The Excel and SQL Server experts blog

Is Devart falling short on essential safeguards in your needs for secure and reliable SQL data management? Many teams have looked for alternatives to Devart’s Excel add-ins because of security limitations and lagging performance. Plenty of these users found SQL Spreads to be an excellent alternative, highlighting its intuitive approach to role-based permissions and faster …

Is CData proving too complex or not user-friendly enough for your SQL data management needs? You’re not alone. Plenty of our users migrated to SQL Spreads from CData’s Excel add-in, attracted by an exceptionally intuitive interface and the promise of a leaner stack. Here’s everything you need to know about the top CData competitors this …

For organizations that use SQL Server and Excel extensively, there is often a need to export data from SQL Server to Excel. In this article, we’re going to look at how to export data from SQL Server to Excel using 3 methods. We’ll also introduce a valuable feature in the SQL Spreads Excel Add-In that allows …

In this article, we’re going to show you how to build a KPI Excel template using SQL Server and an Excel Add-In. Many organizations collect performance metrics related to aspects of their business and then use KPIs to measure and track performance against targets. However, the process of collecting the data is often a manual …

In many businesses, it’s common to use Views to present database tables in a user-friendly way. With SQL Spreads, you can update a View in SQL Server from within Excel. SQL Spreads allows you to work with SQL Server Views, making it easy to display data side by side in Excel, similar to any other …

There are several options available if you are looking for a front end for SQL Server. Like most things, what is best for you will depend on a number of factors. In this article, we’re going to look at the things to consider when choosing a front end for SQL Server and how the SQL …

In a previous article, we spoke about why you need both Excel and SQL in your data management solutions, but how do you connect Excel to SQL Server?  In this article, we’re going to show you the steps and highlight a key benefit of using an Excel add-in like SQL Spreads. But, first, we’re going …

In this article, we’re going to look at 3 ways to convert a CSV file to SQL. This is a common use case, so hopefully, you’ll find the following information useful in your day-to-day work. Introduction Comma Separated Values (CSV) files are commonly used to exchange data from one system or application to another.  The …

End users love working in Excel; they know the tool and they are free to do what they want. That’s the heart of the much-loved Excel application, but also the start of problems for the people taking care of the data. The freedom to add cells and enter “whatever-you-like” values causes huge problems when trying …

We are proud to announce the release of SQL Spreads 2014 with the completely new Table Wizard. The Table Wizard makes it extremely simple to create an Excel document which can be used to Update, Insert or Delete data in a SQL Server table. The Wizard contains five screen: When clicking Finish, SQL Spreads will load the …