Are You Microsoft Office Proficient?

August 3, 2021 by Corporate Training Singapore

Every job seeker would have this word written in their resume – Microsoft Office Proficiency.

What Exactly is Microsoft Office Proficiency?

A Microsoft Office Proficient should be able to create an error-free, beautifully formatted document with header, footer, page number & Page breaks.

In Excel, they should be able to handle a large volume of data, format, sort, filter and create Pivot Tables for better visualization of Data.

In PowerPoint, the ability to make aesthetically appealing stellar presentation with graphics, images, GIFs, Animation is considered good proficiency.

Handling Microsoft Outlook like a pro to manage emails, create separate folders, track tasks, manage calendar, set reminder, marking them complete, and most important, getting things done quickly with these productivity tools.

This should not be overwhelming. It should be easy to do, and management expects everyone to be proficient in Microsoft Office.

It has been years since the Microsoft Skills have become mandatory for every person coming into the workforce – whether administration, data handling, HR or even the Managerial Position.

A research by IDC concludes that Microsoft Office is one of the top three skills desired by any employers next to oral and written communication Skills.

Possessing Microsoft Skills not only merely helpful in typing docs and tabulating number, rather they help us to get more productive, efficient and handle and present data professionally effectively than ever. Microsoft Office is the most effective, accessible, and easy to use software’s.

Microsoft Word:

It has been used by many people as just a notepad or a typing software’s. But in real, it can do wonders in creating professional Documents.

If we can spend some time in learning a bit more than what the Home Tab has, it can considerably reduce the time we spend on making documents.

Word is useful to create better Proposals, Reports, Agenda, Meeting Minutes & more.

Microsoft Excel:

Excel is often used in accounting and finance for its ability to calculate and compute complex numbers. Even non-financial businesses use Excel because of its unbeatable ability to organize data in tables & for updating, organizing, and displaying the data nicely.

It is highly used in administration and managerial level to analyze data quickly and present to management.

It even supports Visual Basic Applications to create macros to automate functions that increase efficiency.

In fact, the Pivot Tables and Dashboards are inevitable when it comes to analysis and reporting. You must up your proficiency in Excel to master these functions.

Microsoft PowerPoint:

Everyone would have made a basic presentation in Schools and workplaces to present the work. But PowerPoint comes handy to make it visually appealing and effective.

Its intelligence in generating different design ideas for the slides is becoming so popular nowadays. Other than just suggestion, it allows you to use the plenty of shapes and icons that are in-built and even allows you to import illustrations and graphics from the internet while working.

In short, anyone can make a stellar presentation with a quick guidance and practice.

It is always wise to have a most sough after skill in hand to increase employability & cement a position in job industry.

While Microsoft Office is filled with short cuts and methods to create attractive and easy to manage documents, a comprehensive hands-on training can help you to master the hooks and corners of the Microsoft Office package within just 3 days.

Simply follow the step-by-step instructions and learn the art of creating professional business documents easily every time.

With this training you will be able to Create Impressive Proposals, Charts & Presentations to Woo Clients.

View the detailed Course Outline

Companies can apply for SDF FUNDING & Individuals can apply for SkillsFuture Credits to offset the Training Fees.

If you have questions on Funding or need an official quotation/course brochure, please contact me on 9343-2080 or drop us an Email.

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P.S: Don’t forget to check out our Amazing Article on Best Practices For Managing Emails With Microsoft Outlook to Manage Emails like a Pro!

Exciting Microsoft Excel Shortcuts You Never Knew

July 12, 2021 by Corporate Training Singapore

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used software at work. People who claim to know Microsoft Excel software mostly are the ones with basic or intermediate knowledge & understanding of Excel. The productivity increases only when we make the most out of the useful software, and gain mastery.

There are many hidden gems and short cuts within Excel, that hardly anyone talks about. I am amazed when people with years of Excel experience tell me they haven’t heard about these. What a waste of time…

‘Let us discuss in this series the ultimate tips in Excel that will make things snappier, and make your co-workers say, “how did you do that??”. They will save a lot of time for you too and improve your productivity.

Tip Number 01 INSERT SERIAL NUMBERS IN A FLASH

What do we when we have to insert Serial Numbers in Excel? We type the number 1 in the cell A1, then 2 in the cell A2, and finally select both the cells & drag the mouse pointer until we get the required serial numbers generated. Right?

But what happens when we need Serial numbers until 100? 200? Or more?

Do we keep dragging? Certainly not!

There is an ultimately easy way in which you can just flash fill the serial numbers to whatever value needed.

Here are the steps:

Input Number 1 in the first cell

Select Fill > Series from Editing Ribbon of Home Tab

Home> Fill > Series

Select Columns from the Dialog box, give Step & Stop values and Hit OK.

NOTE: If you are looking to Fill Rows instead of columns, just select Rows in the dialog box and follow the same steps.
Bet you didn’t know this trick… Well, now you do.

Tip Number 2 FORGET COPY+PASTE – JUST DRAG & DROP

When we have a set of data in one column & we want it to move to another column. What do we do? Select them all, copy or Hit CTRL C and select the destination column, and paste or hit CTRL V?

Forget the hassle, now select the required data, just Drag & drop to the destination.

Tip Number 3: COPY MULTIPLE VALUES USING THE CLIPBOARD

Working with multiple values? Forget the hassle of copying and pasting one by one.
Use the built in Clipboard feature of Excel.

You can expand the clipboard from the icon lists or use the Win (Windows Key) + V to click on the required values

Tip Number 4: DUPLICATE A SHEET IN JUST ONE-CLICK

Want to copy the whole sheet? Are you selecting and copy pasting?
Or right click, copy, select the sheet, move to bottom?? So many steps for duplicating the sheet?

Now Duplicate a Sheet like a Pro!

Just hold down Ctrl + Drag & Drop the sheet to desired position.

Tip Number 5: UNDO & REDO IN ONE HIT

Undo & Redo would be the most used operations in Excel.
Now do undo and redo with just one click.
Use the buttons on top.

Tip Number 6 Use the QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR

Tedious to find the operations that you frequently use?

CHANGE ALL CAPS TO Mixed Case for Next 3 Rows.

CLICK THE DROP DOWN ARROW TO SEE THE OPTIONS
YOU CAN ADD THE FREQUENTLY USED OPTION TO QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR

EXTRA TIP: YOU CAN ADD ANY OTHER COMMANDS THAT YOU USE FREQUENTLY

Hope that helps! Want to learn more exciting tips, tricks & shortcuts and improve your productivity in Microsoft Excel?

If you wish to build your knowledge to have a better Excel Operations knowledge, you must start working on it. You will do well in your career, and get ahead faster, even land that dream job with better skills & competence in Excel.

We at Intellisoft are here to guide you.

Intellisoft Systems offers 2 day extensive workshops on Microsoft Excel.

Simply pick a program – Basic/Intermediate Excel OR Advanced Microsoft Excel

Join us to get more out of Microsoft Excel to make the best use of the software in your day-to-day work!

Discover Lesser Known Features of Excel

August 20, 2021June 26, 2021 by Corporate Training Singapore

Want to go beyond the common use of Excel and Explore its Extremely Useful but Lesser-Known Features of Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel’s extensive features can help you to increases productivity and also saves time. Become proficient in Data Management & Business Analytics – Turn Data into Insights, Develop better tables & charts.

Lesser Known Features of Microsoft Excel

Conditional Formatting:

Apply formatting to cells automatically depending on the value of the cell. It is also a powerful feature, given that conditions can be based on any Excel formula. Conditional Formatting works by letting you set rules for how cells can be customized.

Conditional formatting makes it easy to highlight required cells or ranges of cells, emphasizing unusual values. In addition to that, it is used to visualize & analyze data in Excel by using data bars, color scales, and icon sets. Overall, it helps you to identify important data faster.

Learn Lesser Known Shortcuts of Excel at Intellisoft Singapore

Advanced Filters:

This Advanced command works differently from the Filter command in several ways. It displays the Advanced Filter dialogue box instead of the Auto Filter menu. You can filter the data in place, or to a different location. You can also specify that you want to see unique items only.

All the duplicates are removed from the filtered list, with Advanced filter. The Data tab contains all the features of Advanced Filters. The advantage of using advanced filter is that you can see the filtered criteria in Excel cells. You can also easily add new filters by typing the values directly in the cells. Thus, it is absolute must learn feature.

Learn Advanced Filter for more Productivity at Intellisoft Singapore

Database Functions:

Database functions is a Seldom used Gem in Microsoft Excel. With this, you can not only perform basic calculations but also use complex criteria, that allow you to perform the calculation for a specified subset of the records in your database.

These functions treat the entire set as a Database, just like a SQL Database.

Learn the Database Function at Intellisoft Singapore

Consolidating Multiple Worksheet:

If you receive information in multiple sheets or workbooks that you want to summarize, the Consolidate command can help you pull data together onto one sheet. It allows you to combine information from multiple workbooks when you need them one place.

The Excel consolidate function lets you select data from its various locations and creates a table to summarize the information for you, automatically, painlessly.

Learn Consolidate Function at Intellisoft Singapore

Preventing others from Changing Master Data:

This feature allows you to prevent other users from accidentally or deliberately changing, moving, or deleting data in a worksheet. You can lock the cells on your Excel worksheet & then protect the sheet with a password.

With worksheet protection, you can make only certain parts of the sheet editable and users will not be able to modify data in any other region in the sheet.

You can lock the structure of your workbook by specifying a password.
Locking the workbook structure prevents other users from adding, moving, deleting, hiding, and renaming worksheets.

While Microsoft Excel is packed with gems, these are just a few advantages of learning Advanced Excel with us at Intellisoft. We’ll make you an expert in these lesser-known, but advanced features in Excel.

Conditional Formatting in Microsoft Excel

July 20, 2021July 6, 2018 by Vinai Prakash

In Microsoft Excel, new features are sparklines and slicers, and improvements to PivotTables and other existing features, can help us to discover patterns or trends in the data. In the previous post we had a look at the Sparklines and slicers features of Excel 2010 and Pivot table features of excel 2010, so now we will look at the improved pivot table feature of excel 2010.

Improved conditional formatting

Conditional formatting makes it easy to emphasize important cells or ranges of cells, highlight unusual values, and visualize data by using data bars, color scales, and icon sets. Excel 2010 includes further more formatting flexibility.

New icon sets: In Excel, we can access to more icon sets, including triangles, stars, and boxes. We can also mix and match icons from different sets and more easily hide icons.

For example, we might choose to display icons only for high profit values and remove them for middle and lower values.

More options for data bars: Excel 2010 comes with new formatting options for data bars. You can apply solid fills or borders to the data bar, or set the bar direction from right-to-left instead of left-to-right.

Not only that, data bars for negative values appear on the opposite side of an axis from positive values.

If you would like to learn more about these new features of Microsoft Excel 2010 or 2013, or would like to attend the Microsoft Excel Training, do contact us at Intellisoft Systems.

If you have any further questions then contact us through email training@intellisoft.com.sg or call at +65 6250-3575!!!

Trainer: Vinai teaches Advanced Excel Techniques, Dashboard Techniques using Excel, Data Interpretation and Analysis Training courses at Intellisoft. He has trained over 5000 students in over 18 countries, and regularly conducts Excel Workshops in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, India, Dubai, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc.

Sparklines Microsoft Excel

August 20, 2021February 7, 2018 by Vinai Prakash

In Microsoft Excel, some of the new features are sparklines and slicers, and improvements to PivotTables and other existing features, can help us to discover patterns or trends in the data. To get started with the features of Excel, first we will look at the details of the Sparklines and slicers features of Excel.

Sparklines

Sparklines are tiny charts that is used to fit in a cell to visually summarize trends beside the data.

Since sparklines show trends occupies less space, they are exclusively useful for dashboards and other places where we need to show a glimpse of the business in an simple practical visual format.

In the image to the left, the sparklines that appear in the Trend column lets us have a quick look of the performance of each department in the month of May.

Slicers

Slicers are visual controls. They let us quickly refine data in a PivotTable in an interactive, automatic manner. If we insert a slicer, we can use buttons to quickly segment and refine the data to display appropriate results.

Not only that, when we apply more than one filter to the PivotTable, we no longer have to open a list to see which filters are enforced to the data. Rather, it is displayed on the screen in the slicer.

We can make slicers relate to the workbook formatting and easily reuse them in other PivotTables & PivotCharts.

If you would like to learn more about these new features of Microsoft Excel / Office 365, or would like to attend the Advanced Microsoft Excel Training, do contact us at Intellisoft Systems.

If you have any further questions or want to join a training on how to use Sparklines, contact Intellisoft for Corporate Training on Excel or call at +65 6250-3575

Trainer: We have certified trainers who excel in imparting their knowledge and are very patient. Master Trainer Vinai teaches Advanced Excel Techniques, Dashboard Techniques using Excel, Data Interpretation and Analysis Training courses at Intellisoft.

He has conducted over 700 live workshops, and trained over 5,000 students in over 18 countries, and regularly conducts Excel Workshops in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, India, Dubai, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc.

How To Use Custom Sort in Microsoft Excel

July 24, 2021October 6, 2017 by Vinai Prakash

Excel training in Singapore at Intellisoft

Do you know how to use custom sort in Excel?

I bet you know how to sort data in Excel. It is pretty easy. Most of the time an ascending sorting is what we need – letters and numbers listed in the ascending order – a to z, 1 to 100 etc. And just in case you need to sort in the reverse order, you have the Z to A sort, also called the Sort in Descending order. Between the two, most people are quite happy, thanks to Microsoft‘s intuitive sorting options.

However, there arises a time when you don’t want either the sort in Ascending order or the Descending order in Excel.

Examples where a Standard Sorting won’t work:

For example, if the departments in your organization are Finance, Marketing, Sales & Engineering. And you want the Sales department to be listed first, followed by Marketing, Engineering, and Finance being the last.

Now how would you sort the departments in this order? Ascending or descending sort is not going to work.

Do not despair however. Here is where the power of Microsoft Excel Custom sort shines.

Another scenario is the Sorting of Months – say you want to sort April, May & June, in this order. Or maybe you want to sort regions by East, West, North & South. This EWNS order also needs a custom sorting in Excel.

Or if you have a completely random order – which defies any kind of sorting. Say you want to list Oranges, then Apples, then Grapes, and finally Bananas. You can go nuts without custom sorting criteria in Excel.

Using Custom Sort in Excel

First, let’s create the custom list in Excel.

Go to Tools, Options, Custom Lists.

You can key in your list and click Add. Or you can import your list from another area of the spreadsheet, where you list the options in the sorted order.

Once you have imported the list in the correct order, you can go to Data, Sort, and then click on Options at the bottom of this popup window.

Choose your custom sorted list from the list of First Key Sort Order.

Voila! Your list is now sorted in your very own custom order.

Alternatives to Custom Sort in Excel

Of course, if you don’t want to use Custom Sort, there are other alternatives. I have often used a Lookup Table

Fruit                Sorting
Oranges 1
Apples               2
Grapes               3
Bananas            4

I then use the inbuilt Lookup function of Excel called VLOOKUP function and pick the correct value, and then do an Ascending sort. This is a quick cheat trick.

But it would be tough if you did not know how to use the Lookup functions of Excel in the first place. More on this lookup function in another post.

Let me know if this neat trick help you. And if you want to learn more, join me in a Excel Training workshop in Singapore.

Till then…

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
Founder & Master Trainer at Intellisoft Systems, in Singapore