Microsoft Excel

Excel Oddity with Appointments and the Quick Fix

Not only is Excel vital to my team (in Finance we live in Excel) but it is also a huge piece of my daily work as an Admin. So today when my rows and columns were not agreeing it was cause for crisis. I do not take Excel malfunctioning lightly.

I went into the throw together a report of past appointments I stumbled across this little gotcha (pictured below):

The rows numbered 1 and 2 span one row in some columns but multiple rows in other columns. This does not a happy systems administrator make.

Unfortunately I took it as an Excel glitch, fought with it, gave it a good ol' reboot and was still stuck. When I finally slowed down and looked at the issue I realized that these rows represented Appointments with multiple "Required Attendees." Removing the Required Attendees column resolved the issue.

I am sharing this in hopes your day doesn't have the hit the speed bump that mine did. If you have a better work around for the issue please let me know in the comments.

Resources for Outlook and Excel for the End User

When Gretchen Opferkew and I were given the privilege of presenting Outlook and Excel for the End User at the CRMUG Regional Conferences in Dallas and Minneapolis, we knew that we couldn't possibly fit all of our favorite tips and tricks into one hour. So, in the hopes of leaving users inspired and equipped, we compiled this list of helpful resources to tide them over until Summit 2014. 

Outlook

Working with Outlook and CRM
An Overview of Tracking records in CRM through Outlook
Maximizing the use of the Outlook Client
Conditional Formatting Emails
Synchronization vs. Tracking

See you at Summit! These classes at CRMUG Summit on October will help you dive even deeper in Outlook and Excel for CRM. 

A Beginners Guide to Outlook Client Administration
The End User's Deep Dive into Excel & Outlook Mastery
Outlook Client Troubleshooting with Dynamics CRM
Techie Talk: SharePoint, Outlook, and Excel - Oh My!
Adoption Leveraging Microsoft Outlook & Excel

Excel

For many users, Excel is intimidating and too reminiscent of high school algebra. Fortunately with a bit of practice and a few helpful resources, any user can learn to benefit from this powerhouse tool:

Getting Started with Excel
Groups and Subtotals in Excel
Conditional Formatting in Excel
Filter Data in Excel
Simply Mathematical Formulas in Excel
How to create a Power View report in Excel with CRM Data
Training courses for Excel 2013 from Microsoft
Mass Editing CRM Data in Excel


Shameless Plug: If you are looking for more on these topics I hope to see you in my sessions at Summit 2014 

Excel Essentials for the CRM Administrator
In this session, we will be walking through the essentials excel skills that any CRM Admin or Power User should have.
Creative Excel Use in xRM Deployments
In this course, we will be diving into the many out of the box opportunities when Excel is pared creatively with CRM. (Those who are just getting into Excel are encouraged to attend Excel Essentials for the CRM Administrator prior to this session)