Excel Unplugged

Welcome to Excel Template

It’s the newest “Quick Excel Guide” template in Excel and all I can say is BRAVO Microsoft. As the name implies, the target audience are Excel beginners, but it’s also quite a comprehensive short guide from A to Z or better said, it takes you from basic formulas to Pivot Tables. What I really like about it is the fact that on Page one there’s also a Ctrl+= shortcut for SUM. Leaving the usefulness of that one shortcut aside, I love the attitude and the completeness of the “educational” service where even an advanced Excel user can pick a few nice pointers. I think completing the tasks in this template should be a quarterly exercise for Excel newbies in every company.

I strongly encourage you to try it out!

Where is it

You can find it on Excel Start Screen or if you go to File|New

Welcome to Excel Template

If you can’t find it there, you use the following links

https://templates.office.com/en-us/welcome-to-excel-tm10000137?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

https://excelunplugged.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/tf100001372.xlsx

How it works

The idea of the template is to take you on a 10 stops journey (notice the 10 Sheets bellow).

Welcome to Excel Template

Each Sheet is a topic of it’s own but I suggest you go through them in the given order. Challenges presented on each sheet begin with a problem and a step by step solution of the given problem. Finishing that, you can dig deeper into the given topic with many tips & tricks and important remarks.

Welcome to Excel Template

The only section that does leave you wanting more (even keeping in mind the target audience) is PivotTables. The feeling is that it was done in a hurry and with a lot of room for improvement which the two “More information” links don’t fill.

In conclusion

But I’ll say it once again, well done Microsoft and I encourage the readers to test it out and to try and test it on some Excel newbies and I think it is a useful resource that every company could (should) find a use for.