Excel Queries & Connections Pane Stuck at Top of Screen

Ken Puls and Miguel Escobar just released their new Power Query book – Master Your Data with Excel and Power BI. I bought a digital copy, downloaded the sample files, and eagerly dove into the book. Then I remembered the problem I’ve had for a few months – the Excel Queries & Connections pane is stuck at the top of my second monitor. Here’s how I finally fixed it.

Here’s the Problem Pane

This is what the Queries & Connections pane looked like, every time I used it. It’s about 1 inch wide and tall, with no title bar showing. At the top, only the two tabs are showing – Queries, and Connections.

queriesconnectionspane02

Fortunately, I was able to resize the pane, by dragging the sides or corners. That let me see what was in there!

I couldn’t move the pane though, because there was no title bar to double-click or drag.

Ignoring the Problem

Most of the time, I’m using existing queries, and don’t need to do anything with the Queries & Connections pane. It’s easy to just ignore a problem like that, instead of trying to fix it.

But, with Power Query experiments to try, I decided to tackle the problem.

Unfortunately, a Google search didn’t turn up any solutions. In fact, I didn’t find anyone else reporting the same problem.

Second Monitor Problems

Finally, I remembered a similar situation, when Excel UserForms suddenly looked strange on my second monitor. Maybe the second monitor display settings were affecting the Queries & Connections pane too.

Here’s what I did to temporarily change the monitor settings, to see if that would help:

Right-click on an empty spot in the monitor
Click Display Settings
Changed the Scale and layout size from 125% to 100% (recommended setting)

queriesconnectionspane01

Title Bar Appeared

As soon as I did that, the Queries & Connections pane shifted a bit, and its title bar appeared. Woohoo!

I was able to drag the pane down a couple of inches, so it wasn’t right at the top of the second monitor any longer.

queriesconnectionspane03

I was also able to double-click the pane’s title bar, so it docked at the right side of the Excel window. Maybe I’ll leave it there for now, so the same problem doesn’t happen again!

queriesconnectionspane04

Then, I changed the second monitor display settings back to 125%, so things are easier for me to see.

Get the Power Query Book

Now, I’m ready to go through the Power Query book, Master Your Data with Excel and Power BI, and can’t wait to learn new things!

This is the second edition of their popular book, M is for Data Monkey. I’ve got an autographed copy of that edition on my bookshelf.

You can choose between the digital version of the new edition, or a printed copy. Or, get both!

Get the digital version of the new edition right now, on Ken and Miguel’s website:

Master Your Data with Excel and Power BI

Or, if you’d prefer a printed copy, it will be released on Amazon, starting November 1, 2021. You can pre-order it now, so click this link to reserve your copy:

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