Advance your Excel proficiency by applying formulas, functions, and data tools to organize and visualize information more effectively.
Become proficient in Microsoft Excel and go from beginner to pro with our hands-on Excel Bootcamp. Learn functions, formulas, Pivot Tables, macros, and time-saving techniques to conquer all the key skills needed to excel in Excel.
Join us for a beginner Excel workshop where you'll learn the essentials of Microsoft Excel, including calculations, basic functions, graphs, formatting, and printing. This comprehensive course is perfect for those with limited experience looking to expand their proficiency.
Learn intermediate Excel functions like VLOOKUP and SUMIFS, and how to summarize data with Pivot Tables, Sort & Filter databases, and split and join text. Gain the skills needed to utilize complex Excel functions and prepare for more advanced training.
Learn advanced Excel functions, macros, and data analysis to improve efficiency and manage complex data in any job setting. This advanced course is ideal for Excel power-users.
In this hands-on course, learn how to automate repetitive tasks in Microsoft Excel using VBA programming. Develop macros, custom commands, and new worksheet functions to streamline your Excel workflow and increase productivity.
Boost your resume with a Microsoft Excel Certification. Our program offers three courses, private training, the Specialist Exam fee with free retake, lifetime access to Excel video courses, and free exam proctoring.
Since its release in 1985, Microsoft Excel has become the industry-standard spreadsheet application. Today, 750 million people work with this tool to perform tasks like data entry and management, financial modeling, charting, accounting, bookkeeping, task management, or customer relationship management. Excel training provides Portland residents who work in a range of industries with the necessary skills to become more efficient and productive employees. Excel makes it much faster to handle vast amounts of data. It also assists with a range of everyday tasks, everything from basic calculations to complex budgets. This app remains popular among professionals because it can help them perform recurring tasks like data organization or averaging much faster than they could do manually. Once the information in an Excel spreadsheet has been organized and analyzed, the findings can be visualized into graphs or charts and shared with non-technical audience members.
Excel is a staple application that’s used by two-thirds of all businesses. Because of how widespread Excel use is, those who know how to work with spreadsheets can thrive in a range of Portland industries and trades. Excel is a staple tool in the business sector for helping with tasks like operations management, HR management, and performance reporting. It’s also useful for accounting, budgeting, project management, and statistical analysis. Within the education sector, Excel skills are useful for helping teachers monitor student performance or maintain attendance records. Those who work in finance use Excel for expense tracking, financial reporting, loan calculation, and forecasting.
Not only is Excel a useful tool for professionals, but it also helps non-professionals perform many core organizational tasks. Spreadsheets are a great tool for planning large events such as graduation parties or weddings, because they can help with seating charts. Busy individuals can use Excel to make to-do lists, and then track their progress by checking off items. Excel is also a useful tool for those tasked with sorting through long lists of names or contact information to send out party invites or campaign mailers. Those scheduling family vacations can even use Excel’s trip planner template to store information on airline travel, hotel bookings, and budgets.
While all Excel classes in Portland differ in terms of the content they provide, the difficulty level, and their length, most classes cover a range of core Excel skills. Read on to find out more about what you can expect from your training.
It’s common in beginner-friendly Excel courses to explore how to use this app’s basic formulas and calculation capabilities. Formulas include basic math commands used to handle values in a set of cells to generate a result. Formulas are helpful for tasks like division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction, as well as counting, averaging, and summing.
Another core skill most introductory-level Excel programs teach is how to format worksheets and workbooks. Students explore how to enter data into cell blocks. In Excel, spreadsheets consist of rows and columns that each contain many cells that store individual pieces of data. The information contained in a cell can be formatted to change its background color, font, or alignment to create visual formatting cues to help readers easily spot essential values.
Some Excel training goes beyond the basics. In intermediate to advanced-level classes, students often explore macros. These are specific commands or actions users create and record, then can run as often as necessary. Recording macros involves recording keystrokes and mouse strokes. They are a time-saving tool for automating basic and complex repetitive tasks like entering clients’ contact information into a worksheet or designing custom reports.
PivotTables are a useful Excel feature for summarizing the data in tables. They provide Excel users with a way to quickly transform large datasets into interactive summaries in which the most important information is in the forefront. PivotTables are also useful for analyzing numerical data, performing data calculations, and summarizing information to depict essential comparisons, patterns, or trends.
Excel training also teaches students soft skills like how to be better organized. Regardless of whether it’s used for professional or personal tasks, Excel is a great tool for helping people of all ages and from all backgrounds manage their data. Spreadsheet data can be easily accessed and altered, which speeds up tasks like information sorting, budgeting, or inventory tracking.
Every learner is unique in terms of the challenges they’ll experience when studying Excel. For most, the difficulty associated with this app depends on the learner’s method of instruction, their prior experience handling data, and their ultimate goals for study. Excel was designed to be an accessible tool for users from all backgrounds. Some people worked with this app in high school but haven’t used it since. Others work with it regularly and have a basic understanding of essential features and functions. Those who use Excel on a regular basis will likely find it easier and faster to learn than those who are new to this tool or who haven’t used it in decades.
Most individuals will find it straightforward to learn how to navigate Excel’s interface. It’s much easier for most students to learn how to use basic Excel features than to learn how to work with advanced tools like VBA or macros. Regardless of the level of proficiency you’re interested in acquiring with Excel, the best way to expedite the learning process is to enroll in a live class in Portland, which provides hands-on training.
It’s common for Excel novices to be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available in Excel. This tool has more than 450 functions and 250 shortcuts. While those who are new to spreadsheets may find this intimidating, it’s important to remember that most people will only need to work with a fraction of these options. Rather than trying to learn all functions and shortcuts in Excel, most students will find it more effective to structure their studies around their particular spreadsheet needs, starting with basic skills as a foundation. The more time learners spend practicing with this app, the easier and faster they will find it to perform basic spreadsheet tasks.
The amount of time it takes to learn Excel differs for all learners. Most will find that they’re able to learn this app’s basic features and functions in about 18-20 hours. Those interested in learning Excel for personal tasks like expense tracking or record-keeping will only need to spend a few hours learning these basic skills. However, students interested in applying their Excel knowledge in a professional setting will need more extensive, hands-on training such as that which is provided through an in-person course in Portland.
One important decision all Excel learners will need to make is whether they prefer studying in-person or through online content. Each of these options has its own advantages and drawbacks.
For most learners, enrolling in an in-person Excel class in Portland is an excellent way to acquire hands-on training in a small and supportive learning environment. Coursework takes place at a training facility located in or near Portland that provides each student with a computer that has the most current version of Excel ready to use. Participants not only benefit from real-time instruction with an expert instructor with industry experience creating spreadsheets, but also from the support of other students who are attending class. In-person training does require that participants commute to and from class for each meeting. This may make this type of study prohibitive for those who live far from training facilities or who don’t have access to reliable transportation.
Live online training is one popular alternative to in-person study. This learning format still provides students with real-time access to an expert instructor who leads class remotely using a teleconferencing platform like Zoom. Students can ask questions in the moment and even grant the instructor permission to share their screen if they require more personalized support. Rather than having to battle rush-hour traffic or waste money on parking, all lessons can be completed remotely. Live online classes do require that students be able to attend meetings that take place regularly, often several times a week. For those who have full-time work schedules or other personal commitments, live study may pose challenges in terms of making it to class meetings.
Most individuals will find self-paced Excel training the most flexible way to learn this application. Unlike live training that takes place in real-time, self-paced content is pre-recorded. Students can complete their training on their own time, and do so at their own speed. One major incentive of asynchronous training is cost; since no live instructor is present, this study option is often a much less expensive alternative to live coursework. Learners who opt for on-demand training should consider that they will have to find answers on their own to questions, since they won’t be able to ask the instructor. This can make it difficult for some learners such as those new to using spreadsheets, to fully master Excel.
Many free online Excel resources are available to help Excel learners become familiar with this application, as well as to find answers to their spreadsheet questions:
Free online Excel material can provide a low-stakes way to learn basic spreadsheet skills. However, because of the sheer volume of material on Excel that’s available online, those interested in learning through free content should evaluate the resources they select to ensure they’re up-to-date and high-quality. For learners who are studying Excel for professional purposes, free resources on their own usually won’t be sufficient to master this app’s advanced features and functions. They can, however, be a great first step in a longer Excel learning journey.
Excel is a staple tool for data analysis. Those who want to learn Excel, therefore, may benefit from exploring how to apply their spreadsheet skills to help their organization handle its data. Excel users benefit from knowledge of the core steps in the data analytics process. This entails formulating a driving business question to fuel the data collection process, sorting the data, cleaning and preparing it, and analyzing it using tools like machine learning, deep learning, or natural language processing. After the data has been analyzed, the findings can be shared with any relevant stakeholders using charts, graphs, or other data visualizations.
In Portland, many prominent local industries rely on those who have Excel training, including bioscience, healthcare, and nonprofits. Read on to learn more about the role Excel plays in each of these staple local industries.
One of Portland’s core industries is bioscience. This sector focuses primarily on pharmaceuticals, biotech research, medical device development, diagnostic care, and regenerative medicine. Currently, nearly 8,000 Portland residents are employed in bioscience and biotech-related careers. Within this industry, Excel training is useful for helping Bioscientists organize, analyze, and visualize biological information. Excel helps with calculating standard deviations, core statistical tests, and data visualizations.
Another prominent Portland industry is healthcare. Two of the largest local employers are Oregon Health & Science University and Providence Health & Services. In 2023, over 70,000 people in the Portland metro area worked in the healthcare industry. Healthcare is one of the city’s fastest-growing economic sectors. Within this industry, Excel training is an asset because it helps healthcare professionals analyze essential patient information such as the length of the average hospital stay for patients or how infectious diseases are spread. It is also useful for organizing patient records, monitoring BMI values, managing employee paychecks, and analyzing a hospital’s revenue or losses.
Major metropolitan areas in Oregon are home to more than 8,000 nonprofit employers. In 2022,11% of the private employment in all metro areas (166,000 jobs) were in the state’s nonprofit sector. Two of the most prominent nonprofits in Portland are the Energy Trust of Oregon and the Oregon Food Bank. Those who work in Portland’s nonprofits use Excel to perform a range of essential tasks such as managing donor details, budgeting, reporting, and data tracking. It’s also useful for allocating resources, evaluating programs, and coordinating volunteer efforts.
Those who know how to use spreadsheets can put their training to use in many career paths in Portland, including in accounting, business analytics, and HR management. Read on to find out more about each of these professional paths and the salary rates for each role.
Accountants rely on Excel on a regular basis to manage tax returns, cash flow documents, and income statements. Spreadsheet training helps them organize financial data and ensure it’s easy to access. Accountants work with Excel because it helps them perform repetitive tasks much easier and faster than would be possible manually. Excel also allows users to work with its formulas and functions to perform mathematical calculations directly in spreadsheets, which not only improves accuracy but is more convenient for Accountants. The average pay rate for an Accountant in Portland is $80,000-$90,000 a year.
Business Analysts use Excel for many data-management tasks. Within the business sector, a vast amount of data is collected pertaining to supply spending, product sales, website traffic, and insurance claims. Excel helps Business Analysts locate patterns within this information. It also lets them share their data findings with relevant stakeholders. Excel’s collaboration features allow business professionals to share workbooks in real-time, which ensures all team members are working with the most current data. In Portland, the average salary for a Business Analyst is $123,000-$133,000 annually.
HR Managers who use Excel rely on this tool to monitor employee information regarding payroll, annual leave, and attendance. Spreadsheets are also useful for helping HR professionals summarize hours within a given timeframe, spot important trends in employee information, and better understand their workforce. In Portland, HR Managers earn about $114,000-$124,000 annually.
If you’re interested in finding Excel classes close to home, Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool is a great resource to search for Excel courses in Portland.
Live online training is available from Noble Desktop in its Excel Level I: Fundamentals. This beginner-friendly course covers all the basics of using Excel such as how to format spreadsheets, create engaging charts and graphs, perform basic calculations, and print worksheets and workbooks. For more robust Excel training, learners can enroll in Noble’s Excel Bootcamp. This class covers foundational Excel skills before progressing into more advanced concepts such as how to work with macros, VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, and PivotTables. Graduates of this bootcamp leave with a solid understanding of advanced database functions. Both of these classes include a free retake option for up to a year.
Ledet Training’s Microsoft Excel 101—Microsoft Excel introduction is a one-day class that teaches students essential spreadsheet skills such as how to create worksheets, organize and analyze data, write formulas, design tables, and present data in charts and reports. This class is available live online and in-person in Portland.
In Certstaffix Training’s Excel—Dashboards, participants devote one day to exploring Excel foundational concepts and skills. Students study how to create advanced worksheets and workbooks, and then transform these into dashboards that are accessible to audience members. This program is taught live online; students can complete their studies remotely or use the computer lab in Beaverton.
New Horizons Excel 2019—Part 1 provides students with training in how to navigate the Excel interface, organize and manipulate data in worksheets, perform basic calculations, and save work. This class is available in-person in Beaverton.
Those interested in sitting for the Excel Specialist Certification exam can enroll in the Excel Specialist Certification Program, which is available from NYC Career Centers. Participants begin by learning Excel basics such as how to use hotkeys, work with formulas, and create tables. Learners then move into more complicated Excel tasks like working with LOOKUPs and data validation. By course completion, those enrolled will have knowledge of advanced Excel tools like INDEX-MATCH and macros. This class includes two hours of private training, the exam fee, and a free exam retake. Instruction is provided live online.
Would learning Microsoft Excel help those at your workplace be more productive employees? If so, Noble Desktop can provide corporate and onsite Excel training options for some or all of your workforce. Noble can provide training live online using Zoom or come directly to your workplace in Portland. Training options are available for Excel novices, as well as those who have prior spreadsheet experience and want to take their training further. You can buy bulk vouchers for Noble’s regular enrollment Excel courses for a discount or provide your employees with customized training options to ensure they can get the most out of their training and do it as their schedule permits.
To find out more about the various corporate Excel training options Noble has available, or to schedule a free consult to discuss customizing training, please don’t hesitate to contact Noble today to learn more.
Corey Ginsberg is a professional writer with two decades of experience writing and editing technical and creative content on Microsoft Excel, animation, data analytics, and the educational resources in place to assist with learning.