I’ve been asked to provide links to some useful resources for learning about PowerPivot. Below are a list of my favorite blogs, books, and other sites to learn from.
A quick disclaimer, some of the links below are by co-workers or other people I have an affiliation with, financial or otherwise. That’s because I’m lucky enough to work with some of the best people in the field. Also, in the case of the books I’ve linked to the Kindle version where possible, mostly because I’m a Kindle junkie. There are paper versions of the books, and you are free to buy from your favorite retailer.
Books
Professional Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint – This book covers all aspects of PowerPivot, from using it to installing it to configuration. Everything you want to know in one volume. I wouldn’t particularly call this a beginners book however, it assumes you are competent in BI, Excel, and SharePoint.
Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning – This is a good first book to get, it goes deeply into the use of PowerPivot within Excel.
Practical PowerPivot and DAX Formulas for Excel 2010 – Once you are comfortable with PowerPivot, you’ll want to learn more about DAX, Data Analysis eXpressions, the set of functions used to do advanced calculations and aggregations in PowerPivot. I’m a big fan of the way the author, Art Tennick does his books. It’s the Problem – Solution approach, where he demonstrates a common problem then shows one or more ways to solve it. Art also has books on MDX and DMX you should check out.
Blogs
PowerPivot Pro – Probably one of the best blogs around, Rob and Kasper provide excellent content.
Denny Lee’s Blog – Denny works for Microsoft and is part of the PowerPivot team. He provides some really great insights, and is co-author of the Professional Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint book above.
PowerPivot Info – Not so much a blog but a blog aggregator, this site brings the best PowerPivot content on the web to the forefront.
Videos
Pragmatic Works Webinars – On our website we have a big catalog of past webinars (all of which are free to watch), many of which focus on PowerPivot.
Pluralsight – A little shameless self promotion here. I did a complete course on PowerPivot for Pluralsight. This includes both using PowerPivot from Excel and managing PowerPivot within SharePoint. In addition, Pluralsight has an extensive catalog of other courses you can pick from. It’s subscription bases so there is a modest fee (starts at $29 US per month last I checked) but well worth it for the training you can get. There’s also a free trial.
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