I hope you're using Power Query. If you're not - you should be.

And if you are, are you getting everything you can out of it?

Today we're covering:

• importing file contents via Power Query
• last few tickets for the Global Excel Summit
• dark grid in Excel

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📁 Import PDF tables with ease

Have you ever tried to import a PDF table into Excel, only to find it's spread across multiple pages?

Frustrating, right?

You might already know the usual Power Query steps:

1. Go to Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF.
2. Select your file.
3. In the Navigator, you check "Select multiple items" to pick the relevant pages or tables.
4. Click Transform Data.

This creates separate queries, which you need to append (stack on top of each other to create a single table).

But wait, there's a better way!

Instead of selecting individual pages, click the folder icon, and then Transform.

This grabs all the content in the PDF.

From there:

1. Use the Name and Kind columns to filter out what you don't need.

• You can filter out Pages, leaving only Tables.
• If it's a long document, include only the pages that contain your table.

(There are tricks to do this dynamically, using keywords, which we cover in the Automate with Power Query course.)

2. Then all you need to do is expand the tables in the Data column.

Voilà! You’ve got a single table with all your data. 🎉

Clean up by removing any unnecessary columns, and you’re ready to analyze.

💡 Bonus Tip: PDF tables in Power BI

The folder trick won't work in Power BI. What you can do instead:

1. Open a Blank Query.
2. In the formula bar enter:
   = Pdf.Tables(File.Contents("full file path to the pdf"))
3. Filter, expand, and clean the data just like in Excel.

With Power Query, importing data from PDFs doesn’t have to be a headache.

Try this method the next time you work with PDFs and save yourself a ton of clicks. 😉

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Only Few Tickets Left

Are you thinking of travelling to London for the Global Excel Summit 2025?

It's right around the corner: February 4th-6th.

It's a unique opportunity to connect with Excel experts, MVPs, and fellow Excel enthusiasts.

Last year, the sessions were great. And this year's agenda is equally promising.

But you know what stuck with me the most? The in-between moments. The face-to-face chats during breaks.

You might come up with an idea you’d never thought of before or meet someone who turns into a friend or business partner.

So I highly recommend being there in person.

If you can't make the trip, you can also join online. Come say hi in our virtual booth if you do 🙂

You can get both in-person (the last few remaining!) and online tickets 👉here.

Don't forget to use code LEILA at checkout for 20% OFF.

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🤓 Geeky News

⬛ Dark Mode in Excel (yes, that includes the grid)

Some people will be very happy about it. Excel is finally getting a proper dark mode.

Outlook and Word have had the dark mode for some time, but it kept eluding Excel... All you could do was change the color of the ribbon.

If you wanted a black sheet background, you had to resort to workarounds or add-ins.

Well, no more.

This feature is currently rolling out to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta channel.

To enable dark mode:

1. change the Office Theme to Black (File > Account > Office Theme)
2. go to the View tab and Switch Modes.

Personally, I'm not a fan, but I do have some dark souls on the team. 👀

👨‍✈️ Copilot in the Excel grid

Notice the Copilot icon near the selected cell in the screenshot above.

When you click on the icon, you'll get a variety of suggestions, like "Explain this Formula" or "Suggest Conditional Formatting".

These are the same suggestions you get on the Copilot pane when you open it. But now, they're closer to the action.

It could be quite useful. It definitely increases awareness of Copilot (which is probably the point).

But it can also be quite irritating if you're just trying to go about your spreadsheet business. Especially when it obstructs the contents of your cells.

There is no setting to disable it completely. You can only hide the icon until the next time you open the file.

🤖 Schedule Tasks in ChatGPT

ChatGPT adds a new beta feature for paid subscribers. It's called Tasks and lets users schedule reminders.

Select “4o with scheduled tasks” from the model picker and type what you want to be reminded of.

For example, you can request a daily weather update each morning. Or a reminder to study [Excel/Python/Power BI/insert your topic of choice] every evening.

You can set it to recurring or one-time. You'll get the notification at the specified time.

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🎮 Tetris inside a PDF?

Yes, it's possible. As proven by Thomas Rinsma.

If you open this file in Edge, Chrome, or Firefrox, you can actually play Tetris. In a PDF!

The gameplay is not exactly exhilarating (it's quite slow), but it's still impressive.

Not scrapable with Power Query, though 😉

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👏 Power Stories

Andrea's comment in the Power Query course made my day. That's usually the case when someone discovers the benefits of Power Query and puts it to use.

It's great to hear that implementing the new techniques has sped up Andrea's work. I hope she's enjoying the free time - whether at the well-deserved break or coming up with solutions.

Here's to not getting bogged down in manual data cleanup! 🥳

I'm also glad that she found the course eBook useful. That's how I learn best - I supplement watching tutorials with reading.

See you next week,

Leila

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