What's New in Excel (November 2024)

Welcome to the November 2024 update. This month, we are pleased to introduce new features in Copilot in Excel that can transform your data analysis, assist with conditional formatting, and the Excel chat helper is here to kickstart your Excel journey. These features are now available on Windows, Mac and the web. In addition, the new regular expression (regex) functions are now rolling out to Windows and Mac users.

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web:
- Copilot in Excel: Transforming Data Analysis
- Conditional formatting with Copilot in Excel
- Copilot in Excel: Excel Chat Helper

Excel for Windows and Mac:
- New Regular Expression (REGEX) Functions

Excel for Mac:
- Recent widgets for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Insiders)

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web

Copilot in Excel: Transforming Data Analysis

We recently announced the general availability of Copilot in Excel. Now, we’re excited to share the following announcements: 

• Copilot in Excel with Python is generally available in US (EN-US) for Windows 
• You can create a table specific to your needs with Copilot 
• Copilot helps you pull in data from your organization and search the web 
• Copilot's enhanced text analysis capabilities provide new ways to reason over your data and derive insights

A GIF showing a person asking Copilot to insert a table, and to make adjustments to the table before inserting into the spreadsheet.

Read the full blog to learn more >

Conditional formatting with Copilot in Excel
Conditional formatting in Excel is a versatile tool that can help you analyze and present your data more effectively. By exploring the various capabilities of conditional formatting in combination with Copilot you can unlock the full potential of this feature and make your spreadsheets more informative and visually engaging. Read more here >

Gif showing application of Copilot generated conditional format and then how editing data updates the coloring based on the rule.

Copilot in Excel: Excel Chat Helper
Starting with Excel can be challenging, especially when consolidating data from various sources like emails and meetings, or when you're unfamiliar with the required analysis. The chat helper within Copilot is your go-to resource for mastering Excel, simplifying complex tasks, and enhancing your productivity and here to guide you every step of the way. Read more here >

 

Excel for Windows and Mac

New Regular Expression (REGEX) Functions
Regular expressions, or ‘regex’, are sequences of characters that define search patterns, commonly used for string searching and text parsing. They are incredibly versatile and are often used to check if a string contains a certain pattern, extract substrings that match the pattern, or replace substrings that match the pattern. 

The new regex functions we are introducing are:

• REGEXTEST: Checks if any part of supplied text matches a regex pattern.
• REGEXEXTRACT: Extracts one or more parts of supplied text that match a regex pattern.
• REGEXREPLACE: Searches for a regex pattern within supplied text and replaces it with different text.

Picture showing an example using REGEXEXTRACT to extract names from text using the pattern "[A-z]+ [A-z]+", which matches two groups of alphabet characters separated by a space.

These features are currently rolling out to Windows and Mac users.

Read the full blog here >

Excel for Mac

Recent widgets for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Insiders)
Quickly access your recently used files straight from your desktop with Recent widgets for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Mac. The widgets allow you to both view and open your most recently accessed files from the desktop. Read more here >

 

 

 

Many of these features are the result of your feedback. THANK YOU! Your continued Feedback in Action (#FIA) helps improve Excel for everyone. 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.

Subscribe to our Excel Blog and the Insiders Blog to get the latest updates. Stay connected with us and other Excel fans around the world – join our Excel Community and follow us on X, formerly Twitter.

Special thanks to our Excel MVPs David Benaim, Bill Jelen, Alan Murray, and John Michaloudis 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. John is the Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer at MyExcelOnline.com where he passionately teaches thousands of professionals how to use Excel to stand out from the crowd.