The best part of the Summit, as always, were the interactions with the Excel Product Group. These are the people who design the next great features, and fight for resources to fix the last great bugs. Yes, they do hear us, and take our comments to heart. But as in all corporations, Microsoft’s apparently limitless resources are divided among apparently limitless products, based on limitless internal squabbling and back room trading. So introduction of the new takes precedence over fixing of the old, and that Xbox glitch is higher priority than this Office problem. Reminds me of my old corporate days, but I digress.

I learned a great deal at the Summit, and I want to touch on a few areas:

• Excel for the Macintosh
• PowerPivot
• Excel Web App
• Future Directions in Excel Charting

A lot of this is available today, so I can discuss it freely. Some of it is new and subject to NDA, so I will not be able to divulge much, lest Microsoft send a stream of high energy electrons through the intertubes and fry my hard drive.

So this is what I got out of the Summit this year. I will be writing more about these topics in the coming weeks.

Excel for the Macintosh

Microsoft’s first version of Excel came out on the Mac, but by Excel 2000, the Windows version had leapt ahead. The biggest problem with this discrepancy from my point of view is the fact that Mac Excel still had the old version of VBA that shipped with Excel 97, while Excel 2000 introduced an upgrade with a slew of new commands. Office 2008 for the Mac didn’t even have VBA at all. So my mantra for ages has been that my tutorials may not work on the Mac, and my utilities were geared for Windows only. Even their .exe setup files would crash on the Mac.

Well, that’s different now. Mac Office 2011 comes with the same fancy VBA that ships with Windows Office 2010. So the Mac guys that comprise something like 6% of my readership have reason to upgrade to the latest, and I have reason to learn some new tricks. The most important aspect of this change, at least for my business, is that with some small modifications, my utilities will work on a Mac. That’s right, Peltier Tech will do Mac.

For months I’ve been planning a massive refactoring of my utilities, to take advantage of their shared code and to make them easier to install. The news about Mac VBA is just the push I needed. I’ve refactored my Waterfall Chart Utility, and it’s in testing now (like I have to use Application.PathSeparator instead of “\”). I have no direct access to a Mac, so I’m relying on colleagues to help with this. If you want to be my colleague, comment on this post, and I’ll include the first several volunteers in this effort.

PowerPivot

When I first read about PowerPivot, I guess I was a little impressed. I mean, millions of rows in fractions of a second, pretty cool. But it required Excel 2010, and I haven’t moved my important personal work beyond Excel 2003 yet. And so I never really tried it, and I stopped reading about it.

But I’ve learned it’s more than just a big list manager. It is smart, intuitive and intuitive when combining data from disparate sources, which greatly reduces the manual component of data processing. And it has some nice features built around displaying the results of its analysis. I’m not sure how much of the graphics capabilities are available now, but the next release will be smooth and intuitive (and slick) in its operation.

Excel Web App

The Office Web Apps is another feature I looked at and didn’t do much with in prior versions. I was not expecting much going into the hands-on demo, but after about five minutes I was hooked. The in-browser capabilities of the web app is a bit simplistic, but still useful. And the workbooks round-trip into the Excel client (the one on your own computer) smoothly, so you can pretty things up and shoot the workbook back to the web. You can make the web pieces dynamic, so changing a value in a cell will fire calculations that change other cells and charts.

One reason I’d left the web app to the side was its need for SharePoint Server, but I learned that the latest version of the web app works on SkyDrive, Microsoft’s version of online cloud data storage. The SharePoint version has somewhat broader capabilities, at a price beyond many smaller companies, but the SkyDrive version still rocks. There’s also something more advanced called Office 365 on the horizon, which I can’t talk about (partly NDA, partly my own inattention).

Future Directions in Excel Charting

Okay, here’s where I can’t say much, because Microsoft knows where I live. What I can say is that I like what Microsoft is thinking about and starting to do for charting in the next version of Excel. A lot of the issues in Excel 2007/2010 charts and in the whole charting interface and user experience are being addressed. I’d like to see more, and share any details as soon as Microsoft tells me it’s okay. For now, all I can say is that I think I’ll be happy.

And The Best Part

As I was traveling home, I learned that I’d won an Xbox Kinect Bundle. It’s being shipped, and my daughter can hardly wait for it to arrive. She’s already planning which games she wants me to buy.

So thanks Microsoft for the Xbox, and thanks for the Summit.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

The training balances Jon’s highly technical expertise in Excel charting with Alex’s extensive experience in data driven business dashboarding.

Tuition for the all-day, hands-on program is $300, with discounts for early registration. This fee includes meals and breaks during the day plus all course materials. Participants need to bring their own laptops.

For more details, or to register for the class, visit the Excel Charting and Dashboarding home page.

Program Outline

Morning Session

Dashboards 1 – Alex

• Introduction
• Data Quality
• Dashboard Design
• Dashboard Elements

Advanced Excel Charting 1 – Jon

• Appropriate Chart Data
• Chart Types
• Formatting
• Combination Charts
• Dynamic and Interactive Charts

Afternoon Session

Advanced Excel Charting 2 – Jon

• Conditional Chart Formatting
• Error Bars
• Custom Chart Types You Didn’t Think Excel Could Make

Dashboards 2 – Alex

• Excel as a Dashboard Platform
• Dealing with Excel Versions
• Sparkline Add-ins
• Wrap Up

Program Details

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
8 am to 5 pm

DoubleTree Hotel
5400 Computer Drive
Westborough, MA 01581

Tuition includes conference materials, food, beverages
– $300 base price
– $250 before April 15
– $275 before May 8

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

Excel and Access Power User Workshop

Dallas TX, April 20 – April 22

Microsoft MVPs Dick Kusleika (Daily Dose of Excel) and Mike Alexander (DataPig Technologies) bring you our first ever Excel and Access Power User Workshop! The topics presented during this 3-day workshop will help you go beyond basic spreadsheets and databases, and implement robust professional-grade solutions. Learn how to:

• Move Data between Excel and Access using MSQuery and SQL
• Use ADO Scripting to build robust data entry models in Excel
• Automate Excel from Access
• Run Access Processes from Excel
• Automate Outlook Interactions
• Build client-side solutions that use SQL server as the back end
• Improve your VBA skills, going beyond simple Functions and Procedures

Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp

Dallas TX, April 27 – April 29

Microsoft MVPs Jon Peltier (Peltier Technical Services) and Mike Alexander (DataPig Technologies) are joining together again to bring you our acclaimed Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp! This 3-day boot camp is designed for Excel users who need to more effectively synthesize data into meaningful dashboards, charts, and visualizations. Learn how to:

• Synthesize data in meaningful views with advanced charting techniques
• Automate creation and formatting of charts and dashboards
• Create reports and dashboards that communicate and get noticed
• Create interactive reporting mechanisms
• Implement macro-charged reporting
• Automate the creation of PowerPoint slides directly from Excel
• Integrate external data into your reports

Don’t miss these great opportunities to learn from the experts. If you have specific questions, contact Mike Alexander.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

Microsoft MVPs Jon Peltier (Peltier Technical Services) and Mike Alexander (DataPig Technologies) are joining together to host our third Excel Dashboard and Visualization Boot Camp! The last two events were hugely successful, and we can’t wait to do it again.

The conference will be held on Tuesday through Thursday, April 27-29, 2010, in Frisco, Texas (just north of Dallas).

This 3-day boot camp is designed for Excel users who need to more effectively synthesize data into meaningful dashboards, charts, and visualizations. The topics presented during this boot camp will introduce you to advanced techniques that will help you build and manage better reporting mechanisms. Going beyond simple tables and charts, you will learn to:

• Synthesize data in meaningful views with advanced charting techniques
• Create dashboards that communicate and get noticed
• Create interactive dashboarding mechanisms
• Implement macro-charged reporting
• Automate the creation of PowerPoint slides directly from Excel
• Integrate external data into your reports

The boot camp will follow this three day agenda, with each day comprising two in-depth classes:

Day 1: Visualization Best Practices

• Tips for Building Excel Dashboards
  Mike Alexander
• Advanced Charting Techniques
  Jon Peltier

Day 2: Building Report Interactivity

• Building Interactive Reporting
  Mike Alexander
• Automating Excel Charting with VBA
  Jon Peltier

Day 3: Integration Techniques

• Integrating Excel and PowerPoint
  Jon Peltier
• Using External Data in Excel Reporting
  Mike Alexander

For information and registration, visit the link below:

Excel Dashboard and Visualization Boot Camp
Jon Peltier and Mike Alexander
Tuesday through Thursday, April 27-29, 2010
Frisco, TX

If you have specific questions, contact Mike Alexander.

The classes I will be teaching are described in more detail on the PTS Advanced Excel Training Classes page.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

Day 1

• Bob Umlas – Intermediate VBA
• Jon Peltier – Advanced Excel Charting

Day 2

• Jon Peltier – Using Excel and PowerPoint Together
• Bob Umlas – VBA UserForms

For a more detailed outline of these classes and more information about the locale, see Advanced Excel Conference.

Bob Umlas and Jon Peltier

For the past few years, the  Excel User Conference has held an East Coast session in Atlantic City, and Bob and I have both taken part in these conferences. This year the organizer of the conference was unable to manage the conference, so I decided to step in. Bob’s and my Advanced Excel Conference conference will be changed somewhat from previous Excel User Conferences, in that we will hold a single stream of sessions, so attendees will not have to decide which topic to attend.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

Microsoft MVPs Jon Peltier (Peltier Technical Services) and Mike Alexander (DataPig Technologies) are joining together to host our second Excel Dashboard and Visualization Boot Camp! Last October’s event was a huge success, and we can’t wait to do it again.

The conference will be held on Wednesday through Friday, May 20-22, 2009, in Frisco, Texas (just north of Dallas).

This 3-day boot camp is designed for Excel users who need to more effectively synthesize data into meaningful dashboards, charts, and visualizations. The topics presented during this boot camp will introduce you to advanced techniques that will help you build and manage better reporting mechanisms. Going beyond simple tables and charts, you will learn to:

• Synthesize data in meaningful views with advanced charting techniques
• Create dashboards that communicate and get noticed
• Create interactive dashboarding mechanisms
• Implement macro-charged reporting
• Automate the creation of PowerPoint slides directly from Excel
• Integrate external data into your reports

The boot camp will follow this three day agenda, with each day comprising two in-depth classes:

Day 1: Visualization Best Practices

• Tips for Building Excel Dashboards
  Mike Alexander
• Advanced Charting Techniques
  Jon Peltier

Day 2: Building Report Interactivity

• Building Interactive Reporting
  Mike Alexander
• Automating Excel Charting with VBA
  Jon Peltier

Day 3: Integration Techniques

• Integrating Excel and PowerPoint
  Jon Peltier
• Using External Data in Excel Reporting
  Mike Alexander

For information and registration, visit the link below:

Excel Dashboard and Visualization Boot Camp
Jon Peltier and Mike Alexander
Wednesday through Friday, May 20-22, 2009
Frisco, TX

If you have specific questions, contact Mike Alexander.

The classes I will be teaching are described in more detail on the PTS Advanced Excel Training page.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2011.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.