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If you only buy one book on Excel, this should be the one. If you are a low intermediate user (i.e. not brand new to it, but with a passing familiarity) up through seasoned Excel veteran, this book is a help. There are many hidden secrets in Excel. Do you know how to use Array formulas? Create Custom conditional formatting? Save time with Auto-functions? That Circular References can be a good thing? How to give cells names, then use names instead of cell references in your equations so they are easier to edit / understand (I.E. =(Cost of Goods Sold / Sales) vs. =(A1/C3)? How to use VBA to create the exact function you need? This book has it all, plus all the basics and hidden shortcuts (some not even published) I.E. Using CTRL+Shift+F9 to force recalculation.
This book is extremely lucid and easy to understand. Every piece of information is supported by examples. I am a financial analyst and extremely experienced with Excel, yet this book is still helpful. It is almost a one-stop shop, seemingly lacking little. I also have an MBA. MBA's, buy this book BEFORE you by the MBA's Guide to Excel. I did it the other way around, and knowing what I know now, would not have purchased the Guide. In my opinion, anyone considering an Excel guide purchase, should purchase Excel 2000 Formulas first. It is much more than just a list of formulas. It is truly an excellent book, will save you time, effort, and frustration, and is an excellent value even at twice the price.

As an intermediate Excel user, I was comfortable with writing basic formulas, simple conditional formating, pivot tables, etc. I've been using Excel for ten years, and was very familiar with writing formulas in previous versions, but needed to brush up on 2000 in my new job.

I read this book nearly non-stop, from cover to cover, almost as one would read a novel, instead of a text book. Walkenbach writes in a style that is understandable, and presents outstanding examples and tips which will definately take you to the next level. There are so many useful examples that this book is now permanently located within reach on my desk top.

The section on using lookups, and the section on array formulas were very useful, as was the section included within working with databases and dealing with advanced filtering - which may give you techniques that are just short of amazing.

Drawbacks: If you're a beginner to Excel, this may not be the best choice. Furthermore, the book is not always logically organized; it can be difficult to find that example that you KNOW was given, but don't know exactly where you saw it. Finally, the last three chapters on programming with VBA would have been better left to a whole seperate book, as there was only enough detail to add confusion (in fact, I believe this author has a book devoted to that).

I hesitated to buy this book, even though I knew the author to be an expert. (I have his Excel utility program, and I've seen him answer questions in Excel user groups.) Why did I feel uncertain? I had bought several large computer books over the past several years...and I found them difficult to understand and use. As a financial consultant, I had used a lot of financial functions. But I just couldn't see how to use much of the materials in those other books. I couldn't get the feel of them.

"Excel 2000 Formulas" is far better than I had even hoped. Now I've find myself naturally using naming techniques, pivot tables (which are amazingly powerful and easy to use), simple and more complex lookups, arrays, and other tools that I'd never even worked with before. The CD-ROM that comes with the book lets me quickly and smoothly play with and understand the Excel tools that I'm learning.
Only a few days after buying this book, I've already read, highlighted, and marked up this book. And benefited more than I could have imagined. I'm using Excel far more effectively...and at huge time savings.