Jan 29, 20234 min read

Epitomizing the Beauty of Learning Excel Hacks - Sailing the Intellect that Sees Us Through

Written by Rachelle Anne C. Hablado

Thank you Pubmat by Kryztal Peralta

“Excel Hacks: You Wish You Knew Yesterday,” the second chapter of this year’s PROGRESS: Chapter Webinars, was held on January 27, 2023, via MS Teams and FB Live, with the purpose of providing the finest tips, tricks, and shortcuts that attendees may use to level up their excel game. PROGRESS 2 - 𝙀𝙓𝘾𝙀𝙇 𝙃𝘼𝘾𝙆𝙎 serves as the continuation of the previous series webinar entitled Eloquence: Art of Business Writing that took place last November.

The program started at exactly 2:00 PM. The moderators, Jelyn Bibat (Committee Officer for Corporate and Social Responsibility) and Mitzchell Dela Cruz (Committee Officer for Training and Development) welcomed the participants with a quick chat and interaction to lighten up the mood. To formally begin the webinar, an opening prayer was conducted, followed by the singing of the Philippine National Anthem. Mr. Vince Ray O. Mortos, the JPMAP PLM’s Auditor and the Director for CFWS, then offered his passionate inaugural words in which he expressed his gratitude to the attendees for their continuous support of JPMAP PLM's events. He stated, “I hope that during this webinar, our participants will possess more accurate information with helpful tools and guidance by our dear guest speaker Mr. Gonzales…”. He has high hopes that the participants will find this webinar to be a valuable asset for them to use in their academic pursuits and future careers in order to attain success.

It was fortunate for the JPMAP-PLM Chapter to have Mr. Christopher B. Gonzales as their guest speaker. Mr. Gonzales started by presenting the webinar’s agenda - (1) Definition and Importance of Microsoft Excel, (2) Microsoft Excel Fundamentals and Best Practices, and (3) Relationship of Microsoft Excel with HR Functions. He highlighted a number of topics, including the fact that Excel is one of the basic technical skills that would be necessary for many professions given that we now live in a digital age where data is playing an increasingly central and critical role in the business sector; and many companies would require someone who is proficient in using Microsoft Excel. Sir Chris emphasized that Excel can be used for a variety of purposes such as performing basic calculations, using graphic tools, creating pivot tables and macros, and other useful features. He showed the importance of knowing the shortcuts and best practices in using excel since the common problems among beginners are 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆.

Using the sample excel data given to the participants before the webinar proper, Sir Chris encouraged everyone to also try doing it themselves as he went along with the tips, tricks, and shortcuts. He began by introducing the fill series, where Excel can automatically apply subsequent values. The Excel operators come next, where you can tell Excel what kind of computation you want to run on formula components. If you use the same data array in numerous calculations, you can simplify a lookup function by using the named manager. The flash fill is the next step, when Excel fills your data automatically when it detects a pattern, such as separating first and last names. The next option is text to column, which allows you to divide the text into various columns depending on a defined or fixed width. And lastly, he shared the shortcut keys for creating excel charts. Due to time constraints, he concluded his presentation with a discussion of Excel tasks related to HR responsibilities, where he shared information regarding an excel table that human resources managers frequently encounter in the workplace.

The attendees also participated in the game/activity entitled “Excel Words” which was facilitated by Alyssa Reyes and Angelo Lacbayen (Committee for Fellowship, Wellness, and Sports). Participants in this game must look for the words inside the word search puzzle and take a screenshot of the location where they found the word. Since it is almost related to Excel, the attendees are seen to be actively participating throughout the whole activity. At the end of the game's three rounds, four winners—chosen from both MS Teams and FB Live viewers—were recognized. Overall, the participants indeed enjoyed the game.

The program ended with closing remarks from the JPMAP-PLM’s Chairperson for Ways and Means, Ms. Rey Lagoc. She showed appreciation and acknowledged all the efforts and hard work of the JPMAP-PLM Chapter’s officers. She thanked Sir Chris for taking the time to impart his wisdom and expressed her wish for his continued success and ability to inspire others. She also praised Jelyn Bibat and Mitzchell Dela Cruz for serving as the event's hosts. She also said she was pleased to work with Mr. Vince Ray Mortos, who was her co-head for the event and thanked him for doing his best to prepare and organize it. “I would like to show some love to everyone who participated in our event. We are happy to have you here today”, she added. Above all, she expresses gratitude to each and every one who made the event possible.

The event concluded with the singing of the PLM Hymn, and our moderators bid everyone a fond farewell. It is truly a successful event from the JPMAP-PLM Chapter. We are confident that the participants gained a great deal of knowledge about Excel's fundamentals. We hope that this series webinar will continue to inspire its participants to expand their learnings and widen their understanding since it will surely benefit them in the future.