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Summary: This book is a must for every Excel user
Review: At first I found John Walkenbachs book "Excel 2000 Formulas" to be hard going but after sticking with it for some considrable time it all came to geather and I have moved ahead light years of any one I know that is using Excel, on a couple of occations I emailed John Walkenbach he replyed promptly with the information that I requested "Every one should get stuck into this Book"
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Summary: A Must Have Reference!!!!
Review: Being new to Excel I was constantly stumped on writing formulas for the various applications I was putting together. I can't tell you how many times I was contacting Microsoft Support for assistance. As helpful as they were, I am no longer in need of them since I got this book. Forget the various "how to use" books if it's help with formula writting that you need. I been through several and none come close to this one. Cover to cover (700+ pages)of well explained examples of every type of formula. Most useful software book I've ever had.
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Summary: Great reference for looking up Excel formulas!
Review: BOOK REVIEW:A very well written book that covers all the formulas in Microsoft Excel 2000. If you're only going to buy one Excel book, make it this one! The author, John Walkenbach, covers formulas from basic to advanced; this book includes more formulas than any book I've seen! I really liked the two chapters (chapters 12 and 13) on arrays, formulas you can use with arrays, and the alternative formulas you can use in place of the AND and/or OR functions in array formulas if you're summing and conditions must be met (the AND and/or OR functions gives you incorrect results). In addition to formulas, the book also talks about Excel's history, how to perform certain tasks like Data Validation, and other interesting information (e.g. the year 1900 is not a leap year!). The only thing I disliked about the book is that some concepts required more explanation; Mr. Walkenbach didn't really explain why some formulas work. For example, the alternative to the OR function in an array formula (when summing based on conditions) comes to mind; I found it to be confusing! He also never mentions that to get the results, there are other formulas you can use in place of the AND/OR functions when summing based on conditions (I figured this out by trial and error); readers might think that they have to use the formulas he presented to get the results. In addition, it would've been great if the financial calculations (Chapter 10) showed more formulas (ones that you can use if you were to calculate them manually) so that readers know how Excel came up with the result, but since Mr. Walkenbach is not a business graduate, I can cut him some slack. One good thing about this book is that you can follow the book without the aid of the enclosed CD-Rom; I prefer to rely on the book alone, because I find the contents of the CD-Rom to be confusing without referring to the book. The formulas presented in the book are neat, and the author really knows what he's talking about. This book is strongly recommended, because all the formulas you'll need to do your work in Excel is in this book!
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Summary: Amazing - BUY IT !
Review: I already had a reputation at work as the Excel Wizard, so I was a little cautious about investing in a 'how-to' book on the subject. I have to say though, that Excel 2000 Formulas is worth every last cent and more. Even skimming through the early chapters, where I doubted I would find anything new, I chanced upon several easy tips I'd not known before. Excel 2000 Formulas is arranged in a simple-to-reference way and the page layout is excellent, giving easy-on-the-eye icon notes, references and tips. Even so, I quickly found myself grabbing a colored highlighter to pick out the bits that were important to me. The author also has a flowing style of writing so you don't feel you're working through a manual, It's more like a fun day out, with new discoveries on every page. Particulary interesting and useful was John Walkenbach's section on creating megaformulas. Though I was already familiar with the concept, and have used it to good effect at work, I found Walkenbach's methods even more concise and precise. In no time at all, you're building a relatively simple 229 character formula that does the work of 51 intermediary formulas. Not only is this more efficient and streamlined, it saves space in the workbook, thus making calculation quicker and more effective. Also of great value was the section on debugging formulas. VBA had always remained something of a mystery to me (excluding elementary macros) until I got stuck into 'Excel 2000'. Now (with a bit of prompting from John Walkenbach) I'm really getting the hang of it, and finding, again, that I can streamline my workbooks and impress my colleagues. I've already bought 'Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA' by the same author, and look forward to improving my skills in this area. If ever there was a technical book that deserves more than five stars, this is it. If you need to improve your Excel skills, there's no other book you should consider - Excel 2000 Formulas has it all.
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Summary: This is THE ONE !!
Review: I am usually the guy who amazes his co-workers with Excel capabilities, and have used Excel from it's inception. The formulas books were always a good help... but THIS book simply amazed me! I didn't get past SECTION 1 without learning half a dozen things I could use immediately! I'm already "scaring" my managers with the things I've learned. Talk about impact! Well written, easy to understand examples, and thorough. If you want to stay on a simple level with Excel (or just a general overview) go for a less expensive book. BUT IF YOU WANT DETAIL (plenty of it here!) and "comprehensive comprehension" - this is what you're looking for.
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Summary: Can't do without this book!
Review: I can't express just how useful John Walkenbach's books are! I am constantly amazed at the simplicity and "elegance" of his formulas and codes. I am a programmer by trade and have utilized the author's techniques to creat macros and spreadsheets that require minimal user attention and effort. Just yesterday I modified a weekly spreadsheet that originally took the user two hour to complete. The user now only has to spend one minute updating 15 cells and everything else (including charts and reference points) automatically updates! Contrary to one review's remark, the lack of the disc does not render the whole book useless. Most of the book covers one line formulas that requires minimal computer entry. Unless you want to copy some of the more complex macros, you won't need the disc!
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Summary: Brillant ideas and formulas - This book is great.
Review: I have been working with spreadsheets for about 15 years and thought that I knew all about it. This book has shown me some new tricks and techniques that have saved me time and allowed me to avoid writing VBA Code. Anything by Walkenbach is top notch.
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Summary: Great book with great examples
Review: I have to agree that this book is a must have for serious Excel users. I knew Excel was powerful, but I never realized just how much can be done without having to program my spreadsheets in VBA. I'm only half way through it and I've learned a lot of new tricks. The author gives a great background on the use of names, and repeatedly shows examples utilizing powerful array formulas. Every chapter presents several interesting concepts. The only reason why I don't give it 5 stars is that the author doesn't consistently take the time to explain how some of the functions/formulas work. For example, in the Databases chapter there is a section on Summarizing a List with a Data Table which I think is very poorly explained. I prefer not to simply copy a formula out of a book to use it in a spreadsheet. This is a pattern in all of Walkenbach's books. Rather than make an attempt at explaining something, he'll simply show an example, oftentimes a portion of which hasn't been demonstrated as of yet and is not referenced.
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Summary: Terrific...relevant and user-friendly
Review: I hesitated to buy this book, even though I knew the author to be an expert. (I have his Excel utility program, and I've seen him answer questions in Excel user groups.) Why did I feel uncertain? I had bought several large computer books over the past several years...and I found them difficult to understand and use. As a financial consultant, I had used a lot of financial functions. But I just couldn't see how to use much of the materials in those other books. I couldn't get the feel of them. "Excel 2000 Formulas" is far better than I had even hoped. Now I've find myself naturally using naming techniques, pivot tables (which are amazingly powerful and easy to use), simple and more complex lookups, arrays, and other tools that I'd never even worked with before. The CD-ROM that comes with the book lets me quickly and smoothly play with and understand the Excel tools that I'm learning.
Only a few days after buying this book, I've already read, highlighted, and marked up this book. And benefited more than I could have imagined. I'm using Excel far more effectively...and at huge time savings.
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Summary: An Execellent Resource
Review: I recently had to do some very complex work with an Excel spreadsheet at work and I could not have done it without this book. It has shown many useful shortcuts that save huge amounts of time. Also, I wrote my very first custom function (believe it or not, is actually quite simple) based on the easy to follow directions of this book. Anyone who is a beginner or intermediate Excel user who purchases this book will see a dramatic increase in their skill in using this program. It is truly an excellent reference.
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