Note to Ralph Phillips:  I tried to post this several times Wednesday evening, but kept getting the same error message.

Tutorials Explaining Excel Financial Functions

1.Excel Easy

http://www.excel-easy.com/data-analysis/what-if-analysis.html

 The function “What If Analysis” is explained reasonably well.  “Scenario Manager” is explained at length, and “Goal Seek” is explained briefly, but well.  The site claims to be “The No.1 Excel tutorial on the net”.

2.Best Excel Tutorial

http://best-excel-tutorial.com/58-excel-functions/148-pmt-function

The PMT function is explained very briefly.  The site has some annoying typos.  This site wouldn’t be my first choice, but it does have a nifty “Tips and Tricks” section.

3.TVMCalcs.com

http://www.tvmcalcs.com/calculators/excel_tvm_functions/excel_tvm_functions_page1

This site is more advanced and harder to understand than the others.  What I like though, is that it explains financial functions relative to each other and shows the analogous calculator key for the Excel functions.

3 News Articles/Reports Utilizing Data Tables and Charts

1. YAHOO! Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/standings/

This site displays tables summarizing the standings of football teams.  Links contain many football related statistics.  I honestly don’t know enough about football to know if they are serving their purpose.  However, I have never heard anyone question the validity of sports statistics.

2. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends.cfm

This site contains many articles summarizing economic trends.  All articles are supported by data in tables or graphs.  In my opinion, this may be accurate, but it is incredibly boring.

3.  NASA Global Climate Change

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Twenty five years ago I knew an incredibly charming older English man who was an economist for the World Bank.  He was absolutely convinced that climate change was bunk.  He passed away many years ago, but I wonder if he could maintain that opinion after viewing this website.  This site contains graphs depicting the decrease in artic sea ice, the rise in sea level, the increase in atmospheric CO₂ levels, the rise in global temperature, and more.

4 Sites with Examples of Nice Resumes

1. Monster

http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/resume-samples/jobs.aspx

There are 158 sample resumes from different fields on this site.  Each resume is formatted as a Word Template.  For each sample, click on “downloadable Word version of the resume template here” otherwise you get more advertising.

2. The Career Center at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://www.careercenter.illinois.edu/students/resume/samples

In addition to samples of resumes in different fields, there are also resume writing tips for each field..  Good examples of resumes for people without a lot of experience.  There are not template downloads.

3. GCF LearnFree.org

 http://www.gcflearnfree.org/resumewriting/gallery-of-sample-resumes

This site contains several career specific sample resumes, as well as general resume tips.  There appears to be no advertising on this site.  These are not template downloads.

4. Resume Help

http://www.resume-help.org/free_resume_examples.htm

On this site there are links to 109 sample resumes.  There are some links to free resume templates, but these links are at other websites (which also offer resume services and therefore advertising).

4 Free Online Resources for Learning Office

1. CGF Learn Free.org

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/office

This site has information and videos about a wide range of computer issues and applications including versions of Microsoft Office since 2003.  It has short videos on many difference topics for each Office application.  They start with the basics, but also include more complex tasks.

2. in pictures

http://inpics.net/

The tutorials on this site are largely pictures, not words.  The tutorials include the last 3 versions of Office (including Access, Excel, Powerpoint, and Word).  Within an application, many specific tasks are listed, so you can find the information that you want quickly.

3.Home and Learn

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/word2007_2010/Word-2007-2010.html

A series of screens with screenshots and text explain how to perform many basic Word and Excel tasks.  It also includes older versions of both applications.

4. About.com

http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excel101/a/Excel_beg_guide.htm

This is a beginner’s guide to using Excel.  It has step by step examples to make a basic spreadsheet.