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

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).

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.

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.