How to Get Help With Your Excel Sheet: 5 Top Options

There are several different ways to get help with your Excel Sheet.

Excel can be an incredibly useful program with the potential to shortcut your productivity. With the right formulas, dashboards, charts, and templates, you can automate just about anything that would otherwise take much longer to do manually.

While Excel is generally prized for its simplicity, this can be a misnomer because the program has much more depth than most people realize. Failing to follow a few simple rules can lead to troublesome errors, and the formulas in Excel can become quite complex depending on your desired output.

Luckily, there several different ways to find assistance with an Excel sheet, from troubleshooting a formula issue to customizing a template to answering formatting questions. There are pros and cons to using each of these methods, and you might choose one over the other depending on your goals.

Here is a ratings breakdown of the ways to get help with your Excel sheet followed by a list of sources for the different types of assistance.

5 Top Options for Getting Help with Your Excel Sheet

Name	Description	Time Investment for Help	Problem-Specific Solutions	Simple to Use Solution	Free Access to Resources	Expert Help Available	Score
Live Chat	If you need help troubleshooting an issue in Excel or customizing one of your Excel sheets, nothing beats a Live Chat service. This is something that is available on-demand 24/7 from some providers and that can give you problem-specific help in the least amount of time. In some cases, it’s even free.	Immediate Assistance – No wait time	Solutions are personalized and problem-specific.	Simple chat box to ask a question.	Yes	Always expert help
Articles	There are thousands of tutorial articles available online related to working with Excel. If you want to learn how to use Excel, these can be excellent resources. In some cases, however, they might not be the perfect solution to solve your specific problem.	Time investment in searching and locating the most helpful content.	Solutions may or may not be problem-specfic.	Somewhat simple to use if the user knows the right search terms.	Yes	Expertise is assumed
Videos	Some Excel experts have taken the time to create tutorial videos and post them online. These are another excellent resource for learning Excel and solving some common issues. Unless you find the right video, however, it might not solve your problem.	Time investment in locating and watching content, which can be signifcant.	Solutions may or may not be problem-specfic.	Somewhat simple to use if the user knows the right search terms.	Yes	Expertise is assumed
Email	There are several Excel tutorial websites that allow a user to email a request for assistance. While you might receive expert and problem-specific attention, you also might not receive an answer at all.	Have to wait for a response from a single entity, which could never arrive.	Solutions should be problem-specific if the user gets an answer.	Email is not an ideal medium to get questions answered.	Generally	Expertise is assumed
Forums	Some popular Excel forums are filled with thousands of Excel users who might be able to help troubleshoot a problem. The main drawbacks to forums are that they have a learning curve, require the user to wait for replies, and could give answers that aren’t accurate.	May have to wait for a response from forum members, which might not arrive.	Solutions should be problem-specific if the user gets an answer.	Forums can be difficult to navigate and require clarification through back and forth.	Yes	Potential help from novices, which could be inaccurate

Time Investment for Help

If you need help troubleshooting an issue in Excel or customizing one of your Excel sheets, nothing beats a Live Chat service. This is something that is available on-demand 24/7 from some providers, and that can give you problem-specific help in the least amount of time. In some cases, it’s even free. Here are some of the top sources for Excel Live Chat Help:

Excelchat. Excelchat is the only Live Chat service that specializes in Excel. The site has more than 10,000 experts on hand that can help solve your issues in a live chat 24 hours a day. You’ll work one-on-one with an Excel expert to solve your issue, while protecting any private or sensitive data. Your first session is always free.
Code Mentor. Code Mentor has a list of Microsoft Excel experts that you connect with on chat (the number available depends on the time of day or night). This is a paid service.
Presto Experts. Presto Experts is another coding resource website that has a few for-hire Excel experts available to help via chat depending on the time of day or night (there were two online at the time of this writing).
Just Answer. Just Answer is an online resource that makes programmers available to answer questions via live chat. While it claims that it provides Excel help, there is no guarantee that the operator you receive will have specialized knowledge of Excel.

Live Chat is beneficial because you get Excel help immediately and it is problem-specific.

Find Helpful Articles on Excel from These Sources

There are thousands of tutorial articles available online related to working with Excel. If you want to learn how to use Excel, these can be excellent resources. In some cases, however, they might not be the perfect solution to solve your specific problem. Here are some of the top online sources to find helpful articles on Excel.

Excelchat. In addition to the Live Chat feature, Excelchat also offers over 1,000 articles related to working with and troubleshooting Excel, which are free to access.
Excel Easy. Excel Easy is a website with roughly 300 examples of using different Excel functions.
Mr. Excel. Mr. Excel is a combination website and message board focused on Excel that has been online for over 20 years. The published material relates to using Excel formulas, functions, and VB.
Excel Tip. Excel Tip is an extension of Excel Forum, and it is a website that has a variety of tutorials and tips on using Excel.
Excel Functions & Formulas. ExcelFunctions.net provides some written tutorials on a variety of Excel functions.
ExcelJet. ExcelJet is an online resource for troubleshooting and learning Excel. It has articles as tutorials, but no problem-specific help.

Where to Look for Excel Help Videos

Some Excel experts have taken the time to create tutorial videos and post them online. These are another excellent resource for learning Excel and solving some common issues. Unless you find the right video, however, it might not solve your problem. If you’re ready to watch some videos on Excel, here are few resources.

Excelchat. In addition to the Live Chat feature and free articles, Excelchat is also producing some tutorial videos that can give you additional instruction on using Excel.
Excel Exposure. Excel Exposure is a site that offers detailed Excel training through videos. These are broken down into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced lessons.
Trump Excel. Trump Excel is a site that has over 100 Excel Functions explained with videos.
ExcelJet. In addition to its articles, ExcelJet also has a video training section with some useful guides.

Excel forums are an option for troubleshooting, but you might get conflicting answers.

Top Excel Forums to Get Help with Your Excel Sheet

Some popular Excel forums are filled with thousands of Excel users who might be able to help troubleshoot a problem in Excel. The main drawbacks to forums are that they have a learning curve, require the user to wait for replies, and could give answers that aren’t accurate. If you want to join or visit an online community that focuses on Excel, here are some of the top options.

Excel Forum. This is a forum that has millions of posts related to Excel. You may be able to find an answer to your question from a prior user or post your own issue and wait for a response.
Mr. Excel. This is another larger Excel forum that has an active user base.
Chandoo Forums. Chandoo is an Excel instructor who created a forum to help people learn the program. There is general Excel Q&A as well as some interesting challenges.
Computer Hope. This is a twenty-year-old website that provides computer help, with some Excel specific topics. It also has a forum with an area to ask questions about Excel.

Who to Email to Ask for Help with Excel

Several Excel tutorial websites allow a user to email a request for assistance. While you might receive expert and problem-specific attention, you also might not receive an answer at all — unless you’re paying for it. That said, here are a few of the online resources that you can email with requests for help with your Excel sheet.

Excel Easy. Excel Easy is primarily a tutorial site, but it also has an email Ask Us feature. It is unclear how active the site is in responding to these requests.
Code Mentor. Code Mentor also has a list of Microsoft Excel experts that you connect with via email. This is a paid service.
Presto Experts. Presto Experts a paid coding resource website that has a few Excel experts available to help via email.

Working with Excel can be equal parts fun and intimidating. This is a powerful program that can return results that you didn’t expect due to a simple error in a function or formula. It can also make your workday much simpler with streamlined and automated reporting, so it’s worth the time investment to become familiar with Excel and work through any issues.

Fortunately, you don’t have to go back to school or take any expensive courses to get help with your Excel sheet. If you need to troubleshoot an issue, you have a ton of choices. At Excelchat, we offer a massive library of descriptive articles and videos dealing with common Excel issues.

We are also one of few providers that have a live chat service for time-sensitive and problem-specific issues. Your first session is always free.