Learn Excel 365 Essential Skills with The Smart Method: Fifth Edition: updated for the Jan 2021 Semi-Annual version 2008

This book and its follow up (“Expert”) are without a doubt the best training resources for MS Excel 365 that exist. I’ve spent hundreds of hours taking and passed every top online course, studied dozens of beginner to advanced to specialized books; I own them all. I spend every waking hour until 2-2:30 am studying Excel (I’ve been doing this since April 2011), and this is this best training there is. I defy anyone to find or challenge me to discover a better course. If there is please send it my way because I’ve taken all of them and this is the one I’ve been able to get 20 plus people to attend voluntarily everyday for weeks. Mike Smart’s books are the best. I just wish he would published more specialized books because his two books are or should be considered the gold standard.

As a teacher of Excel classes I am often asked by students for a recommendation from among the hundreds of Excel books available. This book is high on my list! The information is broken into manageable concepts that are arranged in a logical sequence building on prior lessons. All of the info related to each lesson is contained in two adjoining page and easily viewed without page turning. The concepts are detailed, yet not overwhelming and are all supported by hands on application files. Even those with a working knowledge of Excel find valuable insights and tips in the material and the side notes and anecdotes are a nice addition.

I use Excel all day every day, but wanted to polish up my skills. This textbook is great! The lessons flow smoothly and logically, each lesson building on the one before. Each lesson is covered in two pages, but they're still very thorough. Downloading the practice exercises really helps the lessons sink in (I learn better by doing, not just reading). Even though I've been using Excel forever, I learned several new tricks. I highly recommend this textbook.

Easy to follow. Learn tips and how to use even if a beginner

The outline of this book could be used for any subject.

Excellent. Based on carefully considered presentation methods, with detailed instructions to the user as to how to solve the problem at hand. It is very hard to get confused with this book. Lastly, emphasizes real world problems encountered in practical settings.

I have used Smart's Excel books going back to I think 2013 release. Love them. They are well written and easy to follow. The fact that he keeps them up-to-date speaks volumes as to his dedication and respect to us, the Excel user community.

This book is amazing. Great step by step instructions. The hands on activities reinforce learning and retaining the skills. I love it. Need other application instructions in this format

I was pleasantly surprised to see that an Office 365 subscription was available for Mac users but I now know that it is very different beast from the Windows version. I purchased both books in this series expecting them to apply to Windows and the Mac. Although I admit in retrospect that I did not look in detail at the cover thumbnails which do state in small letters 'for Windows'. I ordered the books in the mistaken belief that they would help me use Excel 365 on a Mac. They did not. At first I kept discovering what I believed to be errors in the lessons but then realised that actually the Mac Version has less functionality than the Windows version to the point where this series of books are totally unsuitable for mac users. I feel this could have been made more obvious in the listing.

Absolutely brilliant. I have been using Excel since it took over from Lotus 1-2-3 in the 1990s and considered myself to be fairly proficient. I've invested some time in going through all of this book and have found so much that I wish I'd known about before - it would have saved me sooooo much time and effort over the years.Very highly recommended. Comprehensive and easy to use. The sample files available from the author's website superbly show how specific functions and capabilities work.If you are a user of Excel, for business or personal use, I think you'd find this book an absolute god-send.

This book is hard to navigate without an index and while containing a lot of information is imprenetable without going from finish to end so not one I would recommend unless you are a complete beginner with a lot of time on your hands

Many other buyers have have already written glowing reviews about this book. I have to agree with them. This is the best book by far to learn Excel 365, and in a short period of time too. I bought this book to brush up on my Excel skills and I'm having fun going through the lessons. Each lesson is neatly contained in 2 pages so it is easy to learn in short 30-minute bursts.Unlike many other computer books out there with pages and pages of boring text, this book won't put you to sleep - There are lots of hands-on exercises. Have fun!

User friendly, I buy this book at every iteration. So easy to use for new Excel techniques or as a reference for those things learnt and forgotten. Excellent resource for beginner & intermediate Excel user