Refreshing GROW Data in Excel (Automatically)

This article will explain how to setup Excel to refresh GROW data from Management Toolbox automatically. To set it up to refresh manually, please see Refreshing GROW Data in Excel.

First, make sure you have completed the steps in these articles:

• Accessing the Management Toolbox Data Warehouse (Excel)
• Connecting Excel to Management Toolbox

Once you have connected your PC and Excel to Management Toolbox, the data will remain static (not change) from the time you setup the connection and Excel loaded the data for the first time.

If you want to work with up-to-date data automatically, you can enable this by following these steps:

1. Open your Excel Workbook
2. You will see a Security Warning at the top of Excel. This is because the connection to Management Toolbox is "external" to your PC/network. The connection to Management Toolbox is safe and secure (encrypted).
   
   Click Enable Content
   
   
   
   
3. From any tab in the workbook, click on the Data tab of the ribbon bar.
4. Click Queries & Connections
   
   
   
   
5. The Queries & Connection pane will open on the right
   Locate the query you want to refresh, right-click it and select Properties
   
   
   
6. The Query Properties window opens, set the options as you desire (see below for an explanation of each).
   
   
   
7. Click OK to save your changes.

Query Properties: Refresh Control

• Enable background refresh: Select this check box to run the query in the background. Clear this check box to run the query while you wait. Running a query in the background enables you to use Excel while the query runs.
• Refresh every X minutes: Select this check box to enable automatic external data refresh at regular time intervals, and then enter the number of minutes between each refresh operation. Clear this check box to disable automatic external data refresh.
• Refresh data when opening the file: Select this check box to automatically refresh external data when you open the workbook. Clear this check box to immediately open the workbook without refreshing external data.
  •  Remove data from the external data range before saving the workbook: Select this check box if you want to save the workbook with the query definition but without the external data. Clear this check box to save the query definition and data with the workbook. This check box becomes available only after you select the Refresh data when opening the file check box.
• Refresh this connection on Refresh All: Select this check box to automatically refresh external data when you click or select Refresh All.
• Enable Fast Data Load: Select this check box to speed up queries in Excel. Your queries will take less time to load, but Excel may become unresponsive during the loading.

NOTE: If you need to refresh other data sources automatically, you can repeat step 5-7 for each Query.