Browsing Analysis Services OLAP Cubes with Excel - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 255

After your offline cube file has been created, you can distribute it to others and use it while you're
disconnected from the network.
When you're connected to the network, you can open your offline cube file and refresh the
PivotTable to get updated data.
Using Cube Functions
Cube functions are Excel functions that can be used to access OLAP data outside a PivotTable object.
In pre-2010 versions of Excel, you could find cube functions only if you installed the Analysis Services
Add-In. In Excel 2010, cube functions were brought into the native Excel environment.
One of the easiest ways to start exploring cube functions is to allow Excel to convert your OLAP-based
PivotTable into cube formulas. Converting a PivotTable to cube formulas is an easy way to create a few
cube formulas without doing any of the work yourself. Excel replaces all the cells in the PivotTable
with a formula that connects back to the OLAP database. Figure 13-10 shows a PivotTable connected
to an OLAP database.
Figure 13-10: A normal OLAP PivotTable.
With just a few clicks, you can convert any OLAP PivotTable into a series of cube formulas. Place the
cursor anywhere inside the PivotTable and select Convert to Formulas from the OLAP Tools drop-
down menu on the Analyze tab.
If your PivotTable contains a report filter field, the message box in Figure 13-11 appears. This dialog
box gives you the option of converting your filter drop-down selectors to cube formulas. If you select
the Convert Report Filters check box, the drop-down selectors are removed, leaving a static formula.
If you need to have your filter drop-down selectors intact so that you can continue to interactively
change the selections in the filter field, deselect the Convert Report Filters check box.
If you're working with a PivotTable in compatibility mode, Excel automatically converts the filter fields
to formulas.