Excel for Windows (Desktop Application)
Welcome to the Excel for Windows (Desktop Application) feedback forum! This is the place for users to send us suggestions and ideas on how to improve. If you think you have found a bug, please send us feedback in-app instead! To do so, please click “File”, then “Feedback”, then “Send a Frown” in Excel. This way, we will get detailed information that will help us better diagnose the problem.
To help us build the best version of Excel ever, we have partnered with UserVoice, a third-party service, to create this site to hear your suggestions and ideas for the next version of Excel. Your use of the portal and your submission is subject to the UserVoice Terms of Service & Privacy Policy, including the license terms. Please do not send any novel or patentable ideas, copyrighted materials, samples or demos for which you do not want to grant a license to Microsoft.
-
Release XLOOKUP to the world!
Why only release to 15 percent of users?! Let the world have XLOOKUP and XMATCH now()!
193 votesXLOOKUP is now available to all users of modern Excel across all endpoints. We deployed XLOOKUP to the last group of users (Semi-Annual channel) in July 2020.
XLOOKUP will not be available in Excel 2019 and Excel 2016. These are point in time versions of Excel that predate the release of XLOOKUP.
[Joe McDaid – Excel PM]
-
Scroll horizontally by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Wheel scroll, or with mice that support side scroll, like Adobe Reader, Chrome, IE...
Scroll horizontally by pressing Shift+Wheel scroll, or with mice that support side scroll, like in other aplications, like Adobe Reader, Chrome, IE...
181 votesGood news! On Windows, you can now scroll right and left using a mouse with a scroll wheel by holding down CTRL+SHIFT. If you move the scroll wheel up, it will scroll your sheet to the left, and scroll down to go right. On Mac, you can just hold the SHIFT key to do the same thing.
To see all the suggestions we’ve completed, please see https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/filters/top?status_id=1406092
-
let pen usage toggle between inking and pointer
The January 2016 Office update defaults the Surface Pen to an inking tool. Most Excel users prefer to use the pen as a pointer. Please give us a toggle in the ribbon to switch between inking and pointing.
155 votes(2016-03-15 – Completed) (Edit: Added link to Office Insider signup)
I wanted to let everyone know that in the update to Office that started rolling out to Insiders today, you will find a new preference in the Options dialog to allow you to make the pen select instead of ink by default. Enabling this preference will make the pen function exactly like it did before, plus you can use the options on the Draw tab if you do decide you want to ink. If you are an Office Insider (which anyone can join – https://products.office.com/en-us/office-insider), you should get this update within the next day or so. If you are not an Office Insider, it may take another week or two to reach you.
This is a per-app preference, so you can enable selection by default in Excel for instance while leaving ink as the default in Word and PowerPoint,…
-
Bring back Edit Comments (Legacy) to the Right-Click Menu
The new Threaded Comments that appeared in Build 1809 are awesome for 99% of the people. But for the Commenting Gurus - anyone who has ever taken the time to build help systems by resizing, re-coloring, re-shaping and using Show All Comments, we are going to see our comments get destroyed by well-meaning co-workers.
Yes, all of the legacy icons are available for adding back to the Ribbon, but we the comment gurus can not trust our co-workers and managers to take the time to add these.
My request: If Excel detects any comment in the workbook that is a…
153 votesWe have addressed the topic of this suggestion by bringing back the legacy comments as notes and included the edit comment action as “edit note” in the right click menu. Also, this topic has multiple suggestions, so if for any remaining suggestions which are not covered by the update to reintroduce legacy comment editing, please open a new suggestion. Thank you.
-
Options for AutoSave
The AutoSave function is a great idea!!
Just not in practice...
In my business we re-use the same invoices made in excel for the same jobs, however save them as a new file each time in order to keep a record of the previous invoice.
The new AutoSave feature is extremely dangerous in this regard.
If I, or someone else, does not remember to turn off AutoSave, or save as a new file BEFORE making new changes, we LOSE our previous invoice.Have options for AutoSave, the most important one being, DEFAULT OFF rather than default on.
151 votesThank you all for your feedback regarding the new AutoSave functionality in Excel.
We’ve been working to better enable collaboration and AutoSave is a key component that. While it can take some getting used to, AutoSave helps users feel confident that their work is being saved. This is especially evident when working with other people, but it also helps when you’re working by yourself.
We understand that you may need to turn off AutoSave for some workflows, so we are excited to announce that it is now possible to turn off AutoSave for a particular file as well as to change whether AutoSave is or or not by default.
For instructions on how to do this please see here: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/what-is-autosave-6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5#OfficeVersion=Windows
This functionality is currently available to O365 subscribers.
We hope you continue to leave feedback on Excel to help us improve.
Thanks,
Pallavi Hukerikar
Excel Program Manager -
Add an If_NA optional sixth argument to XLOOKUP
The new XLOOKUP function introduced on August 28 2019 is awesome - exact match by default, the ability to return several columns at once, and search from bottom of data. But one thing would make it better - an optional sixth IfNA argument to provide an answer in case nothing is found.
One of the benefits of XLOOKUP is to eliminate the need to nest MATCH inside of INDEX. If you are trying to reduce the number of functions this would be a low-impact way of eliminating nesting XLOOKUP inside of IFNA.
For me, the main argument is that…108 votesThanks for the suggestions folks! We’ve added [if_not_found] as the 4th argument to XLOOKUP. The thinking is as follows:
It’s a reasonably common use case
The ISNA XLOOKUP approach cannot distinguish a “not found” from a #N/A returned from a valid match.
- Joe McDaid [Excel] -
make excel 2016 as stable as previous versions
Make Excel 2016 as stable as previous versions
We run complex spreadsheets with conditional formatting and links between spreadsheets and macros to drive behavior - this is both inherently slow (on various different computers) and unstable - crashes almost daily
Previous versions of Excel handled these same spreadsheets cleanly and easily !!!104 votesThank you all who voted! And we hear you loud and clear and we have been working hard at improving Excel 2016 stability on-going with every monthly release with our January monthly channel release at historically low levels based on our internal measures.
Moving forward, please send us feedback from within Excel, which includes actionable crash information we monitor regularly. Once Excel reboots from a crash please goto File → Feedback → Send a Frown, provide information on what Excel specific action you were doing when the crash occurred and press the “Submit” button.
thanx,
Prash [MSFT] -
Allow PowerQuery to Extract Data from PDF tables
Allow PowerQuery to import tables of data from PDF files.
99 votesHi all! I am happy to announce that recently we have released From PDF data connector in Excel which allows you to import and work with data from your PDF documents. Refer to this blog post for more information:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-data-import-from-pdf-documents/ba-p/1569202Guy Hunkin
- Excel Team -
Make Excel obey the "scroll inactive windows" setting in Windows 10
Make Excel obey the "scroll inactive windows" setting in Windows 10. Currently Excel will scroll when it is an inactive window, but it will not allow other windows to scroll when it is the active window. This makes transcribing data from a source that needs to be scrolled difficult.
96 votesThanx for creating and voting on this folks!
You should see this issue fixed starting with the latest Windows 10 Preview 17133.73 build update on 4/10 (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/03/27/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-17133-for-fast/) as well as latest Excel Monthly channel 1803 Build 9126.2152 update on 4/11 (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/mt465751.aspx).
Please let us know if you find this still not fixed with these builds (and later).
thanx,
Prash [MSFT] -
Improve the Concatenate Function
Make Concatenate to Work with Range of Cells / Arrays rather than 1 cell separated by Comas
=CONCATENATE(Array,Seperator)
The Array to Accept A1:A10 or A1:D1 or {"Abb","Areva","BHEL"} or {"ABB";"Areva";"BHEL}
or70 votesUpdate – 2016-03-07
Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know that we’ve completed adding new =CONCAT and =TEXTJOIN functions to Excel 2016 (as part of Office 365 – builds 16.0.6528 and later) that should do what’s been requested here. You can read more about it on our blog:
Cheers,
Dan [MS] -
Histogram, box plot, quantile plot, and other statistician-friendly features needed
I am regularly surprised when Excel can do complex operations using built in functions, but there is a lack of data visualization options out there. For example, a histogram, box plot, and quantile plot can provide options for visualizing and comparing data. I know these can be achieved using various add-ins (for example QI Macros), but those are never perfect and always seem hokey. Also would love to be able to do hypothesis tests (t-test, f-test, z-test, and so on) in user friendly and visual manner. Also, for all charts, please add a feature for using split column(s) to differentiate…
50 votesIn Office 2016, we released 6 new built in chart types: Treemap, Sunburst, Histogram, Pareto, Box & Whisker, and Waterfall. Checkout the following link for the top new features in Excel 2016. https://docs.com/ExcelDemos/7981/excel-2016-top-features.
However, there are several other feature requests wrapped up in this post. Please enter those as separate items so that we can respond to them individually.
Thanks,
Scott [MSFT] -
Power Query Advanced Editor and Formula Bar Intellisense
Add intellisense to the advanced editor and the formula bar for the Power Query M-Code.
48 votesA little bit late updating the status on this suggestion, but we’re happy to say that Power Query now has Intellisense when using the Advanced Editor and the query formula bar. If you don’t see it already, just go to File > Options and Settings > Query Options > Power Query Editor, and enable M Intellisense.
-
Money in Excel: Multiple Accounts Per Institution
It's very common for a couple to both have accounts at one institution, but want to track data together. Unfortunately I can't use Money In Excel until this feature lands.
47 votesCircling back on this most upvoted feature, we’re excited to let you know that we just launched it due to your feedback!
- With Multi-Credential Support, you and your family members can connect multiple accounts from the same institution into Money in Excel. We hope this will make Money in Excel more useful for those who manage their finances together.
- To help you keep track of different accounts from the same institution, we’re also introducing Account Nicknames. In the Accounts tab in the Money in Excel pane, you can now customize your accounts with nicknames (You can even use emojis!)
If you do not see this update in your version of Money in Excel, try downloading a new version of the template here: Money in Excel Template. And don’t worry, your financial account data will not be lost! -
Please add MAXIF and MINIF
It would just be so useful to have this. Thanks!
40 votes2016-04-19
Hello all,
Just wanted to let you know that we’ve released MAXIFS and MINIFS to Excel as part of Office 365. If you’re a subscriber you should already have (or see soon) these functions in your arsenal.
Cheers,
Dan [MS]2015-11 ========
Hi there,Great news – we’re working on this! Actually, we’re working on MAXIFS and MINIFS – even better :-)
Cheers,
Dan [MS] -
38 votes
We’re happy to say that the UNIQUE function is available for O365 subscribers. Please see this article for more information – https://support.office.com/article/UNIQUE-function-c5ab87fd-30a3-4ce9-9d1a-40204fb85e1e
-
Better testing with large, complex workbooks
I work with a large, complex workbook (several MBytes, about 150 worksheets). Excel crashes several times per day, and even crashes Windows 10 regularly with a stack overflow. Simple VBA code that works with small workbooks will regularly crash Excel (e.g., For Each ws In wb.Worksheets; do something simple; next ws). I suspect that the problems are memory or stack related, but my real request is for the testers to specifically create test cases based on huge workbooks, then see what happens.
21 votesOver the last few years, we’ve improved our ability to detect and fix performance issues significantly, and as a result we’ve seen performance improvements for users as well.
We intend to continue working on performance, but we’re marking this suggestion as completed.
Steve [Excel team]
-
OData and PowerPivot removes separator on actual billable hours
Please solve this Click2Run Excel bug. I'm looking for the solution for since the start of the year now, this is the forum post: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/projectserver/en-US/061de981-fa09-46c4-9ff5-c57c0601625e/odata-and-powerpivot-removes-separator-on-actual-billable-hours?forum=projectonline#a730e4e8-86dd-4377-95cd-6b441bb26ddc
12 votesUpdate (July 25)
Hi again Erik,
This issues should be fixed in our August 2nd update.
If it isn’t, pls reach out to me directly at myfirstname dot mylastname at microsoft dot com.
Thanks again for raising it.
ashProgram Manager
Excel—
Hi Erik,
Boy, you’ve been having quite a saga here. Even though this site is for new requests, appreciate finding out about this. I’m reaching out to Brian to understand what’s happening so far.
thanks
ash [Microsoft Excel] -
Kindly make power pivot option as a standard in excel 2016
The use of pivot has increased over the period of time. Currently power pivot is provided as add-in and is not part of standard excel. Request you to make power pivot as a standard option in next release of excel i.e. Excel 2016
12 votesHi Srikanth,
As Yigal mentioned, PowePivot is now part of many Excel 2016 versions, as noted here: https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/18/new-ways-to-get-the-excel-business-analytics-features-you-need/
Hope you’re enjoying the new version of Excel!
dan [MS] -
STOP turning the AutoSave back on when users turn it off!
STOP turning the AutoSave back on! AutoSave falsely represents users as updating the file AND creates unnecessary versions. Users turn it off and after Microsoft updates are pushed into the environment - it comes back on. Bad idea!
11 votesChanges to AutoSave settings should not change on update. This issue was raised when the changes to AutoSave were made. This should no longer be a problem. If you experience further issues go to File > Feedback and send us more information.
-
Data validation list sources referring to tables are only dynamic for tables on the same sheet
Data validation still does not support structured references as list sources. Luckily, the non-structured references to table columns update if the column changes size. However, this only occurs if the data validation cell and the table are on the same sheet. This is further incentive, beyond the usual readability issue, for Excel to support structured references in data validation.
You can download a demo file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/hrz90a8u7kk456p/DataValidationTable_Update.xlsbPosts related to data validation and structured references:
https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9018427-improve-data-validation
https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10561302-data-validation-allow-table-references-as-list-s11 votesGood news. While data validation still does not support structured references, the problem of references not adjusting if the table is on a different sheet has been fixed. With version 16.0.133 or greater, if you refer to a column on a different sheet than the cell with the data validation rule, it will behave the same as if the table is on the same sheet, expanding the reference if you add rows to the table, or reducing the reference if you delete rows from the table.
Here’s a post about it on the Excel Techcommunity site – https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/dropdown-list-improvement-data-validation-lists-are-dynamic-for/m-p/1977541.
We’re marking this as Complete since the title refers to the exact issue that was fixed.
Steve [Microsoft Excel]
- Don't see your idea?