Customer Reviews

Microsoft Excel Functions & Formulas (Wordware Applications Library)

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I discovered this book by accident while browsing the MS Excel books at my local bookstore. I was impressed immediately. Most Excel users only utilize a small fraction of the capability of Excel. This is especially true when it comes to functions.

"Microsoft Excel Functions & Formulas," by Bernd Held explains several dozens of Excel Functions. The book begins logically with a discussion of Formulas in Excel. One needs to know how to use formulas before learing Excel Functions. However, Held should have discussed using nested formulas. The subject of nested formulas was omitted entirely.

Held then discusses many, many Excel Functions. Each function is described in detail and illustrated with a screenshot of the spreadsheet. This is a great visual age to assist in learning how each function works. It is one thing to use a function; it is another thing to understand how the function works. Without understanding, the user will be at a loss to apply the knowledge to solve future problems with Excel. Held does a good job of explaining how and why the function works, in addition to what it does.

However, the book falls a little short. Each explanation provides an example of the use of the function. It would have been better if Held had provided more than one use of the function, and explain each function if greater detail. As it is written, the book is only an introduction to each function. While this is useful, a fuller explanation, description, and application would have been better. I would have preferred a greater length to the book (even though that would mean a more expensive book) to explain in a more detail the working of each function. Some of the explanations fall short of fully explaining the function and providing multiple applications for the use of the function.

Despite these shortcomings, I still would recommend the book to any Excel user wanting to learn formulas and functions. The book does not require an extensive knowledge of Excel; it can be used by a beginner who is just learing Excel. Even an advanced user of Excel will not be familiar with all of these functions and can learn from the material. Most Excel users get stuck using a few favorite formulas and functions, and fail to expand their knowledge in this area. Held's book solves this problem.

Buyer beware: The book references the Excel 97 through 2003 versions of Excel. If you have Excel 2007 or 2010, you can still use the book, but be advised the book does not address the changes in Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. These changes were significant, especially the use of the ribbon in 2007. The book is still helpful to those using the 2007 and 2010 versions, but an updated book would be nice.

I've found this book to be a great reference to create simple to complex formulas and functions in Excel. The challenge to writing a book on this subject is that the application of the formulas in the book is done using "real-world examples" like Calculate Manpower for a project using the ROUNDUP function. This is great if, in your work, you need to Calculate Manpower needed to do a project. The difficulty comes when you need to apply the ROUNDUP function to your own projects.

My only other comment is that I wish the book had a different binding, like spiral binding so the itlays flat while you type a formula.

I have other books I use to reference formulas but this book takes it one step further, illustrating the use of these functions in real situations. I highly recommend this book to Excel users with some experience with functions but wanting to go one step further with their utilization. Well written and laid out in easy to read chapters.