PivotTables are one of those Excel features that most people use… but few people really use well . This post focuses on high-impact, everyday PivotTable tricks  that stay under the radar—plus a small European snacks dataset (2024–2025)  you can use to follow along. PRACTICE MATERIAL BELOW! Check out some of our FREE templates and materials. Dataset you’ll use in this post (European Snacks 2024–2025) The file contains one main table tblSales  with these columns (excerpt): Colu

Ever wanted a “wow, Excel can do that ?” moment? This Hangman game is 100% formula-based (no VBA), uses simple data validation dropdowns, and updates live as you type guesses. Below is how the workbook works based on the file you shared  (Game, Words, HowTo sheets), plus a step-by-step guide to recreate it from scratch and customize it. PRACTICE MATERIAL OR GAME ON REQUEST! Check out some of our FREE templates and materials. How the game works What you see on the Game  sheet

SharePoint can be either your best “single source of truth”… or the reason your refreshes fail on Monday morning. This guide shows how to structure SharePoint properly (sites, libraries, lists), set permissions that scale, and connect everything cleanly to Excel  and Power BI —with practical “do this / don’t do that” patterns. PRACTICE MATERIAL BELOW! Check out some of our FREE templates and materials. 1) SharePoint basics that matter for BI people Sites, Libraries, Lists (t

If you’ve ever wanted cleaner dashboards, faster “at-a-glance” reading, and less “wall of numbers” fatigue—Unicode symbols + hex colors are a surprisingly powerful combo. In this post you’ll learn practical, copy-paste-ready tricks for Excel , Power BI (DAX + conditional formatting) , and Power Query . PRACTICE MATERIAL BELOW! Check out some of our FREE templates and materials. Why this matters (real-life use cases) Status columns that actually read well : ✅ OK, ⚠ Warning, ❌

Overview When you connect Power Query / Power BI to a SharePoint site (or document library), there are (at least) two common M-functions you may see or use: SharePoint.Files(siteUrl as text, optional options as record) as table SharePoint.Contents(siteUrl as text, optional options as record) as table Although they sound similar, their behavior, performance, metadata returned, and navigation experience differ. Understanding their differences helps in building more robust and p

Hook:  Hard-coded paths are silent project killers. Move a file, share a workbook, or publish a PBIX—and boom: refresh fails. Goal:  In ~10 minutes you’ll set up robust, parameter-driven paths for Excel (Power Query) and Power BI (Desktop & Service), plus a tiny, reusable M pattern you can paste into any project. 1) Why hard-coded paths fail When you embed "C:\Users\Alice\Project\data.csv" in a query, anyone whose files live elsewhere (e.g., D:\Work\Data\) will get errors. I

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Managing business performance doesn’t always require complex BI tools. With the right Excel setup, you can track sales, purchases, costs,...

Want faster refreshes and snappier previews? Here’s a practical, no-nonsense guide to making Power Query load much  quicker using only...

Understanding Dynamic Drop-Downs Dynamic drop-down lists update their contents automatically based on user selections, eliminating...

Excel’s CONVERT function makes it easy to switch between different units of measurement. This handy tool is ideal for school assignments,...

When you're transforming data in Power BI or Excel using Power Query, you're bound to run into errors —mismatched data types, division by text, nulls, you name it. But instead of manually inspecting row by row, why not automate error detection with a custom Power Query function ? In this blog post, I’ll walk you through a clean method to catch and analyze all row-level errors  using Power Query. This approach works great when importing or transforming large datasets. We’ll co

Microsoft Excel has entered a new era with dynamic array functions  – a set of powerful functions in Excel for Microsoft 365 (and Excel...

Power Query  is Microsoft’s powerhouse tool for data transformation and automation, built into Excel and Power BI. If you’ve ever spent...

In today’s data-driven world, knowing how to analyze and understand data is more critical than ever. Two prominent players stand out for those eager to learn: Power BI and Excel. Both tools are widely utilized, yet they have distinct strengths and applications. If you’re trying to decide which one to learn first, this guide will help you make an informed choice. Let’s explore each tool in detail, highlighting its features and benefits, to help you determine the best starting