BLOGS BY TOPIC
BLOGS BY AUTHOR
BLOGS BY YEAR
Wise Owl blogs written by Andy Brown (page 1 of 16)
Showing blogs 1-20 (out of 318)
Introducting the new XLOOKUP and XMATCH functions
Posted by Andy Brown on 13 September 2019
Microsoft have finally recognised the limitations of the VLOOKUP function, and are rolling out the XLOOKUP function to supersede it, as well as the useful (if less significant) XMATCH function.
A summary of new features introduced in the August 2019 Power BI update
Posted by Andy Brown on 19 August 2019
This was a month of few updates. Our favourite by far is that you can now group visuals, but the Key Influencers visual has also emerged from the preview shadows.
We have unearthed two new sources of information on future Power BI features
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019
In addition to the Power BI preview features dialog box, Andy Gould has discovered two excellent new sources of information on forthcoming changes for Power BI, as this blog explains.
How to confuse other Excel users by changing your cell styles
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019
Want to make a worksheet inexplicably change colour, and display strange text in cells? This blog explains how you can do this using the Normal style.
Another OOH moment in Excel - a quick way to create charts
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019
The previous blog listing great OOH moments in Excel omitted one of the biggest - the absolute quickest way to create a chart.
Congratulations to Shaun Rowark for his suggestion for a new acronym for SFWGHO!
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019
We're always on the look-out for a new acronym for the order of SQL commands, and are pleased to award a gift voucher to another worthy winner of our competition.
See how the Wise Owl stand came about at the Public Sector Expo
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019
We attended our first proper exhibition in June 2019, as these pictures attest.
The new Office 365 icons are horrible, but you are probably stuck with them
Posted by Andy Brown on 05 August 2019
For nearly all new Microsoft software updates Wise Owl are prepared to wait before commenting, but the new Office 365 icons are much harder to read and distinguish than the old ones!
How to switch between monthly and bi-annual updates for Office 365
Posted by Andy Brown on 05 August 2019
Most people will be on either the monthly or semi-annual update channel for Office 365. This blog shows how you can find out which channel you are on, and how to change your channel.
How to view the SQL query for a series of transforms in Query Editor
Posted by Andy Brown on 02 July 2019
Did you know that you can view the SQL for a query in Power BI's Query Editor? Me neither!
This short blog gives a quick Windows short-cut key to insert emojis into text
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
If you want to spice up your emails or reports, use this Windows shortcut to insert emojis.
A different owl's take on the five biggest ooh! moment tips in Excel
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
This month it's Shaun's turn to nominate the five best short-cut tips in Excel.
Wise Owl will be at the Public Sector Solutions Expo 2019 in the ExCel centre
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
For the first time we will have a stand at the PSS Expo on 25-26th June in London. Come along and say hello!
A quick way to copy the path and name of a file in Windows Explorer
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
This short blog highlights a quick way to copy the full path (including the file name) of a file in Windows Explorer.
Problems with the Application.ScreenUpdating = False command in VBA
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
Some people are experiencing problems when trying to suppress screen updates while macros are running in Excel VBA, under Windows 10. This blog gives one possible solution.
A short-cut key to bring up the arguments of user-defined functions
Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019
When you discover a new short-cut key, should you share it? This blog shows a way to bring up Intellisense for the arguments to user-defined functions in Excel VBA.
Changes introduced in the June 2019 Power BI update
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 June 2019
Although there aren't many changes this month, the ones that there are of unusually high quality. The new look to Power BI is welcome (even if it does mean we have to rewrite all of our courseware), and we're looking forward to using the new conditional formatting options and visual header tooltips.
Why the Excel range name conflict dialog box appears, and how to avoid looping
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 June 2019
When you're copying worksheets containing range names, Excel can detect conflicts and take you into a seemingly endless loop of Yes/No dialog boxes. This blog explains why this happens, and how to get out of the loop!
A table-valued function in SQL to split a comma-delimited list
Posted by Andy Brown on 11 June 2019
If you're creating Reporting Services reports using multivalue parameters and stored procedures, you'll find this function to split a list of values into a single-table column useful.
New features introduced in the May 2019 update of Power BI
Posted by Andy Brown on 20 May 2019
There's not much new in this month's update. The Performance Analyzer is a great idea, for working out which bits of your report are running slowly, but all of the other changes are minor (as you'll see if you read this blog!).