r/IndiaInvestments
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  • Introduction
  • Disclaimers and Disclosures
  • FAQs
    • FAQs
    • Mutual Funds and ETFs
      • What is the best mutual fund app for investments?
      • Why should I invest in Direct Plans instead of Regular Plans?
      • What’s the best mutual fund I can invest in?
      • Which date(s) is/are best for SIP in a month?
      • I’ve to invest in ELSS for 80C tax saving. Which fund(s) should I pick?
      • Should I get a Demat Account to buy units in Mutual Funds?
      • Lumpsum investment vs SIP/DCA
      • Why are Index Funds in India not as cheap as Vanguard's Index Funds and ETFs?
    • Insurance
      • Should I invest in this LIC policy?
      • Opinions on investing in smart wealth plan by bank?
      • Up to what age should I take term cover?
      • Do I need my own health insurance? Employer already has group policy
      • Should I take top-up policy or super top-up?
      • Is it worth paying extra premium for term insurance?
    • Stocks
      • Should I invest in smallcase?
      • What is the best app for buying or trading stocks?
      • Which screener(s) should I use?
      • The Stock Market Has Crashed. Which Stocks Should I Buy?
    • Foreign Investing
      • Why should I invest in the US markets?
      • How should I invest in US equity?
    • Tax
      • I don't have any tax to pay. Do I still have to file ITR?
    • Miscellaneous
      • Where can I park money for a few days, a few months, or a few years?
      • What are chit funds? Should I invest?
      • Is Gold a good investment now? It has gone up ~50% this year
  • How To
    • How To
    • How to transfer shares from one demat account to another
    • How to move from one mutual fund platform to another
    • How to switch a Mutual Fund from Regular to Direct Plan
    • How to file SEBI SCORES complaint?
    • How to Update Nominee Details?
    • How to rematerialize mutual fund from demat form
    • How to Pay Advance Tax
  • STOCKS
    • Introduction to the Stocks Series
    • Can You Beat the Market?
    • Reading an Annual Report
    • Researching a Sector
    • Financial Metrics and Ratios
      • Profitability
    • Using Screeners
    • Due-Diligence Checklist
    • Work in Progress
      • Diving Deeper into Businesses
      • Efficiency
      • Liquidity and Solvency
  • EXCEL
    • Excel for Fun and Profit
    • Reactive UI & Updates
    • Using External Data : Google Finance
    • Using External Data : Working with CSV Format
      • CSV Format
      • Computing LTCG Eligible Equity Units
      • Process for Estimating Tax
    • Quantifying Returns: CAGR and XIRR
      • CAGR: Point-to-Point Annualized Returns
      • A Gentle Introduction to XIRR
      • A Rigorous Introduction to XIRR
  • BONDS
    • Bond Basics
    • Government Securities
    • Corporate Bonds
  • MISCELLANEOUS
    • Miscellaneous
    • US Investing
    • Recommended Reading
  • New to Investing
    • Zero to Investing
      • Getting Started
      • Part Two - Defensive Setup
      • Part Three - Spending Pattern
      • Part Four - How to Invest
    • Investment Philosophy and Strategy
      • Basics of Investment Strategy Plan
      • A simple Financial Planning Roadmap
      • Various types of Risks in Investments
      • Are you a Stock or Bond?
      • Assets and Asset Allocation
      • Critical Mass
      • Asset Rebalancing
      • Lumpsum or SIP/STP
    • Insurance
      • Life
        • Life Insurance: What it is exactly?
        • How to Evaluate Life Insurance Needs
        • ULIP - Unit Linked Insurance Plan
        • Some FAQs on Life Insurance
        • Links to Answers related to Life Insurance
      • Health
      • Others: Disability / Home
      • Child Plan
    • All About Mutual Funds
      • What is a Mutual Fund?
      • Types of Mutual Funds
      • What and Why of Mutual Fund Ratings
      • How to Select a Mutual Fund
      • FAQs for Mutual Funds
      • SIP and Mandates
      • How to Become Crorepati using Mutual Funds
      • Analysis using long term equity and debt funds in India
    • Retirement
      • Primer on Retirement Planning
      • Why You should not Opt for a Readymade Pension Plan
      • Studies of Long Term Portfolios and Retirement Withdrawal Rate Suggestions
      • Do-It-Yourself Retirement Plan
    • Personal Finance
    • Behavioral Biases
    • ELI5 Series
      • Time Value of Money
      • Inflation
      • Life Insurance
      • ELI5 guide to Selecting an Equity Mutual Fund
      • How do I start investing in mutual funds [ELI5 series]
      • Mis-selling of Insurance Products
  • BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO INVESTING
    • Zero To Investing
      • The First Step - Emergency Fund
      • The Final Step - Mutual Funds
  • Contributors Section
    • How Can I Start Contributing?
    • What is a Contributor License Agreement and why are we using it?
      • Contributor License Agreement
    • How to link FAQ via bot in Discord
    • Style Guides
      • General Style Guide
      • FAQ Style Guide
      • How To Style Guide
      • Excel Series Style Guide
      • Stocks Style Guide
  • Discord and Reddit
    • How to Search the Wiki From Discord
    • I'm unable to send messages to stocks-fundamentals channel on Discord. Why?
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On this page
  • Intro 👋
  • Guidelines
  • Focus on utility ⚙️
  • Beginner friendly 🍟
  • Use of Native Elements & Media 🗄️
  • Excel file 📁

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  1. Contributors Section
  2. Style Guides

Excel Series Style Guide

A set of guiding principles on how to write an entry for the excel series

PreviousHow To Style GuideNextStocks Style Guide

Last updated 3 years ago

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Intro 👋

Excel series is about covering excel programming lingo in a way that’s palatable for most people who’re starting out with investments.

Learning enough excel to be dangerous is the goal for end user. We’ve to assume that user has no reason to know why they’d need excel; at least in the beginning.

They just need to be guided, step-by-step, so they feel comfortable using excel, for day to day finance-related queries.

Keep these in mind when building a chapter / section of excel.

Guidelines

Start with the general style guide section

Other than these, you should keep these in mind

Focus on utility ⚙️

Every write-up for excel series needs to solve a problem for the end user.

This is not a series on what are the different features excel has. Unless an excel feature solves an immediate problem for a DIY investor, it doesn’t need to be discussed.

Ideal way of setting up the series would be that every chapter introduces a new excel feature / functionality, or expands on a feature / function introduced earlier to solve a real problem for the user.

It’d be more prudent if you discuss how to use a particular function / formula in different ways, or what are the best practices and why, what are some issues with the function / formula a user might face.

User doesn’t need to become an excel pro after going through this series.

But if they learn even 2-3 basic functionalities that they can comfortably use to get data-based responses on common tax, portfolio, insurance related queries - that’s more than enough for us.

Beginner friendly 🍟

When introducing a new concept, be as beginner-friendly and detailed, as possible.

This is not to be taken as a signal for writing low-quality content. If anything, conveying new concepts to beginners, is quite tough. Your choice of language, examples, images, videos - all of these matter.

You’ve to also repeat new concepts over and over, in the next chapters, after you’ve introduced it. This creates a revision feedback loop, and helps user feel more comfortable through practice.

For example, one might introduce a tool / function / strategy in chapter 3. Then a new one in chapter 4.

A better approach would be to pick a problem statement for chapter 4, which also requires concept introduced in chapter 3.

Use examples to point out what you mean, especially edge cases and gotchas.

Benefit of beginner friendly content is that if you do it right; others can easily refer to it later. You won’t have to repeat yourself. It’s a perfect example of automating the boring parts.

Use of Native Elements & Media 🗄️

Excel sheets are inherently tables, with extra powers. Use tables (markdown, or platform provided) to showcase how the UI would look like at this stage, after performing some operation.

Do provide an image screenshot, if possible; but the native table element is also helpful.

Native elements like table help with not having to context switch from reading text to opening an image or playing a video. Especially for people reading on their phones.

If you’re providing screenshots, please do so with Roboto, 12px font. And ideally, use both light theme and dark theme to take screenshots, of only the relevant part of the screen (both images are to be of same dimensions).

Screen-recording videos are welcome as well. But as earlier, provide in both light and dark themes.

Excel file 📁

You’d be tempted to, but the goal is to help user assimilate the lesson. That’d happen only if they consume the section while practicing.

Providing an excel tracker sheet upfront, would mean they’d just download and want to start using that. That goes against the learning goals.

We can attach the excel sheet(s) at the end of the chapter / series, just so that users can cross-check.

But let’s avoid provide download-able materials to end-users. Structure content in a way that they don’t have to download anything.

General Style Guide