Pie charts get a bad rep. And honestly? Fair.

I'm not a total hater. Two or three slices and a pie chart can tell a perfectly good story.

But here's what actually happens in that meeting room when you've got 8+ slices on screen.

People glance at the legend, look back at the chart... and have absolutely no idea what they're looking at.

They won't say that, of course. Instead, the room either moves on a little too quickly or starts asking questions the chart should have already answered.

Either way, the chart didn't do its job.

There's a better way to show that same data. Here's what it looks like.

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Try it next meeting and see how the room reacts.

🤓 Geeky News

🗒️ Even Notepad isn't safe anymore

The simplest app on your Windows PC just became a security headline.

Microsoft added Markdown support to Notepad last year. Markdown is a lightweight formatting language, the kind used in README files, documentation, and websites. Handy addition. But it also opened a door.

Researchers discovered that a booby-trapped Markdown file with a malicious link could be used to run harmful code on your PC. Just opening the wrong file in Notepad would be enough.

Microsoft has already patched it through the February 2026 Windows security update. So if your updates are set to automatic, you're likely already covered.

This has people asking the obvious question: does Notepad really need all these new features?

🎉 Windows 11 (soon) letting you move the taskbar

This one's been a long time coming. For over 30 years, Windows users could move their taskbar wherever they wanted. Top, sides, bottom. Then Windows 11 launched in 2021 and took that away.

People were not happy. "Bring back the ability to move the taskbar" became the most upvoted suggestion on Microsoft's Feedback Hub.

Well, Microsoft has finally listened. Moving AND resizing the taskbar are both coming to Windows 11. Vertical on the left or right, horizontal on top, or keep it at the bottom like always. And yes, you'll reportedly be able to make it smaller too.

Timeline is summer 2026, if plans don't change. So not quite yet, but it's in the works.

🔮 Google Sheets just got forecasting powers

If your company stores data in BigQuery (Google's cloud data warehouse), this is worth knowing.

Google just added forecasting directly inside Connected Sheets. That's the feature that links Google Sheets to your BigQuery data. You can now predict future sales, demand, or other key metrics without writing any SQL or Python.

It runs on TimesFM, Google's AI model pre-trained on billions of real-world data points. So no setup, no model training. Just point it at your data and go.

You can slice forecasts by region, product category, whatever dimension you need. And for single time series forecasts, Sheets automatically generates a chart showing your prediction alongside historical data.

Started rolling out February 16th. Available to all Google Workspace users.

🤔 Did You Know?

You can link a chart title to a cell.

Select the title box, go to the formula bar, type equals and click the cell.

Done. Your title updates automatically as your data changes.

You'll just have to handle number formatting inside the formula.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

Excel has a group of charts that never supported this. Histogram, Pareto, Waterfall. Introduced back in 2016. Powerful charts, but that linked title trick? Off limits.

Until now.

Microsoft quietly added support for linked titles in those charts too. No official announcement. It just... appeared. Spotted by XelPlus community member Anthony, so shoutout to him for catching it!

🙌 "Now I can't wait"

Do you dread making charts in Excel? Laura did.

But Business Charts in Excel opened her eyes to the possibilities.

Laura Landmark Consultant

I used to hate creating visuals in Excel, now I can't wait! I did wonder how much new there would be to learn, and I was blown away! I never realized how much potential there was for making sophisticated business charts, way over and above the standard options. I am excited to try out some of these techniques in projects to come.

If your charts could use an upgrade, take a look at what's inside Business Charts in Excel.

See you next week,

Leila

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