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How it works

What happens in a lesson, how your work is checked, and what you need to run one.

The four parts of a lesson

In the Excel and Google Sheets courses, every lesson teaches one skill and takes 7 to 25 minutes. It runs in a practice version of the program, with the lesson panel beside it. Touch typing lessons have their own screen: the text to type and a keyboard.

Steps from free lessons: in the practice Excel, a formula typed in C2 and checked; in the practice Google Sheets, a lookup formula filled down a column; in Touch typing, a sentence typed with the next key lit, and a wrong key taken back with Backspace.
Steps from free lessons in Excel, Google Sheets and Touch typing. You do each one, and it's checked as you go.
The four parts of a lesson

The lesson starts with the result and explains the idea with a small example, before you click anything. Every new term is defined the first time it comes up.

One action at a time: click a cell, open a menu, type a formula. Each step is checked the moment you do it, and the next one appears. Some steps ask you to predict the result before you see it.

Then a task on new data, with no steps to follow. Your answer is checked the same way, and also run on hidden data (more on that below).

Every lesson ends with a one-screen summary: the steps, the shortcut if there is one, and any difference between Excel and Google Sheets. Finish the lesson and it's saved to your cheat sheets.

The lesson panel on the first step: what the lesson is about (a list of 200 sales, and which region brought in the most revenue), before anything is clicked.
The first step of Your first pivot table: what the lesson is for, before anything is clicked.
The lesson panel with the step "Drag Revenue into Values" checked, and what it did: Sum of Revenue appears next to each region, with a grand total.
A guided step, checked the moment Revenue went into Values, with what the step did.
The lesson panel on Your turn: a task on the same data with no steps to follow, waiting for you, with Hint and Show me.
The task at the end of Your first pivot table, waiting for you, with Hint and Show me.
The lesson panel at the end of the lesson: what you can now do, how long it took, and a note on saving your progress and the cheat sheet.
The end of Your first pivot table: what you can now do, and where your progress and the cheat sheet are kept.

Touch typing lessons

A line of text to type, and the keyboard under it. Every key is checked as you press it.

Each lesson adds a few keys, then has you type real words and sentences with them. The keyboard under the text shows the next key, in the color of the finger that presses it.

The Touch typing lesson screen in the free lesson E and I: a line of words to type, with the typed part greyed, the cursor waiting on the next letter after a wrong key and the pressed key shown under it, and below, the keyboard with each finger's keys in their own color and the next key outlined.
The free lesson E and I: after a wrong key, the cursor waits on the right one, and the next key is outlined on the keyboard.

How checking works

Each step has a rule written with the lesson. The rule runs in your browser the moment you act.

A rule looks at what you did, not only the result: the cell you selected, the menu you opened, the formula you typed and the value it produced. When it all matches, the step is marked Checked and the next step appears. When it doesn't, the lesson says what to fix.

Open the wrong menu and the lesson says where the feature lives. The most common mistakes have their own hint, written for that mistake.

There is no AI. Every check is a fixed rule, so the same work always gets the same result.

The lesson panel after Check: "Not yet", with the reason (the formula moved from H1 to H2 when it was copied, so lock the discount cell with $H$1) and the one check that passes.
The task in the free lesson Why your formula broke when you copied it, after a first try with a formula that has no $ signs. The hint was written for that mistake.

Hidden data

Your turn tasks are also run on data you don't see, so a typed-in answer doesn't pass.

When you finish a task, the lesson swaps the numbers in the sheet for new ones and checks your work again, two or three times. A formula gives the right answer on every set of numbers. A number typed in by hand is right only on the first set, so the check catches it.

What you put in D2On your dataOn hidden data
The formula =B2*(1-$H$1) Checked Checked
The number 5.52, typed in Checked Not yet
The formula =B2*(1-H1), without the lock Not yet Not yet

From the task in Why your formula broke when you copied it: show each price after the discount in H1, in a formula that still works when you copy it down.

Hints

When you're stuck, hints start with a nudge and build up to the full answer. Show me does the step for you and explains why.

Each hint opens under the task, one at a time, and stays open. After the last one, Show me can do the step for you in the practice program.

Using a hint changes nothing. There are no scores, so ask for one whenever you want.

The lesson panel on Your turn with both hints open under the task: first a nudge, then the idea to use. Show me comes after the last hint.
Both hints open on the task in Why your formula broke when you copied it.

Cheat sheets

Every lesson ends with a one-screen summary you can keep.

A cheat sheet is 3 to 6 lines: the steps, the keyboard shortcut if there is one, and any difference between Excel and Google Sheets.

When you finish a lesson signed in, its cheat sheet is saved under Cheat sheets in your course. You can read it again later without opening the lesson.

The lesson's cheat sheet, open over the lesson panel: five short lines on building a pivot table in Excel and in Google Sheets.
The cheat sheet of Your first pivot table, opened from the top of the lesson.

The practice version and the real program

Lessons run in our own practice version of Excel or Google Sheets. It's built so that what you learn carries over to the real program.

The same as the real program

  • The menus and menu paths: Insert, then PivotTable, in the same place as in Excel.
  • The function names and how they're written: VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, XLOOKUP, TEXTJOIN.
  • The keyboard shortcuts, on Windows and Mac.
  • The dialogs for pivot tables, charts, dropdowns and conditional formatting.
  • Where Excel and Google Sheets differ, each course shows its own way.

Different

  • The look is our own. There are no Microsoft or Google logos, and no connection to either company.
  • A few rarely used features aren't included. Lessons only use what the practice version has.
  • Not covered: macros and VBA, Apps Script, Power Query, Power BI, add-ins, and sharing a file with other people.
  • Your own files stay on your computer. Lessons use their own practice data.

The practice Excel follows Excel for Microsoft 365. Most of what the lessons teach works the same way in Excel 2019 and 2021. XLOOKUP needs Excel 2021 or Microsoft 365, and the VLOOKUP lessons cover the older way.

Which devices work

Every page works on a phone, except the lesson itself. A lesson needs a computer.

Laptop or desktop

Lessons run in a current browser: Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. The lesson is laid out for a window 1280 px wide or wider. From 900 px, you can open it anyway, with the lesson panel folded to the side.

Phone or tablet

You can read everything, pick a course and buy. To do a lesson, send the link to your computer: Copy link, Share or Add a reminder. Nothing is emailed.

There's nothing to install, and you don't need a Microsoft or Google account to practice.

Saving your progress

Free lessons work without signing in. Sign in to keep your progress and cheat sheets.

Sign in with Google, or with a code we email you. There are no passwords. Your progress and cheat sheets are then there on any computer you sign in on, and the Dashboard shows where you left off.

Try a lesson now

The first free lesson takes about 7 minutes. No account, nothing to install.

Start the first free lessonSee every free lesson

Do the first free lesson on your computer.

Lessons run in your browser on a laptop or desktop. Send yourself the link, or type the address on your computer.

On your computer, go tolearnford.com/go/GX5R

See every free lesson