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GoatShipMate

@goatshipmate.bsky.social
205 followers 229 following 690 posts

Data Analyst mainly posting work-arounds for #PowerBI #PowerQuery #Excel etc, but also posting about #DataVisualisation in general. #ThirdSector #Charity #DataViz. I'm an #ActualPerson – my pseudonym is due to my job's social media policy

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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 15h
Lots of chat about using AI to create your documentation / comments on your data models etc., but (aside from basic manners) would it not be more effective to trust that your successor (if you even have one) can just plug you're code into AI for themselves?
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Andy Kirk @visualisingdata.com · 01/10/2026
Just come across these interviews on Instagram with movie stars where they’re challenged to guess the films they’ve been in/directed based on the average colours on screen across the duration of the movie. Tom Cruise is very good at it www.instagram.com/reel/Dd848fK...
Tom cruise guessing Mission Impossible’s colours
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
These little fellas are a real step forward though. The "Query" one lets you choose between viewing the whole query formula or just that step. The "Diagram view" lets you see a new interface of the relationships. It's messy but lots more functionality. #PowerQuery #PowerBI
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ooh. The September update of #PowerBI now has icons for each step in #PowerQuery. Looks a bit busy with my use of a ♠ to highlight unstraightforward steps, but that's my issue! What do you think about this?
Screen grab of the "applied steps" window in Power Query with some example names and the new (and my old) icons  showing. "Source" is preceded by a csv icon, Filtered Rows by a filter icon etc.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I knocked up a little system to automatically track the files I've been working on. #AutoHotKey notes down any changes of the active window in a .csv, #PowerQuery tidies it up in #Excel. Not sure if the conditional formatting is a bit much: it's uncouth but useful, I guess.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Is anyone else, especially non-US folk, finding that #PowerQuery is not giving the right answers for Date.DayOfWeek()? The documentation seems to say that Sunday is 0. I'm realising it's worth making sure you are getting what you think you are by writing Date.DayOfWeek(CurrentDate, Day.Sunday)
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Here's a little #PowerBI dashboard I finished over the weekend showing all the incidents dealt with by Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service (using the data they make publicly available on their website).
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Inspired by the latest episode of @unpivotshow.bsky.social I want to ask a slightly different question What did #PowerBI or #Excel 'break' & never fix again? The one bothering me right now is that clicking "←Go back" in an app no longer takes you to that workspace, but to the PBI service home page
shows the ← Go back sign in the bottom left of a Power BI app
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I don’t understand why you guys aren’t more excited by this.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fed up of seeing only 10 items in your Win11 "jump list"? I finally decided to search to see if it could be changed, and it can be. Here's how. This made my day: www.elevenforum.com/t/change-max...
elevenforum.com
Change Maximum Number of Items in Jump Lists in Windows 11
This tutorial will show you how to change the maximum number of items that can display in Jump Lists for your account or all users in Windows 11. Jump Lists are available when you right click on an a...
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Great free resource from @datavizsociety.bsky.social
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Arguably the world’s best known piece of #DataViz, so this is big news and a welcome change. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/…
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Just got Copilot to write a short AHK script to give a beep when my laptop battery hits 95% (& every %pt thereafter) and likewise <10%. Unusually it got it right first time. It’s a small thing, but will hopefully help me maximise battery life.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
#PowerQuery By now, you should've somehow ...made it so that you can widen the final column. Right click/Column width perhaps? Or even just allow us to drag it wide like we can with the other n-1 columns.
static.klipy.com
Liam Gallagher from Oasis
ALT: Liam Gallagher from Oasis
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Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 27, 1963 William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana Celebrate the American Negro exposition at the 1900 Paris Exposition 🎉 Du Bois' use of color was always quirky, but his choice of topics & novel graphic forms caused people to notice.
B/W photo of part of the American Negro Exposition, Paris, 1900 by W E B du Bois. It features his graphic works on the wall as well as a browseable display Land owned by Negroes in Georgia USA 1870-1900. A choropleth map of counties in Georgia shaded by percent of Negroes who own land, but with an incomprehensible color mappingA novel circular sector chart showing the distribution of occupations among Negroes and Whites in Georgia.B/W photo of W. E. B. Du Bois
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Just spent ages trying to figure out for which report I did this, and then more trying to figure out how. Turns out you create a summary table in #PowerQuery with the Year field as text. Then you union on a grouped/average version of the table with the year as |. Dynamic solution but not DAX.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Been thinking a lot about Collie's "Faucets First" approach after listening to this. On the one hand, it's a useful approach to have in the kit bag, but I can't help thinking it's also a bit of a pipe dream.* (*Please pardon the pun, but it's also the best phrase for what I'm thinking).
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I made it! Thanks to @powerbiweekly.info, @maryfealty.bsky.social and @sherberthead.bsky.social for the follows, and to @wynhopkins.bsky.social for reposting it.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
OK I'm on 99 followers. Anyone want to recommend me to help me get into triple figures?
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
If you're in #Excel charts and trying to get the chart to rescale when you add/copy down more rows... use named ranges and put the formula as =Sheet1!$B$2:INDEX(Sheet1!$B:$B,COUNTA(Sheet1!$B:$B) +2) Then add the named range to the chart's "Select Data Source" window #DataViz #ExcelCharts
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
TRying to fit this to the plot of O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU...
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Kind of intrigued as to where God fits on this
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In SQL window/with functions a useful line is ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW. A vivd mnemonic for this is "Rowing between unbound princesses and chained rhinos"
Someone in a boat Rowing between unbound princesses and chained rhinos
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In SQL window/with functions a useful line is ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW. A vivd mnemonic for this is "Rowing between unbound princesses and chained rhinos"
Someone in a boat Rowing between unbound princesses and chained rhinos
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Passed my #PowerBI PL-300 renewal again. Massive anxiety everytime. I'm sure I still got all the stuff wrong I spent the day revising, but it's a good way of learning the new features and re-learning the things I don't use typically. I'll settle for 84%.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I know this is probably a bad time to post, but I made this interactive Region / Quadrant chart with #SVG in #PowerBI and I'm feeling like I want to show everyone. It's not a patch on @merrykerry.bsky.social's stuff, but I think it's the best one I've done so far.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
From a #DataViz point of view, I really like the use of black here rather than red. It sends a very different message, which feels critical in the present moment. Also a great example of how our colour choices are not received as arbitrary. Colours carry deep routed, emotive associations.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I know this is probably a bad time to post, but I made this interactive Region / Quadrant chart with #SVG in #PowerBI and I'm feeling like I want to show everyone. It's not a patch on @merrykerry.bsky.social's stuff, but I think it's the best one I've done so far.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 19/06/2026
I've spent the last two months putting together this exhaustive analysis of the New York Times coverage of trans people. It covers 3,242 articles over 12 years. In 2022, the NYT shifted towards a hostile stance towards trans people in their framing. www.thedissident.news/exclusive-ho...
thedissident.news
Exclusive: How The New York Times Changed Its Coverage of Trans People
An exhaustive analysis of over 3,242 articles by the New York Times covering transgender issues from 2014-2026 revealed a stark shift towards hostile framing in 2022. In January 2015, the New York Ti...
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Yes, I'm up at 6:45 on Father's Day to practise my SQL before the kids wake up. That's normal, isn't it?
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
It's been ages since I posted anything on my blog, and quite a while since I posted something constructive on here, so... ...here's what to do if you're befuddled by trying to work out where the dataset connected to your Excel spreadsheet is coming from: charitydatageek.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-...
charitydatageek.blogspot.com
How to find which Power BI source Excel is connected to.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Having one of those days where I wonder if it might be quicker long term and short term just to copy and paste figures into spreadsheet rather than properly pulling the data from the databases, processing in PowerQuery, then doing the DAX etc. #MyHeadHurts
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Microsoft not being joined up again: SharePoint links now ridiculously long HYPERLINK() function only copes with 255 character length URLs.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
In #Excel I finally got round to using #AHK to remove merging & centre across selection instead. Here's the code (v2): #HotIf WinActive("ahk_exe EXCEL.EXE") +#c:: { xl := ComObjActive("Excel.Application") sel := xl.Selection sel.Unmerge() sel.HorizontalAlignment := 7 } #HotIf
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Congratulations to the @unpivotshow.bsky.social crew on 50 episodes. I have learnt so much from them. I think @wynhopkins.bsky.social is the only one who's active here, but thanks to all 4 of them.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
This is a quick way to track items getting dropped/lost in a process, when you're tracking the data in #Excel Create a new sheet, copy the formula below across all the relevant cells, set cell widths & heights, turn off gridlines and colour the fonts accordingly. =IF('Main'!A6="","",UNICHAR(9608))
Sort of unit chart showing coloured blocks
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Nail on the head
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Genuinely struck by this. One of those things I always knew about on one level, and am quite surprised by on another.
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Data Rocks @t.datarocks.co.nz · 21/04/2026
Taps the sign again
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
The #D365 click tax from having to close #CoPilot every time I open a new window (or refresh an old one) is just too much . Someone, please, make it go away. I know it's there (and everywhere else) if I need it.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Wouldn't it be cool to invest trillions of dollars into a technology that would actually make society better? Maybe we can call it “HI” — Human Intelligence. Instead of “data centers”, we could fund “schools”. Instead of *stealing* art, literature, and science, we help people *create* it. Crazy!
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I hate the fact that daylight savings changes now means that I not only have to remember to turn the clocks back / forward. but I also now need to remember to update all my #PowerBI schedule refreshes.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I love this example of the limitations of user personnas.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Potential quick wins for #Excel development: Come up with some way of commenting out in the formula box. (I know there are work arounds but they're too confusing to the uninitiated)
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Only just discovered this so apologies if everyone else knows about it, but in #Excel if you hover the mouse over the ribbon, you can use the scroll wheel to rapidly scroll through the tabs on the ribbon. Works in Word & PowerPoint as well but not #PowerBI
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Can someone just confirm this for me, please? In a #PowerBI app, when you pressed "Go back" didn't it used to take us back to the workspace that app was from? Now we just go back to our home page, which (if true) is a step backwards IMO.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Time for the big debate... When you add new tabs in #Excel do you order them with most recent on the left, or the most recent on the right (so that you "start" at the left and work to the right)
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
The thing where adding a null to a value gives a null is a real weakness in #PowerQuery. How many people have missed this & not realised I wonder? Anyway, easy fix: use the coalesce function, or just put a ?? 0 after each column name that might contain a null. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FQr...
youtube.com
Power Query Secrets: Use coalesce (??) to handle null values
YouTube video by Excel Off The Grid
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
In 5 days Italy has had their first ever win over England in rugby and their first proper win over the USA in baseball.
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GoatShipMate @goatshipmate.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Things have got a bit tighter after the last 2 disappointing results, but we're still 8pts ahead of where I thought (at the start of the season) we needed to be at this point to survive. Can't afford many more slips up like last night though. #LUFC #MOT #DataViz
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