Microsoft adding new features to make Excel formulas simpler
Washington, US: American tech giant Microsoft has announced that they are making Excel's autocomplete even smarter, at least in the web version that comes with Microsoft 365.
According to The Verge, an American technology news website, the company unveiled formula suggestions and formula by example last week. These two features may help automate various tasks that were previously required to be done manually.
The idea behind formula suggestions is very straightforward: whenever you enter the equals sign in a cell, Excel for Web will attempt to propose an appropriate formula based on the data that's around it.
For instance, Excel can suggest adding the range of cells if you have a column at the end of your spreadsheet named "total" and a row full of quarterly sales data, reported The Verge.
According to a blog post from Microsoft, the feature currently only works in English and will suggest sum, average, count, counta, min, and max formulas.
Then there's Formula by Example, which is similar to the Flash Fill feature that can automatically identify patterns in data and fill out the remaining columns.
Microsoft's blog post also includes several other feature announcements.
For testing purposes, the company is also bringing nested Power Query data types and the capability to access data from dynamic arrays to the Insider version of the Windows programme, in addition to a feature that will allow you to add photos with alt-text to your tables for Windows, Mac, and the web.
As per The Verge, another potentially useful web feature is "suggested links," which will automatically assist you in fixing broken links to other workbooks stored in the cloud.
