As we wrap up 2024, we on the Excel team extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you across our amazing Excel community. Your continued contributions, from providing valuable feedback to helping others learn more, have been instrumental in making Excel better for all. THANK YOU!
2024 was another incredibly exciting year for our Excel community. The Microsoft Excel World Championship returned to ESPN8: The Ocho for the 3rd year in a row. And only a couple weeks ago, this year’s finals of the Microsoft Excel World Championship and Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge took place at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas, where we must say watching the participants in action was simply awe-inspiring. From the MECC team and individual finals to the MEWC semi-finals and finals, their speed, agility, and, above all, passion were unmatched. Many congrats to the winners!
2024 was also another amazing year filled with innovations and delights, from focus cell to regular expression (regex) functions to the general availability of Python in Excel and Copilot in Excel. See our monthly What’s New in Excel for more.
Unlocking the power of Copilot in Excel, now generally available: Previously, we talked about the vision of how Copilot in Excel could revolutionize the way you understand your data and make better business decisions. We’ve been listening to your feedback and are excited to share improvements for those of you who depend on Excel regularly. Copilot in Excel is built into your workbook, enabling you to iterate with it quickly and easily. This integration allows you to continually prompt as you work, making it feel like you have an Excel expert right by your side.
We heard from those of you who are avid users, that you need even more to supercharge your Excel experience. Copilot in Excel with Python can help you gain deeper insights without needing to be a Python expert.
Let’s take a closer look at how Copilot in Excel can help you carry out your daily Excel needs and conduct advanced analysis.
- Reason over structured data, not just tables
- Complete tasks such as adding filters or splitting text
- Highlight important information with formula based conditional formatting
- Ask Copilot right in your spreadsheet, and Copilot not only executes formulas and formatting, but it also provides steps and explanations along the way
- Request insights from Copilot using natural language
- Conduct advanced analysis that was previously out of reach now using Copilot in Excel with Python
- Transform raw textual data into actionable insights
Combining the power of Python and the flexibility of Excel: Last August, in partnership with Anaconda, we introduced an exciting new addition to Excel by integrating Python, making it possible to seamlessly combine Python and Excel analytics within the same workbook, no setup required. Since then, we’ve brought the power of popular Python analytics libraries such as pandas, Matplotlib, and NLTK to countless Excel users. Here are a couple examples of what is possible:
- Harness advanced analytics for visualizations, data cleaning, machine learning, predictive analytics, and now, even more!
- Transform data analysis with Copilot in Excel with Python
Continued innovations and delights across the platform: Every month, we have the privilege of delivering on-going enhancements to Excel from desktop to the web to mobile devices. Here are a few highlights – see our monthly What’s New in Excel for more:
- Find your spreadsheet tasks simpler, faster, and more enjoyable
- Make the active cell more visible and easier to find
- Simplify and automate translations directly within your spreadsheet
- Create and edit PivotTables on your iPad
- Parse text more easily using regular expressions
- Remove rows from the edge of a range, useful when writing dynamic array formulas or optimizing lambda functions for performance
Thank you for your continued contribution to the community. We look forward to 2025 with even more excitement, innovations, and delights with you all.
Please let us know how you like a particular feature and what we can improve upon—"Give a compliment" or "Make a suggestion". You can also submit new ideas or vote for other ideas via Microsoft Feedback.
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