Getting Started with Google Sheets: Conversation with Ben L. Collins

Dec 8th, 2020 / Data Analysis
I recently had the chance to talk with my longtime friend, Ben L. Collins, who is THE Google Sheets instructor. Ben joined as a special guest at Office Hours (special live sessions for full course students where we share ideas and give feedback on each other’s projects). Ben shared about his consulting and training work with Sheets, and his personal take on Sheets – favorite features, surprising features, and so on. The personal insights and reflections you can’t learn just by googling something.
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Re-envisioning a University’s Monthly Report: Two Reports with Two Different Purposes

Oct 20th, 2020 / Dashboards
“How can I show my audience that 24,000 is a big number??” an evaluator asked me. She’s right; this is challenging. A single number on its own doesn’t tell us anything. Have you heard those (un)professional recommendations like, “Just type the 24,000 in large font so it grabs attention!” or “Add an icon next to the 24,000 to bring it to life!” Sigh. Want to bring numbers to life? We need to compare numbers to something. Here are two suggestions.
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Learn How to Make Great Graphs in Excel with Ann K. Emery

Jun 23rd, 2020 / Data Visualization
Our software how-to visualization course, “Great Graphs: Excel How-To’s,” is open for once-a-year enrollment between June 22-26, 2020. We started building this virtual training in 2018. Since then, we quadrupled the videos and templates. We added Office Hours so you can pick my brain about your individual projects. We added Discussion Boards and a Facebook group to build community. We added Guest Experts so you can learn about programs beyond Excel. We added Lifetime Access. This Excel dataviz training is the best it’s ever been.
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A Real-Life Excel Test from a Job Interview: Can You Pass??

Feb 18th, 2020 / Data Analysis
Ten year ago, I was interviewing for an analyst position and I’d sat in the interviewer’s office going on and on about all my great spreadsheet skills. And then the interviewer was like, “Prove it. Come with me.” I was then led to an office with a computer that had an Excel test just waiting for me. My heart just about stopped– what did I say I knew how to do again?? Spoiler alert: I got the job but fast forward ten years later- can I still pass that Excel test today?
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