Synopses & Reviews
As one of the most widely used desktop applications ever created, Excel is familiar to just about everyone with a computer and a keyboard. Yet most of us don't know the full extent of what Excel can do, mostly because of its recent growth in power, versatility, and complexity. The truth is that there are many ways Excel can help make your job easier-beyond calculating sums and averages in a standard spreadsheet.
Analyzing Business Data with Excel shows you how to solve real-world business problems by taking Excel's data analysis features to the max. Rather than focusing on individual Excel functions and features, the book keys directly on the needs of business users. Most of the chapters start with a business problem or question, and then show you how to create pointed spreadsheets that address common data analysis issues.
Aimed primarily at experienced Excel users, the book doesn't spend much time on the basics. After introducing some necessary general tools, it quickly moves into more specific problem areas, such as the following:
- Statistics
- Pivot tables
- Workload forecasting
- Modeling
- Measuring quality
- Monitoring complex systems
- Queuing
- Optimizing
- Importing data
If you feel as though you're getting shortchanged by your overall application of Excel, Analyzing Business Data with Excel is just the antidote. It addresses the growing Excel data analysis market head on. Accountants, managers, analysts, engineers, and supervisors-one and all-will learn how to turn Excel functionality into actual solutions for the business problems that confront them.
Synopsis
Most users of Microsoft Excel apply it to business problems. While many only need to calculate sums and averages, more advanced users deal with complex problem-solving. Excel offers many powerful features for data analysis, but they are often buried in long lists of functions and features, and many users don't see how to combine them into solutions for their business problems.
This book focuses on the needs of business users, rather than on individual Excel functions, and shows them how to create spreadsheets that address common business data analysis issues. Readers will learn a lot about Excel along the way.
Synopsis
Knight shows professional users in an office environment how to solve business problems using Excel, the most commonly available business software out there.
About the Author
Gerald Knight has nearly 30 years experience in the computer industry as a developer, teacher, and consultant. During an over twenty-year career at FedEx, he was a project leader and system architect working on imaging and revenue control systems. He has specialized in Excel development for the last ten years. Now retired, he consults and occasionally writes in Memphis, Tennessee.
Table of Contents
Preface; Who Should Read This Book; What's in This Book; How to Use This Book Effectively; Sample Code; Using Code Examples; We'd Like Your Feedback!; Safari® Enabled; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Excel and Statistics; 1.1 Array Formulas; 1.2 Addressing Cells Indirectly; 1.3 Statistical Functions; Chapter 2: Pivot Tables and Problem Solving; 2.1 Pivot Table Basics; 2.2 Changing the Data; 2.3 Pivot Table Options; Chapter 3: Workload Forecasting; 3.1 The Procedure; 3.2 Building an Application; Chapter 4: Modeling; 4.1 Regression; 4.2 Defining the Problem; 4.3 Refining Metrics; 4.4 Analysis; 4.5 Building the Model; 4.6 Analyzing the Results; 4.7 Testing Non-Linear Relationships; Chapter 5: Measuring Quality; 5.1 Statistical Process Control; 5.2 Running the Application; 5.3 Application Design; 5.4 Customizing the Application; Chapter 6: Monitoring Complex Systems; 6.1 The Application; 6.2 The Data; 6.3 Settings; 6.4 Workarea; 6.5 Macros; Chapter 7: Queuing; 7.1 The Data; 7.2 The Application; 7.3 The Logic; Chapter 8: Custom Queuing Presentation; 8.1 The Application; 8.2 The Data; 8.3 The Logic; 8.4 VBA; 8.5 Extending the Application; Chapter 9: Optimizing; 9.1 Goal Seek; 9.2 The Solver; Chapter 10: Importing Data; 10.1 Text Files; 10.2 Databases; 10.3 XML; Chapter 11: The Trouble with Data; 11.1 Numbers; 11.2 Dates; 11.3 Reports; 11.4 Equivalence; Chapter 12: Effective Display Techniques; 12.1 Respect the Information and the Audience; 12.2 Large Worksheets; 12.3 Charts; 12.4 Pictures and Other Objects; 12.5 Complexity; 12.6 Repeated Elements; 12.7 Information Density; 12.8 Emphasis and Focus; Colophon;