For the superstitious among us, breaking a mirror can mean 10 years of bad luck. But it doesn’t have to. In PowerPoint, you can create an interesting visual effect by projecting a single image over multiple, grouped objects.

Just imagine taking the image of sunset and scattering it over individual shapes so that they, like a mirror, reflect the image back to you such as in these impressive photos.

Similar effects are easily accomplished in PowerPoint through what we like to call the broken mirror effect.

What’s behind intriguing slides

The key role of PowerPoint slides is to help support the messages you want the audience to take away from your presentation.

So, adding shapes and images to a slide that emphasize the message and keep the audience engaged is your best bet to ensure that the audience has understood the key takeaways. And the broken mirror effect can do just that.

For example, the slides below announce a discussion on big data. The image emphasizes the complexity of data connections.

• In Slide A, the image fills each of the rectangle shapes. This is a repetitive result.
• In Slide B, the image spreads across the shapes. This keeps it from overloading the slide. It creates an impression of puzzle-like construction. This is the method you’ll pick up today.

Two Functionalities

To create a broken mirror effect that shows an image similar to Slide B,  you should use the following two part process::

Part one: Group

Grouping shapes in PowerPoint forms one object that makes it possible to perform actions such as moving or resizing on all the shapes at once.

1. Once you have selected all the shapes you need, group them by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G (windows).

Part two: Fill

To spread your image across the shapes, you'll have to fill them.

1. Access the Picture Shape Fill option by going to the Shape Fill command on the Home or Format tab. Now you can select Picture.
2. In the Insert Picture dialog box, locate the folder that contains the picture you want to use. Then, select the image and click Open.

See the whole process in the following animation.

Keep in mind that grouping the shapes first is crucial to get to this result. If you skip this step, the entire picture fills each shape, which, as we have shown, is a different effect (like Slide A).

Ungrouping does not take you back

A likely scenario you might run into is ungrouping shapes filled with an image. Interestingly enough, the result is the repetitive effect. All the shapes appear filled with the same image as Slide A.

To spread the image across these shapes like Slide B again, you’ll have to start over.

See for yourself

With the broken mirror effect, you can turn a run-of-the-mill image into a spectacular visual on your slide. Try it out a couple of times and next time you want to use it, it will take only a few seconds!

For more, sign-up at 5miles today for a free two-week trial, choose the PowerPoint track that's right for you, and see how much more efficient you can be with PowerPoint.

Microsoft Teams’ Meet now function creates an instant meeting with others for when you need to turn a team conversation into a quick meeting. This option is great for users who communicate best while face to face, is faster than waiting for all participants to respond to a message in a team's channel or group chat, and is great for those without meeting scheduling rights to host a meeting as it’s available to everyone.

But starting an instant meeting in MS Teams is not the most formal approach to hosting a meeting and it doesn’t allow attendees a lot of time to prepare. So, if you have a long list of topics to cover, it’s best to organize a formal meeting first.

Different ways to meet

The Meet now option can be found in three locations: In the Calendar tab, and from a Team’s channel:

The Calendar Tab

• You can find the Meet now option in the top right, next to the + New meeting button.
• To start an instant meeting from the Calendar tab, you only need to select the Meet now option and then type the names of the teammates you would like to invite to the meeting, and then join it.

A team’s channel

There are three different ways you can activate the Meet now option from a team’s channel:

• Option one: By selecting the Meet now option from the Meet drop-down menu in the top right corner of the channel. This option invites all team members from the channel.

• Option two: By clicking on the Meet now icon under the message box of that channel. Selecting this option invites all members of the channel.

• Option three: By clicking the Reply option from below any post in a team’s channel and selecting the Meet now icon. This option invites all team members from the channel, but lets you focus on specific posts that were shared.

Invitations to Meet now

There are two ways to invite people to the instant meeting you initiated from the Calendar tab: by personal invitation and by link.

- Personal invitation: After initiating a Meet now meeting and selecting Join now, you can send a personal invite to someone to join the instant meeting by navigating to the People pane in the top right corner and typing the name or phone number of a person or people you want to invite.

- Link: Once you have initiated a meeting from the Meet now option and selected Join now, you can provide users a link to join the instant meeting by navigating to the People pane and selecting the Copy for link in the top right corner and pasting it to a one-on-one or group chat or a different channel.

Instant success with quick catch-ups

Instant meetings are great when one-on-one or group (team) discussions should move a bit faster, if a comment needs clarity, or if you just want to hear from your colleagues in person rather than through messaging.

So, for a quick catch-up with your colleagues, grab a cup of coffee and try reaching them using the Meet now function in MS Teams.

If that doesn’t work,  sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial now and continue learning about different meeting options through one of our four different Microsoft Teams tracks

In Power BI, if you are working with large amounts of data it is important to understand the relationship between the data points to analyse and then visualize the resulting graphs and create an accurate report.

Establishing the relationships between the data points in a Power BI data model allows you to connect the visuals. It is possible to create several relationships between two tables. Most of the time, the first created relationship will be considered as the “active” one. The other one(s) will be considered as “inactive.” These active and inactive relationships determine how the visuals will react when the visual is being interacted with.

First base relationship

The active relationship is the default filter propagation path between two model tables. This means that the active relationship will be used in the visual when filtering is needed. The best practice is to create active relationships for the most used filter path.

It's possible to introduce additional relationship paths, though these relationships must all be configured as inactive.

Inactive relationships can only be made active via DAX functions. It is achieved by using the USERELATIONSHIP DAX function.

Recognizing and making (in)active relationships

Active

A relationship is active when the line between the model tables is solid, which means that the Active checkbox in the Manage relationships window and the checkbox Make this relationship active, in the Edit relationship menu, are checked.

Inactive

A relationship is inactive when the line between the model tables is dotted. The checkbox Active in the Manage relationships window and the checkbox Make this relationship active in the Edit relationship menu are unchecked.

Be aware that there can only be one active filter propagation path between two model tables. So, if you want to change one relationship from inactive to active, you must first make the active one inactive and then the inactive one active.

Relationship effects

When making the active relationship to inactive so that another relationship becomes the active one, you implicitly change the default filter propagation path.

It is important to note that this could have a big impact on the design of your report.

Spurious correlations

Don’t look for relationships where there aren’t any. Keep your Power BI data models organized and the relationships between them clear using the (in)active status.

If you’re stumped on how to progress in Power BI, sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial and explore the 70 different Power BI Challenges that can improve your data modelling process.

If you have been working with Excel for a while, you’ll likely have run into a situation in which you would need to swap the contents of two adjacent cells or ranges. Mostly, this might be due to the data not being correctly entered or just to reorder the columns.

If this is something you have run into, then it’s also likely that you have either swapped the contents manually or added a new column, cut and paste the data from the first column to the new column, and then deleted the blank column in order for the data to be where you want it to be.

Considering this, wouldn’t it be useful to have a less time-consuming way to adjust the location of data, especially for a large dataset? Luckily, there is, it just takes a few tries to get the hang of it.

How to swap

To swap data in adjacent cells or ranges, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell or range you want to swap.
2. Move the cursor to the right border of the selected area until it changes from a regular cross to a 4-sided arrow.
3. Press and hold down Shift and drag the selection to the right border of the next cell or range.
4. Release the mouse when the "工" sign is displayed and then release Shift.

The animation below shows these steps in action. Pay close attention to the change the cursor undergoes to see when swapping the data is possible.

Swap for perfection

This swapping technique has the potential to really save you some time when working with large amounts of data, though you’ll need to practice it a bit before you can say as such. So, apply a few times for practice and watch as your efficiency and productivity in Excel increase.

There are so many useful functions and tools you can use in Excel to ensure that your data is structured correctly. However, they aren’t always that easy to find. So, sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial and become an Excel insider today

As a writer, there are times when I must practice the gruesome deed of killing my darlings. Don’t worry, this isn’t actual murder… It refers to the practice of making my work more concise by eliminating unnecessary words, phrases, and sometimes entire paragraphs.

This bittersweet exercise is occasionally regretful, especially when I could have used some of my content later. If you work with written content such as e-mails, you’ve likely experienced this at some point as well.

Lucky for you, Outlook’s Quick Parts lets you save reusable content.

Add, Modify, and Delete

Having and creating standard, reusable content that is easily accessible and even easier to share while working in Outlook can improve the efficiency and quality of your messages.

The Quick Parts feature allows you to save unique, reusable pieces of content (parts of e-mail messages) by saving it as a Building block in a gallery.

To Add a Quick Parts

Follow the steps below to add content as a Quick Part (create a new Building block).

1. In a new message window, select the text you want to add as a Quick Parts
2. On the Insert tab, Text group, select the Quick Parts drop-down menu
3. Click Save selection to Quick Parts Gallery
4. In the Building blocks dialog box, fill out the fields: Name; Gallery which is where the Building Block will be saved; Category; Description; Save in
5. For the Options drop-down menu select: Insert in its own paragraph, Insert content in its own page, or Insert content only.

Once you have created a Quick Parts Building Block (the general name for the saved, reusable content), you can apply it whenever and wherever you want in outgoing messages.

To apply a Quick Parts Building block

1. Open a new message and place the cursor where you want to insert the Building block (that you can find in the Quick Parts gallery).

2. From the Text group in the Insert tab, click on the Quick Parts drop-down menu and then select the Building block thumbnail you want to insert. Once selected, the Building block will automatically be inserted where you placed your cursor.

To modify a Quick Parts Building block

It is not possible to edit content that has been saved as Quick Parts Building block.

To delete a Quick Parts Building block

1. Open a new message and select the Auto text option. Right-click on one of the Auto Texts, select Organize and Delete, and then select the specific Building block and click Delete

Quick Parts Gallery

Auto Texts are a type of gallery you can save a Quick Part Building block to for easy access.

While you will more than likely stick to using the Quick Parts and Auto Texts as galleries for your Building blocks, you can save as many galleries as entries (content).

Savour your darlings

Next time you find yourself using copy and paste in Outlook, give the Quick Parts function a try and see how it improves your efficiency in creating new or responding to messages.

For more time-saving Outlook functions, sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial and start one of the three Outlook tracks today!

If you are working on a VBA model, and you want to make it look even smoother, you can link your macros to ActiveX command buttons.

ActiveX Controls allow you to create not only clickable buttons, but also to create fields for user input. For example, these fields can be personalized for the kind of input required or the number of characters an input field can contain. Examples of ActiveX Controls are buttons, check boxes, text boxes, and list boxes.

ActiveX Controls can be found in the Controls group on the Developer Tab, under the Insert command. From the Insert command, you can choose either a Form control or an ActiveX Control as shown in the image below.

The ActiveX command button is the most widely used ActiveX Control. And there are a few advantages to using ActiveX Controls rather than basic Forms Control.

• ActiveX Controls allow for flexible design requirements
• ActiveX Controls have extensive properties settings that you can use to customize their appearance, behaviour, fonts, and other characteristics.
• ActiveX Controls can be used on UserForms and not only in worksheets.
• ActiveX Controls can be used as objects in codes

Linking ActiveX Controls to macros

As soon as you click View Code in the Developer tab, or right-click the ActiveX command button in Design Mode and select View Code, Excel creates a macro that is linked to the button.

With ActiveX command buttons, the macro you want to link to the button is written after the button is created. Whereas when using normal shapes, the macro is written first and then it is simply selected in the dialog box when assigning the macro.

Triggering the macro

By default, ActiveX buttons are triggered when you left-click them. This can easily be changed through the Code window in the VB Editor. The two most commonly used triggers are the single-click and the double-click.

To change the trigger first you need to add the macro connected to a single-click, and then to add the macro for the double-click.

Note that this doesn’t work in combination with the single-click. So, you need to remove the single-click for the double-click to work.

Alter ActiveX Control properties

Formatting the ActiveX button requires you to have access to Design Mode as only then can you right-click the button and show its properties. To enter Design Mode, go to the Developer tab, and then Design Mode.

An alternative way to access the properties of an ActiveX button is to select the button, go to the Developer tab, and open Properties (Excel still needs to be in Design mode).

Referring to ActiveX Controls

It's possible to refer to an ActiveX control in your macro, just like you can refer to worksheets, workbooks, and other Excel objects. But when you refer to an ActiveX control, you must ensure that you refer to the name of the control and not the text displayed on the control.

Sign-up at 5miles today for a free two-week trial and see how much nicer your VBA model can look after you complete the 70+ VBA Challenges.

SmartArt is a set of built-in graphical representations that combine shapes and text. They allow you to communicate business information visually rather than textually.

If you want to create a SmartArt graphic from scratch, you can do so via the Illustrations group on the Insert tab.

In PowerPoint, the SmartArt command opens the "Choose a SmartArt Graphic" dialog box, shown below.

The different options allow you to insert a diagram, a flow-chart, or a matrix, and then add text and adjust its design. For each graphic, you can see a preview and read a brief description of the instances it is most useful for.

The place for bullet lists

Bullet lists are useful early in the slide creation process but are lacking when placed onto a slide. So, opt for a more creative way to convey your ideas.

For an example, take a look at Slide A. It is a very dull slide that lists the 6 stages of a sales cycle. While Slide B shows these stages as an actual cycle and is visually more attractive.

And you only need one tool – SmartArt.

To convert the bullet list directly into a SmartArt graphic using these steps:

1. Select the text box which contains the bullet list
2. Go to the Paragraph group on the Home tab and open the Convert to SmartArt menu
3. Choose a graphic option
4. Adjust the result

Fine-tune the graphics

The SmartArt Tools Design and Format tab offer many options to fine-tune the graphic. Note, that depending on the type of graphic, not all options will be available at all times.

Here are the most useful commands available on the Design tab:

• Add Shape: each click on this command adds one shape to the graphic and places it in a default location.
• Text pane: allows you to type and organize the text in the shapes.
• Layouts: provides different visual options for the type of graphic selected.

Break-ups made easy

SmartArt graphics consist of closely grouped shapes that can, nonetheless, be taken apart easily and often as you may just need one of the shapes on its own.

To break the SmartArt graphic into its parts, you need to ungroup the SmartArt and the shapes it contains.

The quickest way is to use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + G.

Press it once to turn the SmartArt into a group of shapes. And press it again to ungroup the shapes and obtain individual shapes you can handle separately.

Keep in mind, there is no way back

Deconstructing a SmartArt only takes a few seconds, but consider these two consequences:

• You lose the dynamic nature of the SmartArt graphic, which makes it harder to add, delete and reorder elements.
• You would have to recreate the graphic from scratch or use Ctrl + Shift + Z.

So, while make sure to only convert a graphic to individual shapes when you are sure you no longer need to edit or use the graphic.

Don't hold back

Looking for more insight into how to construct visually stunning PowerPoint slides or shortcuts that can cut down on the design time of said slides?  Sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial and develop your designer’s eye while building unique slides and improving your PowerPoint skills today!

VBA stands for Visual Basic for Application in Excel. This is a powerful built-in programming language that allows you to write your own functions or commands in an Excel spreadsheet.

When you use the VBA programming language to write out a task, it is called a macro. VBA macros carry allow you to automate tasks in Excel.

Once you have established a functional macro, there are usually some possibilities to improve its structure and speed.

Ready for Improvements

Depending on the macro you created, making adjustments to its structure can impact its overall accuracy and speed. And some improvements are more easily accomplished than others. Consider the following example:

If you write a VBA macro that produces lots of on-screen action, by simply turning off screen updating, you can significantly speed it up.

To do so, execute this statement:

Now, if your macro uses a custom dialog box, it's important to make sure to turn screen updating back on before displaying the UserForm. Otherwise, moving the dialog box on the screen leaves an ugly trail.

The following are general macro tricks (methods) you can apply to improve your VBA macros structure and speed. But remember, how you improve your macro should be dependent on what you want it to accomplish.

Exit statements

Exact Lookup functions in Excel stop looking for matches once they have returned the first match. This is done to reduce the calculation time of a Lookup function. Why would you keep looking for a match when you have already found one?

For this reason, it is possible to build an Exit in your loops. If you want to find a name in a table, there is no point in continuing to search once you have found the name, right? This will only increase the runtime. So, adding an Exit statement can improve the structure and runtime of your macro.

• Adding an Exit statement: The way to exit a loop depends on the type of loop you are using. Check out the table below to see the different Exit statement.

Consider the following Exit statements and see the following image to see the difference between the two: For loop -> Exit For and Do loop -> Exit Do.

As you can see, the blue blocks show an Exit Do in a Do loop and the orange blocks show an Exit For in a For Next loop.

• If the Exit argument is coupled to an If...Then function in the loop, during each run of the loop, Excel checks whether the condition is met. If it is, it exits the loop.
• You can use an Exit statement when working with loops. However, keep in mind that it is often possible to create an Exit statement in the condition of the loop. For example, the Exit statement ‘For x = 1 to 10’ can easily be omitted by replacing it with ‘For x = 1 to 5’.

Watch your variables with the Watch window

Variables help you keep your code organized and make it easy to follow. They also help you to perform some neat actions such as loops and triggers. All in all, they are very useful. However, in longer pieces of code there might be numerous variables and it can be hard to keep track of them all. If your code doesn’t work, the chances are that there is something wrong with your variables.

To improve your VBA macros’ structure, use the Watch window. This lets you watch the variables you are interested in, even if they show up as "out of context" which means that they are not active at that moment.

To add a variable to the Watch window, right click it in the Code window and choose Add Watch. At the Add Watch menu you can adjust the different options, or you can directly click OK. The Watch window will automatically appear, and it will show the variable you have just added. See the following animation for an example.

Closing the Watch window (x) will not remove any Watches; they’ll still be present when you reopen the window. In order to delete a watch, right click it in the Watch window and select Delete Watch.

Remember that when your code creates and error, you have to debug.

Warp speed

In general, simplifying the structure of your macro (or making it more precise) not only improves its structure but its speed as well. If you're looking for your macros to go warp speed, consider the following tips:

• Turn off ‘Automatic Calculations’: This prevents calculations from occurring while executing or running macro. This allows you to wait until a set of actions have been completed and instruct calculations to update at the end once, rather than after every update.
• Disable Events: This will help prevent or stop endless loops while executing or running macros, especially if you have worksheet or workbook event
• Edit Recorded Macros by removing Select: The Select method can cause macros to be slow and prone to runtime errors because it is explicitly referring to one or more specific ranges, sheets, or shapes. So, its good practice to review the code for Select and change them to Range references.

Go with the flow

By judiciously applying any the above improvement tricks (methods), you can ensure your macro has the best structure and is running at top speed. Continue learning through our extensive VBA track with over 70 Challenges. Sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial now.

It’s often difficult to remember the precise details of a rule that has been imposed by another, but setting our own rules seems to ensure that you remember and follow them or at least expect others to.

In these technological times, we have programs and apps such as Outlook that can not only remember our rules but apply them without even so much as an afterthought from us.

With Outlook, you can create numerous rules and set-up alerts for anything you want, and the program will remember all the details and automate the process for you.

Rules and Alerts

There are three ways to create rules and alerts in Outlook: on the Ribbon, by right-clicking on the message, and through custom rules and alerts.

• On the Ribbon, you can apply the new rule or alerts to the e-mail you are viewing as well as future incoming e-mails. To do so, select Create Rule from the Rules drop-down menu from the Move group in the Home tab of the Ribbon. In the Create Rule dialog box that appears, you can select all the applicable conditions.

• Right-click on the e-mail you want to create a rule or alert for, from the menu select Rule and click on Create Rule. Then, select the parameters you’d like the rule to follow.

• Custom Rules and Alerts can be applied to all messages (incoming and outgoing). Navigate to the File tab and select Manage Rules & Alerts. Click New Rule on the E-mail Rules tab in the Rules and Alerts dialog box, and then adjust the options as you wish.

Rules Wizard

In the Create Rules dialog box, you can click on Advanced Options to get to the Rules Wizard. This is a list of commands that allow you to further customize the rule you are creating.

Despite all the advanced rules options to make a rule or alert specific, there are actually only three different styles of rules you can create:

• Organizational rules that filter, file (relocate), and follow-up with e-mails
• Notification rules (alerts) that help you to stay up to date on e-mails that fit your specific criteria
• Customized rules that are rules you create without a template are nearly infinite in their construction.

Increase your efficiency

Now that you know how to apply and create Rules and Alerts, automate the organization of your e-mails and stop getting annoyed having to manually move e-mails around.

Instead, keep Outlook as a reliable communications source rather than a sore point in your daily routine by signing up at 5miles and starting one of the three Outlook learning tracks during your first two-week free trial.

In Excel, when the number of ranges build up, or when you use a workbook you didn’t create, it can be difficult to recall the location and underlying data. Not being able to recall the location of specific value or a range becomes a problem when you want to change assumptions or data defined in it.

Did you know that you can assign a specific, logical, or easy to remember name to an Excel range? In doing so, you can simplify referencing and better understand formulas when trying to locate the range.

There are three different ways that Excel makes locating cells (values) and named ranges, easier: the Name box, the Dialog box, and the Name Manager.

• The Name Manager allows you to work with all the defined names and table names in a workbook to find names with errors, confirm the value and reference of a name, view or edit descriptive comments, or determine the scope.
• Both the Name box and the Dialog box allow you to navigate to the searched for item.

But the fastest way to navigate around your worksheet to such locations as a specific value or a named range, is through the Name box.

Through the Name box

The Name box is in the top left corner of your worksheet, next to the Formula bar.

When selecting a range in an Excel worksheet, the name of that range appears in the Name box.

You can use the Name box to speedily get you to a specified range to identify and edit the information connected to it as necessary.

Be ready to give a name

There are two approaches to navigating to a named range through the Name box:

1. Click on the drop-down menu arrow on the right side of the Name box, and select the name you want to navigate to from the drop-down list:

2. Type the exact name of the named range you want to navigate to in the Name box, and press Enter.

Note: If you don’t enter the exact name of the range, you will give the currently selected cell the name you’ve just typed into the Name box, so be careful.

Name it and keep going

While there are many ways to navigate through your Excel workbook, if you are looking for a specific value or named range, using the Name Box is the solution.

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In Power BI, you are building reports based on data that has been visualized. Therefore, a large portion of your focus is on the appearance of the visualizations and icons that represent the data.

Now if you want the icons in your visuals to effectively represent and transmit data to other users through their appearance, you must first ensure that they are set to On.

There are two possible ways to adjust the use of Power BI icons in your matrix or table (set them to On/Off):

1. Go to the Format pane, under Conditional formatting, and select the field you want the conditional format to be applied to. Then, you turn the Icon option to On (or Off if you want to disable the icons).

2. Go to the Format pane, right-click a value field, select Conditional formatting in the menu, and then choose Icons.

To deselect the use of icons in this menu, click on the option Remove conditional formatting and then choose Icons.

Default settings for icons

The default settings for Power BI icons consist of:

• Format by rules
• Based on the value in the selected measure
• Three icons: red, yellow, and green, each represent a percentage range of the selected measures.

The following image shows the default settings with a 33% range of the selected measures.

Setting Conditional formatting

The actions above show you how to activate icons in your matrix or tables, but did you know that there are several other conditional formatting options to choose from to make icons more appealing?

Below is a list of other conditional formatting options you can use to adjust your icons.

• Format by Rules is the basic setting of the conditional formatting for icons. Selecting this setting allows you to create a set of rules to show an icon.
• Format by Field value uses a field containing a (custom) icon file as a source for the icon. Under the section 'Based on field,' select the field to base the formatting on.
• Icon layout: There are three options for the layout of the icon: Left of the data, Right of the data, and Icon only.
• Icon alignment: Icons can be aligned at the Top, Middle, or Bottom of the cell.
• Icon style:  There are several standard styles for visualization of the data with an icon from the Selection pane Style. The selected style will automatically add one rule if you pick an option with four icons.
• Reverse icon order: This option reverses the order of your icons to the rule settings. For example, the default settings shows the bottom 33% will be a green circle, the middle 33% remains the yellow triangle, and the top 33% will be a red diamond.
• New rule: Selecting the New rule option adds a rule to the existing rule lines. You can delete a rule by selecting the cross at the right of the rule line.

Creating rules and selecting icons

Under Rules, you can code your own rules (1) and select icons to comply (2).

1. The coding of the rules can be a bit confusing. You can work with absolute numbers and with percentages. You can also use maximum and minimum referring to the values that there are on the data.
2. It’s important that you practice a little with the setting of the rule. To check your outcome, you can use the icon type left or right of the data.

Make sure to practice with the settings of the rule. To check your outcome, you can use the icon type left or right of the data.

Make your own Power BI icon

As visuals and icons represent the information found in your data, it’s important you understand how and when to apply them. So, try to add and customize an icon in your Power BI report by using the different Conditional Formatting options.

Power BI is a powerful program that allows you to visualize your data. Would you like to further improve your skills?

Start one of the three, 20+ Challenge Power BI tracks by signing up at 5miles for a free two-week trial now and expand on what you have learned here.

In Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) you can put fancy signs (see the image below) on your profile to inform your colleagues of your availability status. You can change your MS Teams status throughout the day which lets colleagues know when you are available for communication. Both the desktop and mobile application of MS Teams have the same standard statuses:

• Available, for when you are active in the MS Teams app and there isn’t anything scheduled in your calendar.
• Busy, if you are working on something and wouldn’t like to be disturbed, but still want to receive notifications.
• Do not disturb, when you want to silence all notifications and not be disturbed.
• Be right back, for when you are temporarily away. It’s never set automatically.
• Appear away, for if you are working and you don’t want to respond right away to notifications.

Notice how status has a colour or a colour and symbol bubble? Depending on your status, that bubble will appears near your profile icon. This is a quick indication of your status that your colleagues can see right away when they search for you in MS Teams. When you change your status, the status bubble near your profile icon will also change to reflect your new status.

Note that the Reset status option functions as a way to return your current status to Available.

Tip: The only status that silences all notifications is Do not disturb. All the other statuses apart from the Available status show that you are not available, but they permit the notifications to pop-up.

Three ways to change

There are two ways to change your status from the MS Teams desktop application, and one way from the mobile application (three ways in total):

Desktop

1. Profile icon in desktop: You can easily locate and change your status in MS Teams desktop by selecting your profile icon in the top right corner and navigating to the first row under your name.

2.      Command Box in desktop: To change your availability using the Command Box, all you need to do is type a backslash (/) and then the status you want such as /available, /busy, /dnd (do not disturb), etc. Remember, the Command Box is only available on desktop.

Mobile

3.      Mobile menu: To locate and change your status from the mobile application you can just tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner and then tap on the first row under your name to see the options.

Relax with the appropriate sign

It's really helpful to let your team know when you're available and how quickly you can respond to messages. So, make sure to update your MS Teams status based on your schedule to facilitate more efficient communication with your colleagues.

Continue learning about adjustable settings, unique video meeting options, and ways to improve communications in Microsoft Teams by signing up at 5miles for a free two-week trial. Start one of the 40 different Microsoft Teams Challenges today!

When you are working on a Power BI report or dataset sometimes the fastest way to get answers from your data is to ask questions. In Power BI, you can pose questions to your data using the Q&A feature.

Power BI’s Q&A feature allows you to pose specific questions to your data which in turn lets you explore your data using intuitive, natural language capabilities, and receive answers in the form of charts and graphs.

Know your questions

You can use the Q&A feature in two different ways: from a dashboard or in a report. A visual created by Q&A can be pinned to a dashboard or a report depending on where it has been created

From a dashboard you can use the Q&A feature located at the top left of the dashboard to pose a question to your data. This will work on the datasets linked to the dashboard visuals.

In a report, there could be a Q&A visual that behaves the same way as the dashboard control but for a specific report dataset.

A visual created by Q&A can be pinned to a dashboard or a report depending on where it has been created.

Simple Q&A

When activating the Q&A feature, set the type-cursor on the Q&A line and start typing your question. Automated questions will be suggested under the line.

By pressing enter or selecting a suggested question, the Q&A will generate a visual answer such as a bar chart as shown in the animation above.

You can manipulate the visual by changing Top with Bottom and the chart order will be changed by ascending years instead of descending years as shown in the following animation.

One or more filters

You can filter a Q&A for a specific value when stating your question. The best way to specify a filter is to use the word “where,” then the name of the attribute you want to filter on and the value.

For example, if you want to filter the total defect reported in the year 2014, you could ask, “total defect reports where year is 2014.” Check it out in the following animation.

And if you want to add another filter, type “and,” then specify the name of the other attribute and the value you want to filter on.

Check out the animation below as an example.

Specifying visuals

Q&A picks the best visuals based on the kind of data provided. For instance, if data is defined as a date type it is likely to be displayed as a line chart, while data that is categorized as a city will likely be displayed as a map.

You can also tell the Q&A which visual to use by adding it to your question. But be aware that it may not always be possible for Q&A to display the data in the visual type you requested.

Changing answers to visuals with Q&A

In the Power BI online environment's Edit Report mode, you can easily add a visual to the report using the Add a question button in the menu bar.

The visual created can then be turned into a “standard” visualization using the "Turn this Q&A Result into a standard visual" button.

After turning the generated visual into a standard visualization, it can be adjusted for your needs:

• Changed into another visual using the Visualization pane.
• Add as a tooltip
• Change the formatting

Start your Q&A

Remember, the best way to visualize your Power BI datasets is to understand it. So don't hesitate to direct questions and get an answer from your data using natural language with the Q&A feature.

With 70 different beginner-level Challenges available, you can continue learning about Power BI's Q&A feature, datasets, visualizations, and more. Sign-up at 5miles  today to start your free two-week trial.

Using the Select method in VBA is similar to using Activate with one major difference: Select can be used to select multiple objects such as sheets, shapes, and ranges like so, Range(“A1:B10, D1:E10, K6:M32”).Select), while Activate can only be used to activate one single object like Worksheets(“Sheet3”).Activate.

Select is often a better choice when choosing between Select and Activate due to not always knowing which objects in a workbook are selected. However, there are times when even Select is used too frequently or inefficiently such as when using the macro recorder.

Avoid Select to speed up macros

When using the macro recorder, the Select or Activate method causes macros to be slow and prone to runtime errors because it is explicitly referring to one or more specific ranges, sheets, or shapes.

So, while you can start with the recorder, it is good practice to review the code for Select or Activate methods and change them to Range references in order to keep the macro from being too slow and running into runtime errors.

An example of an inefficient code fragment with the Select method could be when the recorder code applies italics to C4:C62. Consider the following:

The recorder uses the Select method to identify the range. Once you know the right methods and properties --Font.Italic = True-- you can easily rewrite the macro as follows:

Macro2() achieves the same results with one line of code and without selecting the range.

So, you can combine the two statements and delete the Select method and the Selection object. This improves the code and makes it less susceptible to runtime errors.

Additional ways to improve macro speed

Removing the Select method from your code can certainly increase the speed of your macros, but that’s not the only way. But keep in mind that you should make the call to apply these options only if your situation demands it:

• Turn off automatic spreadsheet calculation (unless absolutely necessary)
• Avoid using variants in formulas
• Minimize traffic between VBA and the Worksheet
• Write blocks of data in a single operation
• Avoid evaluating strings

Counterintuitive? Maybe not.

Not using the Select method in combination with the macro recorder may seem counterintuitive but simplifying your code can often make it more efficient. So, next time you decide to run the macro recorder or are in the process of cleaning it up (which you should get in the habit of doing), try removing the selects and making your code more efficient.

With over 80 VBA Challenges available, you can continue learning about Select, Activate, speeding up macros, and much more by signing up at 5miles for a free two-week trial. What are you waiting for?

Images, shapes, and diagrams are an essential part of PowerPoint slides. But imagine formatting the perfect shape, with the right fill, outline, and font, and then having to do the same for 20 more shapes in your presentation. Sounds terrible, right?

You don’t have to go through all that trouble. Format Painter can seriously cut down on the process time of formatting.

How Format Painter works

Format Painter in PowerPoint allows you to copy the format of an object once, then apply the format to other objects.

You can find the Format Painter command on the Home tab Clipboard group next to the Copying and Pasting commands – it’s basically the copy and paste of formats.

To use the Format Painter command, use the following steps:

1. Click on the object from which you want to copy the formatting.
2. Go to the Home tab and select the Format Painter command in the Clipboard group. Notice the mouse pointer changes to a paintbrush icon.
3. Click the object you want reformatted and you’re done.

What Format Painter cannot do

Format Painter is great, but not almighty. Its limits are logical: they only concern formatting. This means the Format Painter command only copies style characteristics: text font size, font type, shape colour, outlines, and effects.

Can you spot all elements that were formatted and those that were not in this example?

Format Painter does not change anything that is not part of the object’s format: the type of shape, the size of the shape, or the actual text.

Double-click to apply multiple times

When you have several shapes to reformat in the same way, you can do it all in one go. The steps are like the process above, but with a small twist:

1. Click the formatted shape to select it.
2. On the Home tab, go to the Clipboard group and double-click Format Painter.
3. Click the shapes you wish to format.
4. Press Esc to stop formatting.

See the magic below:

More to come

PowerPoint has loads of shortcuts and easy-to-use functionalities that can speed up the construction of your slides, and we have some insider tips and tricks that are used less frequently.

With over 100 different PowerPoint Challenges, if you want to learn more about PowerPoint shortcuts when designing slides, sign-up at 5miles for a free two-week trial now.