Free training: Take the next steps in growing your Excel skills

In early May, we told you about the new video series Excel Skills Builder in our post "Take the first step in growing your Excel skills." In that post, we announced the launch of lesson 1. Well, we've finally finished the rest of the lessons, and wanted to share this great resource with you!  

As a reminder, the skills builder is a video series that comprises short (typically under 5 minutes each) videos that give you an overview of a task or feature in Excel. The videos are grouped so that you can build on the basics and move from the simple to the more complex. It's a great way to learn about new features and tasks in Excel. And you can even track your progress through each lesson. If you come back later to finish the lesson, you know where you stopped. In the example below, I've watched all the videos, so a check mark appears for each video, and my Learning Progress bar is full. Very handy.

Lesson 1: Moving from lists to tables, includes the following topics:

• Create a workbook
• Customize a worksheet
• Enter and edit data
• Format data
• Apply math and formulas
• Sort and filter data
• Create and use tables

new  Lesson 2: Visual Analysis - from numbers to pictures, includes the following topics:

• Apply conditional formatting
• Use sparklines
• Create a chart
• Use shapes and diagrams
• Apply data validation

new  Lesson 3: Collaboration and sharing, includes the following topics:

• Print worksheets
• Save and open a worksheet to the Web
• Co-author
• Excel Web Apps

new  Lesson 4: Automation, macros and reporting, includes the following topics:

• Intro to functions
• Use macros
• Create PivotTables
• Use slicers
• Use PowerPivot
• What-if analysis/Solver

At the end of each video, you'll get links to more information on the task, so you can dig deeper if you have the time or inclination.

We hope you find these videos useful!  And check out our blog post on our eight best tutorials on Excel charts.

--Amy Miller

More info on Excel charts:

Combining Chart Types, Adding a Second Axis

Create a chart from start to finish

Go beyond the basic chart type

Can't find the Chart Wizard? No worries

Use sparklines to show data trends

Line or scatter chart?

Format column sparkline charts using the date axis and cell merging