Today I wanted to just make a quick announcement that we are currently working on a series of free 'DIY BI' e-Books.

Free 'DIY BI' e-Books? Tell me more!

Over the past few years of working with Excel an Power BI, I've obviously picked up a few different methods, tips and tricks for working with the software.  And looking at how successful our free e-Book "Magic Tricks for Data Wizards" has been through the Power Query Training site (now Skillwave Training), I thought it would be nice to so something similar for Excelguru readers.

One of the cool things about the Excelguru audience at this site is the diversity. A lot of people originally came here for Excel, but we've been exploring Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI for the past few years as well. The one thing that ties us all together is that we are building "Do it Yourself Business Intelligence" or "DIY BI".

My original plan was to release one e-Book with 20 different tips, tricks and techniques; 5 each for Excel, Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI. After getting started, however, I realized that it was going to take me a bit longer to get that all done than I wanted. But since I want to get information out to our readers, I've decided to break this down into four separate e-Books which will be collected under the umbrella of "DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques". Each e-Book will focus on one specific area of the DIY BI story.

What will the free 'DIY BI' e-Books include?

Well… tips, tricks and techniques, of course.  Okay, seriously, each is fully illustrated and written to give you some great examples and ideas that I hope will help you in your DIY BI journey.

Here is what is covered in DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Excel:

• The easiest formula to return the end of the month
• Show a message when cells are hidden
• Quick alignment of objects
• Easy to read variances
• Show a message if your Pivot data is stale

What areas will the free 'DIY BI' e-Books cover (and when will they be released)?

Those e-Books will be released in the following order:

• DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Excel
• DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Power Query
• DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Power Pivot
• DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Power BI

The first is already written, we just need to lay it out and make it look a bit more awesome. Our target is to get it released by the end of next week.

With regards to the rest, I'll go as fast as I can on them, but as you can imagine, doing things right does take time. I would expect that each will take 2-3 weeks to build out properly, but if I can get them out faster I most certainly will.

Am I going to need Excel 2016 to get value from the free 'DIY BI' e-Books?

No. While I highly advocate being on a subscription version of Excel 2016, you'll find content in each of the first three e-Books which can be used in prior versions of Excel.

How do I receive the free 'DIY BI' e-Books?

You sign up for the Excelguru newsletter. It's just that easy.  As soon as each e-Book is finished, we'll be emailing it to everyone who is currently subscribed to our newsletter.

And in the mean time, you also get a monthly email from us which now includes news about the latest updates to both Excel and Power BI.

Longer term, once all four e-Books are written, any new subscribers will receive the first e-Book upon signup, and then the next in the series will arrive every couple of days until you have the full set.

So what are you waiting for?  Sign up right here and don't miss out on free DIY BI Tips, Tricks and Techniques for your work!