Hi everyone! It’s a new year - a very belated Happy New Year to you, by the way - and speaking of all things new, today we’ll discuss the new features available in Monarch v10.

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s been three months already since v10 was released. Three whole months! Fall 2008 literally whizzed by for me, and winter isn’t much different. It’s good to be busy, I suppose.

OK, let’s just dive right in, shall we? Here the new features and abilities of Monarch v10 Pro:

• A Table Verify feature. Previously, the Verify feature was reserved for the Report window, and it assisted you in ensuring that your model was capturing the data properly. The new Table Verify provides a similar function, but goes quite a bit further as it performs seven different checks on the data that is listed. We’re bound to cover these checks in more detail in a future post.
• Reading the XPS file format. Just like how it handles PDF files, Monarch can now process Microsoft’s XPS file format. This should allow for much easier data extraction. While we can almost always open and view the PDF files that we all regularly receive, Datawatch discovered some time ago that the manner in which PDF files are authored varied wildly, and it became a significant challenge to account for these creation approaches in Monarch. XPS files ought to be less a fight. Now we just need to get people to start using them!
• Reading the XLSM and accdb file formats. As more of us adopt Microsoft’s Office 2007 software (and later versions I’m sure), knowing that Monarch will be able to handle these files without difficulty will be key.

Both Monarch and Monarch Pro (Datawatch seems to have dropped the “Standard edition” nomenclature) share these new features. For the Report window:

• The Auto Define Trap feature. Wow, this is a big one. It automatically creates template traps based on your data samples. Pretty cool stuff, really. But it’s a bit like an automatic transmission to a motor sport purist. Yes, it works, but it takes some of the fun out of it for the old guys. But this feature isn’t for the old guys, it’s for new users.
• Say goodbye to boring old grey! You can now color code your templates. That is to say that data in the report will be shaded in different colors, based on which type of template has selected that data. And you can choose any color you like for each template type too!
• You can now add comments to the bookmarks you create, and those comments can be exported to PDF files.
• Accounting for report layout changes just became much easier now that you can shift only specific objects when editing your templates.
• Floating traps have long been a useful tool, but they’re even better now that you can still use the Advanced field options in templates which employ a floating trap.
• If you’ve ever struggled with missing footer or append data, you’ll love the new “Cleared by…” button in the template editor.

For the Table window:

• There are 14 new date functions. The best analytical tools offer plenty of useful built-in functions, and this improves upon an already solid set of tools. Again, we’ll cover those in detail soon.
• For years I’ve been teaching people about building and using pivot tables, so I am just thrilled to see that Monarch can now directly create pivot tables in Excel files, albeit only xlsx files.
• The ease with which you can create filters has improved as Monarch now offers value-based filters. Instead of keying filter values, now all you need to do is check any of the values you want to include, based on your current data sample. Nice.
• I believe that, given my experience on the Monarch forum, perhaps the most subtle new feature will prove to be one of the most valuable additions. When building filters, your handling of duplicate values can now be based on the active sort. This single feature will instantly resolve all manner of technical challenges and multi-step solutions, and may well be reason enough for many users to upgrade to v10.

For the Summary window:

• Again, a killer new feature to start things off: you can export summary data based on key value changes. Each group of key data can be exported to either a new document, or a new table within the same document. This is fantastic. I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve isolated key data to different Excel sheets for a different audience. Now Monarch makes it easy.
• You can display multiple measures in summaries that use “across” keys, and group them easily. Very pivot table like.
• The new date intervals (see below) offer new date grouping options. Do you need quarterly totals? No problem, even if your fiscal year doesn’t begin in January.
• Your “post-production” work should be a little easier now that you can embed page headers into your exported Excel sheets.
• I’ve written many times about using color to your advantage, so you already know just how pleased I am to tell you that you can now use not only the standard Excel color palette in your summaries, but you can define your own using the 16 million colors or so available to Windows.
• Sticking with colors, you can now format totals for all measures with the same color easily. Beautiful.
• Ever wish that you weren’t forced to include that “All Others” line? Good. Now you don’t have to.
• Similarly, sometimes you don’t need the grand total column when you build summaries using across keys. Now you can choose to hide it.

And other general improvements include:

• 13 different time interval configurations for defining custom fiscal periods. Working with custom dates has never been so flexible and easy to do.
• The new auto trim option eliminates the need for the frequently found LTrim, RTrim, and Trim functions found in Monarch’s calculated fields and filters. It just makes sense.
• At the top, the XLSM and accdb file formats were mentioned as data sources. Monarch v10 lets you export to those formats too.

All in all, these improvements and new abilities offer many benefits to both new users and upgrading users. You can work with emerging standards as Office 2007 and the XPS file formats are used more and more. It’s easier to both create new models and maintain existing models. Handling data extraction from tricky report layouts has been improved. You can better customize the look and feel of the reports you create with Monarch.

I still can’t believe the value offered by Monarch. It is such an amazing bargain. With today’s economy, it ought to be the best selling piece of software this year. As more organizations adopt Monarch, your excellent skills with the program become even more valuable.

Now, more than ever before, it’s a great time to excel with Monarch.