It finally happened. After 32 years of waiting… Pivot Tables can now refresh automatically. 🥳 No more “Did I refresh this already?” Or worrying about sending outdated reports. Turn it on once and your Pivot Tables will always show the latest data. Of course, there are a few buts (we’ll get to those). But first... ♻️ How it worksNew pivot tables: Auto Refresh is already on by default. Existing pivot tables:
From now on, whenever the data changes, all pivot tables created from the same source update instantly. Whether it's a new row (as long as your source is a proper table!) or a corrected value. ⚠️ A few caveats
This update is a big deal. And another big point in pivot table's favor. 🤓 Geeky News📒 Better OneNote tablesLet’s be honest, tables in OneNote haven’t exactly been… fun. Good news: Microsoft finally fixed one of the biggest annoyances. You can now merge table cells. That means custom headers, grouped content, and a much cleaner look. Just select the cells, right-click and Merge Cells. Another welcome update: Paste as Text Only (Ctrl + Shift + V). No more formatting chaos when copying content. (Available now for OneNote Insiders.) Those are small quality-of-life improvements. The big update to OneNote?... 🤖 Copilot Notebooks is your AI experience for OneNoteOneNote now comes with a dedicated Copilot section. Here’s what it can do:
Currently available on work accounts with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. 🤔 Did You Know?If you turn on Auto Refresh for your pivot tables, make sure you also turn off this setting. Especially if you’ve built a dashboard and positioned everything just right.
Now your beautifully aligned dashboard will stay exactly as you set it. 👏 Python in Excel wins heartsHuge congrats to Merek and Bhavik for completing Python in Excel For the Real World! 🎉 As students, both were very active, questioning, and supportive of other learners. That's what I love about the XelPlus community. It's also great to hear that, despite initial hesitations, both Merek and Bhavik are already enhancing their analysis with Python. That's the kind of transformation I love to see. Real skills put to real use. See you next week, Leila Want more?▶️ Subscribe on YouTube 🖇️ Follow us on LinkedIn 🥇 Join 400,000+ students in our courses 📣 Want to sponsor Between the Sheets? Get in touch here. 📨 If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free weekly email here. This newsletter contains affiliate links, which give us a small commission on any purchase made at no cost to you. This helps us run Between the Sheets and bring you updates like this. Thank you for your support! |
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You know that feeling... …when someone sends you a DM and says, “Can you make a report out of this?” Empty rows. Inconsistent formats. Oh, and it's not in a pretty table. Plus you have values scattered across 17 different files. Of course. 🙃 No need to panic. You just need Power Query. You might be reading this and nodding because you already use Power Query. You know it's a lifesaver for: ✅ cleaning messy data ✅ combining files ✅ transforming dates, text, numbers - all without formulas! Plus...
Remember this? =RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2) - SEARCH(" ",A2)) You just wanted the last name. Now you're doing math. Or this one: =OFFSET(A4, COUNTA(A5:$A$29) -12 +ROW(A1),0,1,1) All that... just to get the last 12 months of data? Well… not anymore. Compare that to: =TEXTAFTER(A2," ") Or =TAKE(A5:.B29,-12) These newer functions are easier to read, easier to write, and do exactly what you need. No nesting. No helper columns. A tiny part of me misses the struggle. Plus they were a good workout. 😅 But...
Copy-paste isn't a strategy. When your data is spread across multiple sheets, keeping it all in sync gets messy fast. Excel’s VSTACK gives you a smarter way. It lets you pull everything into one clean table with a single function. No macros. No Power Query. Just a formula. Add FILTER or SORT on top (or the new trimrefs), and suddenly you have a setup built to scale. ▶️ Watch the tutorial on our blog 📄 Download the practice file The video takes me back 😉 I had fun playing both roles. And yes,...