Excel

Excel

If you truly want to embrace all that Microsoft Office has to offer, then Excel is one of your first apps to try. Its data handling capabilities are legendary and Excel is now an absolute necessity in any organization. Of all the versions of Excel that have been released, Excel 2016 has proven to be the top dog. Let’s look at some of its best features and some of the things you can achieve with it.

Smart Lookup

Smart Lookup is an invaluable part of the Microsoft Excel 2016 tool kit. It is a built-in browser, powered by Bing and aimed at providing insights from various resources such as Wikipedia, the Oxford dictionary, Bing image search, and Bing Snapshot. Now, you don’t need to even leave Excel to access information needed from the Internet. Just highlight any word or phrase and select Smart Lookup. A panel will drop down and display information and images about what you highlighted.

Tell Me

The “Tell Me” feature is found in all the Office programs but it really does shine in Excel 2016. Essentially, it is a search box that says, “Tell me what you want to do”. It’s like a personal assistant for Excel, ready to do your bidding. You can type in a question, command or a keyword. A box will drop down with your most relevant result, followed by alternate choices, recently used queries, help menu items and results from the Smart Lookup feature. No more combing through help menus. The Tell Me feature performs the action you require immediately.

Ink Equations

This new feature can read handwritten equations or mathematical problems and convert it to digital text. Then, you can insert this into documents or calculation apps. Using a stylus may work best but you can also use whatever you have available. Even a mouse, a light pen, or your finger will do.

New Charts Types

Excel 2016 has added six new charts to its arsenal of chart types. The process is still as simple as before. The Pareto chart will arrange the bars in descending order. It will also show which bars have the biggest impact or highest return. This is useful when deciding where to assign resources. The Waterfall chart provides a visual layout of positive and negative data. It is particularly useful for showing information like monthly cash flows.

Quick analysis tools

This is the perfect example of why Excel 2016 is essential for your organization. Quick analysis tools save invaluable time. When you select your data, a menu will suggest several options for what you can do with that kind of data. It is that kind of ingenuity that makes Excel 2016 indispensable for any organization.