Microsoft Excel is getting a new feature that might save your skin one day
Microsoft Excel blunders have become a regular news item
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Update: 25 JanuaryMicrosofthas since removed the product roadmap entry describing the new Show Changes feature. Asked why the listing was removed, the company declined to comment.
Original story:Spreadsheet softwareMicrosoft Excelis an undeniably powerful tool, but one that also creates opportunity for mishap. As theUK governmentandNHSfound out the hard way in 2020, small spreadsheet errors can snowball rapidly, with significant real-life consequences.
In a bid to safeguard against disaster, Microsoft is working on a small tweak to Excel that will allow users to remedy mistakes and recover lost information more easily.
According toan entryin the company’s product roadmap, a new Show Changes feature is under development that will effectively log the history of each cell. “Excel can now show you the changes you made to the cells in your workbook, including the previous value of the cells,” the listing explains.
Microsoft has not provided a specific launch date for the update, but expects the Show Changes feature to land at some point next month.
Microsoft Excel update
Although information is a little sparse for now, it’s easy to imagine a number of applications for the new feature, especially if multiple colleagues are all collaborating on the same workbook simultaneously.
For example, if data is altered accidentally by a slip of the keyboard, but not registered immediately, the ability to bring up the previous cell values will allow for an easy fix later down the line.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
In an accounting scenario, meanwhile, whereby the value of a given cell is dictated by a formula, the new feature will also presumably offer insight into uptrends and downtrends over time.
A similar function is already available in rival serviceGoogle Sheets, so the Microsoft Excel update will restore parity between the two services in this respect. In Sheets, right-clicking on a cell and selecting “Edit History” allows users to scroll through previous cell values via simple backwards and forwards arrows.
The new Excel feature comes hot on the heels oftwo updates to the web client, both designed to make it easier for users to annotate their spreadsheets effectively. The first introduced the ability to mark cells with the ink and highlighter functions and the second allowed users to create notes that can be shared between colleagues.
Love it or loathe it, Excel is a significant part of many people’s professional experience, so extra facilities to guard against mistakes and improve collaboration are likely to be popular additions.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
Best secure file transfer solution of 2024
Best lightweight Linux distro of 2024
Apple iMac 24-inch M4 (2024) review: the best, and most colorful, all-in-one computer levels up
