14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made available for download a new development milestone of the Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket Add-in for Excel.
Customers that are already leveraging the Redmond company’s Cloud and spreadsheet solution can head over to the Microsoft Download Center and grab the second Community Technology Preview (CTP 2) of the add-in.
As the official label of the download implies, the add-in is designed to let customers import data from Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket right into Office Excel.
According to the software giant, both Excel 2007 and 2010 are supported by the free add-in.
“Microsoft Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket Add-in for Excel (CTP 2) provides a simple experience allowing you to discover datasets published on the Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket right within Excel. Users can browse and search for a rich set of datasets from various content publishers within a tool they already use,” the company stated.
The Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket Add-in for Excel works with all supported versions of the Windows client, including Windows 7, but customers will need a few extra solutions.
The company reveals that specific components of the Microsoft Sync Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office are required in order for the extension to work as intended.
But customers need not worry since Microsoft has streamlined their deployment as much as possible, by including the components in the setup.
“The add-in features a full buying experience that allows users to identify interesting data and purchase them directly from within the workbook,” Microsoft added.
“With only a couple of clicks, the user can query their datasets and import the data as a table into Excel. Once in the workbook, the data can be visualized, joined with other data sources (including owned/on premise data) or exported to be used in other applications.”
The Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket Add-in for Excel CTP2 is available for download here.