

how much of one product has sold against another). You know when you’re waiting for the bus, you get none for ages and then loads come along at once-that’s the case with Excel 2016, which unveils six new chart types, each with their own specialist uses. The people at Microsoft claim that Excel has not seen the addition of a new chart type since the 1997 edition. I think you’ll find it’s much more manageable. If you want to delve deeper you simply use the + option next to the date segment to expand the next level of grouping. Now dates are automatically grouped into Years, Quarters and Months.

Previously, Excel PivotTables would always register dates individually-your charts would have hundreds of fields along the date axis. Just search for the field you're looking for and it pops up for you to select. PivotTables have been revitalized with a search bar that makes life easier when dealing with large data sets with numerous fields. If you make changes to the data these will not automatically be reflected in the chart. Pretty smart! Once you've made your forecast you'll be able to display it as either a line or bar graph, but be aware that the data used to create your graph of choice will not link to the chart. What's also great about the forecasting function is that if Excel can see trends due to seasonality, it will factor them into the forecast. As long as you have a decent amount of data it will be able to forecast past your last data point, as well as show levels of confidence at each end of the spectrum. ForecastingĮxcel 2016 has seen the addition of “one-click” statistical forecasting for data that has a time element associated with it. It’s a handy shortcut to get you where you want to go! There's also smart look-up which will use the internet to search relevant articles for your search term. (Remember how hard it was to find our favorite tools?) The “tell me” box is essentially a search function that lists functions and operations matching your search terms. The "tell me" box is one of the most obvious new arrivals to the Excel party and, quite frankly, it's a shame it wasn't around in the 2007 edition when the menu ribbon was initially reduced. Now what? Are there any new features? The answer is yes, especially if you need business intelligence tools and new ways to present your data.ĭon’t miss out on new Excel 2016 features. If your organization has upgraded to Office 2016 or Office 365, you now have access to Excel 2016.
