Run Power BI Desktop as administrator before opening the report.
Explanation/Scenario
Recently, when opening a report from Power BI Report Server that used a SQL database as a data source I received the following error.
An error happened while reading data from the provider: ‘Could not load file or assembly ‘System.EnterpriseServices, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’ or one of its dependencies. Either a required impersonation level was not provided, or the provided impersonation level is invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0X80070542)’
So I clicked “Edit Queries” to see what was going on and received almost the same error but referencing a specific table and getting me thinking about SQL specifically.
Error seen after clicking “Edit Queries”
So I checked that table in the query editor and received yet again the same error.
Error seen after clicking the specific table referenced in the previous error message
Simple solution. It’s likely that your credentials and queries are just fine.
The solution for my particular issue here, and the meaning behind the “impersonation level” part of the error, is just that you need to run Power BI Desktop as administrator before accessing the report. After opening the report in Power BI Desktop being ran as an administrator, everything worked as expected.
My number one compliment at trainings comes from my live, interactive elements like my Mentimeter quizzes. But I’m branching into a new type of interactivity that might begin in the training classroom but carries on with attendees after they leave.
I’m talking about handouts. Attendees are more likely to remember sessions, topics, and facts if they had a little fun along the way. Not every handout has to be a glossary. Bingo, for example, challenges end users to explore various capabilities in SharePoint they otherwise may not have considered.
SharePoint Bingo and O365 Crossword: These two downloadables encourage attendees to listen up and have certain prompts in mind throughout your talk such as “how could I add a new list?” or “we can live stream events?? with what?” They can work on these throughout the session as they learn, or take it back to their desks. A great way to encourage participation is to offer an incentive such as “add your name and turn it in when you’re done for a chance to win a Surface Go.”
SharePoint Sudoku: This one is just for fun and is a great “added bonus” handout for your session. It’s also great for those attendees that show up 15 minutes early and might appreciate something to do in the meantime.
I’m happy to create a custom crossword or bingo downloadable for your needs at the same cost of these examples (no setup fee). DM me on Mastodon or send me a message via he form below with your scenario and let’s work together to make training fun!
I often hear from my session and training attendees that they enjoy the interactive elements of my sessions. I usually end each session with a swag or book giveaway based on the highest scoring participant in a Mentimeter quiz. Sometimes my only follow-up is: “I loved that quiz, how can I do that for my own team?” The nice thing is even if an attendee knew everything I mentioned in my 101, they still left with a new tool they can use to engage their co-workers and attendees.
Note: I don’t get any affiliate or referral program perks for this. I just truly appreciate the value Mentimeter has added to my presentations and wish the same success for you.
What is Mentimeter?
Mentimeter is a service that allows participants to “join” quizzes or surveys you create without needing an account. Once you create your questions and indicate the correct response(s) (if applicable), you click present. Attendees see the “access code” at the top of the screen and, using their mobile device or computer, join the quiz using their name (whether they choose to use their real name or not is up to them). Results show up on the screen in real-time.
Mentimeter allows you to get to know your audience better, engage them in friendly competition, or just solicit questions throughout your talk. This allows for your more introverted attendees to be comfortably engaged whereas otherwise you may not have heard from them at all. It also allows your questions to be “compiled” until you’re at a good stopping place to address them.
From menti.com (attendee view after a question has ended)
For quizzes as seen above, voting is closed after a specified time for each question and points are awarded on accuracy AND speed of response. You can even display a leaderboard between questions to get the room more engaged and competitive. There is never a tie, which makes it easy to give away swag to the top two or three.
When you’re done, you can export PDFs of the question slides to share attendee questions, responses, comprehension, etc. and then reset the presentation so it’s ready for your next session. If you have a paid license, you can export to excel instead of PDF.
Personally I use the free version because it gives you up to six quiz questions, or three survey questions which is the perfect size for an end-of-session “what did you learn” quiz or intra-session “touch-base.” But there are also licenses that allow more questions, different question types, and some pretty impressive capabilities for various events and campaigns.
How to create a live poll or quiz using Mentimeter
Once signed in, click “New Presentation,” name and click “Create Presentation”
Choose quiz if you’ll be awarding points for accuracy and speed, otherwise choose from available survey types (no correct answers, just polling the audience). After each is added and configured, click “New Slide” to create another.
When you’re ready to present, click “Present” and you’ll go full-window with an view suitable for the big screen, and that pulls in real-time responses from attendees:
On an attendee’s phone (or tablet/computer), they see mobile-friendly options for interacting with your questions:
One of my more popular requests is an easier way to print list items (either to PDF or paper). Using SharePoint Designer, we can add a “Print Item” button to the display forms for all list items. This button appears in the “Actions” section of modal dialogs AND standalone display forms in their own window. See above for an example of a modal dialog implementation.
You can do this rather quickly, but will need to be a site admin with access to SharePoint Designer to make the change.
I don’t see the “Ribbon Location (Tab.Group ID:)” option!
You need to double-check step two of “Add a custom action to list.” You must create the action from this dropdown field and specifically select “Display form ribbon” to get this option.
It’s not showing up!
Make sure you types “Actions” (plural) and not “Action”
Refresh your SharePoint list (Ctrl+F5 for a hard refresh)
Make sure you’re using the classic experience. This does not work in modern. You can accomplish this by forcing the classic experience for all users (recommended for consistency):
If you’d rather let users choose, just be sure to educate them on the ability to switch back and forth.
Say goodbye to nested if/then statements in Flow taking up fourteen monitor widths. Flow now supports nested if/then statements all in a single, vertical step. For example, the following requires that WeekDayNum is not 0 or 7 AND requires that either Bob or Nate created the item. And I didn’t have to scroll horizontally at all to see it!
The next time you use a condition control, enjoy rethinking how you might structure your various requirements for conditions to be met.
To get started, just add a condition control as you normally would:
You’re sending an email, or creating a new page on your intranet instructing people to download a file.
You can always just link to an image or document and then have people figure out how to download it themselves. But methods of downloading vary by browsers and versions and content types (images vs PDFs, for example) so it’s much easier to just provide a link to users that automatically initiates the download for them regardless of context.
Note: This downloads to their default download folder/location.
Using a direct download link will save them some time by providing a one-click download option. No need to right-click-save-as, or save-and-name.
Simply add the word “download” after the href URL before closing the tag.
For example, if I want people to download the print icon below I would link it in my HTML-formatted email or on my webpage/intranet using the script following it. The red text could be an image (download button?) or text like “Download the icon.”
Once upon a time (2 months ago) I had decided to stop pursuing the MVP award. There were a few issues in the process and related communication that were bugging me and made the experience more of a chore than a valued credential. So I withdrew my nomination.
After posting that I received a lot of feedback through public and private channels. Many had a similar experience, some were supportive regardless of my choice, and others disconnected/disappeared or outright let me know I was making a mistake and had brought shame upon their ancestors. Here are GIFs illustrating the general feedback (because GIFs are more fun than the reality):
So to those of you who had my back, thank you. And to those who didn’t, thanks for the true colors demo.
What’s a credential, anyway?
The thing about any credential is you don’t stop being yourself once you obtain it. When you get a promotion, you shouldn’t shun the people “left behind” or change your personality. But some do anyway. To them, it’s all about their journey and checking off boxes. To others, it’s about achieving something challenging and using that experience and newfound platform to help others up the slope.
When you rise in an organization or obtain a new credential it is, rather, a responsibility of yours to help elevate and develop others. This is what separates great leaders from the rest. Your actions, when credentialed, are also more heavily scrutinized. Do you use your credential selfishly (to promote yourself) or to influence change and build the community?
So what’s your legacy? Were you a community builder who made the organization better? Or did you just make sure it didn’t collapse and kept it as it was?
Community Builder
Actively works within and outside the community to make it better by pushing for positive change and helping to introduce new members to the community. Possesses a growth mindset.
Community Supporter
Actively works within the community to maintain success by featuring its own members and initiatives and focusing on the member experience. Possesses a maintenance mindset.
Yes, yes, but what can I actually do?
If the MVP award sits on your desk, let it be a daily reminder that there are hundreds who are seeking that same recognition you received. What are you doing to provide opportunities for those others to shine in your arenas?
Run a user group? Reach out to a non-MVP and ask if they’d like to speak.
Organizing a conference? Include non-MVPs
Have a podcast? Interview a non-MVP
Are you a speaker? Share your talents with non-MVP organized events and groups
Celebrate the contributions of and interact with non-MVPs on social media
Your promotional materials that say “90% of our speakers are MVPs!” certainly demonstrate how much talent you’re featuring at the event. But those 10% that aren’t MVPs don’t feel included in your marketing plan and, by extension, feel they may have just been filler material.
You can always list “MVP” after the speakers’ names in your listings and let potential registrants do the math themselves. I’d be more inclined to attend a conference where I knew I’d be engaging with speakers who:
Started their own company
Wrote a book
Participates in diversity initiatives
Run a podcast I listen to (or might start)
Own the blogs or YouTube channels I frequent
Consider celebrating the accomplishments of your entire speaker group, MVPs and non-MVPs alike. If they’re good enough to have at your event then they’re good enough to recognize equally.
“Our speaker lineup includes 10 published authors, 5 CEOs, and 14 active bloggers!” These quantifiable numbers tell a more specific story that others can relate to. Maybe a potential registrant is starting their own blog and would see this as a good opportunity to speak to someone who could help. And the speakers would probably appreciate the additional, specific exposure to their individual accomplishments and contributions.
What I’m saying (as I’m sure you’ve guessed) is that you can be President but that doesn’t necessarily make you a good one.
All of this to say, I welcome a new challenge and opportunity into my life today:
I was fortunate to have Jon Levesque, Betsy Weber, and Christian Talavera who each acknowledged my post and took time out of their busy agendas to reach out and talk with me. I consider each of them to be exceptional leaders that not only listen to concerns, but really hear them. I felt that they really wanted to make positive change and improve the program.
Other leaders could have shrugged off my comments and left me to my own devices. But that’s what made these three community builders instead of just community supporters. After talking with them, I learned that some positive change has occurred since I withdrew my nomination and shared my post.
The application has some new questions that make it more personal and goal-oriented as much as accomplishment focused
Timelines have shifted so that there’s more accountability to those responsible for voting and firmer deadlines to make sure a backlog doesn’t happen
Notifications and follow-up will be more standardized with applicants, making sure those anxiously awaiting any news are aware of their current status and know who to contact with questions
My objective is to practice what I’ve preached here. I intend to:
Use the credential as a reminder to lift up others so that they too may experience the joy of recognition for their efforts
Do what I can to make the program better and improve the nominee experience
Continue blogging and speaking to share freely what I’ve learned along the way
Continue popping up at events and user groups to share the SP word
With a little help from my friends
Finally, I want to take a moment to thank a few people who kept me motivated and inspired throughout this three year journey. My heartfelt thanks to:
Greg Swart who first showed Mike and I the wonders of SharePoint in practice.
Dave Peterson and the organizing committee of SPS Omaha for taking a chance on me a few years ago and giving me my first SPS speaking gig.
Mike Broadwell and Mary Roach, my bosses while at KU Libraries, who approved my funding request to speak at some non-library conference in Omaha and then continually supported me as I learned and grew in SharePoint and O365.
Sharon and Jonathan Weaver who welcomed me to the organizing committee of SPS KC and who have been great partners and friends in our LSPUG and Kansas City O365 UG adventures.
Starla Jones and Michael Williams, my bosses at LMH Health, who support me today by entertaining my wild ideas about modern collaboration and organizational communication and who encourage me to keep learning.
Tim Canaday, my systems counterpart of LMH Health, whose seemingly infinite wisdom of all things server and structure (and patience when my ideas come faster than my rationality) inspires me to learn things I hadn’t dreamt of learning before and achieve things together I certainly couldn’t do alone.
Mark Rackley and the organizing committee of the North American Collaboration Summit for inviting me to speak at my first national, non-SPS conference. Thanks for believing in my value before I had an MVP credential.
All of the SPS organizing committees, professors, and user group owners who have welcomed me to speak at their events and classes. I’ve enjoyed Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Omaha, St. Louis, Kansas City (of course), and Denver and am looking forward to upcoming events wherever they may lead me.
All of the many speakers who have volunteered their time to share with LSPUG, a small but might user group in the heart of the country.
My sister and parents who are the best cheerleaders and life coaches I could ask for when I’m down or struggling with anything.
My husband, William Ottens, and our exchange student Lucas for putting up with the heightened level of nerd I can sometimes bring into the car or house.
Once you’ve added your passwords to LastPass, you’re able to check your “Security Score” which combines your individual passwords’ strength, your LastPass master password’s strength and your ranking compared to others.
Once it runs through all of your saved credentials, it’ll provide you with your score, your standing compared to others and your master password score:
You can improve your score by changing duplicate passwords, reviewing those that are known to have been compromised, strengthening those that are too weak, or haven’t been changed in a long time.
From the list they provide, you can auto-change passwords on some sites (it’ll generate secure passwords, update your profile on that site, and then update LastPass for you). Others you can launch the site from within LastPass to change your password manually.
This has helped me to cut way back on my duplicate passwords and I’ve created much more secure, and unique, passwords using LastPass. Start with a free trial, and after that it’s only $2/month. Well worth it in my opinion.
Also, if you’re using other solutions to store passwords, I’d recommend cutting back and choosing one central (and encrypted) solution. The more you multiply your passwords across various services that you use on multiple devices and networks, the more you increase your risk of being hacked.
After having my identity stolen a couple weeks ago by someone who went on a Twitch spree, I decided to get more serious about my password security.
Having a Google Pixel XL, it was easy to say “yes” every time I was prompted to save a password. And being a Chrome user, I only kept adding to the Google vault. In no time, I had saved 200 passwords.
I’m not saying anything here about Google’s security (I can only assume it’s sufficient), but I am saying you should consider the number of times you perform the “save my password” action. Multiply it a few times (Google, Edge, IE, Chrome, Norton, etc.), acknowledge that those vaults are then shared across devices, and those devices are used on several wireless networks where we don’t necessarily control security.
Also – if you repeatedly use the same password, your risk goes up exponentially. Suddenly a breach of one password is access to any number of services.
Assess your regular risk
Multiply your devices by the number of password storage solutions and then again by the number of internet access points you access and you’ll see the level of risk which with you regularly work. Imagine adding the number of passwords you’ve saved into this equation.
So safe or not, having multiple tools doing the same thing on multiple wireless networks makes no sense and increases risk simply by multiplying the amount of credentials you have stored across the virtual globe and being accessed while at, say, Starbucks.
So my cleanup began. I decided to sign up for a trial of LastPass which I had heard a lot about, and that trial turned into a subscription. I love it and won’t be turning back. Then I set to work removing password storage from all other services. Follow these directions to have Google forget your passwords so you can also consolidate your credential storage to a single source and be more secure.
As information technology professionals, it’s critically important that we stay up-to-date and practiced in our respective technologies. The North American Collaboration Summit allows you to do just that, and at a fraction of the cost of other premium conferences.
Why you should be registering for the North American Collaboration Summit 2019
One of the greatest things about this conference is that you get to interact with the best and brightest minds in our industry. The very same speakers that you’d meet at other big-name conferences.
A 60-second preview of 8 North American Collaboration Summit 2019 speakers
Oh, and did I mention I’ll be speaking there for the first time? I’m honored to be speaking alongside some incredible professionals and am excited to share a favorite session of mine, “SharePoint Wizardry for Content Management, Archiving, and Retention.”
A 60-second preview of my session at the North American Collaboration Summit 2019
What are you waiting for? Register now, and I’ll see you in March.
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