Using PowerPivot to find out more about you

Here are two fun tutorials you can follow that think outside the box about potential real world PowerPivot applications:


On Kasper de Jonge's blog (the best resource for PowerPivot information, IMO): Gain insight into your music taste using Last.fm, PowerPivot and the PivotViewer


On Chris Webb's BI Blog: Using PowerPivot to Analyse Windows Search Results

Tip

If you're working with PowerPivots, don't create relationships on Calculated Columns. I just learned that today, the hard way...

PowerPivot - An Introduction

Chances are you already heard about Excel 2010's main new feature: PowerPivots. Having spent a few days reading about and using PowerPivots, I'm starting to get the hang of it.

If you're a little confused, or just want to know more, this article is for you.

Visual Basic's Basics #1

The target audience for this blog is not computer experts, but normal 21st century office works that use computers for their day to day needs, and are looking to increase their productivity through automation. I’m not an expert myself, so what I write may not be the most accurate or efficient way to do things. I just want it to work, and that’s you want too. So, on to the lesson.

Convert Table To List

This is a code I wrote to convert a table (values and headers) to a list, so it can easily be manipulated using pivot tables or loaded intro a database. I posted this two years ago on the excellent Ozgrid Forums, so it makes sense I share it here too. It was tested on Excel 2003, but it should work in 2007/2010. Let me know if it doesn't.

Google Calendar Sync with Outlook 2010

For everybody that uses Outlook and Google Calendar, there's an official syncing tool made by Google which you should already use. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Outlook 2010. Fortunately, there's an unofficial fix which you download here (supposedly, it's a Google private beta version).

This is not an official patch, so use it at your own risk.

If you are unsure about using an external application and are a little tech savvy, find the manual instructions here (you need to use an hex editor).

Random Task in Outlook

So maybe you have 20 minutes available and you want to do something, but you're not sure what. Or you have a tendency to delay the tasks you don't like to do. I find that leaving some decisions to luck is sometimes the best solution.

This VBA code will make Outlook select a random task from you to-do list, and then based on your feedback give you positive or negative reinforcements. In this case, if you do the task it shows a simple message and marks the task as complete, while not doing it displays a random post from Fail Blog. It was tested with Outlook 2010, but should work with any Outlook version that supports RSS feeds.

Please note that I will not be held responsible for any loss of productivity as a result of navigating Fail Blog!