Blogs from Wise Owl on PowerPivot in Excel

Loading live web data into Excel without writing VBA code to scrape HTML

Posted by Andy Brown on 21 August 2017

Need to get tables of data into Excel from a website? There's no need to write lots of VBA code to scrape the site - just use Power Query to create a live link to the relevant page(s).

Find the many ways to interact directly between Excel and Power BI Service

Posted by Andy Brown on 29 June 2017

You can pull Excel workbooks (or individual data ranges) into Power BI Service, or push them from Excel using a special add-in. This blog shows how to use both approaches, as well as the underwhelming Analyze in Excel feature.

How to pick out the first and last dates for a given group using DAX

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 October 2016

It's often challenging working out how to use DAX to solve specific problems. This blog shows how to produce a pivot table showing the first and last instances of any category.

Which Power BI course should you take - Excel Power BI or Power BI Desktop?

Posted by Andy Brown on 22 July 2016

Microsoft are pursuing two separate BI lines at the moment: one for the Power BI tools which run within Excel, and another for the standalone application called Desktop Power BI. This blog attempts to explain the differences between two applications with such confusingly similar names!

Using DAX Studio to edit calculated fields or measures in Excel

Posted by Andy Brown on 20 February 2015

The editor for calculated fields in Excel (aka measures) isn't the greatest; this blog shows you how to install and use DAX Studio as a substitute editor.

A review of Power View, including examples of use

Posted by Andy Brown on 09 January 2014

Power View is an Excel or SharePoint add-in which allows you to create quick and interactive dashboard reports, with built-in drill-down. This blog considers whether you're missing a trick if you don't know how to use Power View.

An overview of PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Posted by Andy Brown on 31 January 2013

PowerPivot is a superb addition to Excel: it allows you to create pivot tables based on multiple tables taken from a variety of data sources, and its DAX language lets you report any statistic you want. This overview summarises how to get started with PowerPivot, and what it does.

Creating a PowerPivot calendar in Access or Excel

Posted by Andy Brown on 16 January 2013

This blog shows you how to create a calendar of dates for use in PowerPivot. Instructions are included for Excel and Access.

Create a calendar table for PowerPivot or Analysis Services in SQL Server

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 January 2013

This blog includes the SQL script to generate a table of calendar dates for linking to from within PowerPivot or an Analysis Services tabular model.

What is PowerPivot for Excel 2010 - an Overview

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 May 2012

PowerPivot for Excel allows you to crunch very large amounts of data quickly, using pivot tables and slicers and other familiar Excel concepts. It also includes the DAX language, allowing you to create complex calculations.