Your Power Query file works perfectly. On your machine.

Then someone else tries to use it and suddenly nothing refreshes because the folder path points to your laptop.

This is why people move files to SharePoint. Same folder, everyone can access it, no more path issues. Great.

You'll just use the SharePoint Folder connector and... 😵‍💫

Ok, which path it's supposed to be?

Here's the catch: Power Query shows you a giant list of URLs instead of folders.

Well, there is a better way. And it takes exactly one tiny tweak.

Step 1: Get the Site URL

Go to Data > Get Data > From File > From SharePoint Folder.

Paste your Site URL. Just the main part:

https:// your-organisation .sharepoint.com/sites/ site-name/

Step 2: The one-word fix

Click Transform Data (not Combine, not Load).

You'll see SharePoint.Files in the formula bar at the top.

Change it to SharePoint.Contents.

That's it. One word.

Step 3: Navigate like a human

Now instead of scanning URLs, you see your actual folder structure.

The Content column shows Table (folder) or Binary (file). Check the Name column for the actual names.

Click on the "Documents" Table to drill down.

Then click through each folder (Table) until you reach the one you want.

If you get lost, click the gear icon next to "Navigation" in the Applied Steps. You'll see a folder tree you can use to course-correct.

When you only see "Binary" in the Content column, you're at the last level.

Click the double-down arrow in the Content column header to combine all files.

That's much more manageable than the cryptic URL hunt. And faster, too.

Next month when your team adds new files to that folder, just hit refresh. Everything updates automatically.

Share the report, and anyone with SharePoint access can use it.

Tips like this and 50+ other automation headaches are what our Automate Excel Recipes course is built around. Each lecture is a real-world challenge with messy data you work through and solve. If that sounds like your kind of thing, take a look.

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📢 Last chance for Early Bird tickets to Global Excel Summit ​ May 19-20 in London, UK. The kind of sessions where you're taking notes the entire time. And the kind of conversations between sessions that make the trip worth it on their own. Early Bird prices end January 31 (that's next week). After that, ticket prices jump. Use code LEILA at checkout for an extra 20% off the Early Bird price. Grab your ticket here Hope to see you there in person.

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🤓 Geeky News

🗺️ Azure Maps Visual gets Markers in Power BI

Power BI's Azure Maps Visual just added a feature that makes location data way more readable: custom markers.

Instead of generic dots on a map, you can now use actual icons. Trucks for deliveries. Warehouses for facilities. Alert symbols for problems.

The markers scale based on your data (bigger shipment = bigger truck icon) and you can rotate them to show direction on a route.

Useful if you're tracking logistics, retail locations, or utility networks. It makes maps that actually tell a story instead of just showing dots.

Available now in the January 2026 version of Power BI Desktop and Service (requires Pro or Premium license).

📅 Google Calendar now shows all calendars you own

If you own secondary calendars in Google Calendar (team schedules, project trackers, shared resources), they'll now always show up in your calendar list.

Before, owned calendars could disappear from your view even though you were still responsible for managing them.

Now they stick around so you can actually control sharing settings and permissions.

If you don't want to see a calendar, you can hide it from your main view or transfer ownership to someone else.

Rolling out now. No action needed unless you're on Apple Calendar (you'll need to enable sync manually).

🔐 Edit password-protected Office files in Google Workspace

You can now open and edit password-protected Microsoft Office files directly in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Before, you'd have to download the file and use a third-party app to remove the password or edit it.

Now when you open a protected file in Drive, you'll get prompted for the password. Choose "Preview" to view it without removing protection, or "Edit" to open it in Google's editors (this removes the password from the file).

Makes it easier to work with files that come from teams using Office.

Available now to all Google Workspace users.

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🙌 2.5 hours instead of a full day

Congrats to Ravish on completing Automate Excel Recipes 🎉

Ravish Chutooree Capex & Consolidation Coordinator

With this course, I already managed to analyse tons of data in 2.5 hours, which would normally take me a whole day. Even my superiors were impressed with the speed of the report's delivery and the format. ​ I enjoyed the real-life work challenges and the automation part, and the links for tips and tricks have helped me a lot to grasp a better understanding of data, formatting, and reporting.

Full day to 2.5 hours! Automations that actually work.

What would that look like for you?

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See you next week,

Leila

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When you're ready, here are some ways we can help:

🎓 Join 400,000+ members in our courses​

📺 Get free tutorials on YouTube​

👥 Train your whole team with our courses. Team pricing and progress tracking - reply for details.

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