Check Out These Excel Updates for Improved Data Analysis

The Microsoft Office suite is the go-to option for productivity apps. For spreadsheets, Excel is the unquestioned standard. Professionals all over the world use it for data analysis, visualizations and more. With recent Excel updates, particularly for the web app, working with data in the application is easier and more productive than ever.

Excel Updates for the Web App

The Excel web application is a surprisingly complete version of the spreadsheet program that only requires a browser. For anyone who is on the move or prefers to use a device that doesn’t have a native Excel app, this can be a great option. Like other Microsoft 365 products, it is designed to operate in a continuous workflow with OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and other popular tools.

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However, despite its impressive feature set, the Excel web app definitely lags a little behind its native cousins. Fortunately, a few Excel updates have helped to deliver more power than ever to the web version. These help to make it an even more serious option for anyone doing data analysis.

Sort Enhancements

Sorting data is one of the most central parts of analyzing a spreadsheet of data. Excel has long supported features such as numerical and alphabetical sorting and filtering. Now, updates to Excel mean that users can sort by various other rules. These include cell color, font color and conditional formatting. Plus, you can implement multiple sort rules addressing multiple columns. These advanced sorting options help to make Excel more practical than ever for quickly organizing and understanding data.

Text to Columns

Splitting text data into several columns is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to prepare a dataset. For example, if you had data about John Smith with the full name in a single column, you could split the data using a space as the delimiter to make first and last name columns.

There are a variety of options for doing this, including string length and delimiters. The update allows you to also select multiple delimiters at once. For many Excel users, preparing data to be analyzed is often more time-consuming and challenging than actually analyzing it. Features such as text to columns help to make the initial formatting and setup simpler.

New Keyboard Shortcuts

Excel power users love their keyboard shortcuts. The reduced support for these has long been viewed as one of the most significant shortcomings of the web app. Since the app has to compete with browser keyboard shortcuts, it has been a little more complex than shortcuts in the native app. However, Microsoft understands this and has put a lot of work into adding new shortcuts.

The latest include moving to the final row or cell in a range and extending the selection to the last-used cell. Plus, additional shortcuts are coming soon. Users can find a complete list of the current shortcuts by opening “Help,” then “Keyboard Shortcuts.”

Improved PivotTables

PivotTables are a powerful way to arrange and rearrange data to better understand and analyze it. They are central to many forms of data analysis. With these Excel updates for the web, the PivotTable experience is improved. The app offers a recommended PivotTables option to quickly create a table using smart suggestions based on the current data.

Additionally, a new PivotTable ribbon and right-click menu have added new ways to change the settings, style and more of your table. This enhanced experience means that Excel for the web users can create PivotTables more quickly and get more benefits from them.

Directly Interactable Charts

Charts have always been a part of Excel and one of the most central features. However, they have typically been controlled only through pop-up boxes in the web app. These Excel updates allow direct selecting and interaction with chart elements.

For example, if you want to change the way your chart data looks, simply select a certain element and update formatting. Alternatively, select the legend and delete it with a single keystroke to enlarge the data area.

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Start Using These Excel Updates and Other Great Features

These Excel updates have helped to make the Excel web app even more useful than ever. The existence of the app and the impressive support for it are reflective of Microsoft’s mission to help teams get the most from their Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Moving your business to the Microsoft Cloud may be one of the best choices you ever make. Cloudficient helps businesses like yours successfully migrate from legacy systems to the cloud.

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