Microsoft released a number of Excel updates in August, including Power BI

August is over and Microsoft again had numerous updates for Excel. Some of these are still restricted for insiders for the time being, whether in a beta version or not.

Microsoft is integrating Python into Excel, as we announced last week. This major innovation meant that other updates were somewhat drowned out. However, there are still more Excel extras to come, such as a striking update to the spreadsheet option. Now you can create a spreadsheet in Excel that connects directly to the interactive visualization tool Power BI. This is intended to make adding data more user-friendly.

If you manually perform calculations in Excel and therefore turn off calculations, the content of a cell can be considered obsolete. Such a cell is then ‘steel‘. Excel monitors such cells internally, but you cannot see which cells still need a calculation. With the new Stale Value Formatting feature (Insiders beta version), you can literally draw a line through the content of one steel cell so you know the data is still awaiting calculation.

Update number three is monospaced font for the formula bar. This gives all characters the same width, regardless of shape or type. This also applies to the new Aptos. This way your formulas are more defined and easier to debug. This feature is also an insider beta.

The box for saving or deleting also gets an extra. You can now see when you last saved and whether other changes were made.

You can now also share things more easily in 365, via the web version, the desktop app and the mobile app. If you want to share something, a dialog box will now appear with many options:

• Email a link
• Copy a link
• Share files externally
• manage access
• Share confidential files

The latest update is a button on the home screen. This makes it easier to find Office add-ins in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This feature is limited to Insiders for now.