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Want to learn Excel for free? There are 1001 paid Excel courses you can do, and I have done a numerous of them, but honestly, If you are serious about using Excel I highly recommend subbing to one or both of the Excel User lists.  Excel-G is for general users and basic Excel issues.  Excel-L is for more advanced Excel problems including complex Visual Basic (VBA) problems.  I have learnt more from the folks on these two lists than I ever could have in any course.  Best of all, it is completely free to join and start to learn stuff.  It is worth joining just to have access to the huge store of knowledge in the archives.  I have been a member of these list now for about 7 years and they are a great resource.

Excel User Group(s) and Archives.
Microsoft Excel Developers List: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/excel-l.html
MS Excel General Q & A List: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/excel-g.html
Or try Martin Green's Learn VBA Site: http://www.fontstuff.com/vba/index.htm

Free Online Tutorials that maybe useful to you:
http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/ExcelMain.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx
http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/
http://www.techdocs.ku.edu/?excel
http://www.codeproject.com/
http://www.freecomputertraining.com.au/main/page_community_home.html

Here is what I have recommended in the past for people wanting to expand their Excel skill and learn VBA and Macros.

Join the Excel-L list. Much of it will be over your head when you start, but don't be afraid to ask 'dumb questions' (we are pretty friendly) and you should read all the emails, even if you are not sure what they mean. You will be amazed at what you learn and how fast you learn it.

Professional Excel Development - Bullen, Bovey, & Green IS THE book to own.  You may as well learn properly from the start, although you may find it way over your head when you first start, it will prove to be a valuable resource.

USE THE MACRO RECORDER!  Just record what you want to do in Excel and see what the code looks like.  Excel usually does a messy job of it and you will learn to remove all the .Select that .Select This, but you will get the foundation of how the code works and you will learn how to clean it up over time.

You may not know what this means yet, but in the Visual Basic Editor (that pops up when you are in Excel and press ATL F11) make sure you DIM all your variables - and turn on "Option Explict" under the Options which will force this to happen.
 

The EXCEL USER CONFERENCE

Conference Background

The Conference originated as a concet on the L-Soft mailing lists for Microsoft Excel (see links above).

The members of the lists are Excel users from all over the world who collaborate to resolve their spreadsheet problems on a daily basis. On Fridays, the group would joke about getting together at a local establishment of one member. Out of these virtual meetings, the concept of the user conference was born. The first one was very well received. In order to make the conference accessible to more users, it has become a traveling event.

Each conference will include sessions led by Microsoft Office experts. These individuals graciously assist users on a regular basis by answering questions in online forums, writing books and creating excellent web sites filled with great information. Many of the session leaders have been recognized by Microsoft for their contributions with the designation of Microsoft Valuable Professionals (MVP).

There are many online resources for users to share ideas and learn from each other. The Excel / Access User Conference will provide a conduit for users to come together in the same physical location for a few days to exchange information about the powers of Microsoft Office.  I attended the Australian conference in March 2008 and it was fantastic. Highly recommended if you get the chance.

Fore more details see: http://www.exceluserconference.com/index.html

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