will introduce you to the exciting new pivot table features in Excel 2007. Create quick summaries and pivot charts, add impact with traffic light icons, design calculated fields, group dates and numbers.
Excelerators Giveaway for Excel Power Users
Are you an Excel power user? Answer a few quick questions at the Excelerators Quiz site, and find out how you rate. You could even win a nice prize here at the Contextures blog!
The team at PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010 created the Excelerators Quiz, and to make the challenge more exciting, they’re sponsoring a giveaway here on the Contextures blog (for USA residents only).
The blog giveaway prize has a total value of over $250, and will include a Dell ST2310 23 inch flat panel monitor, keyboard, and mouse. You’ll be even more powerful if you have those tools!
Enter the Giveaway
What does it take to be an Excel power user? What kind of quiz questions would you create? We’ll create our own Excel quiz here in the comments. Maybe it’ll be better than the Excelerators Quiz!
To enter the giveaway, after you take the Excelerators Quiz, come back here and add a comment. In your comment:
- Create your own unique question for the Excelerators Quiz.
- Make your question multiple choice, with the correct answer as one of the four options.
You can contribute more than one question, but only your first question will be entered in the giveaway draw.
The Giveaway Rules
- You must be a legal resident of the Unites States of America.
- To enter, submit an original Excelerators quiz question in the comments below, with the correct answer as one of the 4 multiple choice options
- The comment must be submitted before the deadline of 12:00 noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday, January 28th, 2010
- One entry per person – any additional entries will be deleted from the draw
- A random draw will select the winner from all valid entries.
- Winner will be notified by email, so please provide a valid email address. This will not be publicly visible, but will be shared with the contest organizers at Ignite Social Media, so they can contact the winner to arrange delivery.
The Alpha Geek Challenge
The PowerPivot team has also launched an Alpha Geek Challenge for more advanced excel geeks. Donald Farmer will host a PowerPivot competition in which the Grand Prize winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2010 Microsoft BI Conference in New Orleans, LA in June.
After you finish the Excelerators Quiz, and the giveaway contest here, see how you do in the Alpha Geek Challenge!
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January 22nd, 2010 at 12:49 am
[...] where you can test your Excel skills. To make the challenge more exciting, they’re sponsoring a giveaway on the Contextures blog (for USA residents [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:43 am
Excel was origainally developed for use with the MAC in 1984. These were great questions cannot wait for Excel 2010.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:01 am
Apparently, I'm a "number cruncher", although I didn't see how many I actually got right.
Anyway, question:
What chart type is not a standard Excel type?
Bubble chart
Bar of Pie
3D surface
Box Plot
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:44 am
Thanks for the reminder Christine. Coincidentally, the first Macintosh commercial aired on this date in 1984, during the Super Bowl.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 am
Thanks Alex, good question. We're off to a great start.
There's a link to the Excelerators quiz answers on the page where you see your results.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Excel's 'Evaluate' function was introduced in which version of Excel:
A- Excel 2.0
B- Excel 4.0
C- Excel 12.0
D- Excel 5.0
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Excel 2010 (and 2007) goes to column XFD. (Ya!)
According to Microsoft, how many worksheet functions are available in Excel 2003?
a) 236
b) 333
c) 478
d) 621
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I went to do the Alpha Geek Challenge and it was just confusing ... the challenge is trying to figure out what you're supposed to do. Back to work.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:57 pm
ct, you're right, it the Alpha Geek page is confusing. Looks like it won't be ready until Monday, based on the dates in the official rules.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
How many multiple tab versions of Excel are there?
a) 2 or 3
b) 4 or 5
c) 6 or 7
d) 8 or 9
January 24th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
An eight question quiz, two of them about Power Pivot? I'm not sure knowing that Excel was released for Mac (thanks Christine!) makes a power user, or knowing the last column, so I think they may be pandering when it rates me as one. Although they're right :).
So in the same spirit:
ExcelBeGone (c), a powerful product in development by Doug Glancy will:
1) Replace all of Excel's functions with five easy-to-remember clapping sequences
2) Replace the grid with episodes of the original Star Trek
3) Ensure 95% accuracy by reducing all function results to either "True", "False" or "Ask Again"
4) All of the above!
January 24th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Doug,
Sounds like it will be a wonderful product.
Its benefits could even top the productivity increase given to us when the Ribbon was released.
I am willing to test the beta for you, if you can assure me that the clapping will not cause the lights in my office to go off.
January 24th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
You got it Deborah!
January 24th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
I mean Jim!
January 25th, 2010 at 12:02 am
[...] Excelerators Giveaway for Excel Power Users [...]
January 25th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Doug, if you're going to try and sell your add-in here, you'll have to give me a cut of the profits.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:22 am
What is your favourite Excel cell?
a) FUN69
b) RTM2
c) WTF42
d) A1
e) BUG1048576
f) BUF11
g) GTV6
Answers:
a) You have a dirty mind
b) You are in tech support
c) Yeah, I know...
d) You are an accountant
e) You are a geek
f) You watch teeny soaps
g) Hey, that's my car!
January 25th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
You can indent text using several methods.
Which of the following cannot indent text?
1. The Increase Indent button
2. The Align Left button
3. A number format
4. The Space bar
January 26th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Added quiz question:
In order to set the same page setup options for all tabs in your sheet, you first need to:
a. select all data in the sheet
b. set the print area for all sheets
c. select all sheets using the group feature
d. format all cells to fit the same page width
January 27th, 2010 at 12:02 am
[...] Excelerators Giveaway for Excel Power Users [...]
January 27th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
well, i guess i'm a power user, but it was all guesses since i'm on 2003.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Rich, that's a good result if you've never used Excel 2007 or PowerPivot!
And if you're in the USA, you can make up your own Excel question for the quiz. Post it in the comments here, and you'll have a chance to win the monitor from the PowerPivot team.
January 28th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
The entry deadline has passed, and thanks to everyone who participated.
I'll do a random draw, and announce the winner in the Jan. 29th blog post.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:04 am
[...] Excelerators Giveaway for Excel Power Users [...]