Zero 2 Excel Guru Course Description

8/16/2019 Zero 2 Excel Guru Course Description

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Zero 2 Excel Guru: Course Description

Zero 2 Excel Guru will take someone who has none to some Excel skills

(suitable for beginner to somewhat advanced Excel ability) and will have you

doing Advanced VBA / Macros programming within 6 weeks! You will be

transformed.

No Excel course has ever been produced like this. This course is purely for

Analytical Professionals or aspiring Professionals like Analysts, Accountants,

Project Management Professionals, PMOs, Management Consultants etc. who

work in Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Energy, Retail, Government

sectors etc. such as those aiming to become better Professionals.

The course consists of Video Lessons created and delivered by myself. I have

been using Excel as a professional for over 10 years so ignore unnecessary

topics that other courses teach and I focus on only the most important topics

that a professional needs to succeed.

Accompanying the lessons will be many Excel workbooks for you to work with

that will help you completely grasp the skills.

Over 6 weeks, spending a minimum of 2-4 hours a week you will learn ONLY

the most important Excel skills that will make you a highly sought after

professional. Using this in conjunction with the ‘Selling You’ course will rapidly

set you up for a six figure salary.

When you purchase the course, you will get instant access to Week 0 (Pre-

requisites) and Week 1, then every week you will be given access to a new

module. This weekly delivery of lessons is to prevent overwhelm.

While the course is designed to be completed in 6 weeks with at least 2 -4

hours a week time investment, the benefit of having it online is that you can

study it at your own pace. Life, work and other commitments mean you won’t

always be able to learn at my recommended pace. But once purchased, you

have the content for life.

Let’s have a look at what is involved in each module.

Sohail Anwar


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Module 0: Prerequisites

This is immediately available when you sign up for the course. Then every 7 days you get a new

module

This is a Prerequisites module and will get complete beginners comfortable with Excel and to an

Intermediate level of understanding.

# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes)

1Navigating around

Excel

Getting familiar with an Excel workbook

What are Worksheets

What are cells

How to save a workbook

2.17

2Entering

Information

What can we enter in to Excel

The main data types

Use Excel as you want - To do lists

2.58

3

Navigating

without the

Mouse

How to move around the worksheet without a

mouse

How to select cells without the mouse

2.53

4 Basic Formatting

Highlighting cell colour

Fonts: bold, italics, underline & type

Merging cells

Indenting & aligning cell fonts (Left, mid, right)

Putting a border around cells

4.19

5Dragging &

Autofill

Why and how to drag the contents of cell

Incrementing series or Autofill4.14

6 Copy & Paste

Basics of copying and pasting

Keyboard shortcuts

Paste special

Format painter

4.52

7 Clearing cells Selecting all sheet cells

Clearing types (cells, contents, formats)2.26

8Inserting &

Deleting

Removing space between cells, columns and rows

Inserting space between cells, columns and rows

3.36

9 Date Basics

What is a Date in Excel

Different date formats

Serial numbers

4.12

10Introduction to

Formulas

What are formulas?

The most basic formula: an addition1.51

11Introduction to

Formulas: Part 2

Functions: Excel's built in Formulas

Explaining how functions (formulas) work4.22

12

Introduction to

Formulas:

Autosum

The convenience of Autosum

Sum, Average, Max, Count functions of Autosum2.25


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13More on

Worksheets

Creating, deleting, moving & copying worksheets

Working with worksheet tabs

Hiding/Unhiding worksheets

Grouping & ungrouping sheets

6.36

14 More Borders

Good practice with borders

Making tables look visually better

Different border types

Drawing borders

Gridlines

4.51

15Printing

considerations

Print preview

Setting the print area

Good practice to setting up for printing

Making titles appear on all pages

6.31

16Conditional

Formatting

How to use conditional formatting

Icon sets Heat maps

RAG (Red Amber Green) Status

Using Formulas to do conditional formatting

8.32

17 Charts

The 3 kinds of charts most useful for professionals

Formatting chart basics

Adding data to charts

9.43

18 Autofilter What is an autofilter and when do we use it

Setting the filter criteria6.04

19 Sorting Data Sorting data by text and numerical values 2.16

20

Introduction to

Text Data

Removing duplicates

Text to columns 3.57

21 Named Ranges Benefits of naming ranges 2.42

22 Data Validation

Placing restrictions on cells

Creating lists

Customising error messages

5.27

Module 1: ’80:20 Excel Part 1’

I discuss the 80:20 phenomenon and how it applies to professionals who need to learn Excel. Then I

cover some absolutely fundamental aspects of Excel and teach why and how to structure your datacorrectly.

After the introductory material we delve in to Finding Information from data which is where the

journey of being a great ‘Excel’ Professional really begins. In order to do value adding problem

solving, you first need to have complete command over how you find data. I cover everything from

Lookups to the advanced Array formulas. We will build on this in subsequent Modules.

Following that topic, I cover Treating Information with rules to make it do what you want it to do.

We will learn the best methods of building logic to manipulate your data for analysis. These concepts

will be significantly developed in the subsequent modules.


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# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes

1 The 80:20principle

Getting familiar with an Excel workbook

What are Worksheets What are cells

How to save a workbook

9.14

2

Introduction to

Excel for

professionals

What can we enter in to Excel

The main data types

Use Excel as you want - To do lists

7.59

3Performance of

Excel

Why Excel files can get slow

Considerations for speed4.37

4 Long boring lists

Why we need to maintain our data in a certain

format

What bad data storing looks like

The elements of better data storing

7.12

5Long boring lists:

Monthly Data

A first look at Project focused data

Good practice for making retaining data

chronologically (monthly)

Visual inspection of data via Autofilters and

sorting

Custom sorting lists for more useful inspection of

data

11.39

6Locking down

cells

Absolute and relative referencing

Keyboard shortcut for toggling through6.13

7

Finding

Information:

VLOOKUP

Breakdown of the VLOOKUP Defining ranges with VLOOKUP

IFERROR to clean

Why the COLUMN formula is so useful with

VLOOKUP

19.46

8

Finding

Information:

INDEX & MATCH

Thinking in a grid format

INDEX and MATCH are best friends

When to use INDEX/MATCH or VLOOKUP

20.20

9

Finding

Information: Limit

formulas

MIN/MAX formulas for finding extremes

SMALL/LARGE for finding by rank

Using INDEX and MATCH to make this useful

14.48

10

Getting Advanced

with Lookup

formulas

Limitations of VLOOKUP & MATCH/INDEX and how

to get around

Finding multiple criteria with a helper column

Finding multiple criteria with an ARRAY formula

15.40

11

Finding

Information:

putting it all

together

Making the long boring list more accessible with

an information page

Using Data Validation, named ranges and

INDIRECT

Using advanced lookup techniques

17.50

12 Rule building withIF

Treating information with rules through building

logic Thinking like a Tree (PowerPoint)

Deconstructing the IF formula

13.38


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13More advanced

logic building

Different ways to tackle a complex logic problem

Using VLOOKUP as a rule builder

Greater nesting levels with IF

Logic with CHOOSE and MATCH

17.37

Module 2: ’80:20 Excel Part 2’

At this point your skills will be very advanced but for many professionals manipulating text

information is crucial. This module will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know in order to do that.

The last lesson is an incredibly powerful one that combines lookup, logic and text to develop a

resourcing model, something that I used in previous roles.

Summarisation is the ‘end game’ for much of the work you will do as a professional, all eyes will be

here. So I spend a significant amount of time on this topic! Where I bring together everything wehave learned and build on it even further. At the end of this module, we delve even further in to

Array Formulas and I break down how to approach tricky situations when summarising

# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes

1Working with

Text

Merging cells and vertical alignment

Line breaks in your text

The consequences of merging cells and data loss

5.33

2

Text Functions:

PROPER, TRIM &

CLEAN

Cleansing external text data with CLEAN

Removing extra spaces with TRIM

Fixing capitalisation of words with PROPER

5.31

3Text Functions:

LEN & SEARCH

Finding the length of characters with LEN

Using SEARCH to pinpoint the location of certain

characters

Nested SEARCH to find second instances

7.18

4Text Functions:LEFT, MID,

RIGHT

Video Length: 2.23 Introduction to LEFT, RIGHT and MID for text

manipulation

2.23

5

Text functions:

Advanced Text

analysis by

building

formulas

Using LEN & SEARCH with LEFT, RIGHT and MID

Using 'helper columns' to build advanced text

formulas

Find and Replace to assist with text manipulation

19.56


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6

Text functions:

Creating email

addresses with

SUBSTITUTE and‘&’

The benefits of the SUBSTITUTE Function

Creating a Cumulative Text formula to generate an

email distribution list

6.17

7

Text functions:

Creating

character and

word count

limits

Using data validation to create limits on entering

characters in a cell

Using SUBSTITUTE, LEN and Data Validation to

create a word count limit

6.43

8

Advanced Text,

Logic and

Lookups:Creating a

resourcing

model

A detailed example using Text formulas, Lookups

and conditional counting to create a resourcing

budget model

The need to establish assumptions and

requirements before starting

29.06

9Introduction to

summarising

The final of the 4 components of Excel productivity

Why we summarise and the two aspects to focus

on

2.32

10 Counting

COUNT and COUNTA for basic counting on

numbers and text

Introducing conditional counting with the COUNTIF

formula Multiple conditions with the COUNTIFS formula

Using COUNTIF to analyse duplicate values in a list

13.52

11 Summing

Conditional summing or summing by logic with

SUMIF and SUMIFS

Introducing SUMPRODUCT as an alternative to

SUMIFS

Using SUMPRODUCT in conjunction with formulas

to create a powerful filter

When to use SUMIF(S) and when to use

SUMPRODUCT

14.01

12SUBTOTAL

function

What is the SUBTOTAL function and why we might

want to include it in our outputs?

Taking Autofilters to another level with SUBTOTAL

Having a pastevalues chart set up and pasting

autofiltered & subtotalled data

4.48

13

Analysis

walkthrough

with summing

and counting

A one of analysis piece involving SUMIFS, COUNTIF

and sorting5.58


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14

What are Pivot

tables and why

they areoverrated

Pivot tables are basically summing and counting

data with filtering capability

Pivot tables can be useful for very quick and dirty

analysis

Challenges with formatting and why they aren'tgreat for final report outputs

Why you should be aware of Pivot Tables

14.48

15

Advanced list

analysis:

understanding

Array formulas

A detailed breakdown how the advanced Array

formulas work

Thinking in a 3rd dimension to understand how a

cell refers to multiple cells

Multiple occurrences of a value in one list: one of

the most useful ARRAY formulas

11.58

16

Advanced

Modelling with

Array formula

lookups

Multiple occurrences within multiple occurrences

to create more sophisticated list models Turning a one off analysis into a project data

model for dynamic reporting

Automation without VBA

10.00

17

Dashboard and

reporting

practice for

professionals

What you need to consider about your audience

before doing anything

The importance of simplicity and minimalism

The need to construct a narrative for your report /

dashboard

key considerations for formatting

Data or project size and how it affects qualitative

and quantitative decisions

12.52

18

Advanced

Conditional

formatting:

Using formulas

Why conditional formatting formulas are like the IF

statement

Using more sophisticated formulas in your

conditional formatting to enhance your models

Why you should build complex formulas outside of

the conditional formatting window

Array formulas and conditional formatting

21.12

19

Advanced

Conditional

formatting:Beyond

Highlighting

Creating dynamic borders to automatically

enhance the visual aspect of your summarising 11.27

Module 3: VBA Fast-track

This lesson is a career game-changer as you will learn VBA and Macros with my very unique

experienced based approach focusing on a handful of key themes. You will be effortless

programming in a shockingly quick time frame. My teaching is so efficient that I don’t even allow you

to learn unnecessary and confusing jargon which all other courses teach you first. This approach

slows down the amount of time before you actually learn something useful and you can risk getting

burned out before you have even learned something amazing.


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In the second half, I focus on introducing you to Macros and the best way to take advantage of

Macros in your work.

# Name Description

Video

Length(minutes

1Cells and

Ranges

Controlling Cells

2 ways to put data into Cells

Put data into a bunch (Range) of Cells

3.17

2 Copy and Paste Copy and Paste 2.31

3Controlling

fonts and

colouring cells

Controlling fonts

Colouring cells4.36

4

Multiple lines,

clearing and

column widths

Writing VBA on multiple lines

Clearing cells

Column widths

6.53

5Building Logic

with IF Building logic in VBA with the IF statement 4.22

6Building Logic

with Select Case

A simpler way to build logic with VBA

Programming conditional formatting6.42

7The importance

of Loops

What is a loop and why is it so important

Controlling with loops7.52

8Introduction to

Automation Loops and logic are the foundation of automation 6.25

9Loops and

selecting ranges

Using Range and Cells together to select cells in co-

ordinate fashion

2.57

10Manoeuvring

and Macros

Why we need to understand manoeuvring in a

worksheet

How the Macro recorder and common sense will

make you a VBA expert!

5.11

11Constants and

Variables

Understanding the difference between constants

and variables2.42

12

The MOST

important line

in VBA you need

to know!

Counting rows and understanding how far to

manoeuvre

Combining with a loop for some intelligent control

5.24

13

Putting together

everything so

far to

demonstrate

Automation

A real world problem to automate using loops,logic and manoeuvring

Breaking the problem down in stages and building

the steps toward the solution

Using END IF with IF for better clarity on tricky IF

statements

16.18

14Macro file

formats

What you need to know about the difference

between .xlsx and .xlsm file formats3.11

15

Developer tab

and Macro

Security

Accessing the developer tab

Understanding Macro security settings3.49

16Modules,macros and

relative

Sheet code vs module code

Revisiting macros with a new spin9.49


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references Understanding how relative referencing affects the

recorded code

Custom keyboard shortcuts

17A first look at

Buttons

Looking at Active-X button

Writing button code to trigger another macro4.12

18Charting driven

by Macros

Recording and tweaking chart macros

What to remember about coding in worksheets vs

modules

Using loops and data validation for dynamic

charting

10.08

19

Why Macros

can go wrong

and what to do

about it

What can go wrong with the chart macro

How to adjust and compensate the recorded code5.58

20Handling Errors

and Sheet issues

Common sense errors vs writing (syntax) errors

Ignoring errors

Trapping errors to deal with them

Why a sheet name is different from a worksheet

name and how this affects your code

Using Exit sub to leave an error trap

12.38

21Dynamic

Charting: Part 1

Using loops, logic, macro recording and charting to

solve a real problem

The usefulness of debug.print and the immediate

window

The benefits of indenting in your code to make it

readable

16.35

22Dynamic

Charting: Part 2

Breakpoints to help debugging code

Moving cells in VBA vs moving cells in formulas

Bringing data validation in to add some

interactivity

Skipping and repeating parts of the code as you

step through it

13.14

23Dynamic

Charting: Part 3

Putting the finishing touches on the design with

macro recorded code

Lazy error handling for quick fixing

9.01

24 End with Using With and End with for some economy in our

coding7.49

25Controlling

Autofilters

Tweaking Macro recorded code to control

Autofilters

Copying only the viewable (Used) Range

Using Offset and Resize to decide how much we

want to copy

20.20

26Controlling

Formulas

The two ways to control formulas with VBA

Using Loops plus formulas for Analysis (Finding and

Summarising)

14.45


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Module 4: Gathering Data

Your VBA skills will dramatically improve here as I start to make you an automation expert and all

while you learn one of the most important topics of gathering information from people. A skill that

will make you invaluable to your bosses and teams if you get it right. Note, not only do you get

technical skills but I share best practices from a professional perspective when it comes to asking

others for information and that insight is from my years of working, making mistakes and learning

the hard way. It will make all the difference.

Then your Automation skills will really deepen as we look at some powerful techniques to speed up

our work dramatically and we delve even more in to one of the foundations of VBA automation:

Loops. By the end of this lesson you will be an expert at automation and you will be able to

confidently speed up your work and since this is one of the most coveted analytical skills, you will be

in a position to command a much higher salary.

# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes

1 Introduction

Understanding the reporting cycle

What is gathering information and how should

we approach it

17:18

2

Creating an

Input Sheet

Template

Using data validation, conditional formatting and

good data practice to approach information

gathering

Deciding what we should ask for and leave outwhen requesting data

22:45

3

Mass producing

Input Sheets 1:

Set the scene

Break down the process of creating input sheets

into steps so we can plan our automation

Moving and copying worksheets and creating

new workbooks

6:54

4

Mass producing

Input Sheets 2:

Worksheet

Variables

Making a Worksheet in to a variable 5:12

5

Mass producingInput Sheets 3:

Autofilter

revisited and

Pastespecial

Control data manipulation with Autofilter and

Usedrange (with offset and resize) code

Using Pastespecial instead of Paste with Copy

15:25

6

Mass producing

Input Sheets 4:

Manipulating

filter criteria

Getting creative with data extraction through

manipulating Autofilter criteria

Using 'Dateadd' and formatting code to gain

control of filtering dates

10:40


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7

Mass producing

Input Sheets 5

Creating a

unique list to

prepare forlooping

Removing duplicates with VBA to create a

unique list

The importance of clearing what you have

copied with VBA from your clipboard

6:34

8

Mass producing

Input Sheets 6

Instantly

creating 25

unique input

Excel files

Looping through our unique list and creating an

Excel file per entry in the list9:05

9

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 1 Starting

the new process

Break down the process of collating data once

we have received all our separate Excel files5:45

10

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 2 Open

up one file and

copy data

VBA to open workbooks and understanding file

paths

Controlling at the Workbook level by creating a

Workbook variable

The benefits of turning off Excels alert messages

Applying Usedrange for more accurate data

copying

17:05

11

Introduction to

the DO WHILE

LOOP

A powerful new type of loop based on

condition(s) being met6:03

12

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 3 Looping

through all files

in a folder and

copying data

Constructing filepaths and using the wildcard *

operator to refer to all files

Using the Dir (Directory) command to find files in

a folder

Creative ways to deal with complex multiple

loop logic

17:22

13

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 4 Setting

up new databefore we bring

into our long

boring list

More Autofilters and Usedrange to prepare our

dataset for collation 11:41

14

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 5 Looking

up latest data

MANUALLY into

our long boring

list

Keeping it simple and manually writing

VLOOKUPS to bring our data in as a simple

option4:12


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15

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 6 Looking

up latest data

AUTOMATICALLYinto our long

boring list

Using FOR Loops and DO WHILE Loops together

to look up and collate information logically13:00

16

Collating Data

from Input

Sheets 7 Putting

it all together

Put together everything and press one button to

save over an hour of time!6:20

Module 5: PowerPoint Automation

You will learn everything you need about visual automation such manipulating shapes (great for

advanced reporting) and controlling PowerPoint from Excel, this is the skill that separates the great

from the average ‘Excel Gurus’ and will make you a superstar professional who is able to produce

lots of work very quickly. In the hands of professionals who know how to sell this skill, I call it a ‘six

figure skill’.

# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes

1Why

PowerPoint?

Why do we need to go to the effort of learning to

control PowerPoint over other Microsoftapplications

What do we need to control in PowerPoint from

Excel

4:31

2

Introduction

to the Object

Model

How Excel and PowerPoint are constructed and

why we need to understand this7:38

3

Programming

in

PowerPoint1: Basics

Getting comfortable with PowerPoint's VBA

environment

The importance of dimensioning and variables in

PowerPoint VBA How to add multiple slides to a PowerPoint

presentation

8:12

4

Programming

in

PowerPoint

1: Shapes

Programming a shape onto a slide

The importance of naming shapes

Conditionally colouring shapes on a slide based

on the shape type

14.22

5

Programming

in

PowerPoint1: Tables

Creating a table in PowerPoint, populating it with

information and some basic formatting 14:19


13/15

13

6

Opening

PowerPointfrom Excel

Why we need to set a reference from Excel to

PowerPoint before we can do anything

The standard lines of code that will make Excel

control PowerPoint

Drawing shapes and tables in PowerPoint from

Excel

9:57

7

Pasting an

Excel range

as an Image

in

PowerPoint

Why this is the preferred method of translating

any information from Excel to PowerPoint

The basic coding involved and the drawbacks of

this method

8:58

8

Translating

Excel data

into a table

in

PowerPoint 1

Transferring Excel data into a PowerPoint table

for a visually better output

Code to check how many columns have been

occupied

Two dimensional loops for more economic coding

Combing SELECT CASE with the IF statement for

handling very specific logical outcomes

Formatting the table by building up VBA code

step by step

Why using CHOOSE in VBA is key to loopingmastery!

29:48

9

Translating

Excel data

into a table

in

PowerPoint

2: Multiple

Slides

What measures we need to take when our data

will need a table spanning multiple slides

Building multiple layers of loops to create the

logic required for this task

22:51

10

Drawing

Shapes inExcel

Principles of shapes and positioning on the Excel

grid

Using mathematics and geometry plus logic toaccurately position our shapes

Creating a milestone chart

19:16

11

Translating

Excel data

into Shapes

in

PowerPoint

Translate Excel data from our long boring list into

a visual PowerPoint diagram

Add labels to the diamond shapes in our plot

19:57


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Week 6: The Solutions Vault

Week 6 is amazing, I share with you some of the best Excel solutions I have built in my career,

carefully chosen, these are templates, reports and solutions that have played a huge role in me

earning over 6 figures, so I am giving them to you to learn, steal and call your own. Take the credit.

You have my permission. Frankly this week is the worth the price of the course many times over and

I recommend even VBA experts to sign up just to get hold of these.

# Name Description

Video

Length

(minutes

1

Resource

Analysis:

Goodpractice for

managing

data

When to relax my rules of long boring lists -

small, self-contained data for a defined period of

time

NETWORKDAYS to calculate working days in aperiod

Auditing your formulas to understand them and

fix any issues

How conditional formatting lets you build

business rules

15:25

2Dynamic

Charts

Getting useful MI from our data

Automating a chart without VBA: Setting up a

dynamic chart with a scroll bar control and INDEX

formula

15:36

3 ChartingActual vs

Forecast

Getting creative with charting series todistinguish actual and forecast data

7:33

4

Segmenting

for deeper

MI

Breaking down our summary into segments

Stacked Column chart: when its acceptable

Why good MI depends on understanding the

needs of senior people

6:41

5

Meaningful

Resource

Analysis

Profiling resource data for meaningful analysis

The importance of cleansing your data8:55

6

Interesting

MI

Aesthetics,

automating

folders and

PDF files

Interesting visual way of tracking RAG

movements

How a shape can contain formula values

Merging cells with VBA

Using VBA to create folder structures

Creating a loop to make Dashboards by division

and saving as PDF files

21:02

7

Automate

the creation

of aPowerPoint

slide deck

Extending our PowerPoint code to create a

complete slide deck

An extensive look at scaling images to fitcorrectly on a PowerPoint slide

The benefit of date and timestamping file names

12:22


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15

when auto saving

8

Combining

PowerPoint

with

Information

Gathering

Gather project information from Stakeholders

with a PowerPoint export built in

The convenience of embedding a PowerPoint

template into Excel

10:35

9

Automating

the

production

of a Project

Summaryfront page in

PowerPoint

Break down a complex front page into sections

and automate one section at a time

A third way to control PowerPoint from Excel

How to link Excel charts to PowerPoint

Using conditional formatting as a column alert

Automation of a milestone chart

Using a conditional formula to decipher when to

merge cells

18.05

Documents

Zero 2 Excel Guru Course Description