szarka on Nostr: What are your best tips for learning to use an application (programming language, ...
What are your best tips for learning to use an application (programming language, really) like MS Excel? Here are some tips I came up with for my business students. Any advice I should add?
- Learn *what* Excel can do, so you know it's there when you need it someday. Explore the menus, experiment, read the docs.
- Know it's there, but can't find it? Know the way Excel organizes its interface: backstage, tabs, ribbon groups, dropdowns, more options menu. Also, keyboard shortcuts, mouse shortcuts, and right-click context menus.
- When all else fails, search intelligently: "site: Microsoft.com" in Google, StackExchange's SuperUser forum.
- Don't know how to use it? RTFM! Help menu in Excel, documentation on MS sites, function signatures as you type formulas.
- Trying to build something complex? Break it into pieces and test the pieces separately.
- Have a working solution? Now ask, is there a better way? (Easier, more elegant, self-documenting.) Can I present my final solution more clearly, cleanly, compactly, beautifully?
- Learn *what* Excel can do, so you know it's there when you need it someday. Explore the menus, experiment, read the docs.
- Know it's there, but can't find it? Know the way Excel organizes its interface: backstage, tabs, ribbon groups, dropdowns, more options menu. Also, keyboard shortcuts, mouse shortcuts, and right-click context menus.
- When all else fails, search intelligently: "site: Microsoft.com" in Google, StackExchange's SuperUser forum.
- Don't know how to use it? RTFM! Help menu in Excel, documentation on MS sites, function signatures as you type formulas.
- Trying to build something complex? Break it into pieces and test the pieces separately.
- Have a working solution? Now ask, is there a better way? (Easier, more elegant, self-documenting.) Can I present my final solution more clearly, cleanly, compactly, beautifully?