We will begin this class by quickly reconstructing our student gradebook from previous classes. I'll spend just a few minutes touching on the major concepts from Excel 201, such as the IF function and relative v. absolute references. You'll need to know them well for today's class.

Next, we'll learn how to make named cells in our sheets. Named cells make it easier to jump to different locations in our sheets, and make it much easier to create formulas. Here's a named cell called PassingGrade which points to cell A9.

We'll see how it's much easier to use those named cells and ranges in our formulas, than remembering all of those long cell references.

You will learn how to create, edit, delete, and work with multiple named cells.

Next we'll work with named ranges - which like named cells allow you to specify names for entire blocks of cells (ranges of cells). You can use this technique to make it easier to work with functions and formulas. Here, for example, we'll assign a name to the entire range of cells that identify this test's grades:

Next, we'll set up a sheet to track business income and expenses. We'll again use named ranges to make it easier to work with the sheet.

Then, we'll use these ranges to calculate values based on where they intersect. These are called Range Intersections. We can use them, for example, to calculate January's rent...

You'll learn how to paste in a list of all of your cell and range names. You'll also learn how to have Excel automatically create cell and range names based on the column and row headers in your sheet (saves you a lot of work).

Excel can also take any existing ranges you have defined in your sheet and retroactively apply new named ranges to them.

Next, we'll learn about Nested IF Functions. This is where you take one IF function and "nest" it inside of another one... so instead of only being able to have two possible outcomes (true or false) you can now have three or more! Here for example, we'll create a nested IF function that can first check to see if the student has taken all of his tests - if not, give him an incomplete - if yes, then use another IF branch to calculate their pass/fail grade.

Then I'll show you another example of how to calculate letter grades with nested IF functions - although we'll learn a better way to do this later with the VLOOKUP function.

What's VLOOKUP? It's a Vertical LOOKUP. In other words, we're looking up a value in a little sub-table (lookup table). Here, for example, we'll create a little lookup table that has the letter grades in them and what their values are...

Then the VLOOKUP function can tell you what each student's letter grade is based on their test averages.

Just to make sure you've got it, we'll do another VLOOKUP example using commission rates. This time, the sales rep's commission rate is based on his overall sales.

I'll teach you how you can use VLOOKUP to return values from multiple columns - not just one. Here, for example, we want to be able to get the sales reps' commision rates plus their bonus values.

Now, I've avoided using the Function Wizard up until now - because I really don't like it - but I'll show you how to use the function wizard quickly for one example... just so I can say we covered it... even though I still don't like it.  :)

We'll use the HLOOKUP function (a close relative of VLOOKUP) to calculate both the discount and the sales tax rate for a basic Invoice form we'll create.

This class is a lot of fun! We'll learn a bunch of very powerful features: named cells, ranges, nested IF functions, VLOOKUP, and HLOOKUP. These are all power user features that you don't want to miss out on!

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