10 Best Advanced Excel Books: 2024

Why read Advanced Excel Books?

Excel spreadsheet makes lives easy in so many ways. But mastering it is not a walk in the park for everyone. A quick search on the web or a youtube tutorial may solve this problem. But they are just temporary fixes- you never know where a solution ends and a problem begins. When you are bombarded by so much information, the task can seem quite daunting. Well-written advanced Excel books might just be what you are looking for in order to get a more comprehensive and structured learning experience. The top 10 Advanced Excel books to read in 2022 are listed below to help you in this journey:

 

Top 10 Advanced Excel Books

• Microsoft Excel 365 Bible: The Comprehensive Tutorial Resource
• Excel 2019 for Dummies
• Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User’s Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Excel 
• Excel Macros For Dummies
• Excel Dashboards and Reports
• Slaying Excel Dragons: A Beginners Guide to Conquering Excel’s Frustrations and  Making Excel Fun
• Ctrl+Shift+Enter Mastering Excel Array Formulas: Do the Impossible with Excel Formulas Thanks to Array Formula Magic
• Excel VBA Programming for Dummies 
• Excel 2022: The All In One Step-by-Step Guide From Beginner To Expert. Discover Easy Excel Tips & Tricks to Master the Essential Functions, Formulas and shortcuts to Save Time and Simplify Your Job
• Excel 2022: The Ultimate all-in-one crash course for beginners to master Everything of Excel 2022. The Step-by-Step Advanced Skills workbook on how to create & manipulate Power Excel Formulas & Grids 

1. Microsoft Excel 365 Bible: The Comprehensive Tutorial Resource

This book is the latest edition of the Excel Bible series and as the title states. It is an eminent publication in the industry and has a wide readership. It was published in March 2022. Industry experts Michael Alexander and Dick Kusleika are the authors of this book.

Review

The greatest quality of this book is that it is suitable for learners of all levels from beginner to expert. This is one of the most recommended books in the industry. Various advanced Excel courses and other academic programs use it as their textbook.

Consequently, it is perfect for anyone looking to advance their knowledge of the nuances of Excel and build up their expertise level in a methodical way.

Takeaways 

The book is well-researched. It will equip the reader with the skills needed to make use of Excel for major and minor tasks. the book explains the importance of converting the data you have into charts and other graphics that increase your readability and visibility.

The topics covered range from the basics of Excel, formulas and functions, creation of graphs and charts, advanced Excel features, etc. Pivot tables and pivot charts, VBA, power pivot and power query, and automating Excel are also covered. The book thus provides deep insights into the nuanced areas of Excel Spreadsheets.

2. Excel 2019 for Dummies

This book is from the Dummies series of books published by the Wiley group. It makes for one of the most interesting reads in Excel. Greg Harvey, PhD, is the author of this book, published in October 2018. He is a certified educator with a ton of experience in the field of teaching and Excel.

Review 

This book strives to present complex information about advanced Excel in a simplified manner. Though this book is for beginners, the reader will find that the book contains a wealth of information. Learners of all expertise levels can use it as a trusty guide.

In addition, topics such as Database functions such as designing database forms, adding records, how to effectively use the seek-and-find options, etc are also covered. In addition to this, the book also has information about how to print worksheets, how to add hyperlinks to them, how to convert and save worksheets as web pages, and how to add additional information from a worksheet to an already live webpage. 

Takeaway

The book is learner-friendly and makes learning advanced Excel functions, fun. The book starts off with the basics of Excel. It also goes into the details of editing worksheets, creating charts based on your data, and how to edit them later on. Formatting of cells, entering formulas, and insertion of graphs based on your data are other areas covered.

3. Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User’s Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Excel 

This particular book tackles more advanced Excel tools and functions than the ones mentioned before. Holy Macros Books published it in December 2015 and Rob Collie and Avichal Singh are its authors.

Review

The book conveys its ideas and approaches in a step-by-step method which makes these ideas easier to grasp. The techniques introduced in this book are optimized to cut down result time from hours to minutes so as to increase productivity. The book is written after extensive research through the onsite training of Excel users over a span of two years to churn out easy-to-follow techniques and practices that show results. The text explains Excel databases, relationships pivot tables, etc. extensively. To sum up, the fundamentals of DAX, Power Pivot, Power Query, and Power BI are presented here.

Takeaway

This book is not for beginners and proceeds with the assumption that readers would have a good grasp of the basics of Pivot Table, DAX, Power Query, and Power BI. So if you are a beginner, you would benefit more from this book if you take up some of the beginner-friendly books on this list. Other than that, this book is considered the best guide out there among all advanced Excel books by its readers.

It uses practical examples and an engaging narrative to convey ideas. The book details many issues an Excel user might encounter. Moreover, it suggests workable solutions that can perform versatile functions. This includes formulas that can be used across reports of various configurations to make specific columns in a pivot, merge data into a unified report, etc.

4. Excel Macros For Dummies 

This book is a product of the Wiley group’s famous Dummies series. It was published originally on 14th May 2015.The industry expert, Michael Alexander is the author of the book.

Review 

This is one of the most coveted books to learn Excel Macros from. It explains over 70 macros and how to carry these out. This action, when performed, improves productivity by cutting down time consumption. It also explains how to customize macros. It is perfect if the reader is a beginner-level VBA learner. The book helps you build a solid foundation in VBA.

Topics such as the fundamentals and overview of VBA, construction of workbooks, automation of reports, acquiring data through external sources, how to bring your data, and how to use Excel to send emails are also explored.

Takeaway

The book explains Macros 101 and how they are used to comprehend VBA and VBE functions of advanced Excel. Learners are provided with a workbook workshop that explains the automation of tasks using macros. It also explains how macros help to make spreadsheets, manipulate data, and automate pivot table and chart tasks.

You learn how to customize your application depending on personal preferences, how to use Excel macros to work in workbooks, worksheets, and ranges, and streamline the workflow.

5. Excel Dashboards and Reports

This book is a brilliant resource if you want to improve your skills in making Excellent Excel dashboards and reports. The authors of this book are Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach. It was originally published on 6th August 2010 by Wiley Publishers.

Review 

One of the best advanced Excel books that mainly deals with dashboards, Excel charts, and Pivot Tables, this one is a game changer. The book takes a learner-friendly approach while presenting the information. This book is suitable for intermediate to advanced-level Excel users.

A striking feature of this book is that instead of being an all-rounder guide, it selects a niche and explains it in the best way possible. Here the concepts of dashboards are explained thoroughly along with the ways to use them. The guidelines and rules given in the book help learners create Excellent dashboards.

Takeaway

The book instructs you on the basics of how to create a dashboard and tips to use it in the best way possible. Insights into data analysis and reports to enhance the dashboard’s appearance and effectivity and a look into different ways to get better data visibility and divide data into different views are provided by the book.

It covers topics like Excel dashboards, charts, advanced Excel charts and charting concepts, pivot table dashboards, etc. It also helps the learner create impressive visualizations and designs in the dashboard as a result.

6. Slaying Excel Dragons: A Beginner Guide to Conquering Excel’s Frustrations and  Making Excel Fun

Firstly, this book is suitable for both beginner and expert Excel users. It is unique in the way it explains the logic behind everything in Excel. Holy Macro Books published it on 21 February 2011 and Mike Girvin and Bill Jelen wrote it.

Review

The book is remarked as one of the best books in its field. It has an optimal pace and structure for beginner learning but gives credit to the learner’s intelligence and levels up in challenges as chapters go on.

The book does not include VBA but other than that is a treasure trove of information on advanced Excel including keyboard shortcuts, data, formatting and page setup, formulas, functions, charts, data analysis features, conditional formatting, find and replace tools, and so on

Takeaway

This book is comprehensive and well organized with a focus on producing maximum efficiency. It dabbles in visual learning and has images of everything from columns to pivot tables. It also gives tips to increase the efficiency of your work and turn every learner into an expert.

7. Ctrl+Shift+Enter Mastering Excel Array Formulas: Do the Impossible with Excel Formulas Thanks to Array Formula Magic

One of the simplest advanced Excel books or reference guides that deal with array formulas, this one makes the complexities of Excel seem simple. Mike Girvin is the author of the book Holy Macro! Books published it. 

Review

The book explains how to create formulas that can be used to solve problems that a standard Excel formula would struggle to accomplish. It starts with an introduction to array formulas. It then explains how they are different from the standard Excel formula.

The book details the positives and negatives of using array functions, and what types of functions can and cannot handle array calculations, array constants, and functions. It also develops into practical applications of array-like how to extract data from tables and unique lists, how to get results that match any criteria, and how to utilize various methods for unique counts. 

Takeaway

The book begins with an introduction to array formulas and is perfect for anyone looking to understand this part of Excel in depth. The book is not a beginner’s guide, but it is easy to follow<. 

This book includes topics like the use of functions and array constants and functions. The book contains many screenshots which are a great help when following step-by-step instructions.

8. Excel VBA Programming for Dummies 

This book advanced Excel resource for learning about VBA programming at a beginner level. The popular  Excel guide writers Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach are its authors. It is published by Wiley.

Review

Even if you are completely new to VBA or programming, this book can still help you learn a lot. The book offers a solid foundation in VBA. Furthermore, the book elaborates on the advantages and disadvantages of VBA, what an Excel object hierarchy is, and how it works.

Also included in the book are, methods to handle errors, and how to create macros. Likewise, other topics discussed are properties of useful range objects and their method, customizing solutions according to demand, and solving bugs that arise in codes. This makes it stand out among other advanced Excel books.

Takeaways

The book covers all the details about VBA and explains how to automate tasks, use add-ins, and commands, develop macro-driven applications, etc. In particular, the topics covered here are how to create custom interfaces for Excel and how to create user-based applications. It, therefore, opens up before the learner a variety of objects. In this way, VBA helps to level up Data analysis skills and programming skills. The book has a sensible teaching method. Learners can follow a step-by-step process to complete every task.

9. Excel 2022: The All In One Step-by-Step Guide From Beginner To Expert. Discover Easy Excel Tips & Tricks to Master the Essential Functions, Formulas & Shortcuts to Save Time and Simplify Your Job

This book is published on January 1, 2022, and. Mike Wang is its author. In sum, it is ideal for both experts and beginners, who are on a journey to master advanced Excel functions.

Review

Anyone who wants to learn Excel from its base can use this book. It begins with the organization and editing of data on worksheets and encompasses functions, formulas, diagrams, and graphs including the 2022 updates. 

It starts small with an introduction to creating a workbook and moves on to functions and how to make the most out of them. Furthermore, it introduces the formula functions and several Excel shortcuts.

Takeaway

The book is suitable for beginner, and intermediate learners. In particular, learning this book is easier because the content is systematic. In addition, it also shares many productivity-enhancing Excel tricks,

10. Excel 2022: The Ultimate all-in-one crash course for beginners to master Everything of Excel 2022. The Step-by-Step Advanced Skills workbook on how to create & manipulate Power Excel Formulas & Grids 

Robert J Green is the author of this book, moreover, the book came out on September 21, 2021. It is an Excel formula and grids crash course suitable for all learners, irrespective of what level they are in their advanced Excel journey.

Review

The book is a great resource to begin learning Excel and also to improve upon already existing Excel skills to make them more marketable for businesses and individuals thus making the learner job-ready.  Firstly, It starts off with an explanation of the basics of Excel like rows, columns, and autofill.Secondly, it explains the usage of mathematical functions in Excel. Thirdly, we look at text functions, logical counting, conditional functions, date and time functions, etc.

In due time, it moves on to explanations of data organizations, how to manage errors when they pop up, pivot tables, formatting tables, charts, and graphs, and then an explanation of the updates in the latest version of Excel and advanced Excel functions.

Takeaway

This is a comprehensive text that covers a wide range of portions from the basics of Excel to its more complex features. It is written in a way that gives the learners advanced working knowledge of Excel when they finish it.

The book is easy to understand. It is up to date with the latest version of Excel and therefore is one of the best resources out there to learn Excel in 2022.

Alternative to Advanced Excel Books

Getting one of these books and starting your Excel journey today might be the best path for some. But if you are a visual learner, indeed you will benefit more from an interactive Excel course.

Henry Harvin Advanced Excel Course Instead of Advanced Excel Books!!!!!!

Henry Harvin Education provides one such great online course for Advanced Excel. The course duration is 24 hours. Learners will thereafter earn the global credential of Certified Advanced Excel Practitioner (CAEP). They can showcase expertise by using the Hallmark of CAEP next to your name. It is led by expert instructors, certified in Excel. The instructors will give you guidance and support throughout the course.

In fact, students can avail themselves of monthly Bootcamp Sessions to revise concepts and ask doubts. They can also access the LMS portal with recorded videos, exercises case studies in addition to this. It also will provide you with opportunities to network with other industry experts from Management Academy. The Placement Support will offer you weekly job assistance.

The Advanced Excel Course by Henry Harvin is a great option for anyone looking to excel in Excel.

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Conclusion to the Quest for Advanced Excel Books

Having mastery over Microsoft Excel is quite an important skill to have in today’s job market. Because of constraints and different learning styles, the same learning aids and methods will not suit everyone. For one thing, you can never go wrong with advanced Excel books that condensed so much information in their pages.

You can either flip through the book at your convenience and learn Excel. If that’s not your style, take a well-rounded course and use the books as quick reference materials. Information technology is now an integral part of work and daily life. Also, the amount of time that a person can practically set aside for study decreases significantly. In this situation Excel, the guide can provide you with a flexible schedule.

Learners can access a book at any time. A video course will have you spend hours locating an answer. Whether you are a spreadsheet newbie or just looking to polish your skills henceforth do not worry!! There is something for everyone in the realm of advanced Excel books.

Recommended Reads

• 10 Best Advanced Excel Books: 2023
• Top 30 Advanced Excel Interview Questions and Answers
• 15 Best Advanced Excel Courses in Delhi: 2023

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