Welcome to the July 2024 update. This month, use Copilot in Excel to unlock insights from data, work on data ranges resembling tables, and prompt for step-by-step instructions including formula examples! And not only is the Python Editor now available as an in-the-box option but also support for additional libraries to continue enhancing your data analysis and visualization capabilities directly in Excel is here for Insider users of Excel for Windows.
Excel for web, Windows, and Mac:
- Copilot in Excel: Unlocking insights from data
- Copilot in Excel: Expanded data structure support and comprehensive answers
Excel for web:
- Modernized Excel grid (part 1 & 2)
- Sync Forms data to Excel
Excel for Windows & Mac:
- Checkboxes in cells
- TRANSLATE & DETECTLANGUAGE functions (Insiders)
Excel for Windows:
- Python Editor (Insiders)
- Python in Excel: additional library support (Insiders)
Excel for Mac:
- Refresh data from Power Query's From Folder connector #FIA
Excel for web, Windows, and Mac
Copilot in Excel: Unlocking insights from data
Copilot in Excel can help us format data, analyze data, and create visualizations. Read more here >
Example 1: Ask Copilot to format our data for better readability
Example 2: Ask Copilot a question about our data
Copilot in Excel: Expanded data structure support and comprehensive answers
Users are no longer limited to using Copilot in Excel only in Excel tables, because Copilot in Excel now works on data ranges resembling tables with a single row of headers on top. In addition, the edit box is now available on any Excel worksheet, regardless of the selected cell. Copilot will reason over the nearest table, or data range resembling a table, to the user’s selected grid area on the same worksheet. Read more here >
A computer screenshot showing Excel with a Copilot chat window open
Excel for web
Modernized Excel grid (part 1 & 2)
Our latest update for web users brings you a host of powerful features designed to make your spreadsheet tasks simpler, faster, and more enjoyable. From effortless resizing and streamlined inserts to enhanced navigation and easy cell highlighting, discover how these modern tools can revolutionize your workflows. These features are currently rolling out to all Web users.
Read part one here >and part two here >
Modernized Excel Grid
Sync Forms data to Excel
With just one click, you can now easily access all your form responses in Excel for the web and take advantage of Excel’s rich functions to analyze and visualize your data. With automatic syncing of new responses in real-time, you can keep working on your existing spreadsheet without missing a beat. This feature is now available to all Web users. Read more here >
Sync Forms Data to Excel
Excel for Windows & Mac
Checkboxes in cells
Checkboxes have released to production in Excel for Windows and Mac. They are great for checklists, managing tasks and visualizing your data at a glance. With just a few clicks, you can insert Checkboxes into any cell, making your spreadsheets more dynamic and user-friendly. Read more here >
Insert checkboxes in cells
TRANSLATE & DETECTLANGUAGE functions (Insiders)
We are introducing two new functions designed to simplify and automate translations directly within your spreadsheet.
TRANSLATE() – a function that translates a text from one language to another.
TRANSLATE FunctionDETECTLANGUAGE() – a function that detects the language of the specified text.
DETECTLANGUAGE Function
Excel for Windows
Python Editor (Insiders)
The Python Editor allows you to write and edit Python formulas in Excel using a dedicated code editor with similar capabilities as those available in Python notebook environments.
We are happy to share that we are making the editor available as an in-the-box option, and we have improved the appearance and usability of the Python Editor. You’ll see a slightly different user interface that stays faithful to the original design, and we have more to come! Read more here >
The Python editor button is now listed on the ribbon
Python in Excel: additional library support (Insiders)
- NLTK: Dive into natural language processing with the Natural Language Toolkit, perfect for text analytics and language-driven data insights. The following corpora are pre-loaded for use with Python in Excel: brown, punkt, stopwords, treebank, vader, and wordnet2022.
- TheFuzz: Implement fuzzy matching to find approximate matches in your data, ideal for cleaning and preparing datasets.
- Faker: Generate fake data.
- WordCloud: Visualize word frequency in your data, making it easier to highlight key insights.
- Squarify: Create treemaps to represent hierarchical data.
- QRCode: Generate QR codes directly within Excel.
- PlotNine: Create multi-layered plots that tell a story with your data.
- Prince: Apply principal component analysis and other dimensionality reduction techniques to simplify complex datasets.
- MLExtend: Extend your machine learning capabilities with additional tools for model evaluation, feature selection, and ensemble methods.
Excel for Mac
| #FIA |
Refresh data from Power Query's From Folder connector (Insiders)
Power Query is a powerful and timesaving set of Excel tools that can help you get, shape, and refresh data quickly and easily. We’ve been continually adding functionality to Power Query in Excel for Mac over the last few years, such as the ability to import data from SQL Server databases.
Many of you have told us you’d also like the ability to refresh data from a folder source. We’ve heard you, and now you can! Read more here >
Refresh data using Power Query’s From Folder connector in Excel for Mac
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Special thanks to our Excel MVPs David Benaim, Bill Jelen, and Alan Murray for their contribution to this month's What's New in Excel article. David publishes weekly YouTube videos and regular LinkedIn posts about the latest innovations in Excel and more. Bill is the founder and host of MrExcel.com and the author of several books about Excel. Alan is an Excel trainer, author and speaker, best known for his blog Computergaga.com and YouTube channel with the same name.
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