This article will briefly explore the newest features included in Microsoft Excel 2021 for Windows.
What is Excel 2021 for Windows?
Microsoft Excel, part of the Microsoft 365 suite, is a spreadsheet and data management solution that helps users organize numerical information, text, and data, into cells in rows and columns. In addition to providing options for performing various calculations on the data, Excel also offers a platform for users to create data visualizations such as charts or graphs.
Although Excel has been around since 1985, new features and improvements have been made to this application over the decades. Excel 2021 for Windows, which is included along with PowerPoint, Word, and other apps as part of Microsoft Office 2021 subscriptions, comes with some new and improved features beyond those that were available in prior versions.
What’s New in Excel 2021 for Windows?
Microsoft has made many recent improvements to Excel. Excel 2021 for Windows reflects this commitment to offering a wider range of tools and features that facilitate collaboration and faster data analysis. The following are just a few of the most recent additions and improvements to this spreadsheet application:
- Co-authoring: When working in Excel, it’s now possible to co-author an Excel workbook. This means that you can work on the same workbook as other colleagues or team members. Any changes to the workbook will appear in just seconds.
- Improved performance: Excel is now faster, more stable, and performs better than it has in the past. Calculations such as COUNTIFs and AVERAGEIFs can be performed faster than ever before.
- Accessibility Checker: If you are looking to improve the reach of your content, the Accessibility Checker monitors your documents and alerts you in the status bar if it encounters something you should review.
- Unhide multiple sheets: No longer do Excel users have to unhide one sheet at a time. It’s now possible to unhide several Excel sheets at one time.
- Stock media improvements: Microsoft Office includes a Premium Creative Content collection, which is full of media content intended to help users better express themselves. Stock images, videos, icons, illustrations, and other visual features are included in this curated library. Those who subscribe to Microsoft 365 can access thousands of these images without having to pay royalties. These images can be included in emails, workbooks, and documents. Every month, new content is added.
- Modern commenting features: Excel users can now control when they send comments to co-authors, which provides greater flexibility for more productive collaboration on group projects.
- Visual refresh: Excel 2021 for Windows provides a modern Start experience, which includes refreshed ribbon tabs. This clean style comes with a neutral color palette and monoline iconography. It also features softer window corners and a simpler, more elegant visual layout.
- LET: The LET function gives names to the results of calculations. This provides a way to store intermediate values, defining names, or calculations, within a formula. The assigned name only applies in the scope of the LET function. LET functions through the native formula syntax in Excel. If you’d like to use this function, start by defining the pairs of names and their corresponding values, as well as a calculator that uses each of them. At least one value pair/name must be defined. Before the LET feature, when an Excel user would the same expression several times in a formula, the application would calculate that result multiple times. LET allows users to call the expression by its name and the app will only have to calculate it once.
- Insights into other workbook users: When multiple team members are using an Excel workbook, it’s now possible to see who else is completing work. In addition, users can also see where they are in the workbook.
- XLOOKUP: Excel users can locate any necessary information in a range or table using the XLOOKUP feature. This powerful function doesn’t require specification; it can return exact matches by default. XLOOKUP works by locating information by row. For example, Excel users could search for an automotive part based on its number, or find an employee using their ID. This function provides a way to search in one column for a term and get a result from that same row in another column, regardless of the side where the return column is located.
- Improved reading & composition capabilities: Excel users no longer have to keep track of what specific cell ranges or cell references referred to, or what a calculation was intended to do. Excel 2021 for Windows comes with the capability to name and declare variables, which provides a helpful context for anyone who may use the formula.
- Dynamic arrays: When one formula is written in Excel, an array of values (an array) is returned, also known as spilling. Formulas that yield arrays of variable size are known as dynamic array formulas. Six new Excel functions are now available that make it much faster to make calculations: SORT, FILTER, UNIQUE, SORTBY, RANDARRAY, and SEQUENCE.
- Sheet views: It’s now possible in Exel to design customized views in a worksheet without disrupting others who are using the worksheet. Sheet views offer a way to perform actions such as setting up a filter to show only relevant records without being affected by the actions that other users are performing on the worksheet at that time. It’s also possible to establish multiple sheet views from the same worksheet. All cell-level changes are automatically saved in the workbook regardless of which view is selected.
- XMATCH: This function can search for a designated item within a range of cells or array, then return the relative position of the item.
- Greater access to tools: With the help of the accessibility ribbon, all the most-needed tools for creating Excel content can now be accessed from one place.
Get Started Learning Excel with Hands-On Classes
A great way to learn more about Excel is to enroll in one of Noble Desktop’s
Excel courses in NYC and live online. Courses are available for those who are new to Excel, as well as learners who regularly work with this spreadsheet application and wish to brush up on their skills. In addition, there are also in-person and live online Excel courses available through Noble Desktop or one of its affiliate schools. A variety of course options are offered, ranging in duration from three hours to two days and costing between $229 and $1,099.
Noble Desktop’s Excel Bootcamp provides a great option for those who want to master core Excel concepts, such as working with VLOOKUP and PivotTables, as well as perform What-If Analysis. Students who enroll in this rigorous, 21-hour course can elect to study in person in Manhattan or learn in the live online environment. This small class comes with the option of a free retake and covers a variety of Excel concepts applicable to the business world.
Those interested in studying Excel close to home can also browse over 140 in-person Microsoft Excel classes to find nearby study options. Courses are available that vary in duration from three hours to five days, and range in price from $110-$8,749.