A Note on Hyperlinks
You will notice that all of the hyperlinks in this book look like this:
http://ppvt.pro/<foo>
Where <foo> is something that is short and easy to type. Example:
This is a “short link” and is intended to make life much easier for readers of the print edition. That link above will take you to the first blog post I ever published, which went live in October of 2009.
Its “real” URL is this:
http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2009/10/hello-everybody/
Which would you rather type?
So just a few notes:
1. These short links will always start with http://ppvt.pro/ – which is short for “PowerPivotPro,” the name of my blog.
2. These links are case-sensitive! If the link in the book ends in “1stBlog” like above, typing “1stblog” or “1stBLOG” will not take you to the intended page!
3. Not all of these links will lead to my blog – some will take you to Microsoft sites for instance.
4. The book does not rely on you following the links – the topics covered in this book are intended to be complete in and of themselves. The links provided are strictly optional “more info” type of content.
A4- Supporting Workbooks and Data Sets
When I first committed to write the book, I decided that I would not attempt a companion CD or similar electronic companion of samples, data sets, etc.
I made that decision for two reasons:
1. I’ve found that when I am able to say something like “take a look at the supporting files if this isn’t clear,” that provides me too easy of an escape hatch. Treating the book as a purely standalone deliverable keeps me disciplined (or more disciplined at least) about providing clear and complete explanations.
2. Companion materials like that would have delayed release of the book and made it more expensive.
But as I neared completion of the book I realized that I could still provide a few such materials on an informal basis, downloadable from the blog.
So I will upload the original Access database that I used as a data source, as well as the workbook itself from various points in time as I progressed through the book:
Note that this will be a “living” page – a place where you can ask for clarification on the files, suggest improvements to them, etc. As time allows I will modify and improve the contents of the page.