NFL Playoff Schedule 2013: Functions

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Top 5 Excel Tips from 2013

Listed below are the five most popular Excel tips I published on the Excel Help blog throughout 2013:

How to combine Excel files with a VBA macro
How to filter Data in Excel
How to create collapsible rows in Excel
How to embed Excel in a website
Excel pranks and practical jokes

Top 5 Excel Templates from 2013

Listed below are the top 5 most popular free Excel templates and spreadsheets I created and made available to download in 2013:

Printable Super Bowl Squares
Website Creation Checklist
Newborn Checklist for New Parents
Apartment Comparison Spreadsheet LITE version
NFL Helmet Schedule

Goals for 2014

I recently took a poll of my loyal followers by asking them what they would rather see more of on the blog: spreadsheet templates or tips/tricks/macros to improve spreadsheet creation efficiency? My most recent posts have primarily been spreadsheet templates I’ve made available to download for free, such as my newborn feeding schedule, college bowl prediction pool, etc. Something I’ve gotten away from lately is posting tips and macros to improve your Excel efficiency, like my earlier posts on how to create folders automatically, how to create hatching in Excel, etc.

The majority of my reader’s responses asked for more tips, tricks, and macros to improve Excel efficiency. I will still be creating and posting templates as I have been because I think a lot of people find them to be quite useful and you may pick up a few tips just by looking at them and examining the formulas I use. However, I promise to make a strong effort to post more tips and macros, especially for my email subscribers. In fact, I already have several rough drafts already written and am working on some new video tutorials. What would you like to see more of in 2014? Anything specific?

Have a great holiday season, thanks for your continued support, and see you in 2014!!!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

My Excel 2016 Wishlist

Today, I started thinking about my Excel 2016 wishlist. Microsoft Excel has been updated every three years beginning in 2007. Knowing this, we can only assume the next edition of Excel will come out in three years from now in 2016. The latest update, Excel 2013, includes new tools like FlashFill, PowerView, Timeline Slicer, and over 50 new functions. Don’t get me wrong, Excel is a very powerful tool but it’s not completely perfect yet.

Thus, it’s never too early to start thinking about the next edition of Excel and what improvements can be made. There are a number of features that I think would make creating spreadsheets even easier. A couple of simple improvements could help save users even more time. Here are some of the things I’d like to see in Excel 2016:

A FIXTODAY() function that holds the date of the day the formula was first created or entered into the spreadsheet.
I don’t know if this will ever be possible outside of Google Docs but allowing multiple users to edit the same document at the same time would be wonderful.This would eliminate all those extra copies of spreadsheets floating around. This option is already available!
I don’t know why you can’t do this already but it would be great to be able to unhide multiple worksheets at the same time. Currently, you can only unhide one sheet at a time which can be a major headache and quite inconvenient.
Along this same line, I would like the ability to unprotect multiple sheets at once. Something like a global password may be the solution.
An easy way to be able to see exact revision history.
More options when protecting a sheet, like being able to use CustomViews.
More text manipulation functions and options.

That’s what I think. What about you? What would you like to see in future versions of Excel? What’s on your Excel 2016 wishlist? Please let me know in the comments below. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will even be taking notes!