Posts about Microsoft 365.
A pivot table is a tool you operate. GROUPBY is the same group-and-aggregate logic as a single spilled formula - the summary recalculates itself, with no fields to drag and nothing to refresh.
SharePoint Lists are brilliant for what they're designed for and actively dangerous past that scope - and the limits bite when your solution has been accumulating data that matters.
Connect Power BI to a SharePoint List the way that doesn't fall over at 5,001 rows - OData filtering at the source, an indexed filter column, and a refresh schedule that doesn't need a gateway.
Joining a column of names or tags into one comma-separated string used to need TEXTJOIN or a helper column. REDUCE does it in one formula, and lets you transform each item before it gets concatenated.
You'll build a dropdown list that reads from a structured table and includes every new row automatically. No named range maintenance, no 'why isn't my new entry showing up' moments. Structured table plus a spill reference, and your validation list never needs touching again.
MAP takes your LAMBDA and runs it on every element in an array. No helper columns, no dragging formulas, no VBA loops. It's the Excel equivalent of a functional programming pattern, and once you've used it, going back to column-by-column formulas feels like a step backwards.
The Keep Rows filter in the Power Query UI handles 80% of row filtering tasks without you ever opening the Advanced Editor. Most people skip past it and go straight to writing M. Five clicks and you're done, and the M it generates is clean enough to modify later.
The analysts who get traction aren't the fastest at pulling data, they're the best at unpacking what was actually being asked. The skill is asking good questions, and nobody trains for it.
Cloud flows are great when your data lives in SharePoint or Teams. But some processes still live in legacy apps, PDFs, or the export button of a system that predates APIs.
Your flow runs daily — but you only need it Monday through Friday. One condition block and a formatDateTime expression, and your automation skips Saturday and Sunday without you touching it. Three …
You can't build every dashboard that gets requested. But 'no' lands differently depending on how you say it — and most data people either say yes to everything and resent it, or say no in ways that…
The more competent you get, the less people see the effort behind what you deliver. A clean dashboard looks effortless. A fast turnaround looks like it was always fast.
Helper columns aren't wrong. But when a running total requires three of them and breaks every time someone inserts a row, you've created fragility in exchange for familiarity. The Excel array funct…
You'll build a balance tracker using SCAN and a structured table that extends itself as new rows come in. No helper columns, no fragile cell references, no 'just re-paste the formula down.' Add a r…
Running totals used to mean helper columns or array gymnastics. SCAN changes that — it applies a function cumulatively across an array and hands you back every intermediate result. Once you see it …
SCAN hands you every intermediate result as it accumulates — which means a running total is one formula that spills down the column. No helper rows, no dragging, no breaking when someone inserts a …
Before LAMBDA, every Excel function that existed was one Microsoft decided to write. After LAMBDA, you can write them yourself — naming the logic, hiding the complexity, and calling your custom fun…
Your Word templates shouldn't fight you on formatting.
One function definition in the Name Manager, and every cell in the workbook can call it like a built-in. LAMBDA + named functions means you stop copy-pasting logic and start writing like someone wh…
You delivered a clean model, a solid dashboard, a real solution — and got a blank look in the room. The work was right. But explaining technical work to someone who doesn't share your frame of refe…
Table.Group in Power Query returns a table of tables, unlocking complex multi-level analysis you can't get anywhere else.
Five minutes to set up a SharePoint file-change trigger with a Teams notification. You'll never manually check whether that report got updated again.
Complex formulas aren't the problem. Unreadable ones are. Before LET, you had to repeat the same range reference six times or accept that your formula was a black box. LET gives you named variables in
The advice is everywhere: if you're serious about data, you need SQL. But for most analysts already working in Excel and Power BI, the gap isn't SQL knowledge - it's data modelling instinct. Here…
You deliver good work consistently, your manager knows you're reliable — and yet somehow you're invisible at promotion time. The problem isn't your output. It's that you've never made your work l…
Stop replacing VLOOKUPs. Your workbook deserves XLOOKUP without touching the formula.
I spent years writing 400-character Ctrl+Shift+Enter arrays just to filter a table, but the calculation engine finally changed the rules and killed that misery for good.