Microsoft has added some handy automation features to the web version of Excel (which comes with Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365), its spreadsheet software. New suggestions for formulas and formulas by example will help automate some actions that previously had to be performed manually.
Proposals of formulas: If you type an “=” sign in a cell, Excel for the web will suggest the type of formula you should use based on the adjacent data. For example, in a document with full quarterly sales in a column labeled Total, Excel will prompt you to sum the cell ranges.
According to a Microsoft blog post, the feature only works in English and will offer the following formulas:
- SUM – the summation of values function;
- AVERAGE – a function that calculates the average arithmetic value in the list of arguments;
- COUNT – a function that counts the number of cells with numbers, as well as the number of numbers in the list of arguments;
- COUNTA is a function that calculates the number of filled cells in a range;
- MIN – a function that returns the smallest number in a set of values;
- MAX is a function that returns the largest value in a set of values.
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Of course, formula suggestions are not a groundbreaking feature. Google Sheets has had something similar for a while, and AutoSum in Excel has long been known as a way to quickly apply formulas to data – but for some cases, using suggestions can really save time.
Formula by example — because users manually enter data in columns and often repeat the same actions, Excel will now suggest filling the entire column with a formula in case it detects a pattern. It’s similar to the Flash Fill feature, only instead of static text, formulas are now offered.
Microsoft’s blog post also announces several other features, including “suggested links” (a feature that will automatically fix a broken link to work documents stored in the cloud), a feature to add an image with alt text (available for Windows, Mac, and web version ) The company also adds nested Power Query data types and the ability to retrieve data from dynamic arrays for Windows users (Insider).
