Summary
- Excel introduces Text Analysis for Windows, Mac, and web users, combining Copilot, Python, and text functions.
- Exclusive to Windows & Mac: Focus Cell feature, TRANSLATE, and DETECTLANGUAGE functions improve user experience.
- Windows-only updates include dark mode, improved text functions, and the ability to link Microsoft Forms directly to the Excel app.
Towards the end of each month, Microsoft publishes a roundup of all the features it added to Excel in the previous four weeks. Now that we are wrapping up the month of January, the Redmond tech firm has detailed all the new capabilities it introduced to its popular spreadsheet software during the first month of 2025. This time around, the company has something in store for Excel customers for Windows, Mac, and the web.
Excel excitement for everyone
Starting off with a feature that is now available for Excel customers across all three major platforms (Windows, Mac, and the web), we have text analysis. This is actually a combination of technologies, including Copilot, Python, and text functions through which Excel users can easily manipulate textual data and gain new insights from it.
Next, we have a couple of capabilities that are exclusive to Windows and Mac. One of these is Focus Cell, which makes the active cell more prominent by highlighting the relevant row and increasing the border thickness of the selected cell. Power users will also be pleased to know that Microsoft has introduced TRANSLATE and DETECTLANGUAGE functions, which do exactly what they say on the tin.
Lastly, Microsoft has rolled out three features that are intended just for Windows customers this month. The first is dark mode, which we already covered in detail a few days ago. Next, the firm has made improvements to five of its text functions to make them work better with Unicode characters. These are:
- LEN
- MID
- SEARCH
- FIND
- REPLACE
Customers who use Microsoft Forms will also be happy to know that the service can now be linked directly to the Windows app with synchronized responses. This was previously available only on Excel for the web, but it’s coming soon to Mac too.
Microsoft says that all three of these improvements are a demonstration of its “Feedback in Action (#FIA)” abilities. This is a tag that the company assigns to features that have been highly requested by its user base.
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source: https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-excel-new-features-january-2025/
