New Features in Excel for the Web June 2021

The General Availability of Office Scripts is only one of the new features and improvements to help you better analyse your data. There is more:

• Text to columns
• PivotTable improvements
• Sort improvements
• Interactive charts
• Additional keyboard shortcuts.

Let’s take a look.

Text to columns

You can now split text into columns using delimiters. For example, with a few clicks, you can convert the ever-perennial “Hello World” in one cell to “Hello” and “World” across two adjacent cells. You may also select multiple delimiters including tab, semicolon, comma, space and custom [delimiter] at the same time. For example, “Hello, how are you?” in one cell would split into “Hello”, “”, “how”, “are”, and “you?” across five [5] cells, if you selected both comma and space as delimiters.

PivotTable improvements

You may analyse your data with the new and improved PivotTable experience in Excel for the web including:

• create a PivotTable quickly with Recommended PivotTables

• change the settings and visualisation of your PivotTable via the new PivotTable Ribbon, including PivotTable Styles and the new ‘PivotTable Settings’ task pane

• copy, refresh and show or hide PivotTable task panes with one click, using the new PivotTable right-click menu.

Sort improvements

Sorting is fundamental in data analysis. Sorting can be more than numerical or alphabetical ordering though. In Excel for the web, you can now sort by Cell Color, Font Color, and Conditional Formatting Icon, in addition to Cell Values. Furthermore, you can sort by more than one column.

Interactive charts

You can now directly select and interact with chart elements when formatting a chart. Double-clicking a chart element launches the format task pane while single-clicking a chart element navigates you to its corresponding formatting options. In addition, non-data chart elements can now be removed from the chart using the delete / backspace keys. You will also be able to see a preview of your selection as you hover your mouse cursor over different chart elements.

Additional keyboard shortcuts

Many users have asked for additional well-known and commonly used keyboard shortcuts in Excel for the web, so here are some of the new ones:

• End arrows: move to the last cell in the row or column
• CTRL + END: move to the last cell that contains data or formatting
• CTRL + SHIFT + END: extend the selection to the last used cell.

Also, coming soon are:

• Page Up / Page Down: move screen up/down
• ALT + Page Up: move screen left
• ALT + Page Down: move screen right
• ALT + SHIFT + Page Up: extend selection left one screen
• ALT + SHIFT + Page Down: extend selection right one screen.

Find the full list of keyboard shortcuts via Help -> Keyboard Shortcuts.