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I've been teasing an unconventional project for a while... Well, it's finally here! Dive with me into the world of Rubik's cubes. And let's solve one together. If solving a Rubikβs cube feels impossible, this technique makes it easy for beginners. Promise. Then read on to learn how you can register for my upcoming webinar (on Excel, not cubes π). π¨π¦π₯π©π§β¬ Solve Rubik's Cube in 7 StepsMy son got me hooked. You know I love a challenge and I love to learn new skills. But most tutorials out there were too technical and difficult to follow. Algorithm this, algorithm that... So I broke it down in a way that I was able to fully understand. This is the framework that worked for me. I tested it on my team when they were here in Vienna, and it worked on them too! So now it's your turn. Let's get cubing... Some cube facts:
I'm a long way from any record π but it's still satisfying to solve it. As with any skill - whether it's Excel, or Rubik's cube - mastery is all about practice. So get practicing! π To help you along, we also prepared a handy cheat sheet. Know someone with a cube collecting dust? Share this with them. Trust me, theyβll thank you. π¨π¦π₯π©π§β¬ Join me for a Live WebinarAre you ready to work smarter in 2025? Next Thursday, January 16th, I'll be hosting a webinar showcasing the tools that transform how you use Excel. If you missed the webinar in December, this is your chance to get caught up. See how you can use AI and non-AI tools in Excel to save time and get ahead.
I'm planning more webinars this year. I'm excited about a lot of topics that I'd like to share with you. π€ Geeky Newsπ¨ββοΈ Improve your Copilot prompts with images in Word and PowerPointYou can now add images to your Copilot prompts in Word and PowerPoint. Simply paste or upload the picture and provide the instruction. For example:
By including images, you're making your prompts clearer. This should get you exactly what you need faster. π Generate AI images from other images using Google WhiskIn Google's latest AI experiment, you don't even need words. Whisk from Google Labs lets you create new images using only pictures as prompts. You provide (or randomly generate) pictures to represent the subject, scene and desired style. Whisk will then combine them in a new AI-generated image. You can provide more detail using text prompts, but it's not required. You can also refine the image with additional instructions. Whisk uses the latest version of Google's Imagen 3 image generation model and it's currently available in the US. π₯ Microsoft Teams updates for 2025Teams is getting some updates in early 2025. Keep your eyes out for:
(We've started using it in our team meetings and I must admit - Copilot is really good at cutting out the fluff and leaving only the action items. The AI summaries are quite useful. As long as we remember to enable meeting transcript at the start π )
π Power StoriesCongrats to Sophie for completing Fast Track to Power BI! I'm glad you enjoyed the journey π Wishing you many exciting BI projects ahead! Got a success story about using your XelPlus skills? Iβd love to hear it! Hit reply to share the details, and inspire other students π See you next week, Leila Want more?βΆοΈ Subscribe on YouTube ποΈ Follow us on LinkedIn π₯ Join 400,000+ students in our courses π£ Want to sponsor Between the Sheets? Get in touch here. π¨ 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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A German Controller Magazine recently said certain time series analysis techniques are "not realistically feasible with Excel." I read that and thought: challenge accepted. So that's what I opened with at the Global Excel Summit in London on Tuesday this past week. Three techniques. Python's data science libraries. Done right inside Excel, live on stage. (And no, the cape on the table isnβt mine. IYKYK) Because Python is in Excel now. The limits people keep assuming are there... a lot of them...
Some tasks shouldn't still exist in 2026. Manually emailing PDF reports at end of month is one of them... but they do. Here's the drill: Open Excel. Save a few sheets as PDF. Email to Manager A. Save others as PDF. Email to Manager B. Repeat. I used to have a VBA macro that did that for me. It was great. Until companies started blocking macros. Until Excel Online became a thing. Now there's a solution built into Excel that works on desktop and the web. You decide who gets which sheets. The...
There's a person on almost every team that everyone respects technically. And nobody wants to work with. Maybe you've sat in a meeting with them and left feeling a little smaller than when you walked in. Early in my career, I think I was sometimes that person. You see, I went by the advice "work hard and you'll be noticed" for years. Turned out to be the worst advice I ever got. What I missed for a long time: doing my job well was expected. That's why I was hired. But it wasn't what was going...