Kudos to Greg Galloway (SQL Server MVP) for upgrading his fantastic OLAP PivotTable Extensions for Excel 2010 add-in (now available in both x32 and x64). This add-in is one of the first third party tools I install on a new machine. Since the Excel team seems to be ignoring customer feedback for improving the Excel BI features, OLAP PivotTable provides what’s lacking, including:
- Excellent search capabilities with Field List, Dimension Data and attribute options. By contrast, the Excel 2010 search is limited to searching within a hierarchy level only. This is pretty much useless with parent-child hierarchies. If I know what level the member is located, I don’t have to search, right?
- Getting the MDX query – Excel refuses to expose the actual MDX.
- Calculated members – Another feature that business users keep asking about but Excel doesn’t budge. The Calculations tab of the add-in lets you create calculated members. It will be great if this is more user-friendly. Ideally, the user should get the same Calculation Member dialog that’s included in Reporting Services.
- Filtering of attribute members
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