We have all been here. You have an Excel file and you need to unhide some hidden sheets. There are a few of them, and you know it’s time to get Repetitive Strain Injury.

There seems to be a bit of a theme to this month’s updates – it’s all about visuals...

It was October 17, 1979 when VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, was released. To commemorate this “historic” event, fellow MVP Debra Dalgleish created Spreadsheet Day back in 2010 (so this is the 10th anniversary, so to speak). This day has become synonymous with celebrating both the pros and cons of working with spreadsheet software.

Here’s a new one. As regular readers will know, Data Types such as Stocks and Geography have been available for a while, but many users simply aren’t aware of their existence. That’s about to change. Excel is going to get more bolshy and let users know when they have data in their workbook that could be enhanced by Data Types which will help users pull in external data to enhance the data they’re analysing.

It’s been almost nine months since support for Windows 7 ended (back on 14 January 2020). To be fair, Windows 7 has been around for more than 10 years, so perhaps it is time for us all to let it go and move on…

The Power BI updates have all come together... Plenty to get your teeth into this month including the highly anticipated Smart narratives.

We don’t normally make updates to Power BI news items, but we think this one is a worthy exception.

Unannounced by Microsoft, Microsoft 365 Beta / Insider / whatever it’s called this week has a new option in Excel for charts, shapes and SmartArt – Save as Picture.

Following on from An Introduction to Financial Modelling, our second book is available on Kindle now.

conomic downturns, bushfires, storm damage, pandemics, furloughed staff, Jobkeeper, Jobseeker et al. I think we can all agree 2020 has been a rough ride for everyone.