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Wise Owl blogs written by Andy Brown (page 1 of 15)
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A summary of new features added to Power BI Desktop in the May 2018 update
Posted by Andy Brown on 14 May 2018
New features introduced into Power BI Desktop in this update include conditional formatting by different fields, the inclusion of filters in drill-through and minor improvements to line and funnel charts.
Use the Excel camera tool, or create a linked picture in Word or PowerPoint
Posted by Andy Brown on 25 April 2018
This blog shows options for creating a webcam focused on one particular area of an Excel workbook! You can do this either by pasting the Excel range into PowerPoint or Word as a linked picture, or by using the Excel camera tool.
What is new in the April 2018 Power BI Desktop update
Posted by Andy Brown on 07 April 2018
This month's update allows users to add customisable buttons to a report, incorporates a numeric slicer and includes a few other smaller changes.
New features in the March 2018 update of Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 20 March 2018
By far the biggest new feature in the March 2018 update of Power BI Desktop is bookmarks (so big, in fact, that it gets a summary treatment in this blog and a separate, longer blog all to itself).
How to get rid of lots of blank rows in a Report Builder table
Posted by Andy Brown on 16 February 2018
There seems to be an occasional bug in Report Builder which fills a table with blank rows. Here's one owl's way to get round it.
Which should you learn: Report Builder or Reporting Services?
Posted by Andy Brown on 16 February 2018
Report Builder and SQL Server Reporting Services are almost identical - which makes the small but important differences even harder to explain.
Did you know there was an IIF function in SQL to test conditions? We didn't!
Posted by Andy Brown on 16 February 2018
You can use the IIF function in SQL as an alternative to the CASE WHEN statement. We thought we would share this new (for us) discovery with the world!
New features in the February 2018 update of Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 15 February 2018
You can now search for formatting properties, have slicers which work across pages and create quick measures, among other new features.
How to use the Windows Magnifier to zoom in on parts of your screen
Posted by Andy Brown on 29 January 2018
If you're trying to project your screen at the front of a class, the Windows Magnifier lets people see what you're doing more easily.
What's new in SQL Server 2017? For SSAS Tabular, lots, it transpires.
Posted by Andy Brown on 23 January 2018
This blog summarises the main new features of SQL Server for non-administrators (that is, most of us). Most parts of SQL Server get minor changes at best, but SSAS Tabular 2017 gets a host of major improvements.
A summary of the changes introduced in Visual Studio 2017
Posted by Andy Brown on 19 January 2018
Visual Studio 2017 includes some clever new quick coding features, better debugging and a much better installation routine, as this blog explains.
Changes to Wise Owl Excel courses (including a new intermediate course)
Posted by Andy Brown on 15 January 2018
We've revamped our Excel course offerings, to include a new one-day Intermediate Excel course to sit between our introduction and advanced courses.
New features in the January 2018 update of Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 11 January 2018
This month introduces a smorgasbord of small but useful updates, including the ability to hide pages, colour data labels and to set the anchor (from) date for a relative date slicer.
How to use an unpivot transform in Power BI Desktop (or PowerPivot) Query Editor
Posted by Andy Brown on 04 January 2018
If you get data in pivot (two-dimensional) form, you can unpivot it to get the underlying rows, and hence produce charts and visuals. This blog shows how!
New features in the December 2017 update of Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 04 January 2018
Field descriptions anyone? This is a fairly minor update, although we like responsive horizontal slicers, and there are some exciting things coming up in preview mode.
How to use a $ symbol to introduce a string expression, and fill in the blanks
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 December 2017
Introduced in Visual Studio, string interpolation allows you to linking different C# expressions contained in curly parentheses, with everything preceded by a dollar sign. This blog explains how to use this handy new short-cut.
A personal take on the best dozen Times crossword clues from the last 5 years
Posted by Andy Brown on 11 December 2017
In addition to computer training, Andy Brown is also an addict of the Times Crossword. In this blog Andy takes a break from blogging on software to list his 12 favourites clues from the last 5 years of puzzles.
How to write an M formula to convert Julian dates using Power Query
Posted by Andy Brown on 08 December 2017
This short blog explains how to convert Julian dates to "normal" ones, and how the formula used actually works!
How to create multiple worksheets based on pivot table report filter values
Posted by Andy Brown on 08 December 2017
Did you know that you can automatically generate multiple versions of a pivot table, with each one configured to filter by a different item? We didn't - this blog is an attempt to apologise for our oversight!
How to reuse a query created in Query Editor or Power Query
Posted by Andy Brown on 29 November 2017
This short blog explains how you can copy and paste the steps of a query that you've created in Power Query (within Power BI Desktop). The steps also work for queries created in Power Query within Excel.