Microsoft Excel to suggest formulae to users with new autocomplete feature

Microsoft has brought new features to its web-based spreadsheet software Excel to enhance user experience. The new Excel features come for web users, Windows users as well as Mac users.  

Key features among them are Formula Suggestions and Formula By Example - both these features will help automate some tasks which users would otherwise do manually, the tech major mentioned in a blog. 

According to Microsoft, in Formula Suggestions if a user types the ‘equal’ (=) sign into a cell, Excel for web will try to intelligently suggest what type of formula he/she should be using, based on contextual insights from your data. In other words, Excel will auto-suggest the best formula Formulas that can be suggested are SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, MIN, and MAX.  For example, if you have a full of quarterly sales numbers and a column at the end labeled “total,” Excel might suggest summing the range of cells. 

“There is currently only support for the English language and the feature is rolling out only for web users,” the blog post mentioned. While this feature saves time, it is not ground-breaking as Google Sheets also has something similar for a while. 

The Formula By Example is similar to the Flash Fill feature that can automatically detect patterns in data and fill out the rest of a column. This means, instead of static text - now formulas can be suggested, saving the time for typing. 

Microsoft’s blog post also includes several other feature announcements. One such features, Microsoft is currently rolling out, tells users if a link to a cloud workbook is broken and suggests a new location to repair the link. The company also gave the queries pane a search bar. 

Microsoft has also added some new features to Excel on Windows, too. Users can now press Alt + F12 (or Option + F12 on a Mac) to quickly access the Power Query Editor. Windows Insiders gain the ability to make nested Power Query data types and import data from Dynamic Arrays for the "Get Data from Table/Range" function. 

“Excel also now allows to insert images from source links into cells, including the alternative text. The function supports BMP, JPG/JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, ICO, and WEBP image formats. Users can customise an image's size to fill a cell or to maintain specific pixel dimensions,” said the blog. 

Besides, Microsoft mentioned that users who want Microsoft Office without depending on an internet connection for the web version or paying a subscription for Office 365 should take advantage of the latest deal for Office Professional 2021. 

The productivity suite has been heavily discounted on and off throughout the year, with the latest sale offering a lifetime license for only $29.99, as per a November report. It is available for Windows and macOS and includes Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams.