Mastering Excel: Named Ranges, OFFSET and Dynamic Charts

This lesson focuses on many seemingly unrelated topics but then combines them in unexpected ways to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

First we review the concept of Named Ranges. What are they? How can they help in Excel?

Then we cover the OFFSET function. It is truly one of the most powerful, flexible and mostly unused functions in Excel. It is unused because it does take some getting used to, OFFSET doesn't 'work' like the rest of the Excel functions. However, we will go through this function in detail here.

Then we move on to using Forms in Excel. Forms give users familiar ways to interact with an Excel worksheet, much like a form on the web.

And finally, we combine Named Ranges, OFFSET, Forms and Charts to create animated charts. Excel users will be able to click the worksheet and see the charts animate in real time. There are no macros, no programming involved; just a creative way of combining existing Excel functionality.

This lesson covers a lot of ground. To help everyone understand and follow along with the exercises, I have made available a sample workbook. Follow the link in the book and you can receive the workbook to work on alongside the text.

The sample workbook has a bonus extra dynamic chart not covered in the book.