Today I want to introduce Excel 2010 to you. Excel 2010 is the latest version of spreadsheet software from Microsoft, set to be released for sale in late 2010. On Nov 18th, MS released the public beta of Excel 2010 [download here] along with other Office productivity software.
Excel 2010 has several improvements compared to earlier version – Excel 2007. In this post, I want to highlight some of the User Interface improvements made in Excel 2010 that are very exciting and fun to use.
Preview before pasting
This is another cool feature in Office 2010. When you have some data to paste, now you can preview the paste live before choosing an option. See the illustration to understand how this works.
Collapse Ribbon using a button
Now you can collapse the ribbon using this simple button. No need to double click on ribbon menus to collapse the ribbon.
Bye bye Office button, welcome back “File” menu
With excel 2010, MS is bringing back the “file” menu. When I started using excel 2007, it took me a week to get used to the office button. Now, thankfully the file menu is back.
Double click on chart items to format them
With Excel 2010, you can again click on chart items (like labels, data series, axis, titles etc.) to open the format dialog. This is a nice improvement. Of course, the dialogs are still 2007 like.
Search inside filters (oh, this feels recursive)
When you set auto filters in excel 2010, now you can use a little search bar inside the filter to select the items you want to filter. This makes life lot more simpler for those of you aksing questions like “so how many are from alabama?”
Tables show filters even when you scroll down
Another interesting improvement is that when you make a data table in excel 2010, you will see filters and sort options even when you scroll down.
Excel 2010 UI less flashier than 2007
Excel 2010 UI looks considerably better and less stressful than 2007. The colors are dull and subtle. The icons don’t call for attention unless you want to do something. The menus / ribbons feel smoother and slicker. [Learn to use Excel Ribbon with this Free e-Book]
All new print previews
The print previews are now part of backstage. Printing seems much more easier with excel 2010 than earlier versions.
You can customize ribbon
With Excel 2010, you can customize the ribbon very easily (you can do that in Excel 2007 too, but it is bit more intricate). Just go to Excel options and select “customize ribbon” option. You can make your own ribbon menus and add the buttons / tools you prefer.
[Originally this point read “you can select multiple objects…” but as my good friend Jon pointed, it was a mistake. So I have deleted that part and added a new improvement]
You can select multiple objects using mouse, again
In excel 2003 and earlier, if you had to format multiple objects (like charts, drawings, clip arts etc.) you could use the “select objects” from drawing toolbar (the icon that looks like a mouse pointer). Sadly, MS removed this feature in Excel 2007, so to format multiple objects, we had to manually click on each object while holding SHIFT key. Now, the select objects is back. This can be a time saver if you work with several charts or shapes at a time.
Slicers to filter pivot tables with ease
And of course, the much touted slicers. Slicers are easy to use and make analysis more fun. See the demo.
Have you tried Excel 2010 ?
Did you try excel 2010? If not download it from MS site. Give it a try and let us know what you think about it.
What are the features that you liked / hated?
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?