We all want dashboards that look professional.

But a dashboard that looks good and doesn't tell you much? That's more decoration.

Your manager sees $2.3M in revenue displayed front and center.

Okay. Now what? Is that good or bad? Better than last year? Did we hit target?

Without context, that number means nothing.

Power BI's new card visual (now generally available) lets you add that context right into your KPIs. Previous period comparisons. Target indicators.

Professional design with meaningful insights. Plus, it's quite satisfying to create.

​See for yourself.

​

Way more flexible than the old card visual. And way easier than building custom layouts from scratch.

Lots of room to get creative.

Let's connect at Global Excel Summit Microsoft releases dozens of updates every year. Some very useful. Some not. The hardest part is finding out about the useful ones before you continue doing things the hard way for months. That's why I always look forward to the Global Excel Summit in London. You get to talk to people who've already tested this stuff. What works? What's overhyped? Two days of sessions across Excel, Power BI, Python, Power Automate, and AI. But honestly, the best conversations happen between sessions. I'll be there in May. Would be great to see you there too. 🗓️ 19-20 May 2026 (conference) 🗓️ Optional masterclasses: 18, 20, 21 May 📍 London, UK Last few Early Bird tickets available. Get it here Use code LEILA at checkout for an extra 20% off. (The discount box shows up at the last step. Click "Continue to Checkout" twice, then enter LEILA in the Order Summary.)

🤓 Geeky News

🗒️ Notepad gets tables

Windows 11's Notepad now supports tables (currently available to Windows Insiders).

Click the Table button in the formatting toolbar, pick your rows and columns, and you're done.

You can add or remove rows and columns with a right-click.

The once basic text editor has been adding more formatting options, like bold, italic, bullet points, since the beginning of the year. The good news is that it remains fairly lightweight.

BTW, if you're using Notepad++ (a more powerful editor popular among developers), make sure you update to the latest version to fix a security bug.

💬 Word comments get a refresh

Word for the web just updated its commenting interface. Cleaner design. New icons and buttons. Better layout.

The useful part? Selected comments are highlighted while the rest fade to gray. Makes it easier to focus on the feedback you're dealing with.

This got me thinking: Comments work across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The experience is similar but not identical. Each app develops them separately. So you get features in one that don't show up in the others. A bit frustrating when they could just keep them in sync.

💚 Why We Can’t Quit Excel

Bloomberg just published a feature on Excel's history, its dominance today, and where it might be heading.

I got to contribute a few quotes alongside other Excel experts and the people who built the app.

I talked about my relationship with Excel. When I first started working, it was definitely not a tool I'd open and think "Oh my God, I love this."

But the more I learned what it could actually do, the more I appreciated it. That's how it works with most tools. You stop fighting the shortcomings and start seeing what's possible.

And Excel is just always there. In every finance department, every business, every laptop. It's part of how we work. Forty years in.

Read the full article here (Bloomberg subscription required).

🙌 Building What the Team Actually Needs

Congrats to Anton on completing Fast Track to Power BI 🎊

Here's what changed: he stopped building dashboards to show off cool features. Started building them to answer specific questions.

Anton Meriaux, Clinical Data Manager

My first takeaway from this course is about all the features available - such an eye-opener. The second takeaway is about storytelling and knowing your audience. Don't implement all kinds of fancy visuals just because I can, but figure out what kind of questions my audience will have and how I, in a simple and clear way, can answer these questions through my visuals. With Power BI, I now have the skills to set up more study-specific dashboards, which surely will benefit the whole project team and speed up our work in finding anomalies or dependencies that are not easily spotted reviewing long data listings.

His whole project team can now spot issues they'd never catch in raw data.

Think about your own dashboards. Are they answering questions or just displaying data?

See you next week,

Leila

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