Python has finally become part of Excel, and from now on you can add pieces of Python code to a sheet to define datasets, process and visualize them. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription and have downloaded update 2409 (Build 17628.20164), you will be able to use Python normally (no longer reserved for testers only). In this short intro you will learn what Python is and how it can enrich your reports.
When picking the dates in Excel documents, you may accidentaly make a mistake. The ideal way to avoid this is to use the Date Picker tool. For now, there is no simple solution within the application itself that can be used for this purpose, but there is a simple add-in available that can help with the date selection process.
For years, Microsoft has been trying to replace VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), the programming language that “lives” in the background of Excel. As they say, the reasons are of a security nature. This is not entirely without merit, but it seems to me that the motive of the Excel development team, to a greater extent, was to create scripts that would fit better into the Microsoft 365 and Power Platform ecosystem. Whether they succeeded in this is up to you to try.
Some time ago, a client contacted me complaining that he could not open the report I sent him because it was blocked by the operating system. Indeed, I recently read a rumor that Microsoft plans to replace VBA with TypeScript macros in the recent future because they pose a security threat. It means that all files containing VBA code, downloaded from the Internet, are now blocked. How to solve this problem?
Go To Special is a somewhat neglected, but sometimes very useful option that allows us to position ourselves in individual places in an Excel table according to their properties. These can be empty rows, formulas, precedents, dependents, cells with data validation, etc. In this text, you will learn how to start this option, and you will also see two examples of its application in practice.