September 2016 updates for Get & Transform in Excel 2016 and the Power Query add-in

Excel 2016 includes a powerful new set of features based on the Power Query technology, which provides fast, easy data gathering and shaping capabilities and can be accessed through the Get & Transform section on the Data ribbon.

Today, we are pleased to announce two 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 Web connector—support for specifying a Command Timeout via the UX.
  • Enhanced CSV/Text connector—support for Fixed-Width delimited files.

Enhanced Web connector—support for specifying a Command Timeout via the UX

In this release, we enhanced the Web connector to allow users to specify a Command Timeout value from the connector UX dialog. Before this release, this could only be achieved by customizing the underlying M query.

In the Web connector, users can switch between Basic and Advanced modes. In the Advanced mode, users can now optionally specify a Command Timeout value.

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Enhanced CSV/Text connector—support for Fixed-Width delimited files

Users can now easily import data from Fixed-width delimited CSV and Text files. With this update, users can now specify a list of positions to split by in the Preview dialog of the new CSV/Text import experience

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How do I get started?

Excel 2016 provides a powerful set of capabilities for fast, easy data gathering and shaping, which is available under the Get & Transform section on the Data ribbon. Updates outlined in this blog 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.

—The Excel team

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