In the following video tutorial, I go over the following items in detail:

- Explanation and example of major error types in Excel:

#DIV/0 — #VALUE! — #REF! — #NAME? — #NUM! — #N/A — #NULL!

- Overview of Excel’s built-in error checking options and functionality.

- How to use “Go To Special…” to find errors easily.

- Copy / paste large data areas for data monitoring.

- Using direct comparison, and SUM/COUNT functions to compare data changes.

- Use of Conditional Formatting for emphasis when comparing ranges.’

Download the Error and Data Checking file to follow along with the video lesson!

Microsoft has made it possible for anyone who’d like to check out Excel 2013 (included with the full Office 2013) through their Excel 2013 pre-release trial here.

UPDATE 2/20: Now they have the Office 365 full version for a one month trial!

I’d recommend downloading the Excel 2013 example file I go over in the video, but the majority of the information is included in these two links (if you are unable to download the Excel trial):

Excel 2013 New Function Examples // Excel 2013 All New Functions Listing

The video lesson shows some of the great new features in Excel 2013 including:

- Quick overview of appearance, template, and file menu changes [00:13]

- The new Flash Fill functionality [02:01]

- Quick-Analysis features including charts, tables, totals, formatting and sparklines [03:06]

- New charting features like Recommended Charts, and chart editing options  [05:02]

- In-depth examples of the following new functions [08:10]:

DAYS – ENCODEURL – FORMULATEXT – IFNA – ISFORMULA

ISOWEEKNUM – NUMBERVALUE – SHEET – SHEETS

- Example workbook includes Pivot data and tables already created and setup for trying out the new Excel Data Model that allows for multi-table Pivot Tables.

This lesson picks up right where the last Pivot Table lesson left off.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

• How to use multiple levels of data within row or column labels.
• Expand / collapse all functionality through right-click (Expand / collapse entire field)
• Advanced filtering options including: right-click, row label, column label, and report filters. Includes multiple simultaneous filters, and using search/filter functionality within each data level.
• ‘Defer Layout Update’ option which allows for changing fields without pivot table automatically updating.
• Fields Section / Areas Section Stacked vs. Other Pivot Field List Formats.

Make sure to download the Advanced Pivot Tables – Round 2 workbook to follow along with the lesson!

If you’re following along with the Lesson Guide, next up is Auto-Filter and Advanced Data Filtering

The VLOOKUP function is one of the most frequently used functions in all of Excel.  In this video lesson I go over some advanced usages of the VLOOKUP function including:

- In-depth overview of the VLOOKUP syntax:

= VLOOKUP ( lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup ).

- Examples of how to set up intelligent formulas which pull information based on other cells rather than typed in (aka hard-coded) values.

- How to set up an intelligent order query which pulls a full row of information about different orders using one formula that gets copied and pasted.

Download the Advanced VLOOKUP Examples workbook to follow along with the video.

- How to use the Insert Chart feature for Line, Pie, and Column charts.

- Formatting/editing chart axes, data labels, legends, data series, and chart titles.

- Detailed introduction to Sparklines (which allows for charts within individual cells).

Make sure to download the Chart Lesson workbook to follow along with the video!!

Disclaimer: If you’re pretty familiar with Excel, this video may be extremely boring.  You have been warned!

Throughout the lesson, I explain the following information and questions in great detail:

- What am I looking at when I open Excel for the first time?

- Explanation of Column / Rows and how referencing works.

- Navigating Excel, knowing where you are in the spreadsheet, and the ‘name box’.

- Overview of sheets including adding, deleting, and renaming.

- Explanation of hard-coded values vs. formulas/functions, and Excel default cell formats.

- Formatting options including bold/underline, alignment (e.g. centering), and creating borders.

- Information about the formula bar, and how to use the ‘Insert Function’ feature.

- Example of creating a simple personal finance tracker and how to input information into Excel.

- Introduction to the Master Workbook, including the function listing and previews of examples from other lessons.

Feel free to show this lesson to anyone who wants to learn Excel but doesn’t know the first thing about getting started!

Now if you’re following the Lesson Guide, you should move on to Learning Basic Formatting Techniques.

I’ve noted the time that each section starts in the video, but you may want to let it load completely first as I’ve had errors skipping around early.

1) Dynamic Named Ranges [0:13]

As a follow-up to the Named Ranges video, I go through some examples which have been partially modified from the Dynamic Named Ranges post on OzGrid.  Definitely check out that link for additional information about how to use the functionality!

Keyboard Shortcuts: New Named Range is ALT + MMD, and the Name Manager is ALT + MN.

To check what your named range is currently referencing, hit F5 (for Go To) and type in the dynamic named range into the reference field, and it will highlight that range.  This is useful since dynamic named ranges do not appear in the Name Box.

2) Find and Select -> Go To Special… [5:28]

An excellent feature in Excel is the Find and Select functionality, which includes the ability to select a certain subset of a range.  For example, you can easily select all cells within a range that contain: Blanks / Formulas / Visible Cells / Constants / Conditional Formats and a whole lot more…

Keyboard Shortcuts: For ‘Go To Special’, hit F5 and then ALT + S.

3) 3D Formulas & Editing – Formulas Across Multiple Sheets [7:32]

Do you have information that is spread across multiple sheets in the same format? For example, you may have the same sheet template with different monthly/weekly/daily information.  Using ’3D formulas’ you could sum a certain cell or range across multiple sheets by indicating the starting and ending sheets (and that formula will grab everything in between as well).

Keyboard Shortcuts: Selecting multiple tabs is CTRL + SHIFT + Pg Up or Pg Dn.

4) Text to Columns [11:24]

Have a lot of data that’s jammed into a single cell?  You can use Text to Columns to separate that cell’s contents into multiple columns based on the location of spaces, commas, periods or other character(s) that you specify.  An example would be splitting a cell with full names into a first name and last name column based on the space.

Keyboard Shortcuts: ALT + DE brings up the Text to Columns option.

5) Customizing Ribbon Menu Tabs & Menu Groups [13:08]

There is a lot of customization that you can build into Excel so that you have custom menu tabs & groupings to help you get to the Excel features and functionality that you use most.

You may have noticed my ‘Ben’ grouping in previous videos on my ‘Home’ tab which has PivotTable, Name Manager, Freeze Panes, Data Validation, Conditional Formatting and other features that I use very frequently.  In this video I will show you how you can do the same!

In this video series we’ll follow along with solutions to the advanced homework for the VBA Purchase Order Generator Walkthrough.

In Part 1 of the homework solution, we develop enhancements to the purchase order worksheet enabling users to input as many entries into the purchase order as they would like, as well as dynamically selecting and removing items that have been added to the purchase order.

ISBLANK – ISERROR – ISTEXT – ISNONTEXT – ISNUMBER

as well as the following info_types of the CELL() function:

“address” – “row” – “col” – “contents” – “width” – “filename”

“color” – “prefix” – “protect” - ”type” - ”format”

The CELL(“format”) info_type has many code results, so I’ve summarized them here:

Make sure to download the latest Master Workbook to follow along with the video lesson.

- How to Use the Auto-Fill Drag Handle / Fill Series Options

- How to Use the Format Painter

- Freeze / Unfreeze Panes

- Sheet Formatting (Coloring Tabs / Renaming)

- Print Area Setup / Print Options

Download the latest Master Workbook to follow along with the video!  The sheet titled “8 – Autofill” in the Master Workbook is what is used in the lesson example:

Now that you’ve got the basic formatting techniques down, why not learn about proper Cell Referencing.