One of the secrets to staying young is to always do things you don’t know how to do, to keep learning.
Ruth Reichl
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Excel Filter Trick
Saves a few mouse clicks
Do you use the “Filter by Selected Cell’s Value” option? If you do then you will be pleased to know there is a Quick Access Toolbar icon that applies it in one click.
Excel and Ctrl + A
A powerful shortcut
This Excel keyboard shortcut is powerful, but it has a few quirks you need to be aware of. Its quick to use because the A and Ctrl keys are so close together.
2017-03-22
Power Query (Get & Transform) uses the M language to allow you to customise and build in flexibility to your queries.
Currently writing the M language is tricky to write. It is case sensitive and there is no built-in help to assist you using the language.
Apparently Microsoft is working on creating an M editor, but there is no time line on when it will be ready.
This article takes you through some steps to create your own editor using Notepad ++.
If you use Power Query a lot then this may be worthwhile.
2017-03-06
There is a new Matrix Visual report with more options. It has a separate icon so you can compare to the existing Matrix.
The new Numeric Range slicer looks interesting too.
How Many Fortnights in a Month
Great for cashflow calculations
I had a question during one of my Date and Times Webinars in February. It was about months and fortnights. I couldn’t answer it during the webinar, but I did follow up with an email with the solution. The answer follows.
When using charts/graphs in your presentations make sure you communicate the point of the chart/graph. Don’t assume the reader will get the point.
http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/blog/2017/3/22/so-what
The above blog post explains and demonstrates the issue well.