Online Degrees and CLEP and DSST Exam Prep Discussion
Data people - where do I learn this? - Printable Version

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Data people - where do I learn this? - Vle045 - 02-05-2026

I need to figure out the best place/way to learn certain data related stuff.  Everything I find is not quite right.  Self-teaching is not going to be the right fit for me either.  I have been using AbleBits and it is being taken away.  I want to have as much knowledge as possible and not have to rely on someone else to fully build it, maintain it, and try to figure out how I think/use the data I work with.  

Here are the tools I will be allowed to use:
PowerBI
Power Query (in Excel)
Power Automate
Smart Sheets

I have very basic level knowledge on PowerQuery and Power Automate.  I have never touched the other two.  I want to become a SME on these tools.

RE: Data people - where do I learn this? - Jakehazex21 - 02-05-2026

Losing AbleBits could actually good for you. It removes the middleman.

What about pivoting to a structured certification track like the Microsoft PL-300? It’s free to learn.

For the automation side, look at Pragmatic Works. Then go to Smartsheet University.
You will spend less time asking for help once you understand the interoperability and learn how these tools talk to each other.

RE: Data people - where do I learn this? - JPN - 02-06-2026

Most of these are already covered by Microsoft Learn. They have exercises stored on GitHub. All professional training providers focused on the certifications for these just re-use the same Microsoft Learn and the same projects in the Github Repo - so you're not going to find a lot of variation across courses or training provider. Did a $400 PowerBI course only to basically find out that all I got was the instructor answering questions and doing demos of the projects in class.

You can also do the Virtual Training Days from Microsoft for some of them in order to get a 50% off coupon for the certifications if you want them.

RE: Data people - where do I learn this? - Vle045 - 02-06-2026

Thanks. I'll see if I can find some of those. My biggest concern is how I will be able to merge in new and changed data. I pull data from all over the place and merge and highlight on to one big sheet. And I have a lot of various import range (Google Sheets) and a ton of other things going on. Like a giant spiderweb of Excel and Sheets. From what I am hearing, there are newer ways to do this, but I don’t even know where to start. I don’t want to rely on someone else to set everything up. I want to learn how to do it.
(02-05-2026, 11:56 PM)Jakehazex21 Wrote: Losing AbleBits could actually good for you. It removes the middleman.

What about pivoting to a structured certification track like the Microsoft PL-300? It’s free to learn.

For the automation side, look at Pragmatic Works. Then go to Smartsheet University.
You will spend less time asking for help once you understand the interoperability and learn how these tools talk to each other.

I have never heard of PL-300.  What is that?

RE: Data people - where do I learn this? - bluebooger - 02-07-2026

you start power bi

step 1
new data source
import your excel file, google sheet, access table or whatever -- but only ONE THING
once its imported it is in power query
this is where you do your row formulas like you would in excel
so you imported a google sheet with order info -- maybe it contains 3 columns -- item_id, price, qty
using power query you add a new column named total = price * qty
then you use Load in power query to actually load the data into Power Bi

now repeat step 1 but for a different data item
maybe you import an excel file contains 4 columns -- state, city, population, year
you use power query to update each state and city to make sure it capitalized correctly "new mexico" is "New Mexico"
and each year is 4 digits not 2
and Load it into Power Bi

repeat step 1 for each data item

then in Power BI you join the data sources togethter in a star diagram
https://help.zebrabi.com/kb/power-bi/star-schema/

power bi will figure out which things are numbers and will get ready to sum them
so you drag a bar chart visualzation onto the canvas and then drag in our total field and our state field and power Bi will automatically create a sum of total for each state and make a bar for each state

the best thing to do is jsut search youtube for tutorials for what you're trying to do

Power Bi bar chart
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Power+Bi+bar+chart

Power Bi tooltips
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Power+Bi+tooltips

you'll probably find 3 good videos and 50 garbage ones for every topic you search for

and the person who has a great video on one topic will have a bad video on a different topic

you jsut have to watch a little, try it out, practice, experiment and see what happens

what happens if I make a pie chart instead of a bar chart ? what happens if I change it to a matrix ? what the heck is a matrix anyway ? let me experiment and see what happens -- well that's interesting (or not)

that is the best way to learn this stuff