Excel 2016 Get & Transform and Power Query add-in get host of improvements in August 2016 update

Kareem Anderson

Excel 2016 new Data capabilities

Every month, various Microsoft divisions and services teams dole out updates, security patches, feature additions, and fixes to a multitude of platforms and offerings. Fortunately for users, the separate teams behind the bulk of Microsoft’s software solutions take to their respective blogs to host a cumulative post about all the updates that have hit the various apps and programs.

Today, the Excel team has brought to light updates that have hit the app over the past thirty days that include a new set of features based on Power Query technology.

Today, we are pleased to announce eight new data transformation and connectivity features that have been requested by many customers.

These updates are available as part of an Office 365 subscription. If you are an Office 365 subscriber, find out how to get these latest updates. If you have Excel 2010 or Excel 2013, you can also take advantage of these updates by downloading the latest Power Query for Excel add-in.

  • These updates include the following new or improved data connectivity and transformation features:
  • Enhanced SAP HANA connector—allow multi-select of values for variables and parameters.
  • Enhanced OData connector—option to import Open Type columns from OData feeds.
  • Enhanced Access DB connector—new Select Related Tables button to “” in the Navigator dialog.
  • Option to generate Step Names in English within the Query Editor.
  • Description for Query Steps within the Query Editor.
  • Extract Week, Day or Month name from a Date/Time column from the Query Editor.
  • Merge Dates and Times into a Date/Time column from the Query Editor.
  • Extract Start/End of Hour from a Date/Time or Time column from the Query Editor.

To get more details on the each and every individual updated feature, users can either head to their closest Excel application of either 2010, 2013 or Office 365 variety or visit today’s highlighted Office Blogs post.