Spreadsheet nerdiness: excel 2013 highlights.

• Author: Lenning, Jeff
• Position: SpreadsheetTips

The next version of my most favorite program is here--it's Finally here! Excel 2013 is available, and I'm excited to review some of the highlights. Microsoft clearly invested a lot of time into this product. Here are just a few of the things you'll notice about Excel 2013.

Microsoft Kept the Ribbons and Design from 2010 ... Mostly

If you still have nightmares about the transition from 2003 to 2007, fear not. You'll be right at home in 2013 as Microsoft kept the ribbons intact--but there are new command icons for the new features.

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The overall design is similar to 2010, but being all white, it feels stark and naked (Figure 1) You can change the color theme from white to gray or dark gray And there is more animation now while you are using Excel.

A Lesson from Word: Each Workbook in its Own Window

You know how each document in Microsoft Word gets its own window? Row it makes it easy to open two Word documents at the same time and move them between different monitors? Well, Excel gets that capability now, and each workbook is in its own window. So, if you have multiple monitors, you can easily position workbooks into the desired monitor.

Excel App Store?

App stores, whether for iOS or Andriod, are all the rage. And now, Excel has an app store! Built right into the Excel ribbon is the Apps for Office icon. Now you can extend the built-in functionality of Excel through Microsoft and third-party apps. There aren't many apps in there now I see a date picker and about five others, but, hey, it's just getting started. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Slicers: Not Just For PivotTables Anymore

Slicers is a graphical filtering feature introduced in Excel 2010 and available originally for PivotTables. Microsoft extends this feature to include Tables in 2013 (Figure 2).

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FlashFill

If you have ever wished for an easier way to split text columns. FlashFill is for you. This new Feature sort If watches you do the first one or two. looks at your pattern and then extends the pattern down. This Feature represents a faster alternative to formulas or text-to-columns.

For example, I had a list of full account numbers (Figure 3) The first segment of the full number represents the business unit, the second segment represents the department and the third segment represents the account number. I needed a column with just the department number. So I entered the first department number, 4960, manually. and then...