Monkey Tools

Options Monkey

Article Overview

What is an application with Options? Monkey Tools is no difference, and we have a specific Options Monkey to help you control them all.  This article discusses how this particular Monkey works, as well as explains what some of the options actually do.

The Options Monkey's Version Tab

Version Info

In this section, the Options Monkey tells you what version you are running, and when the last Monkey Tools update was installed.  By default, Monkey Tools will automatically check for updates every 14 days, but you can set this value higher or lower as desired. Want to check immediately? Click the “Check for Update Now” button, and we’ll let you know if an update is available for installation.

License Info

This section of the Options Monkey is covered in detail in the article on Activating Your License.

The Options Monkey's Version tab allows you to configure the number of days between update checks, and activate your Monkey Tools license

The Biblio Monkey Tab

This tab is dedicated for management of the Bilbio Monkey database and contains some key information and abilities:

  1. The location of your currently active Biblio Monkey database
  2. The status of your database
  3. The database version
  4. The ability to choose an action (as described in the sections below)
For more information on changing your Biblio Monkey database, please see the instructions on the Biblio Monkey support article.

The Options Monkey's Reset Forms Tab

Our Monkeys make use of a lot of forms, many of which store your choices to use as defaults for next time.  Should you ever need to reset one or more forms to their default states, however, the Options Monkey has you covered.

To reset one or more forms:

  • Check the box next to the form(s) you wish to revert to default
  • Click Reset

Or, if you’d like to reset everything quickly:

  • Click Select All
  • Click Reset

It’s just that easy!

The Reset Forms tab of the Options Monkey allows resetting one, several or all of the Monkey Tools forms

The Options Monkey's Global Options Tab

This section of the Options Monkey contains a few specific options which may need a bit more explanation:

Global Options controlled by the Options Monkey include legacy PivotTable buttons, show the user interface in Free mode, Disable Enhanced Query Metadata Analysis and Error Logging

This section contains settings specific to the From Table or Range Monkey and include options to:

  • Use Default From Table/Range Experience. Checking this option will turn off our Monkey as it pertains to the Get Data functionality, leaving you with Microsoft’s default implementation.
  • Use Default From Insert Table Button Experience. Checking this option will turn off our Monkey, leaving you with Microsoft’s default Create Table implementation when using the Insert -> Table button.
  • Use Default CTRL+T (CTRL + L) Shortcut Behaviour. Checking this options means that we won’t override the default behaviour (or your re-mapped buttons) in your solution with our From Table or Range Monkey.
  • Include Query by Default When Creating Tables. By default our Monkey leaves this box un-checked, but this setting overrides it to check the box by default.
  • Provide a Custom Table Preface. Text included here will be used for default table names instead of “Table1”
  • Provide a Custom Named Range Preface. Text included here will be used for default table names instead of “rng”
  • Provide a Custom Dynamic Array Preface. Text included here will be used for default table names instead of “rng”

Office 365 introduced new PivotTable buttons in the ribbon. While this is awesome, Microsoft doesn’t give us a way to conditionally test and return the correct buttons for you.

If you don’t see any buttons in the PivotTables section at the top of the Monkey Tools Pivots & Filters menu, try checking the Use Legacy PivotTable Menu Buttons setting. We’ll add the legacy Insert PivotTable and Recommended PivotTables button there for you.

Note that this choice will “stick” when you re-launch Excel.

A few of our Query Monkeys require some very in-depth analysis of your Power Queries in order to provide you with the best experience possible.  (Calendar Monkey and SCD2 Monkey are just two examples of these.)

The challenge is that – in order to get this information – these Monkeys actually create and run a query to extract the data they need.  It’s cool, but can lead to a couple of concerns:

  1. If privacy levels have not been defined for all of your data sources (including your host workbook), the query can fail to load.
  2. Depending on the number and type of data sources, as well as the complexity of your queries, these can take a while to load.

If you are experiencing significant latency when trying to load our Monkeys, you can disable this feature by checking Disable Enhanced Query Metadata Analysis.  Just be aware that – while things may get faster – our Monkeys won’t be able to provide you with the useful defaults you are used to.

Are you curious what you’d lose if your trial expires, or if you decided to let your Pro license revert to free?  Wonder no more! Just check Show User Interface in ‘Free’ Mode, click close, and go use Monkey Tools.

Note that this feature is only available for Pro and Pro Trial users, and does not stay checked when Excel is restarted, as we don’t want you to lose out on your Pro license benefits!

It’s unlikely you’ll use this feature unless we ask you to, but should you need to send us a log, here’s how to do it:

  1. Check the Enable Error Logging checkbox, which will cause two more controls to show up below it…
  2. Optionally, check the Full Error Logging checkbox as well (that just gives us more detailed info.)
  3. Make sure you take note of the Error Path  so you can find the file to send to us.

Note that this feature is turned off when Excel loads. (We don’t want to fill your hard drive with log files!)

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