Python is the easiest real programming language to start with, and the most useful one for office work: cleaning exports, combining files, building Excel reports, automating the boring monthly jobs. This course is written for Excel users, not computer science students.

Every lesson comes with a tested script and its expected output. Lessons 8-12 use pandas, the library that does in a few lines what takes hours in Excel.

1. 1Python Lesson 1: Install Python and Run Your First ProgramInstall Python on Windows the right way, use VS Code or IDLE, run a script from the terminal, use the interactive prompt,…
2. 2Python Lesson 2: Variables, Numbers and TextStore values in variables, use int, float, str and bool, do maths with rounding, format output with f-strings including thousands separators, and…
3. 3Python Lesson 3: Decisions With if, elif and elseMake decisions in Python: comparisons, if/elif/else blocks and indentation, and/or/not, one-line conditional expressions, and the IF patterns from Excel translated to Python.
4. 4Python Lesson 4: Lists and DictionariesHold many values with lists (indexing, append, sort, slices) and look things up with dictionaries (keys, get, items) — Python’s versions of…
5. 5Python Lesson 5: LoopsRepeat work with for loops over lists, dictionaries and ranges, count and total inside loops, list comprehensions, while loops, and break/continue —…
6. 6Python Lesson 6: FunctionsWrite your own reusable functions with def: parameters, default values, return, docstrings, and practical examples like GST, financial-year labels and grading —…
7. 7Python Lesson 7: Reading and Writing FilesRead and write CSV files with Python’s standard library: open with a with-block, csv.DictReader, totals with defaultdict, writing a result file, encodings,…
8. 8Python Lesson 8: pandas — Reading and Exploring DataStart with pandas: read CSV and Excel files into a DataFrame, check shape and data types, view rows, add calculated columns, and…
9. 9Python Lesson 9: pandas — Cleaning Messy DataClean a real-world messy export with pandas: tidy column names, trim and fix case, turn “Rs 1,23,000” into numbers, parse mixed date…
10. 10Python Lesson 10: pandas — Summaries and Pivot TablesSummarise data with pandas: groupby with sum and count, several aggregations with agg, pivot_table with totals, top-N with nlargest, monthly summaries, and…
11. 11Python Lesson 11: Excel Files With openpyxlCreate formatted Excel reports from Python: write DataFrames to sheets, style headers, set number formats and column widths, add formulas and a…
12. 12Python Lesson 12: Project — Automate a Monthly ReportBuild a real automation: combine every monthly CSV in a folder, clean and summarise with pandas, write a multi-sheet Excel report with…

Next: the SQL Beginner Course, and see Python automation posts.