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Tag: Excel

  • Microsoft Excel Finally Gets Formula Suggestions

    Microsoft Excel Finally Gets Formula Suggestions

    Microsoft Excel is getting a major new feature, one that Google Sheets has had for some time, namely Formula Suggestions.

    Formula Suggestions are an important feature, especially for new users, helping them gain an understanding of how formulas work. Google Sheets has had the feature since last year, but Microsoft Excel is finally catching up.

    The company made the announcement as part of their December 2022 update:

    Welcome to the December 2022 update. We are excited to announce the release of Formula Suggestions and Formula by Example for Excel web users – a couple exciting capabilities designed to help save you time and learn more about Excel formulas as you use them. Also for web users are suggested links, IMAGE function, and a new search bar in the queries pane. For Windows users, a new keyboard shortcut is available to open the Power Query editor, and Insiders users on Windows can now get data from dynamic arrays and create nested Power Query data types to better organize your data.

  • Microsoft Will Block Downloaded Office Macros by Default

    Microsoft Will Block Downloaded Office Macros by Default

    Macros have long been a major factor in Office security issues, and it appears Microsoft is taking a major step toward addressing the problem.

    Macros have been around for years, with Office power users having their own personal collection of macros they swear by. Unfortunately, they are also one of the most targeted attack vectors that bad actors use. Microsoft has taken various steps to try to mitigate the danger, but their latest is one of their most ambitious.

    Beginning in Version 2203, Microsoft will block downloaded macros for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Word.

    For macros in files obtained from the internet, users will no longer be able to enable content with a click of a button. A message bar will appear for users notifying them with a button to learn more. The default is more secure and is expected to keep more users safe including home users and information workers in managed organizations.

    Microsoft has said it will also implement the change for Office LTSC, Office 2021, Office 2019, Office 2016, and Office 2013 at a future date.

    Users intent on using downloaded macros will still be able to, but they’ll need to jump through a couple of hoops to do so. Users will be presented with a warning message, including a Learn More button.

    The Learn More button goes to an article for end users and information workers that contains information about the security risk of bad actors using macros, safe practices to prevent phishing & malware, and instructions on how to enable these macros.

    The change is likely to inconvenience some users, but hopefully the measure will help protect Office users.

  • Unified Microsoft Office App For iOS Rolling Out

    Unified Microsoft Office App For iOS Rolling Out

    Late last year, Microsoft announced it was working on an all-in-one office app for iOS and Android. It appears the iOS version is in the process of rolling out.

    The new app brings Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single app, improving and simplifying worksflows. Microsoft still intends to offer the individual apps, especially for users that may only need one or two. For users who rely on the entire suite, however, the new app will have some nice improvements and save space.

    iPhone Optimized Office
    iPhone Optimized Office

    The new app is on the App Store although, at time of writing, only an iPhone-optimized version was available. When running it on an iPad, it recommends downloading an iPadOS app, although only the existing, stand-alone apps are available. Hopefully the iPadOS version is coming and has just not hit the App Store yet. Given that Office works best on an iPad, it seems unlikely Microsoft would fail to release an iPadOS-optimized version.

    In any case, once (if) both apps are fully available, Office will be a nice addition to the Microsoft family of apps, giving customers yet another option.

  • Microsoft Redesigns iOS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

    Microsoft Redesigns iOS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

    Microsoft has released a major update to its iOS apps, revamping the interface and adding new features.

    According to the release notes, Word was “redesigned from scratch,” to make the app “simpler, faster and more beautiful than before.” The word processor also includes an updated Alt Text Pane to make “content more accessible by adding helpful captions or even mark elements as decorative.”

    Similarly, Excel receives the same facelift and Alt Text Pane, but also ads Read and Reply on the Fly, giving users the ability to “respond to comments and mentions right from email without opening the workbook.” Finally, VLOOKUP replacement XLOOKUP makes its way to the iOS version.

    Powerpoint also gets the same visual redesign, as well as the Alt Text Pane.

    Microsoft’s Office apps are already some of the most powerful, full-featured applications available for iOS and go a long way toward delivering on the iPad’s productivity promise. This latest release is a welcome upgrade and has some nice quality-of-life improvements.

  • Chrome Beta For Desktop Adds Support For Microsoft Office Documents

    Despite Google’s best attempts at getting people to switch to Google Docs, much of the world still works in Microsoft Office. It may be a while before Google can win the format wars; but in the meantime, it will make sure Chrome users stay in Chrome when opening Microsoft documents.

    Google announced that Chrome Beta for desktop can now open Microsoft Office documents directly in the browser. In other words, all of your Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files can be accessed in the browser without having to open Microsoft Office.

    You could interpret this as Google firing a warning shot across Microsoft’s bow, but Google says it’s only watching out for its users:

    In addition to saving you time, the Chrome Office Viewer also protects you from malware delivered via Office files. Just like with web pages and PDFs, we’ve added a specialized sandbox to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.

    If you want to start viewing Microsoft Office files in Chrome, you’re going to first need the Chrome Beta. You can grab that here. Next up, you’re gonna need the Chrome Office Viewer which is also in beta. Google reminds users to help them squash any remaining bugs in the Office Viewer by submitting bug reports whenever things go wrong.

  • Microsoft Updates All Of Its Office Web Apps

    The Web is quickly becoming the new platform of choice for many tech companies. Google and Microsoft have been the two largest proponents of the Web over the last few years with both companies investing heavily in cloud computing and big data. Now Microsoft has finally updated one of its first forays into the Web-based collaboration software.

    Microsoft announced today that all of its Office Web apps have been updated to take advantage of new platforms like SkyDrive. The first Office Web apps were made available in 2010 and let users collaborate on documents in real time via any Web browser. It was similar to Google Docs, but now Microsoft is moving to be the Web platform of choice for those working in Word and other office documents.

    First up, the Word Web app was updated to improve its visuals on high definition monitors. There’s also new support for viewing and adding comments to a Word document. Many of the same features present in the desktop version of Word are available in the Word Web app.

    The Excel Web app features all of the essential features that you’ve come to expect. Users can now visualize data with high fidelity charts, even in 3D. The app now supports the ability to print from the browser as well.

    The PowerPoint Web app has received more updates than most due to its highly visual nature. Slides are now presented in high definition, just like on the desktop version. Audio and video playback is now supported on mobile devices as well. Students or office workers who are still working on a presentation at the last minute can also add new slides via a Web browser.

    On a final note, the OneNote Web app also received a few updates including the ability to search on a page or within a section. Like before, users can type anywhere on a page to add notes, pictures or tags. Those notes, however, can now be shared as URL that can be viewed on across PCs, phones and tablets.

    All the new updated Office Web apps have been optimized for IE10, Windows 8 and iOS 6. You can access them via SkyDrive and Outlook.

  • Excel In 2013 With Microsoft Office

    Excel In 2013 With Microsoft Office

    Before Windows 8 hits on October 26, you might want to try out the release preview and the customer preview for Microsoft Office 2013. A lot of the early adapters for Windows 8 will undoubtedly be using Microsoft Office for a lot of their work and all copies of Windows RT come with Office by default. Before you go diving into Office 2013, however, Microsoft wants to show off some of the great stuff they have in store for each piece of software in the package.

    First up is something that is near and dear to a lot of business folks’ hearts – Excel. With Excel 2013, Microsoft claims to have done their research and then some. The main focus in building Excel 2013 was to look at “the full spectrum of users, from the spreadsheet dabblers to the analysts and ‘super-crazy power user’.” They used their insight into the modern Excel user to come up with the main theme behind the new excel – “empowering our users.”

    It was through this research that they came to implement four new features into Excel 2013. The first of which is better accessibility. What this means is that the Excel team had cleaned up the interface to make it more user friendly. So now, Excel users will be able to better identify their content and what they can do with said content. Excel will provide guidance on how to make graphs and charts look better. In other good news, Excel 2013 now supports multiple monitors so you can have two Excel workbooks open at once.

    For the Enterprise market that will be using Excel, Microsoft has added in “new” Business Intelligence capabilities. New is in quotes because the BI stuff has already been here, but was always separate. Two pieces of software for Excel 2010 – PowerPivot and SharePoint – are now integrated into Excel 2013. Microsoft promises more news on the BI end to come in future updates.

    A new major improvement is Excel Everywhere. Microsoft is making sure that people will be able to access their Excel documents on any device wherever they are. Major points of investment are in tablets and browsers. Excel Everywhere also signals that Microsoft is getting serious about the Cloud in Office 2013 with users being able to share Excel, or other Office software, projects across multiple devices.

    The last update is potentially the most exciting. People build a lot of apps and add-on content for Excel and other Office software to help get the most out of it. With Excel 2013, developers will be able to embed Apps for Office into Excel using HTML5. These apps will work on both the standalone Excel environment and the cloud-hosted Web app.

    Microsoft promises more news on Excel 2013 as the release of Office 2013 approaches. There’s more than just Excel to Office as well, so expect updates on changes to PowerPoint, Word and others as we get closer to October 26. While you’re at it, download the Office 2013 Customer Preview today and give it a shot.

  • Microsoft Excel Webinar Makes Data Simple

    Do you find yourself struggling while using Microsoft Excel? Is the program just too complicated? Perhaps you just want a refresher course on all the features Excel has to offer? If you find yourself in any of the above scenarios, Microsoft is hosting a webinar just for you.

    Announced on the Excel blog today, the house that Windows built will be hosting a free webinar called, “Simplifying your data in Excel.” The webinar will last 15-minutes and cover a variety of topics that should help newcomers and experts alike in getting the most out of the program.

    The topics on hand in tomorrow’s webinar are: Using Conditional Formatting, Adding Sparklines, Better charts for presentations, and a new tool to learn Excel. If you can’t make the webinar, Microsoft will add the video to the blog post after they wrap up the webinar.

    The blog post includes a handy list of references that the webinar will cover. You can get ahead of the game by checking out the articles and videos now to prepare yourself for the big day tomorrow. Some of the references include a video demo for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010 training videos.

    The webinar will take place tomorrow morning at 9:15 a.m. PDT/12:15 p.m. EST. You can bookmark the webinar location now for easy remembrance. As an aside, you will need to install and run the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight to view the webinar.