Learn Excel 2013 Expert Skills with The Smart Method: Courseware

This Excel 2013 book is for users who want to upgrade their basic Excel 2013 skills to true expert level. It will teach you to master all of the Excel 2013 advanced features. If you are an absolute beginner you need our Excel 2013 Essential Skills book.

The book is very, very different to any other computer book you have ever read. The Smart Method provides an entirely new and better way to master advanced Excel 2013 features. Here’s just four of the many ways in which the book is unique:

• This book won’t waste your time by teaching basic Excel 2013 skills that you already know. All of that material is covered already in our beginner’s Excel 2013 Essential Skills book. By assuming that you are already able to use the Excel 2013 basic features, far more ground can be covered.
• Instruction is logically structured into sessions and lessons. While this makes the book ideal for self-instruction, you can also use it to run your own, highly effective, adult training courses.
• Every lesson is presented on two facing sheets of A4 paper (the pages are much bigger than in any other Excel book).
• Each lesson has a sample file that models a real-world business problem. You’ll immediately appreciate the value and relevance of each skill you learn.

Advanced concepts are explained without needless technical jargon.  Everything is concisely described in a simple, no-nonsense way.  No matter what your background is, this book will enable you to master Excel 2013’s most advanced features.

Amongst other things you'll learn how to:

• Master dynamic tables using automatic, manual, qualified and unqualified structured table references
• Use advanced filters to apply complex logical criteria
• Use Excel's Subtotal feature to create both regular and nested subtotals
• Use formula-driven validations to enforce complex business rules
• Implement a hyperlink-based navigation system to allow users to easily navigate large workbooks
• Create beautiful interactive forms using checkbox, combo box, command button, text box and option button controls
• Record macros with both absolute and relative references
• Execute macros from button controls
• Use slicers to allow touch-screen users to quickly filter Pivot Tables by multiple criteria
• Perform What-If analysis to model and compare business scenarios
• Use advanced functions to solve real-world business problems
• Understand and use all of Excel’s security features
• Completely understand Excel 2013’s new ability to create OLAP cubes
• Understand primary and foreign keys and use them to create both one-to-many and many-to-many relationships
• Use Excel 2013’s new OLAP Pivot Tables to present OLAP cube data

Companies who have taken Smart Method courses include:

AOL Time Warner, The United States Army, Daimler Chrysler, Motorola, HSBC, Barclays, American Express, Allied Irish Banks, Imperial Tobacco,  Volvo, The BBC, British Petroleum, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Unilever, The Institute of Chartered Accountants, The Ministry of Defence,  Keele University, Deutsche Bank, HBOS, Transport For London, The Performing Rights Society, Scottish Power, The Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, BAE Systems, RBS,  The British Museum, The National Gallery,  Pokerstars, Marks & Spencer, Virgin, O2, BMW... and many, many others.

Mike Smart is the founder and CEO of The Smart Method. In Mike's long career as an IT consultant, Mike specified, designed and delivered IT solutions for large corporations all over the world. In 2002 Mike decided to specialize in IT training and founded The Smart Method. >Mike has personally taught classroom Excel courses to delegates from many of the world's largest companies in England, Europe and America. Mike has run courses for bankers, engineers, accountants, teachers, broadcasters, retailers, insurance brokers, aircraft manufacturers, government departments, on-line gaming companies, telecom workers, oil workers, car manufacturers, power companies... and for many other professions. This has given him a unique insight into the diverse ways in which Excel is used by both large and small businesses. 

By carefully observing the areas that students find the most difficult to understand, Mike has constantly refined his Smart Method teaching technique over a period of more than ten years. In 2008 Mike realized that he could only ever teach a few thousand students in his classroom courses but could help millions of students by producing his Excel courses in book form. His first Excel books (covering Excel 2007) rapidly became best sellers and his books have topped best seller lists ever since.

In his spare time, Mike enjoys playing jazz piano, riding his motorbike and sliding down snowy mountains on two wooden sticks.