Try to format your spreadsheets in a manner such that they are print ready i.e. the user of the sheet should just click on the “Print” button to get an immaculately formatted spreadsheet.  Some individuals find it more comfortable to view print outs of documents rather than see the spreadsheet on the computer.

7. - Herein i would like to emphasise the importance of using short cut keys (throught the key board).  You will realise the importance of this through the time saved on various tasks such as saving, formatting etc.  Another benefit of using short cut keys is that, once you are comfortable with using them, they can be employed across Microsoft Office applications such Word and PPT.  You can get a comprehensive list of short cut keys through the Help menu.