Excel Video 154 is short and easy. I’ll introduce two functions, FIND and LEN. FIND looks for a text string inside another text string. I use FIND to look for text inside a cell, and the most common thing I look for is a comma that separates a last name from a first...

Excel Video 153 might be EXACTly what you need to make your life easier. EXACT is a simple Excel function that compares two text strings (say the text in two different cells) to see if they’re exactly the same. Today’s trick is to combine EXACT with CONCATENATE from...

Excel Video 152 describes two ways to concatenate functions in Excel. Even if concatenate didn’t have my name in it, it would still be a handy function. Concatenate means to put something on the end of something else, or to stuff things together. You’ll find it handy...

Excel Video 151 explains how to use IFERROR to replace all of Excel’s error messages with something more appropriate. IFERROR is a simple Excel function that takes a formula and evaluates it. If the formula works, fine. Excel will show you the result of the formula....

When you’re done with Excel Video 150, you might be thinking that NOT is a lot like the devil, always telling you bad is good and good is bad. The NOT function simply takes something that’s true and returns false, or something that’s false and returns true. It’s hard...

Excel Video 149 continues our discussion of logical functions by introducing OR. In Excel Video 148, all of the conditions had to be true to make the statement true. This time, only one of the conditions needs to be true to make the statement true. The IF statement in...

Excel Video 148 adds the AND function to our collection of logical tests in Excel. The AND function simply evaluates a list of conditions, each separated by a comma. If all of the conditions are true, AND is true. If even one of the conditions is false, AND is false....

Excel Video 147 nests IF functions. By nesting, I mean we’ll put an IF function inside of another IF function so that we’ll have 3 options instead of the 2 options we normally get with IF. I’ll show you two different ways to nest the IF function so you customize your...

Excel Video 146 introduces the IF function, a powerful tool to add versatility to your formulas. We’ll start with two basic examples. The structure of the IF function is =IF(logical test, value if the test is true, value if the test is false). The logical test can be...

Excel Video 145 wraps up our discussion of financial functions in Excel. There are many, many more financial functions out there, but these are the basics a medical practice manager might find helpful. The RATE function is very similar to the PMT function we’ve...

Excel Video 144 takes a quick break from functions to show you how to get Excel to read to you. There’s a text to speech feature in Excel that can come in handy when you’re trying to enter data from Excel into a different program on a second monitor. You may also find...

Excel Video 143 continues our discussion of financial functions in Excel. This time, I’ll introduce the PMT function that will calculate the amount of a periodic (monthly, annual, etc.) payment due on a loan or a lease. The PMT function requires the same type of...

Excel Video 142 starts our discussion of financial functions in Excel with a function called PV. PV stands for present value, the total amount that a series of future payments is worth today. The financial functions I’m discussing in these videos are the subject of an...

Excel Video 141 launches our discussion of Excel functions with five basic functions. Most Excel users will be familiar with SUM, COUNT, MIN, MAX, and AVERAGE. I’ll walk through a brief example using those 5 functions. Even if you’re familiar with those functions,...

Excel Video 140 helps you use the Insert Function Window to use an Excel function. The Insert Function Window is a great way to find new or recently used functions. Once you find the function you need, the window will help you enter the right data in the right order...

Excel Video 139 provides an overview of the Formulas tab in Excel 2010. For the next set of Excel Videos, we’ll cover a wide variety of functions that will do everything from statistics to finances to telling you what time it is. I won’t go through every single...