Someone on Twitter recently posed the rhetorical question, "Should I learn that new Excel function, or watch a YouTube video?" His answer was, yes - do both!

The advent of web-based video services such as YouTube.com and Blip.tv has triggered an amazing outburst of instructional creativity, with hundreds of free videos now available that document almost every aspect of spreadsheet use. At the time of writing, a search for "Excel pivot table" on YouTube produced 672 results.

As an introduction to the genre, this article confers the first ever "Golden Cells" awards for Excel video productions. We look forward to reviewing many more entries in the years to come to create a lasting hall of fame for the people who enlighten our use of Excel.

First, however, a declaration of interest. The editor's attention was first drawn to these audio-visual treats by long-time ExcelZone contributor David Carter, who in the past month has released five videos on his Mr Datamart [1] YouTube channel.

Introducing "Mr Datamart"
With a suave delivery, Mr Datamart distils basic pivot table operations down to well paced, easy to follow 8-9min sequences. AccountingWEB members may well recognise some of the films, which are based on his successful series of pivot table tutorials for the site:

Introducing Pivot Tables [2]
A 90-second introduction to the subject with a stentorian commentary that calls up memories the old Superman TV title sequence. When you start to see what is possible in the succeeding pivot table episodes, the comparison is not so silly. "Once you become good at putting the right fields in the right boxes you can produce pretty well any report you want," Mr Datamart intones. "And remember, it's all free and it's sitting in your PC right now!"

See also:
Use Excel Pivot Tables to analyse your sales [3]
[4]

The gov'nor - Simon Hurst
ICAEW IT Faculty committee member and long-time ExcelZone stalwart Simon Hurst has also been going all multi-media of late, producing a thrilling 20-minute preview of his Working Smarter with Excel [5] roadshow performances. Also worth checking is his follow-up series on Getting more mpg from Office [6], some of which he covered at the recent Digita conference [7]. Like Carter, Hurst's position within the ExcelZone camp puts him outside the mainstream Golden Cells competition, but if there were an award for Excel Videos Narrated with a South London Accent, he quips, "I think I'm in with a shout for it."

Top Drop Down award - Contextures
Along with pivot tables, drop-down menus are a particularly popular subject for Excel videos, and no one has done the topic better than Debra Dalgleish, the Canadian lady responsible for the ever-entertaining Contextures [8] blog. Over the past year, she has created more than 30 videos that have racked up thousands of hits on her own site and on YouTube. Her Drop Down List [9] episode has 18,000 views on YouTube and the Excel UserForm [10] series in mid 2008 proved particularly popular. The other contender in this category, a 6-min effort from Excelopedia [11], has 57,000 views, but has not followed up this success with any further work since February 2008.

Most suitable for younger audiences award - Excel is Fun
Mike Gel Girvin from Highline Community College in Seattle brings the enthusiasm of a children's TV presenter to his ExcelIsFun [12] productions, a 690-strong library that create, in Mike's words, "a systematic, logical story about Excel that explains from the beginning theories of how to construct efficient systems of spreadsheets and then points you towards the Beautiful Excel infinity at the other end!" His personal website [13] is a cleverly arranged collection of hyperlinks to the full YouTube video collection and accompanying spreadsheets.

Most engaging voiceover award - Tim Layton Sr
Having joined YouTube at the beginning of the year, IT professional Tim Layton Sr [14] installed Camtasia Studio on his computer and has come on in leaps and bounds in the dozen or so Excel videos that follow. Layton provides simple, 10-min introductions to old favourites including how to build a drop-down menu, but also moves into more specialist subjects such as creating an expenses summary dashboard [15] and getting to grips with relational databases and Visual C#. While he makes good use of the big yellow spotlight curson, the visual treatment relies a bit too heavily on a standard, full-screen spreadsheet view. But this matters little, as what grabs and holds the attention is the Muppet-like quality of Tim's voice. It's just like having Fozzy Bear describe Excel commands to you.

Most kinetic presentation award - DavidRocksExcel
Checking in with 66 posts on YouTube going back to August 2008, DannyRocksExcels [16] is a confident and persuasive presenter. His warm, avuncular narration is only spoiled in some episodes by intrusive clicking noises as he operates the mouse and a Mac Sennett-like approach to on-screen dynamics. Danny avoids overlong static views of the spreadsheet grid, but occasionally overcompensates by zipping his bright yellow cursor around the screen and zooming in and out. While the technique can give closer views of what he's talking about, it can also get a little distracting. For a more calming and thought-provoking view, his Statistics Do Not Tell the Complete Story video stresses that numbers alone aren't always enought to persuade an audience. "In order to sell people, need to give them a mental picture and tell them a story," he advises.

The neatest trick award - Silverado31
Silverado31 has made it on to the Golden Cells podium with a 93-second demonstration of how to create a use the REPT function to replicate capital Is to create a bar chart indicator for the values in a set of adjoining cells. The presenter is cocky and self-assured and has gained more than 208,000 views [17] for his solitary production. But this fame is unlikely to last ever since Microsoft adapted the idea and built it into Excel's 2007 Table formats.

Most ingenious use of Charting tools award - Ralph Phillips
Can't afford (or don't understand) Microsoft Project, but want to build a project management Gantt Chart? Making a Gantt Chart with Excel [18] by Central Oregon Community College assistant professor Ralph Phillips is just the video for you - as it has been for more than 390,000 other people. The sequence begins at a pace worthy of a Nouvelle Vague drama as he keys in the task start date and duration data, but once Ralph selects a Stack Bar chart and starts tinkering with the data range in the Series Tab, things start to get more exciting. Before long, he's removing the blue (start date) portions of the chart, leaving only the red duration chunks. With a quick sort of the start dates, hey presto - a very convincing Gantt chart that shows visually where tasks overlap and where there are gaps in the project schedule.

The lifetime achievement award - Mr Excel
Sometime in the next week, MrExcel [19] himself - Bill Jelen of Akron Ohio - will publish number 1,000 in his Learn Excel 2-minute video podcast series. A closer inspection reveals that the series started in October 2005 with episode 101, suggesting that MrExcel set up the tutorials like an American college course, where modules always start at 101. But that doesn't detract from his monumental achievements to date. The early episodes have a retro feel evoked by a wonderfully cheesy organ theme tune. The style has changed with an 80s power ballad-influenced tune and clearer graphics, but the series still carries MrExcel trademarks such as the inset webcam commentary window that captures Bill's wide range of good facial expressions. Episode #993, on Dynamic Charting [20] (YouTube) demonstrates a particularly useful trick, where using a name range and using the Offset function lets you create a sales tracking chart that will automatcially update itself as you add a new period's figures. QuickTime users can view the full library on the MrExcel [21] website or browse the full topic listing [22].

Most promising newcomers - Ask-M (executive producer, Glen Feechan)
Many of the Excel video pioneers are American, but a new generation of UK producers has emerged in recent months led by Carlisle-based Emily Coltman. Her four-minute Introduction to pivot table course [23] video for Feechan Consulting truly is a state-of-the art production, featuring shiny pink introductory graphics, slick page-folding transitions and the now obligatory enlarged yellow spotlight cursor technique. The content and pacing are well planned and the narration crisp and authoritative, if a bit reliant on the refrain, "More about that in the other videos". While the Feechan Consulting Excel productions surpass those from the likes of Contextures and Mr Datamart, they also carry a bigger price tag - £19.50 for the introductory course of videos and £27.50 for the advanced.

Best corporate libarary award - Microsoft
We've gone on the record many times on ExcelZone to acknowledge the quality and scale of the support and resources Microsoft puts behind the Office suite, and this praise applies particularly to its training videos. The (very north American) production values are high and content business-like and there are hundreds of titles to choose from. The Excel 2007 training courses summary page [24] is a good place to start your exploration of the full library.

Best "Sizzle Reel" - Finance 3.0
The guys at Finance 3.0 are serious dudes, boasting content for heavy financial hitters that includes a few useful Excel topics such as using the REPT function to emulate the pseudo table graphic detailed above by Silverado31, and a 26-minute sequence on using the VLOOKUP function [25]. The commentator in these films has a clipped, City of London accent, with a hint of Australasian mystery and perhaps a bit of Yorkshire. Best of all, however, is the site's rock-powered ident, which grabs your attention with professional-style "flying chrome" graphics. Building a strong brand identity should be a key objective for any wannabe YouTube producer, and this is one way to do it:

Find more videos like this on Finance 3.0 - Business & Finance Professional Education Network [26]

The not safe for work (NSFW) Award - Excel Hell
Currently our only entrant in the comedy section, "Excel Hell" from viral video phenom The Website Is Down [27] has very little to do with spreadsheets. Instead, what you get is a 9-minute capsule from the life of a fictional salesman that demonstrates how NOT to use your computer (or how to sell, for that matter). Excel's role is the subject of some intense (and profane) discussion - can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

Best use of Excel in a music video - AC/DC Rocks the Office
We always told you there was a deep, mystical connection between accountancy and heavy rock music, and Australian behemoths AC/DC have provided the missing link with the world's first music video produced within an Excel Spreadsheet. Rock N Roll Train [28], the first single from the band's latest album, may be a little derivative of previous glories, but the ASCII production work is a real eye-opener that has been enjoyed by more than 1.37m people on YouTube. So, if there's no one around (or you've got some headphones), click the link below and join them. If the boss does object, tell them you're investigating innovative Excel graphing techniques.

Have we missed any essential Excel videos out?
Like other ExcelZone initiatives, the Golden Cells are a communal effort. We're looking for your input to decide who should be the ultimate winners of these presigious prizes. Feel free to express your support for particular productions, or to suggest your own nominations in the categories listed so far - or those of your own choosing.