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Wise Owl blogs written by Andy Brown (page 1 of 22)
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Playing the Harry Potter escape room game in Power BI
Posted by Andy Brown on 27 November 2020
This awesome game shows what's possible using bookmarks in Power BI (think of it as the sequel to Sam's 2019 Pin the Tail on Rudolf game).
An opportunity for stardom (well, sort of)
Posted by Andy Brown on 27 November 2020
If you've attended one of our online training courses recently (and enjoyed the experience), would you be willing to be interviewed about it? We're making a couple of short promotional videos, and would love them to feature real people's views.
The November 2020 update includes zoom sliders and a better apply filter button
Posted by Andy Brown on 27 November 2020
This month's update allows you to zoom in on a particular part of a chart using sliders, and also lets you save up filters to apply them all in one go.
Was Roger Hargreaves predicting the future of the US with his Mr Men series?
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 November 2020
There's an uncanny correlation between the Mr Men series and the list of American presidents. Donald Trump comes in as Mr Rude, Barack Obama as Mr Cool … see how many correlations you can find!
The Christmas 2020 Wise Owl newsletter competition
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 November 2020
For the second month in a row this issue's competition is a logic puzzle. Use the 6 clues given to determine the finishing order of 5 boys in a race (the winning entry drawn at random will win a fifty-pound Amazon voucher).
Victoria Anthony is the winner of our October 2020 newsletter competition
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 November 2020
We had a bumper crop of 42 entries for this puzzle, with one person saying they had enjoyed it so much that they went out to buy a Logic Puzzles book! This blog shows details of the answer and winner.
Changes to Edge and Windows in the new October 2020 Windows update
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
Although this is called a Windows update, the most useful changes are actually for the new Edge browser, as this blog explains.
The Power BI app for HoloLens 2 allows you to juggle futuristic 3D reports
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
What do you get when you combine the futuristic 3-dimensional mixed-reality environment created by the HoloLens 2 headset with Power BI reports? Read this blog to find out!
What happens when you blend the pieces from two different jigsaws?
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
Vancouver-based artist Tim Klein has used the fact that many jigsaws are based on the same template to create some truly weird and wonderful composite images.
Three top YouTube channels for learning about DAX
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
Following a question from a recent DAX course, here are 3 recommended YouTube tutorial channels to help you learn to master DAX.
You can use the new LET function in Excel to store interim formulae calculations
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
The new Excel LET function lets you create variables to store the results of calculations, making formulae easier to read and quicker to calculate.
The answer to (and winner of) our September newsletter word search competition
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 October 2020
The winner of our newsletter competition this month is Vincent Vaughan of Public Health England, who wins a fifty-pound voucher. The word search contained all 50 states of the USA, along with a hidden quotation.
For our October 2020 newsletter competition, solve a logical puzzle
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 October 2020
Five people live in different houses, travel to work in different ways and work at different jobs. For this month's competition, all you have to do is to work out who is who!
Thie month's Power BI update includes a new logo, on-screen help and much more!
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 October 2020
There are a few good changes to Power BI Desktop this month, including a better icon and splash screen, on-canvas help (albeit pitched at too low a level) and the ability to let users tweak visuals you've published.
The 5 best things about working with Power Apps
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
Power Apps is fun, as this blog tries to show. It consists of one owl's very personal take on the 5 best things about using the software.
A list of the 5 things one Wise Owl finds most annoying about Power Apps
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
Any software has things you love, and things you ... don't love so much. This blog covers the latter set of things!
A review of our first 6 months of online training
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
By the end of October we will have been providing online training for 6 months. After putting off doing this for so long, we've been surprised at how well it works - and so too have our clients, it seems.
Shaun often takes his camera when exercising, as these stunning photos show
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
Three photos in the life of a Wise Owl trainer: a London church in the moonlight, the river Dee near Wrexham and the sun rising behind Tower Bridge.
There are only two small changes in the September 2020 Power BI Desktop update
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
You can now add total labels to a stacked or combination chart, and there are improvements to mobile layout, but in truth there's not much to get excited about for the September 2020 Power BI update.
Why the XLOOKUP function should kill off VLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 September 2020
The XLOOKUP function has at least 7 advantages over an equivalent VLOOKUP function, as this blog shows. Convert to XLOOKUP now, and then convert your colleagues!