Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is the essential office productivity app but its roots go so deep that you can find it in every corner of the world running the biggest companies. Whether you're a novice or a pro, we have all of the Excel news and information you need right here.

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Laptop screen showing an Excel worksheet with the Navigation pane open on the right.
These little-known Excel clicks can save you time every day

Small changes to how you interact with Excel can simplify formula writing, formatting, data entry, and navigation.

Laptop screen showing a calculated column selected in an Excel dataset in a regular range.
Don't practice Excel with boring datasets: 4 real Pokémon projects that stick

Stop learning Excel with fake data—use Pokémon instead.

Laptop screen showing an interactive Grist dashboard with data tables, cards, and summary charts.
I stopped pretending Excel is a database and switched to this open-source app

Grist made it easier to connect related records, build dashboards without cell grids, and let those relationships drive the interface.

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Laptop screen with ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet displaying the a table containing rows of sales data.
I replaced Excel with this open-source alternative for a week—I wasn't ready for the difference

Many of ONLYOFFICE's core spreadsheet tools worked, but even basic Excel workflows became increasingly frustrating to reproduce.

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ChatGPT's blank welcome screen beside a blank Microsoft Excel workbook on a laptop
I've used Excel professionally for decades—here's where ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini still fall short

AI can help solve Excel problems, but I still rely on Excel when rules, context, and verification matter.

Illustration of a spreadsheet with a magnifying glass next to it, a chart in the background, and the Excel logo.
Your Microsoft Excel file needs a hidden backend worksheet

Keep your workbook tidy and efficient.

Laptop screen showing a calculated column selected in an Excel dataset in a regular range.
I've used Excel for decades, and Ctrl+Enter is still the most useful shortcut I know

This overlooked shortcut lets me update cells, preserve formatting, repair formulas, fill gaps, and edit multiple worksheets simultaneously.

Laptop screen showing two windows of the same Excel workbook. One is a source table and the other is a PivotTable.
My best Excel PivotTables start with these 4 functions

Applying XLOOKUP, IF, TEXTSPLIT, and TRIM to my source data gives my PivotTable more useful fields and cleaner info to work with.

Laptop displaying an Excel worksheet with columns hidden, data filtered and sorted, and the Custom Views dialog open with 'US Profit' selected.
I made Excel remember my favorite worksheet setups with this little-known feature

There's no need to repeatedly adjust filters, hidden columns, zoom, and print settings—set them up once and save the arrangement as a custom view.

Laptop screen showing an Excel worksheet on the left and ChatGPT with a prompt and response on the right.
AI prompts for Excel can take forever, so I built this 7-step shortcut

From describing your workbook to checking assumptions, a few simple prompt-building habits can make AI far more useful.

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Laptop screen showing the Microsoft Excel has stopped working alert on a blank Excel worksheet.
Excel isn't slow—you just built a workbook that takes forever to load

From forgotten worksheets and old names to volatile formulas and embedded images, hidden bloat can slow your workbook down.

Laptop screen showing Excel dashboard with a header, subheader, KPI cards, order status table, and status chart.
I borrowed this developer habit for Excel, and it saved me hours of future work

Refactoring has changed how I handle formulas, workbook structure, repetitive tasks, and the clutter that builds up over time.

Laptop screen showing an Excel worksheet in the foreground and an offline app-version of the same worksheet in Microsoft Edge in the background.
I turned my Excel sheet into an offline app without writing any code

A simple CSV export and a detailed AI prompt were enough to turn my spreadsheet into a surprisingly capable offline app.

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A phone using Microsoft Excel
I underestimated Excel on Android until I discovered these 4 features

Excel on Android is actually worth using now—here's what changed.

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Laptop showing Excel worksheet in the background and Power Pivot Diagram View in the foreground showing relationships between three tables.
I replaced hundreds of Excel lookup formulas with this single tool

I was drowning in XLOOKUP formulas, but Power Pivot gave me a cleaner way to build reports.

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Laptop screen showing an Excel table with various formats applied.
5 Excel formatting tools I use in every spreadsheet I create

From reusable styles to smarter number formats, these Excel tools help create cleaner and more useful spreadsheets.

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Laptop screen showing a messy Excel worksheet and the Copilot pane open on the right.
I thought Copilot would clean up my messy Excel spreadsheet—it had other ideas

A simple prompt revealed Copilot's strengths as an auditor but its weaknesses as a spreadsheet cleaner.

Laptop screen showing an Excel table being sorted by a customized list.
Years later, this is still one of my most-used Excel tools

Excel's old-school Custom Lists feature still solves modern problems by automating entries and customizing sorting.

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Laptop screen showing an Excel workbook using named ranges and structured references.
I stopped manually naming ranges in Excel—this little-known shortcut does it in seconds

Create dozens of named ranges at once, write clearer formulas, and even update existing formulas automatically.

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Laptop screen showing blank rows in an Excel worksheet.
I tested 6 ways to remove blank rows in Excel—only 3 made the cut

The best way to remove blank rows in Excel isn't always the most obvious—and some popular methods can put your data at risk.

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