Wise Owl blogs written in 2020 (page 1 of 6)

What Power BI report server is, and how to create reports through it

Posted by Andy Brown on 23 December 2020

Puzzled as to why there are two near-identical versions of Power BI Desktop? Wondering if web portal is anything like Power BI report server? Confused as to what a paginated report is? This blog answers all these questions, and more!

With no big updates for December 2020, this blog looks at a preview feature

Posted by Andy Brown on 22 December 2020

There aren't any interesting or noteworthy new additions to Power BI this month, so this blog instead looks at an exciting new feature which has just appeared in preview: small multiples.

The new Excel data types will make a big difference to your life

Posted by Andy Brown on 22 December 2020

Soon you will be able to display information from almost any common dataset in your Excel worksheets automatically. For now your access will probably be limited to stocks and geographical data, but many more data types (including your own custom ones) should be available soon.

Creating and using Lambda Functions in Excel

Posted by Andy Brown on 21 December 2020

You can now create and use anonymous functions in Excel (usually called "Lambda functions"). Learn how to add to the stock of Excel functions without having to learn any programming code!

Cardboard cat forts and tanks? How bored can people get in lockdown?

Posted by Andy Brown on 02 December 2020

The aptly named sad and useless website contains many photos of people's cardboard creations, including a surprising number of forts and tanks for cats.

Did you know you could use your browser as a text editor? Us neither ...

Posted by Andy Brown on 02 December 2020

Thanks to Simon Ranson for contributing this bit of trivia: what to type into your browser's address bar to turn it into a text editor.

How to add cumulative totals to a visual using DAX measures in Power BI

Posted by Andy Brown on 02 December 2020

Inspired by a question from a course, in this blog Andy Brown builds up a measure to show cumulative totals for a calendar matrix, dotting his DAX i's and crossing his t's!

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.

Two easy ways to create themes in Power BI without needing to write JSON

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 30 October 2020

This blog show two ways in which you can create custom themes in Power BI without needing to learn how to write JSON: either use the built-in theme editor in Power BI, or use the theme generator from Power BI Tiips.

This blog shows you how to connect to Remote Desktop if you're using a Mac

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 30 October 2020

Most people attending our online training courses use Windows computers, but the odd Mac user slips through! This blog explains how you can connect to Remote Desktop on a Mac, and so still enjoy your Wise Owl online training.

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.