A few changes have been announced by Microsoft Excel(opens in new tab) to make formulas easier to use and more powerful.
With a few updates padding out the list of Windows and macOS client features, the spreadsheet software updates are targeted at web users, which covers all Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) users who do not have access to the full desktop applications.
For web users, the first change is formula suggestions, which take contextual data into account to suggest SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, MIN, and MAX formulas.
In addition to handling data better, Excel now includes a tool for detecting broken cloud workbook links so that your spreadsheet remains up-to-date and functional, as well as a new search bar in the queries pane.
Finally, Excel web now supports images inside cells, whereas they previously floated on top of the sheet: a change that was first spotted on the company’s roadmap(opens in new tab) in early November 2022. The Excel desktop client now supports the extraction of images from a source location, which includes metadata such as alternative text. It’s available for Windows and macOS as well.
Since the features are rolling out, some users may not be able to use them just yet, and some of them are only available to Windows Insiders.
