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Julie Sebby

How to Convert XLS to XLSX with Power Automate Desktop

Recently, a user asked me to automate a process where she received an email with an Excel attachment. She needed to grab data from that attachment and put it into a different spreadsheet. This should have been a super easy task, but the attachment was in .xls format (Microsoft 1997-2003). We couldn’t change the format, and apps DO NOT play well with this format. So, I used Power Automate Desktop to convert it. Read on to learn how to convert xls to xlsx with Power Automate Desktop.

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How to Update an Excel File with Power Automate Desktop

I started a new role in October with our RPA (Robotic Process Automation) team, which involves working with Microsoft Power Automate and Power Automate Desktop (and still Alteryx). I’ve been learning the ropes the last few months and want to show an example of how you can use these tools to automate small but mundane tasks, like extracting a value from email and updating an Excel spreadsheet. This post will explain how to update an Excel file with Power Automate Desktop.

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Clone Processes to Unlock Customization in Azure DevOps

If you are following along in my series on Managing Analytics Assets with Microsoft Azure DevOps, you read the post – 5 Questions to Ask and Answer Before Setting Up Azure DevOps. In that post, I asked you to think about which work item types you want to work with and which process. This week, I’m diving into the details of the process. I’ll show you how to set it, change it, and we’ll talk about why you should clone processes in AzureDevOps. Read on to learn more.

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Configuring Microsoft Azure DevOps

This is post four in my series on learning to use Microsoft Azure DevOps to manage analytics assets. Last week, I posed five questions to ask and answer before configuring ADO, so that you don’t have rework as I did. Now, we’re going to talk about configuring Microsoft Azure DevOps, specifically the organization, area paths, teams, and iterations. Read on to learn more.

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5 Questions to Ask and Answer Before Setting Up Azure DevOps

Welcome to Part 3 of my series on learning to manage analytics assets with Microsoft Azure DevOps (ADO). In Part 1, I explained how our analytics team works and why we needed an application to manage analytics assets. In Part 2, I talked ADO structure and terminology. This week, I’ll cover five questions to ask before setting up Azure DevOps to avoid rework. Read on to plan your ADO project.

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Solve Query Timeout Issues in Alteryx

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on how to resolve query timeouts using batch macros. Shortly after publishing, Mark Frisch of CReW Macros reached out to me to say that my post wasn’t wrong (whew!), BUT there is another way to fix query timeouts without resorting to macros. It’s taken me a while to get around to it, but I wanted to share his solution as well. Read on to learn another way to solve query timeout issues in Alteryx.

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Remove Leading Zeros in Alteryx

This week, I ran into a data engineering problem where I needed to extract a JV number from a string of numbers. The JV number can have 3,4, or 6 digits. For any number less than 6 digits, the system adds leading zeros. At first, I thought I needed to dig into some Regex, but there was a much simpler answer to remove leading zeros in Alteryx. Read on to add another tool to your Alteryx toolbox.

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How to Modify Individual Values in Spotfire

TIBCO designed Spotfire to bring data into the application, wrangle it into a useable form, and display visualizations for analysis. It’s not really designed to modify source data, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t want to or that you can’t. In fact, it’s easy to modify individual values in Spotfire if you know where to look, just like clicking on a cell in Excel. Read on for more information.

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