Excel: The Program I Realized I Know Nothing About
I benefited from Excel for many years throughout my life in many areas. I used it in lab reports, statistics classes, market research for personal business, and the famed QTM 2 class. I thought I was experienced with Excell until I started my management consulting internship at Mazars. My first 2 days were very Excell heavy, and the 500+ rowed spreadsheets made using formulas an absolute necessity. Although I was able to understand most of the complex concepts, it was taking me a lot of time to prepare a deliverable report because of the problems I face with Excel.
The millions of formulas and add-ons I have to learn aside, I realized there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts that I don’t know and that was the main reason that’s slowing me down. There were many shortcuts that could be used for actions that I normally use the mouse to do. So, I printed a list of all those shortcuts and stuck it to my table to help me learn as I use them. That turned out to be more helpful than I thought, and I definitely advise you to try it if you are also eager to learn some Excel shortcuts and save time. I am leaving a link to a webpage that I have found very helpful if you want to check it out.
The Internet was not the only place I learned about Excel. I asked a lot of questions to the people I share the same desk with. There was a senior analyst sitting next to me who often helped me when I was stuck. It really caught my attention that he was using Excel with lightning speed. So, I asked him how does he do that, and he said he doesn’t use the mouse at all! How can that be possible? He told me that Excell was designed in a way to support %100 mouse free use. You can actually do everything from navigating through different worksheets to zooming around the spreadsheet just using the keyboard. He told me that it is so fast to use Excell with the keyboard, the previous company he worked in prohibited the employees to use mouses! It may take up to 2-3 weeks to get used to it, but when you do you can use Excell 3 to 5 times faster. Every day, little by little, I try to use the mouse less and stick with the keyboard only. If you are also looking for a way to use Excell faster and get your work done quicker, I encourage you to do some googling about using Excell mouse-free.