As you're probably aware, Microsoft has released the latest version of Excel - Excel 2010. This version is close enough to Excel 2007 that the file types are the same, but the new version includes some really exciting changes and additions to functionality. If you are an avid Excel user like me you'll be looking forward to getting your hands dirty with some of these new bells and whistles! This article outlines some of my favorite changes and editions in the new version.
What's New in Excel 2010?
Microsoft has included a bunch of new technical capabilities with the new version that I won't go into, but here are a few of my favorite new features:
Sparklines - Sparklines are kind of like a little trend graph or chart that lives inside a cell. They are a handy way to "show instead of tell" when you have data to describe. Stick a sparkline next to a series of data such as monthly sales figures and you've got an instant snapshot of the month to month trend.
Slicers - As someone who has done a lot of pivot table work in Excel, this is a really exciting development. Slicers sit on top of pivot tables and act like a separate filtering tool. They allow you to sort and filter pivot data in ways that were not possible in older versions of Excel, which makes a tool that was already powerful even more so.
Changes From Excel 2007
There are several changes that really stand out to me as winners in this new version. For one, the old "Office" button has been replaced with a File tab on the ribbon, also known as the "Backstage" area. This seems like a much more practical way to design the interface and puts commands related to managing the file system in a much more intuitive place.
One thing I really like about the Backstage area is the improved functionality of working with recent files. For one thing, if there is a file you work with frequently, you can pin it to the top of the recently used files list, making it easy to find even when you're working with a large number of files on a regular basis.
In addition to the Slicers, Pivot Tables in general have been sped up using multi-thread technology. If you've ever sat and twiddled your thumbs while a Pivot Table was updating a large data set you'll know how important this improvement in speed will be.
As you can see, there are a number of really useful additions and improvements in the new edition of Microsoft Excel. If you have not upgraded to the new version yet and use Excel for a lot of number crunching in your job, I recommend checking it out!
What's New in Excel 2010?
Microsoft has included a bunch of new technical capabilities with the new version that I won't go into, but here are a few of my favorite new features:
Sparklines - Sparklines are kind of like a little trend graph or chart that lives inside a cell. They are a handy way to "show instead of tell" when you have data to describe. Stick a sparkline next to a series of data such as monthly sales figures and you've got an instant snapshot of the month to month trend.
Slicers - As someone who has done a lot of pivot table work in Excel, this is a really exciting development. Slicers sit on top of pivot tables and act like a separate filtering tool. They allow you to sort and filter pivot data in ways that were not possible in older versions of Excel, which makes a tool that was already powerful even more so.
Changes From Excel 2007
There are several changes that really stand out to me as winners in this new version. For one, the old "Office" button has been replaced with a File tab on the ribbon, also known as the "Backstage" area. This seems like a much more practical way to design the interface and puts commands related to managing the file system in a much more intuitive place.
One thing I really like about the Backstage area is the improved functionality of working with recent files. For one thing, if there is a file you work with frequently, you can pin it to the top of the recently used files list, making it easy to find even when you're working with a large number of files on a regular basis.
In addition to the Slicers, Pivot Tables in general have been sped up using multi-thread technology. If you've ever sat and twiddled your thumbs while a Pivot Table was updating a large data set you'll know how important this improvement in speed will be.
As you can see, there are a number of really useful additions and improvements in the new edition of Microsoft Excel. If you have not upgraded to the new version yet and use Excel for a lot of number crunching in your job, I recommend checking it out!