Microsoft Excel Proficiency Certificate
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The Microsoft Excel Proficiency Certificate Program is 36 hours in length, consisting of six (6) 6-hour courses that must be completed within six months of start. All courses must be completed before the certificate is awarded. The certificate requires that three fundamental courses be taken first.
Fundamental Courses
Excel I
In this course, you will learn to create well-designed spreadsheets to store your important numeric data. You will learn to automate repetitive data entry using Autofill and customized lists. Don’t like math? That’s OK. Excel will help you simplify your “number crunching” tasks. Using time saving functions and formulas, you’ll be able to calculate your budget and forecast totals quickly.
This course covers the fundamental rules of relative cell addressing and Order of Precedence–essential knowledge for efficient use of formulas and functions, which will also be introduced.
Prerequisite: General ability to use a computer
Excel II
This course introduces Excel functionality for enhancing your worksheets for presentation purposes or for printing. Students will learn how to use the Page Setup tools to adjust their worksheets with custom margins, page orientation, page breaks, and headers and footers. They will learn how to sort large spreadsheets; how to filter data and create advanced filters; how to group and summarize data; and how to insert subtotals. How to manage data within multiple worksheets and workbooks and how to link that data with formulas and named cells will also be covered, as well as a few more functions, including the IF function and the DATE and PMT functions.
Prerequisite: Excel I or equivalent knowledge
Excel III
This course continues to explore Excel functionality and introduces the student to the extensive variety of Excel templates that are available. The student will learn how to use macros to handle repetitive activities and how to attach them to buttons using the Developer Tab. Enhancing a spreadsheet with conditional formatting and graphics will be covered, as well as features such as formula auditing; calculation options, comments; and how to protect a worksheet. A few more functions will also be covered, including the VLOOKUP function and ARRAY functions.
Prerequisite: Excel I and II or equivalent knowledge
Advanced Courses
Data Analysis
This course teaches experienced Excel users how to use Excel’s What-If tools: Goal Seeker, Solver, Scenario Manager, and Data Tables. The student will learn how to install Excel’s add-in tool AnalysisPak that comes with Excel but is not loaded, and will explore using it to create complex analyses such as Histograms, Rank and Percentile Analysis, and Descriptive Statistics.
Great course for managers who need to analyze data to make management decisions!
Prerequisite: Excel I, II, and III or equivalent knowledge
Charts
Excel supports many types of charts to help you display data in ways that are meaningful to your audience. This course is designed to introduce the student to all of Excel’s chart types and explore their specific usage. The student will learn how to create, modify, and enhance the appearance of charts with color, patterns, and custom graphics, and how to embed and link charts into Word and PowerPoint files.
Prerequisite: Excel I, II or equivalent knowledge
Pivot Tables and Charts
In this course, the student will learn how to convert rows and columns of data into a table, and then use an Excel Table to manage that data independently from the data in other rows and columns on the worksheet. Table features include: sorting and filtering; formatting table data; inserting and deleting table rows and columns; using a calculated column; and displaying and calculating table data totals. Pivot Tables are another powerful tool that can be used to summarize thousands of rows of data in a matter of seconds. You can then change your analysis on the fly by simply moving data from one area of the pivot table to another area. You can group, sort, and filter pivot table data, perform calculations within the pivot table, and add and remove subtotals and grand totals with ease. And finally, you can create charts that can be filtered on the fly just like the pivot table.
Prerequisite: Excel I and II or equivalent knowledge
Functions
Excel Functions are formulas that Excel has predefined. These functions are designed to quickly perform calculations with a minimum of effort on the part of the user. Excel has already determined the necessary mathematical steps required and only needs to be given the arguments in order to complete the calculation—that is, the cell addresses or ranges where pertinent information is stored. There are more than 300 built-in functions in Excel 2019. While a few commonly used functions were covered in Excel I, II, and III, this course covers a broader spectrum and introduces the student to a wide range of useful and versatile functions that most users haven’t discovered yet.
Prerequisite: Excel I and II or equivalent knowledge
For further information on any class or to register, please call
678-872-8240 or E-mail conted@highlands.edu
Georgia Highlands College
The University System of Georgia
Rome, Cartersville, Dallas, and Marietta, Georgia
AA/EE/EEO Institution, ADA