Keep Excel. Add Intelligence.
For years, I watched larger players in data, analytics, and reporting downplay Excel. The message was often: “Are you still using Excel for analytics and reporting? It is time to switch to our platform.” But I discovered the value of Excel early in my career. Excel remains popular for a simple reason: it is familiar, flexible, accessible, and deeply embedded in how business teams work. For many HR and compensation professionals, the spreadsheet is not the problem. The real challenge is turning spreadsheet data into reliable insights and actionable decisions. After leaving one of those large technology companies—somewhat involuntarily—I decided to build something based on a different philosophy: Keep Excel. Add intelligence. I created a suite of compensation modules that uses Excel files as the starting point. Organizations can upload employee-level data—including compensation, performance, job, market, and budget information—and use the modules to support: Salary benchmarking Pay equity analysis Merit planning Budget distribution Compensation audits Job leveling The system analyzes the uploaded data, identifies patterns and risks, and produces findings that compensation and HR teams can review and act upon. Results can also be exported in familiar formats, including Excel, CSV, and PDF. The goal is not to replace the tools people already understand. It is to help them get more value from those tools. Sometimes innovation does not require abandoning what works. It means building intelligence around it. Learn more about NorCal AI Solutions: https://norcalaisolutions.net #Excel #DataAnalytics #Compensation #HumanResources #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork
What's the simplest way to make a genuinely random name selection system using Microsoft tools?
For example, suppose I have a list of participants in Excel and want to randomly select one winner without manually choosing from the list. Would you use RAND/RANDBETWEEN in Excel, Power Automate, or another Microsoft 365 approach? I'm also interested in preventing the same person from being selected twice when several winners are needed. I'd appreciate an approach that's easy for someone without much Excel or Power Automate experience to understand.
Word and Excel stuck in Read and Print mode only
I have M365 Family Plan and one of my devices can't use Word or Excel. App tells me they are in Read and Print mode only. I have attempted multiple times to get support to resolve this via chat sessions, but they are unable to help. They have escalated this to Tier 3 Support and still no help. They recommended I go here for support. Here are some of the details. Case Number: 7108165505 (current one) Microsoft 365 Family subscription Word and Excel opening in Read Only / Print mode on one Windows 11 desktop Error when accessing the subscription management page Previous escalation to Tier 2 and Tier 3 Case marked as Resolved despite the issue remaining unresolved Note that extensive troubleshooting has already been completed and that you believe the issue may be related to subscription validation or account provisioning rather than the local Office installation.AutoSave disabled when opening SharePoint-synced files from Finder after macOS Tahoe 26.6 update
Files stored in SharePoint Online and synchronized locally through OneDrive are opened as local documents when launched from Finder. Office applications display "Saved to my Mac" and AutoSave is turned off by default. However, opening the exact same files through Word/Excel > Open > Sites, or via SharePoint "Open in Desktop App", correctly identifies them as cloud documents. In that scenario, AutoSave is enabled and collaboration/version history features work as expected. Troubleshooting already performed: OneDrive reset and re-linked SharePoint library re-synced Signed out and back into both Office and OneDrive Removed Microsoft credentials from macOS Keychain and re-authenticated Recreated local OneDrive sync relationships Verified OneDrive File Provider extensions are enabled Verified Office applications and OneDrive are fully up to date Tested with newly created files and existing files Tested "Always Keep on This Device" with no change in behavior The issue appears to be specific to the Finder-to-Office launch path after upgrading to macOS Tahoe 26.6. Before upgrading to macOS Tahoe 26.6, opening the same SharePoint-synchronized files directly from Finder correctly preserved cloud document identity and AutoSave was enabled as expected. I discussed this issue in detail with Apple Support, but they quickly dismissed it, saying that the problem is not on Apple's side and that I should contact Microsoft instead.Welcome to the Excel Community
The Excel Community is a place we've built for all of you. You can learn more about how to do something with Excel, discuss your work, and connect with experts that build and use the product. With over half a billion Excel customers, we want to engage with you in fundamentally different ways and the community is a starting point for that. Our community helps answer your product questions with responses from other knowledgeable community members. We love hearing feedback and feature requests from you which helps us build the best version of Excel ever. If you have found an outage or a bug please post at our Answers forum. We look forward to getting to know you! Sangeeta Mudnal & Olaf Hubel on behalf of the Excel TeamSTOCKHISTORY and Stock Data not working
Is it only me? Or everyone else having the same problem? My Excel 365 cannot use STOCKHISTORY Function anymore. It shows #connect! Error. Also, I cannot use the stock data anymore. (The other data types are not functioning as well.) (The error message says "Sorry, we are having a temporary server error. We are trying to fix this problem.") Is it only me? Or everyone else is having this problem?
