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Charts, Graphs, and Plots, oh my! Choosing the right visualization for the story you want to tell.

Data visualization is an art and a science, combining aesthetic design with statistical accuracy to tell the most compelling story of your data. Whether you’re tracking quarterly sales, forecasting weather patterns, or just trying to make sense of your monthly budget, the right chart or graph can make all the difference. So, let’s delve into…
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Data Organization Basics: Key Concepts in Data Management for Effective Modeling

Greetings, fellow data lovers! Today we’re stepping away from the nitty-gritty of Excel and diving into the broader realm of data management. Let’s explore the key concepts of finding, cleaning, and organizing data to streamline modeling, enhance performance, and future-proof your data systems. While most of the terms here come from the more technical side…
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Power Query: Tell me you’re decent with Excel without telling me you’re decent with Excel.

Hello again, data enthusiasts! It’s time to get our hands dirty with some serious data crunching as we delve deeper into the powerful world of Power Query. In our last article, we touched on the basic features of Power Query. Now, let’s kick things up a notch and explore some commonly used options that can…
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The Many Avenues to Import Data Into Excel: A Crash Course

Hey there, data wranglers! If you’ve ever used Excel, you’ll know that one of its primary uses is managing data. But before the sorting, filtering, charting, and formula crafting, there’s an essential first step: getting the data into Excel. From the simplest method to more advanced techniques, we’re going to explore the many avenues of…
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Introducing The Excel Interface (An Overview)

Welcome back, Excel enthusiasts! Today, we’re taking a deep dive into the world of Excel, navigating through its nooks and crannies, and demystifying its powerful tools. We’re talking about the Excel interface, the gatekeeper of your data manipulation powers. Strap in, let’s start our adventure! The Home Screen: Your Starting Point The Home screen is…
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The Power of Excel’s Most Common Mathematical Formulas

Math might not be everyone’s favorite subject, but Excel makes it a whole lot friendlier with its array of mathematical formulas. Let’s peek under the hood and understand some of the most commonly used ones. But wait… What if I don’t want to know the total for all shoes sold? What if I only care…
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The Magic of Formulas

Get ready to pull back the curtain on one of Excel’s most powerful features – formulas. Excel formulas are the first thing you should reach for when you want to do something with your data more than once. Whether you’re calculating totals, finding averages, joining multiple text values, or identifying outliers in your data, formulas…
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Making Sense of Numbers: The Art of Data Visualization

Data is the language of our digital world, but let’s face it, a spreadsheet full of numbers can be as hard to understand as an alien language. Enter data visualization. It’s all about taking that raw, confusing data and turning it into clear, understandable, and even exciting visuals. And when it comes to data visualization,…
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Supercharging Your Workflow: The Perks of Process Automation

Imagine if you could get more hours in your day. Sound good? Well, with a little work and time invested up front, that’s pretty much what process automation can do for you. By using tools like Excel Macros, Power Automate, VBScripting, and Python, you can hand over repetitive tasks to your computer, freeing up your…
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So… What is ‘Excel’ and why should I care?

Excel is the underappreciated powerhouse of the Microsoft Office Suite. It’s much more than a place to crunch numbers – it’s a versatile tool that can make work and personal tasks a breeze. Why Excel, Anyway? The main reason to use Excel? Putting aside the fact that it’s almost literally everywhere (I’ve never had a…
