Need to get faster @ Excel problems, required, however, already, appears

andytrader

Hey guys:

I need to get faster at Excel. I'm looking for materials that will help me analyze and manipulate data in Excel much faster. Do you guys have any suggestions (i.e. books etc)

I'm pretty good at Excel already and can do most things that are required for a more analytical job; however, I've been told that I am way to slow. I've thought about getting the benninga book but at a first glance this book appears to be more about how to use excel to do finance problems. I think I could probably figure out how to use Excel to do most finance problems already.

I guess what I'm asking is how are the investment bankers / finance types so fast at making spreadsheets and models? Is there a resource that provides excel shortcuts, functions and formulas that are often used? Thanks for your time guys.

d2rockstar

cpham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey guys:
>
> I need to get faster at Excel. I'm looking for
> materials that will help me analyze and manipulate
> data in Excel much faster. Do you guys have any
> suggestions (i.e. books etc)
>
> I'm pretty good at Excel already and can do most
> things that are required for a more analytical
> job; however, I've been told that I am way to
> slow. I've thought about getting the benninga
> book but at a first glance this book appears to be
> more about how to use excel to do finance
> problems. I think I could probably figure out how
> to use Excel to do most finance problems already.
>
> I guess what I'm asking is how are the investment
> bankers / finance types so fast at making
> spreadsheets and models? Is there a resource that
> provides excel shortcuts, functions and formulas
> that are often used? Thanks for your time guys.


Practice

Wendy01

First, get rid of your mouse - there is a shortcut for nearly everything in excel. Need to format cells? Ctrl+1. Need to reveal formulae instead of results for an entire sheet? Ctrl+shift+~. I'm doing that last one from memory, but I believe it's correct. Anyhow, you want to use your mouse as little as humanly possible - clicks slow you down. If you're not using alt+tab and several desktop monitors in order to maximize your ability to display and work with different data sources, get another monitor and learn how to do it.

Secondly, never re-invent the wheel where possible. Save early versions of work you do as general templates. i.e. if you're going to be analyzing mining companies for a while, first make a template that you'll use for all of them, make the formulae work, format stuff correctly, and then save different versions for your different companies, working off the template. Similarly for macros or other stuff (though other people probably have better ideas for this shiz, as my work with macros is pretty limited).

Good luck.

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strikethree

In the "Help" button of Excel, do a search for "shortcut" and you will find tutorial on a number of shortcuts. Supersadface is right, try to limit the use of the mouse. With Excel 2007, I find ribbons to be very helpful in cutting time. The problem with ribbon is that when you use someone else's Excel and if he/she doesn't have ribbon, you'll spend a lot of time finding commands through the menu bar.

canadiananalyst

Control-arrow and control-shift-arrow are really useful for selecting large blocks of cells. It moves to the first or last filled cell in a sequence. Pressing shift selects the intervening range. Leaving shift unpressed just moves to the cell.

soverby

create a new toolbar, have the buttons that you use most in it, that should help

Zestt

Do a google search for Wall Street Prep Excel Shortcuts 2007 and the first link should lead you to a PDF file of excel shortcuts.

I use these at work at they've helped a ton.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Monday, June 27, 2011 at 12:50AM by el duque.

luda002

^These people also do an online excel course that walks you through all the shortcuts. It's called crash course in excel and walks you through it without using your mouse. It's perfect for what you need and covers the tips of the posters above. I bought it along with the WSP course. You'll still need to practice as one of the guys said, but at least you'll know what to practice with - which reminds me, I need to practice again!

bbtomato

I did a similar course from Wall Street Training (a competitor of WSP) and it was one of the most valuable courses I think I have taken. Yeah, none of it is rocket science, and many people would just say save the money and go learn it on your own, but it's great to have someone walk you through the stuff. I'm pretty sure I would have forgotten a lot (more) of the stuff if I hadn't done the course.

I did the course over the net by streaming video, which was perfect.

soverby

Thanks guys,

Very helpful! Hopefully with practice, I can get to where I need to be.