I hope you've had a good summer so far.

I just got back from a fantastic vacation in Croatia, and I have to say, it’s a beautiful country!

The clear seas and delicious food were amazing. But what I loved most was the smell of figs as you walked down the streets.

Fig trees are everywhere!

Every morning, I’d grab a few for breakfast as we walked our dog.

Right now, I'm back at the office with a coffee by my side. Ready to start the next video recordings for our new Pivot Table mastery course.

Also a beautiful way to start the day. Just a different type of beautiful 🙂

Some time ago I created the quickest and most information-dense video I could create to cover as much as I could about pivot tables in 10 minutes. So if you're a pivot table newbie, consider it the quickest introduction you could get.

If you rarely use pivot tables, this is your refresher. You might be reminded of ways to replace your formulas with a pivot table.

Going by the comments below the video, pivot table pros also discovered some cool tricks there.

⏱️ Pivot Tables in 10 Minutes

​The video gives you a good overview of the many features and benefits of pivot tables.

​

​Download the file to follow along with me and learn to:

• Quickly create and customize pivot tables
• Format and adjust layout, headers, and fields
• Filter, calculate percentages, and refresh data easily

But there's much more to pivot tables.

Creating a pivot table is easy and intuitive. But many of its best features are hidden and not obvious.

Knowing where to click and what to avoid can help you prevent common mistakes.

That’s exactly what I’ll be covering in my upcoming Pivot Table Mastery course. (We’re almost there - currently 86% complete!)

The masterclass, in addition to the basics, includes:

• writing custom calculations
• avoiding mistakes even advanced users make
• quickly cleaning data with techniques most don't know about
• working with dates, including fiscal years
• advanced formatting and design techniques
• plenty of challenges and quizzes.

So, if you want to become a pivot table master, it's safe to say this course will get you there.

If you're interested, make sure to join our waitlist here.

🤓 Geeky News

✂️ New Excel function - TRIMRANGE

​TRIMRANGE is a new function that removes empty rows from the edges of a range.

This comes in handy when working with dynamic array formulas that return spilled ranges.

Often, you include empty rows at the end of the referenced range to account for future data.

But that leads to trailing zeros in the spilled results.

One way to avoid that is to reference table columns rather than ranges.

Another is to use the FILTER function to filter out empty rows.

=LEN(FILTER(A1:A30,A1:A30<>""))

The arrival of TRIMRANGE makes it simpler. You don't need to include any conditions. You simply trim the range:

=LEN(TRIMRANGE(A1:A30))

In the example, we're using LEN to calculate the length of any text entered into column A. You can replace LEN with any function that spills its results.

Some people reference the entire column (A:A), just like you see in the gif.

This is generally not recommended. It's bad for performance. But with the new TRIMRANGE function, maybe this method will be validated.

There's more to this update and once I get the function, I'll share all the other tricks as well.

The function is currently rolling out to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel.

🌈 Improvements to Tables in Google Sheets

A while ago, Google Sheets introduced official tables.

Google Sheets Tables come with data types for columns, easy access to sorting and filtering in the headers, and column grouping.

The latest update, rolling out now, makes it easier to convert a range to a table.

Previously, you had to look for it in the Format menu.

Now, you can do it with a single click. When you select the range, you should see a suggestion to convert to table.

They've also made it easier to insert new rows in the table.

👥 Rename the General Channel in Teams

If you work with Teams, especially if you've ever created a new Team, you're familiar with the General channel.

It's the default channel that comes with every Team. It can't be deleted. It includes all team members.

But the name "General" wasn't very inspiring. Or informative.

And it couldn't be changed. Until now.

We finally get the ability to rename the General channel in Teams.

If you're a Team owner:

1. Click on the More options (...) button next to the General channel.
2. Select ✏️Rename channel.
3. Type out the new channel name and click Save.

Note: there will be no going back. "General" is a reserved name, so you can't rename the channel back to "General" if you change your mind.

To create a new Team with custom first channel name:

1. Click on the Plus (+) on top of the Teams pane.
2. Select 👥Create team.
3. Provide the team name, description (optional) and name the first channel.

Note: Just like General, you can't delete or archive this first channel. A Team must have at least one channel.

But unlike General, the custom name will not be the first channel by default. All channels will be sorted alphabetically.

If you want to make sure that the "first channel" will actually be first, you can include a symbol or emoji at the start of the name.

You can even get around the name restriction if you want to continue using General.

This feature is currently in Public Preview, so you might not see it yet.

​

👏 Power Stories

I'm glad our Business Charts in Excel course removed the dread from the process of chart creation for Mike.

I trust it will be nothing but smooth sailing and insightful visuals from now on.

Got a success story about using your XelPlus skills? I’d love to hear it! Hit reply to share the details, and inspire other students 😇

Best,

Leila

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