Just for a change, a more professional blog entry this time. This one's about a recent profesional training I did, which afterwards left me thinking why in the world do we professionals take our computer and software skills so much for granted. Doing this training convinced me that present day computer software has so many advanced features that most of us sometimes aren't even aware of. We do our work very often the same way we did 20-30 years ago, when the use of personal computers was non-existent or less widespread, and the software necessarily less advanced. I think that a training as I did does miracles in increasing awareness of effectiveness-enhancing features in modern office software and thus contribute to increase productivity. This is my review of this training:
" As an avid and prolific professional user of Microsoft Excel in my profession, I was very happy and excited to see all the great new features of the 2010 suite of this program. But as things usually go, there is no time to sit down and get to the bottom of it all. And that actually is a pity, since there are quite a number of great things built into Excel that makes the life of a data analist considerably easier and therefore more productive. That is why I decide to take the Excel 2010 Expert Course as provided by Candles Flame Training.
This training made me even more enthusiastic about Excel 2010,
as I was able to immediately put to good use what I was learning into my
various projects. Following this training actually enabled me to finally neatly
and elegantly solve a few problems I was struggling with for quite some time.
This training is addressing many issues within Excel that most
of us know are there, but preciously few of us know how to use. The training
focusses on the newly added functions within 2010, for instance the multiple testing
possibilities within the SUM, AVERAGE etc. functions. Exceptionally valuable and
powerful are the newly developed Conditional Formatting tools, which are a
dream for reporting and visualization purposes. The concept of Pivot Tables and
advanced Data Analysis tools for in depth data analysis has also been renewed and
refreshed and these also provide many opportunities to increase productivity, just
with one or two clicks. Finally, the use of macros to increase the power of Excel
and to automate repetitive and complicated tasks was addressed, with a wonderful
introduction to VBA programming on top.
What I really enjoyed in this training was the combination
of lectures and getting hands-on experience using Candles Flame’s own mobile
computer classroom. Trainer Bill Rumley-Van Gurp clearly knows what he is talking
about, and he has a pleasant way of explaining some quite complicated topics. The
training schedule (5 days of two hours each) I also found quite effective and
pleasant, as it is easy to stay alert for just few hours, rather than have the
entire contents brought to you within one or two full days, as is often the case
with trainings such as these. This set-up enables one to fully absorb and being
able to exercise with the material presented. To me this is a clear benefit!
To me this training has been quite valuable professionally,
as it has helped me considerably in solving some data analysis problems I was
having, and I was attacking mainly by brute force (and thus taking up too much
time). Candles Flame Excel 2010 Expert Course has taught me the use of elegance
and effectiveness. I heartily recommend this training to anyone working with
Excel 2010 on a more than basic level. "
For more info on such training, please consult Candles Flame Training on http://www.cftrainingtoday.com
