Today I want to introduce Excel 2010 to you. Excel 2010 is the latest version of spreadsheet software from Microsoft, set to be released for sale in late 2010. On Nov 18th, MS released the public beta of Excel 2010 [download here] along with other Office productivity software.
Excel 2010 has several improvements compared to earlier version – Excel 2007. In this post, I want to highlight some of the User Interface improvements made in Excel 2010 that are very exciting and fun to use.
Preview before pasting
This is another cool feature in Office 2010. When you have some data to paste, now you can preview the paste live before choosing an option. See the illustration to understand how this works.
Collapse Ribbon using a button
Now you can collapse the ribbon using this simple button. No need to double click on ribbon menus to collapse the ribbon.
Bye bye Office button, welcome back “File” menu
With excel 2010, MS is bringing back the “file” menu. When I started using excel 2007, it took me a week to get used to the office button. Now, thankfully the file menu is back.
Double click on chart items to format them
With Excel 2010, you can again click on chart items (like labels, data series, axis, titles etc.) to open the format dialog. This is a nice improvement. Of course, the dialogs are still 2007 like.
Search inside filters (oh, this feels recursive)
When you set auto filters in excel 2010, now you can use a little search bar inside the filter to select the items you want to filter. This makes life lot more simpler for those of you aksing questions like “so how many are from alabama?”
Tables show filters even when you scroll down
Another interesting improvement is that when you make a data table in excel 2010, you will see filters and sort options even when you scroll down.
Excel 2010 UI less flashier than 2007
Excel 2010 UI looks considerably better and less stressful than 2007. The colors are dull and subtle. The icons don’t call for attention unless you want to do something. The menus / ribbons feel smoother and slicker. [Learn to use Excel Ribbon with this Free e-Book]
All new print previews
The print previews are now part of backstage. Printing seems much more easier with excel 2010 than earlier versions.
You can customize ribbon
With Excel 2010, you can customize the ribbon very easily (you can do that in Excel 2007 too, but it is bit more intricate). Just go to Excel options and select “customize ribbon” option. You can make your own ribbon menus and add the buttons / tools you prefer.
[Originally this point read “you can select multiple objects…” but as my good friend Jon pointed, it was a mistake. So I have deleted that part and added a new improvement]
You can select multiple objects using mouse, again
In excel 2003 and earlier, if you had to format multiple objects (like charts, drawings, clip arts etc.) you could use the “select objects” from drawing toolbar (the icon that looks like a mouse pointer). Sadly, MS removed this feature in Excel 2007, so to format multiple objects, we had to manually click on each object while holding SHIFT key. Now, the select objects is back. This can be a time saver if you work with several charts or shapes at a time.
Slicers to filter pivot tables with ease
And of course, the much touted slicers. Slicers are easy to use and make analysis more fun. See the demo.
Have you tried Excel 2010 ?
Did you try excel 2010? If not download it from MS site. Give it a try and let us know what you think about it.
What are the features that you liked / hated?
One Response to “SQL vs. Power Query – The Ultimate Comparison”
Enjoyed your SQL / Power Query podcast (A LOT). I've used SQL a little longer than Chandoo. Power Query not so much.
Today I still use SQL & VBA for my "go to" applications. While I don't pull billions of rows, I do pull millions. I agree with Chandoo about Power Query (PQ) lack of performance. I've tried to benchmark PQ to SQL and I find that a well written SQL will work much faster. Like mentioned in the podcast, my similar conclusion is that SQL is doing the filtering on the server while PQ is pulling data into the local computer and then filtering the data. I've heard about PQ query folding but I still prefer SQL.
My typical excel application will use SQL to pull data from an Enterprise DB. I load data into Structured Tables and/or Excel Power Pivot (especially if there's lot of data).
I like to have a Control Worksheet to enter parameters, display error messages and have user buttons to execute VBA. I use VBA to build/edit parameters used in the SQL. Sometimes I use parameter-based SQL. Sometimes I create a custom SQL String in a hidden worksheet that I then pull into VBA code (these may build a string of comma separated values that's used with a SQL include). Another SQL trick I like to do is tag my data with a YY-MM, YY-QTR, or YY-Week field constructed form a Transaction Date.
In an application, I like to create a dashboard(s) that may contain hyperlinks that allow the end-user to drill into data. Sometimes the hyperlink will point to worksheet and sometimes to a supporting workbook. In some cases, I use a double click VBA Macro that will pull additional data and direct the user to a supplemental worksheet or pivot table.
In recent years I like Dynamic Formulas & Lambda Functions. I find this preferable to pivot tales and slicers. I like to use a Lambda in conjunction with a cube formula to pull data from a power pivot data model. I.E. a Lambda using a cube formula to aggregate Accounting Data by a general ledger account and financial period. Rather than present info in a power pivot table, you can use this combination to easily build financial reports in a format that's familiar to Accounting Professionals.
One thing that PQ does very well is consolidating data from separate files. In the old days this was always a pain.
I've found that using SQL can be very trying (even for someone with experience). It's largely an iterative process. Start simple then use Xlookup (old days Match/Index). Once you get the relationships correct you can then use SQL joins to construct a well behaved SQL statement.
Most professional enterprise systems offer a schema that's very valuable for constructing SQL statements. For any given enterprise system there's often a community of users that will share SQL. I.E. MS Great Plains was a great source (but I haven't used them in years).
Hope this long reply has value - keep up the good work.