I know it depends on the person, but does anyone has a guess - or at least is able to say from personal experience?

And can you suggest a good online course? (Paid or free)



Also, some online classes teach Excel 2007, some teach Excel 2010... etc. So which version of excel should I pick to study, you think..? Or are they all if the same..?

Thank you..!

Hi
you should first find out what you need XL for ?
-Is it the appropriate tool?
- Do you need financial calculations, or something else ?
- Except for learning the basics ( how is a sheet used ? - Cell references,syntax...) practice helps a lot
- Do you need VBA or only functions?

- Excel has about 450 functions, learning them all is very difficult and IMO, useless
- The Excel version you need? IMO O365 is the way to go as it has lots of new functions, functionalities, the latest Power Query, etc.. The same can be achieved using older versions ( not older than 2010, though to be on the safe side)
- After learning the basics, my advice would be to stick to some well-known and well-manned forums, and try to answer posts or understand answers given by senior members ( if they are Excel MVP they know their business. OTOH there are some non MVP members who are very good at it)


In a nutshell a week ? a month ? a year ?
The basics can be acquired in a week or two or three , thereafter you have to make your own choices.


So, I'd say, browse the Net, find some good forums ( there is also a lot of information on YouTube) and practice, practice, practice...

__________________
Did you know you can thank someone who helped you? Click on the tiny scale in the right upper hand corner of your helper's post

Your profile shows you already have Office 2019 so try to get a course with that uses the nearest to that so that there will be as little difference as possible when you practice at home.

Also remember that Excel is for those who have mathematical knowledge and are computer savvy to translate formulae into Excel input. I assume you have both these traits? If not you will struggle. If you have then, as Pecoflyer says, it's practice, practice and more practice for however long that takes.

I have been dabbling in Excel for 20 years but because one only learns what one needs to learn to achieve the job at hand it is easy to see that one cannot know how to do everything that Excel is capable of.

Good luck.

I've been working with Excel since 1995. I haven't taken any courses in Excel, but when I changed jobs several years ago, I had to work with long documents in MS Word for the first time. I knew Word basics, at least an old-school version of things, but had lot to learn and refresh myself on. I found that the courses offered by LinkedIn Learning, which has a free trial month, were pretty good. I can't speak for the Excel ones very much, but if they're of the quality that the Word ones are, they're a good start. I paid for a subsequent month (it was a lump fee, like $25) and took some additional courses for a while. I think that might be a nice start.

Additionally, I'm finding some YouTubers are an excellent reference, and a place to pick up ideas on how to better do a task. I follow Leila Gharani, Mynda at MyOnlineTrainingHub, ExcelIsFun, and sometimes I just search YT on various subjects related to Excel. Leila had my intro to some of the new Excel 365 functions.

Ann