What's New in Excel (October 2024)

Welcome to the October 2024 update. This month, we're excited that Clean Data with Copilot in Excel is now available in Excel for the web. Also, GROUPBY and PIVOTBY functions are now generally available in Excel for Windows, Mac and web. Furthermore, Focus Cell is now available to Insider users on Excel for Windows.

 

Excel for web:

- Clean Data with Copilot in Excel

 

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web:
- GROUPBY and PIVOTBY functions

Excel for Windows:

- Focus Cell (Insiders)

- Color Picker

- New Templates in Excel

- Draw and Hold gesture (Insiders) #FIA

 

Excel for Mac and iOS:

- Seamlessly switch between your Apple devices with Handoff support (Insiders)

 

Excel for web

Clean Data with Copilot in Excel

With Copilot in Excel, you can clean data with just one click. Clean Data detects and offers solutions for text inconsistencies, number format issues, and extra spaces. Simply select the Clean Data option in the Data tab of the ribbon or interact with the pop-up banner to get started. Read more here >

Inconsistent text suggestion card showing an example of mixed cases to the word “Excel”, including "Excel", "EXCEL", and "Excel."

 

Excel for Windows, Mac, and web

GROUPBY and PIVOTBY functions

These functions are now generally available to users in the Current Channel. GROUPBY and PIVOTBY allow you to perform data aggregations using a single formula. All you need is just 3 arguments: i) What to group by, ii) the values to aggregate, and iii) the function you'd like to use for the aggregation. Read more here >

GROUPBY:

PIVOTBY:

 

Excel for Windows

Focus Cell (Insiders)

Make the active cell more visible in your worksheet with Focus Cell. Focus Cell applies vibrant highlights to the corresponding row and column of the active cell and increases the active cell’s border thickness. This makes the active cell more visible and facilitates easy identification of data across the same row and column. Read more here >

Animation showing the Focus Cell command being used in an Excel worksheet

Color Picker

Excel's color picker now includes a feature that shows you if the selected color contrasts adequately with the background. By hovering over a color, you will see a tool tip indicating whether the color has "Low Contrast" or "Good Contrast" against the backdrop. Additionally, you can turn on the "High-contrast only" toggle to filter and display only colors with sufficient contrast.

Color Picker shows a tool tip previewing the color contrast against the backdrop

 

New Templates in Excel

We're excited to introduce three new Python in Excel templates. To access them, go to File > New. Then type in "Python" in the template search bar. Python in Excel template are currently only available in the English language.

 

1. Python in Excel tutorial: Learn about Python in Excel and how you can use it to analyze data directly within your Excel spreadsheets.

GIF showing how to interact with the Get Started with Python in Excel template

2. QR code generator: Easily generate customized QR codes in Excel to share with others for quick access to links.

GIF showing how to create a QR code using the Excel template

3. Dummy data generator: Generate realistic dummy data for testing or demos.

GIF showing how to interact with the random data generator template

 

Draw and Hold gesture (Insiders)

To create neater lines and shapes, you can now use the Draw and Hold gesture. Simply draw a line, arrow, or shape (like a circle, ellipse, triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, pentagon, or hexagon) in a single stroke, hold your pen in place for a few milliseconds, and watch as the shape is converted into a neater version.  While still holding, you can drag to rotate or resize the shape. Read more here >

Animation of drawing straight lines using the Drag and Hold gesture

 

Excel for Mac and iOS

Seamlessly switch between your Apple devices with Handoff support (Insiders)

Handoff is an Apple feature that allows you to continue working on content while switching from one Apple device to another. For example, if you're working on an Excel spreadsheet on your iPhone and want to switch to your Mac, Handoff makes it possible with just a couple clicks. 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.