Successful IT Projects In Excel > Reviews (2)

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Successful ICT Projects In Excel.
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Just under a year ago I was told that for my A level ICT coursework I would have to do an ICT project, preferably in Access. Now me being stubborn and demanding argued that I wanted to do my project in Excel as I preferred working with it and felt that Excel was far more suitable for the project I had planned than Access would be. I was told that I wouldn't be able to get full marks in Excel and that basically my project wouldn't work. I researched a bit and found that although it was 'easier' to get marks in Access, there was no real reason why I shouldn't be able to use Excel and do a decent project. So I persisted with my demands and my tutor eventually caved in and said I could do what I want as long as I stopped nagging him! Anyway, my project is now completed and has been marked (I got an A by the way

!) but I do feel that this book helped me a fair bit so I decided to review it as it may be of use to someone else.

The book is written by P.M Heathcote and is designed to help students on an A level, AVCE computing or information and communications technology course to complete a project in Microsoft Excel. The book which I have (3rd edition) is aimed at students using Microsoft Excel 2002 or an earlier version although much of it can be applied to the more recent versions of Excel too. Although as the title suggests, this book is specifically aimed at students on courses such as those mentioned above who will be doing and ICT project, I believe that it could also prove very useful for anyone who wants an in-depth knowledge of Excel, starting with the basic features and moving on to the more advanced ones.

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The Book Itself
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The book is pretty similar to how it looks in the ciao picture although the top quarter of the book is white with the title on it and the strange blue and red picture shown in the ciao picture is below. The book is A4 sized and just under 1 ½ cm thick which makes it practical for carrying to and from college without giving you back or arm ache! The book is paper back but feel relatively strong so its not going to fall apart after a while. Ive had mine for a year and am impressed at the good condition it is in despite the large amount of use it has endured! The pages are fairly thick and of a decent quality which again helps keep the book in a good condition. The book is printed in black and white which helps keep the printing costs down and helps make the book more affordable for students! The pages are well laid out, so it is easy to look up certain tasks without wading your way through loads of irrelevant information.

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The Contents
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The book starts by giving a brief introduction to excel and explaining what the book aims to provide. The preface also says that students working on a school or college network will have no difficulty in completing any of the exercises, as alternative instructions are given when necessary to cope with restricted access to files held on a file server.

This is a particularly useful feature of the book as trying to get around the problems with the college network due to restrictions can be a nightmare so it was useful to have the alternative instructions!
The book contains a very clear and well laid out table of contents which is broken up into 16 chapters. I will explain these briefly so you can get a feel as to what sort of things the book teaches about.

Chapter 1 - Workbooks and Worksheets
This chapter covers the basics of what Excel is, what it does and how it works in terms of workbooks and worksheets. There are various pictures and screen prints which make it simple to pick up the basics of how to use Excel. There are a variety of exercises to do which are quite interesting and help you learn how to use the basic features very quickly.

Chapter 2 - Editing and Formatting
This chapter looks at ways of enhancing the appearance of a worksheet, for example, formatting text, adding borders and colour as well as looking at how to add and delete columns and copying formatting as well as data to other parts of the spreadsheet or workbook. This chapter basically teaches you how to manipulate the spreadsheets to make them suitable for what you want to use them for. Again there are lots of good screen shots and instructions as well as interesting exercises to do.

Chapter 3 - Writing Formulae
One of the main strengths of Excel is its ability to use formulas, this chapter teaches the basics of writing and understanding formulas and has lots of examples using data which makes sense so you can see exactly what is happening and why! I though I was pretty good at working with formulas in Excel but this chapter has been really helpful when I came across problems in my project formulas! I like the way this chapter is written as it makes sense without assuming that the reader knows all these technical terms and things but it isn't patronising either.

Chapter 4 - Using Functions
This is another extremely useful chapter, it covers a few of the many functions of Excel. The functions explained are ones which are most likely to be needed by students doing an ICT project and there were plenty of interesting ones which I didn't even realise existed! This chapter is also well laid out with lots of examples and exercises.

Chapter 5 - "What if" Scenarios
This chapter is more complex and does need quite a bit of time spent on it to fully understand everything it is saying. The chapter looks at the 'scenario manager' in Excel which allows you to explore different possibilities to achieve a desired result. The chapter takes you step by step through the process of using this very powerful tool and gives real life examples to help make it easier to understand. The contents of this chapter were entirely new to me which was very interesting to learn about even though I didn't use it in my end project.

Chapter 6 - Linking Workbooks
This chapter covers all the basics of linking workbooks together and how Excel can be used to store and analyse information held in list form from various applications.

This chapter is quite complex but provides all the error messages and problems you may encounter and ways to deal with them. This chapter provides a platform for the next couple of chapters.

Chapter 7 - Filtering, Sorting & Subtotalling Lists
This chapter follows on from chapter 6 and explores the different ways of manipulating data which has been stored in a list. This is a fairly long chapter and contains some really useful features of Excel, with clear and concise instructions and exercises to do.

Chapter 8 - Creating Charts
Most users of Excel know how good it can be for creating various charts and graphs but this chapter gives a detailed yet simple set of instructions and explanations of how to create various types of charts or graphs and how they can be customised to make them fit your requirements. I have always been pretty confident in using Excel to create graphs but this chapter was still worth a read.

Chapter 9 - Printing
This chapter is quite supprising as I though printing was a pretty simple process but it covers all the different printing capabilities of Excel (many of which I didn't know!). This chapter turned out to be incredibly useful when I was printing out my project as I was able to print it without it looking like a scrambled mass of pages!

Chapter 10 - Forms and Templates
This chapter covers in some detail how to create and work with forms and templates. This was particularly useful in my ICT project as it provided really helpful examples and screen prints which I could adapt and use for my own forms in my project. It is a pretty long chapter but very well laid out and explained and definitely worth a read!

Chapter 11 - Basic Macros
This chapter covers the basics of recording macros to perform simple tasks, setting up shortcut keys and examining macro code. It also tells you a bit about Visual Basics (the programme which creates the macro code).This chapter takes a while to grasp, especially if you have never encountered macros before but provides a really good base for the next chapter which teaches you how to create more advanced macros.

Chapter 12 - Advanced Macros
This chapter carries on from the previous one and contains details on more complex macros and ways of using them. There are plenty of really helpful examples and screen prints which make the chapter easy to follow despite the complex nature of what is being taught!

Chapter 13 - The User Interface
This chapter was one of the most useful for me during my project, it shows ways of creating decent user interfaces with buttons and menus. Although much of the contents of this chapter I already knew, the processes were explained really well and it gave me some great ideas for my own user interface which was one of the best things about my final project!

Chapter 14 - Project Ideas
By the time I got this book I had already chosen my project idea so this chapter was not necessary, however it does give some really good project ideas and how you can use Excel to do them. If you are just beginning you're a level course or any other course where you know you will have to do an ICT project then I am sure this chapter would be a great place to look for ideas and to know what type of thing will work and what wont!

Chapter 15 - The Systems Life Cycle
This chapter is based on the ICT A level theory that is done as part of the course. It covers the different stages of a project; problem definition, analysis, design, development, testing, installation and maintenance. These are all important parts of the A level coursework project and this chapter was a really good way of seeing what was needed in each section of the project, for example it shows what data flow diagrams are, why they are needed and how they are done.

Chapter 16 - The Project Report
This chapter is another immensely useful one and it gives advice on how to set about writing the project report. It shows how the report should be laid out and what should be included in each section. It is applicable to most of the exam boards coursework requirements but is mainly designed for the AQA syllabus. However, the exam board I used was OCR and this section was still incredibly useful.

Appendix A - Sample Project
This was a part of the book which I ignored at first but as my project developed I found it incredibly useful to refer to this sample project to check that I was on the right track and including the right things. The sample project is laid out in the same way an A level project would be but has lots of useful notes in the margin which give tips and advice to the reader.

Appendix B - AQA Specification
This section gives the AQA exam board project guidelines although it is very similar to the other exam boards so most of it can be applied to anyone doing A level ICT, not matter what exam board you are doing the qualification with. This section includes the mark scheme which I found useful once I was in the later stages of my project as it highlighted parts which I might need to work on a bit more to get all of the available marks. Obviously the mark scheme is different for each exam board but it gives a good idea of what is needed to get marks.

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The Boring Bits
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As I mentioned above the book is written by Pat Heathcote. The book says that she has had many years of experience in teaching computing and Information Technology, this is evident in the way the book is written as it is very suited to the intended audience. The book also says that she worked as a programmer and systems analyst so I suppose she knows what she is talking about which is always a good thing! She is now a full time author and publisher.

The ISBN of the book if you are planning to look for it is 1-903112-71-0 and it was published by Payne-Gallway Publishers Ltd in 2002.

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Price and Availability
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The book can be brought in most good bookshops which sell a range of educational books, such as WHSmith. It costs around £10 in most high street shops but can also be brought on Amazon.co.uk for £7.66 or elsewhere on the Internet for less. It is quite easy to get hold of second hand copies as people no longer want them once they have completed the course.

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Advantages
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One of the main advantages of this book is the relevance of the content. Every single page of this book contains really useful information, which will help you use Excel, whether it is for a coursework project or general use. The book is really well laid out, it isn't at all jumbled and all of the instructions and exercises are clearly and concisely laid out. Bullet points are used to make it easy to follow and each chapter is broken up into sections, which makes it really easy to navigate and read without being overwhelmed with information! I cannot fault the book in terms of size and quality as mine has taken a fair bit of battering but still is in one piece! The exercises to do in the book are useful and interesting, which makes the reader happy to do them. Each explanation or instruction is explained clearly and properly and there are plenty of useful screen prints, which help illustrate what you need to do. I think the sample project is a great idea as it gives you an idea of what is expected, what you need to include etc. From my experience the book really does contain everything you would need to know to complete a successful project in Excel. This book was my main source of information and guidance and I got an A so it must be good!

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Disadvantages
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Some smaller high streetbook shops do not stock this book which can make it awkward to obtain if you do not live near a larger store. It is also quite difficult to pick this book up for anything less than about £7 which can be off putting for students who don't have that sort of money to spend on a book which may only be used for a few months or so in the duration of the course, although much of the contents of the book could be useful when using Excel for any purpose so I suppose the book may prove useful after the project is completed.

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So do I recommend it?
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If you are intending to use Microsoft Excel for any project then I would definitely recommend this book as it will be incredibly useful. It is suitable for people who have rarely used excel before as well as those who are frequent users of the application. Although it isn't overly cheap, it is definitely worth the money as it was an invaluable aid to me during my coursework.