Customer Reviews

Managing Data with Excel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book covers an important topic that other Excel authors skim or omit. It is just a shame that there is no CD or download for the examples presented in the book. I wrote the publisher and was sent a zip file with a couple of files, but not nearly enough to be able to practice or try out the techniques described in the book. Otherwise, I would have given it 5 stars.

As a health care analyst, I do lots of research using Excel. I stumbled across this text at a discount book sale and have used it constantly since then as a resource. A large portion of the book deals with pivot tables, one of the truly powerful Excel functions. But it covers much more than just this. Several of my MBA friends have browsed through the book and lamented they did not have this resource when they were in B-school. It's unfortunate that it is out of print.

I waited 3 months for this book (which was out of print) and it has been well worth the wait. This book provides all the bells and whistles plus a whole bunch of other advanced functions which you wouldn't have thought of in dealing with data lists in Excel. Admitted, managing data with Excel isn't recommended in a lot of circumstances, but sometimes you have no choice. You might have too few data for using a full-fledged database; or, more likely, people tend to avoid using database programs for managing their data, with the result that you often get raw data entered with Excel - and you have to return a certain output to the original source in Excel format. My work involved quite a lot of this, and this book has offered wonderful solutions for almost all of my work needs. If you think you know a thing or two about using Excel, especially in data management, this book will make you think again - and help you become more productive than ever.

It's too bad that this book is out of print - it is one of the best I have in my library, as it gives both beginners and experienced "Excellers" the insights they need to make use of the Data functions Excel offers. I hope the publisher sees this and offers this fantastic book to the market again. As the lines between spreadsheets and databases continues to blur, this book gets more important....

I'm an Excel trainer and I felt the need to refresh my knowledge of data management in Excel. Right from the start I will warn everybody that there is no CD with the book (Most QUE books I own have a CD). There are some files available but there are only a few and they don't match well the order of the book. The first file is for some silly stuff on page 179. Then it goes on to page 260. Nothing clear in between.

The author should have done a far better job at making the data shown in the screenshots available. There is nothing for the most part.

Too bad because the book is good. There is a few simple tricks that the book should have discussed (since it discusses VLookup, Match, Offset and others). For instance it let the reader think that Excel can only sort on three columns although I have been teaching for years now a simple techniques to sort on as many columns as desired.

The book is just under 345 pages and the VBA serious coding starts on page 193. If you want to learn more about Managing your data with Pivot Tables then be careful the book spends about 15 pages on the subject 3 of which uses very simple VBA lines to refresh. Nothing very elaborate on the topic of Pivot Tables.

The section about ADO and DAO is for serious users not beginners. Some experience with Access will definitively help. This makes me wonder why there is a 40 pages primer on VBA. This VBA Essentials Reviewed chapter only can hardly prepare anyone with the section starting on Chapter 8.

Since I have a lot of experience with VBA in Access I can appreciate the book though. It is serious and challenging. Again I insist that there should have been much more care in supplying exercices files to follow the screenshots.

Please note that I'm an experienced Excel and Access trainer and the reason why I bought and read this book is for learning data manipulation between Excel and Access and some good ideas to add variety to my classes.

I was hoping that this book would provide the typical user with more insight into using excel efficiently. I consider myself to be computer savy and have used excel for years. I felt like this was aimed more at people who had more of a computer programming background. I feel as though learning the use of pivot tables and other functions that this book goes into would almost be an exercise in using a whole new product - rather than enhancing the use of something I already understand. Hopefully one day I will have the time to immerse myself in the subject and put it to use.