Excel University Blog

Read on for in-depth articles, tutorials, and videos. Search or browse for specific topics. Be sure to subscribe if you'd like to be notified when we write something new.

Jeff Lenning

Free Project Tracker Template

By Jeff Lenning | March 4, 2025 |

If you’re managing projects and need a simple way to track progress, Excel’s Agile Gantt Chart template can be a great starting point. This built-in template provides a visual representation of tasks, milestones, and progress, making it easier to stay organized. Video Step-by-step Guide In this guide, we’ll walk through how to: Let’s dive in!…

Excel vs ChatGPT

By Jeff Lenning | February 25, 2025 |

When working with messy data, we often turn to Excel, but with the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, we now have new ways to tackle these challenges. In this post, we’ll compare Excel and ChatGPT side by side, using three common data tasks: We’ll see how each tool handles the job, the pros and…

Free Personal Budget Template

By Jeff Lenning | February 18, 2025 |

Managing your personal finances is easier when you have a structured budget in place. Fortunately, Excel provides built-in budget templates that can help you track your income, expenses, and savings without starting from scratch. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to find, use, and customize a simple annual budget template in Excel to fit…

Unbelievable Dashboards (in 3 easy steps)

By Jeff Lenning | February 11, 2025 |

Creating an interactive Excel dashboard doesn’t have to be complicated. With just a few steps, we can transform raw data into a dynamic, easy-to-read report that updates automatically as new data comes in. In this guide, we’ll walk through the process of building an Excel dashboard using pivot tables, pivot charts, and a timeline filter.…

How To Get A Free Loan Amortization Template

By Jeff Lenning | February 4, 2025 |

If you’ve ever wondered how to track your loan payments and balances, you’re in the right place! In this post, we’ll walk through how to get, use, and customize a free loan amortization schedule template directly from within Microsoft Excel. Let’s dive in! Video Step 1: Downloading the Free Amortization Schedule Template Did you know…

How To Automate Your Workflow

By Jeff Lenning | January 28, 2025 |

Are you ready to save hours of manual work each week? In this guide, we’ll explore how to automate your workflow in Excel using tools like Power Query, Pivot Tables, and Pivot Charts. Best of all, you don’t need to be a coding wizard to get started. By the end, you’ll know how to effortlessly…

Fixed Monthly Value Between Dates

By Jeff Lenning | January 21, 2025 |

Today, we’re tackling an interesting challenge: How to add a fixed value to the first day of each month between a start and end date. We’ll explore three approaches, ranging from detailed to concise, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Video Step-by-step Tutorial The task is straightforward: We’ll walk through…

Rows of Dependent Drop Downs

By Jeff Lenning | January 14, 2025 |

When working with drop down lists in Excel, creating dependent drop downs that dynamically adapt based on a primary choice is both powerful and time-saving. This post walks through setting up rows of dependent drop downs and concludes with a method to notify users when a secondary choice becomes invalid. Let’s dive in! Video Step-by-step…

Conditionally Format Input Cells

By Jeff Lenning | January 7, 2025 |

Hello, Excel enthusiasts! Today, we’re diving into a neat trick: automatically formatting input cells based on whether they meet specific criteria. The goal? Identify and format cells where the first digit of the input is a “4.” But, you can apply this same technique to other criteria. By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear…

Automatic Check Boxes

By Jeff Lenning | December 31, 2024 |

Have you ever wondered how to set up checkboxes in Excel that check themselves automatically based on the value of another cell? Whether you’re tracking tasks, orders, or reviews, Excel’s checkbox feature can streamline your process. In this blog post, we’ll walk through step-by-step examples to create self-checking checkboxes. Let’s dive in! Video Step-by-step Tutorial…