Blog - Recent Posts

Charts - How to create donut charts

A common way to build donut charts is to create an SVG image that represents the chart. This post introduces this technique and describes the formula to set donut chart values.

Settings - The easiest way to find environment id and other settings

Up till now, it hasn't been easy to find the URLs and unique identfiers for environments, and other settings that are required to access Dataverse and Power Apps externally. The good news is that the Maker Portal now displays these key details in a 'developer resources' panel.

Admin - How to quarantine or block all users from running a specific app

There is now a preview feature that enables app builders to block all users from opening and running an app. This post describes how to use this feature.

Learning - Learn Power Apps through the free Microsoft Virtual Training Day events (and receive a free exam)

If you're looking to learn more about Power Apps and the Power Platform, Microsoft offers a set of free Virtual Training Day events. This post describes what's on offer and how to register.

Formula - How to round times to the nearest x minutes

When working with dates and times, a common requirement is to round times up or down to the nearest X minutes. This post describes the formula to carry out this task.

Formulas - Review of how to write formulas using natural language

During the Build conference in May 2021, Microsoft announced an innovative new feature - the ability to write formula using natural English words and sentences. This feature is now in preview, and this post takes an initial look at how this works.

Licensing - Microsoft 365 licensing price set to increase in March 2022

From March 2022, the price of Microsoft 365 licenses will increase. This post describes the upcoming changes.

SharePoint - Filtering lists by User() is now delegable

A common requirement is to filter SharePoint records by the email address of the current user. In the past, this task could be difficult because filtering lists by User().Email was not delegable. The good news is that Microsoft has now improved this behaviour and is post describes what's new.

Dates - How to get the start date from week number

When working with dates, there may be the requirement to derrive the start date of a week based on a week number. This post describes the formula to carry out this task.

Data - How to remove/delete a field from a record

From time to time, it may be necessary to remove or delete one or more fields from a single record. This post describes the formula to carry out this task.

Numbers - 10 examples of how to round numbers

When we work with numbers with Power Apps, a common requirement is to round numbers. This post summarises the formula to carry out some of the most common rounding requirements, including how to round to multiples, how to round to values such as 0.5, 0.99, 0.45, how to round to odd/even numbers, and how to return the integer portion of a decimal value.

Dates - How to check if a year is a leap year

Working with dates, it can sometimes be necessary to work out whether a given year is a leap year. This post describes a technique we can use to carry out this task.

Dates - How to get the week number for a given date

A common requirement is to calculate week numbers. Up till now, this task could be difficult to accomplish but now, Power Apps introduces the WeekNum and ISOWeekNum functions to help simplify this task. This post describes how these two new functions work.

Dates - How to get the nth weekday for a month

When building apps, it can be very useful to determine the nth workday in a month. For example, what's the 2nd Tuesday in a month, what's the 3rd Wednesday for a month, what's the first Monday (etc)? This post describes the formula to carry out this task.

Dates - How to get the last weekday for a month

When building apps, it can be very useful to determine the last workday in a month. For example, what's the last Thursday in a month? This post describes the formula to carry out this task.