This made Lotus 1-2-3 a new favourite in the industry. Although, before this in 1982 Microsoft had already launched Muliplan but it was outshined by Lotus 1-2-3. And this thing provoked Microsoft to come up with Microsoft Excel and rest is history. The Infographic on History of Microsoft Excel. How to Update Excel. This wikiHow teaches you how to check for updates in Microsoft Excel on a Windows or Mac computer. If updates are available, Excel will download and install them as needed. Microsoft Excel is the world's most famous and widely used spreadsheet editing application.Originally developed by the Microsoft in 1987, this software received numerous expansions of capabilities, making it the go-to source for spreadsheet editing, use of graphing tools, pivot tables, macro programming, and much more.Available today on all modern platforms, including Windows, MacOS, Android. In Compatibility Mode, any new or enhanced Excel features are not available, which prevents loss of data and fidelity when the workbook is opened in an earlier version of Excel. Also, instead of using a current file format (.xlsx,.xlsb,.xlsm,.xltx,.xltm), the workbook is saved in Excel 97-2003 file format (.xls), a file format that can be.
By J. Carlton Collins, CPAEarlier this fall, Microsoft announced the release to the general public of its Office 2019 suite. The 2019 version of Excel contains a wide assortment of new and improved features and capabilities. Here's a look at 12 of those upgrades, all of which I have downloaded, installed, and tested:
1. Data import tool improvements: The Power Query data import tool in Excel 2013 was renamed Get & Transform in Excel 2016, but the name has reverted to Power Query in Excel 2019, bringing it in line with the name conventions used by the related Microsoft products Power Pivot, Power Map, and Power BI. The improved Power Query tool (pictured below) provides the ability to import data from external data sources (such as your accounting system) and then scrub and clean the data (referred to as transforming the data) before placing them in Excel. Some of the transforming capabilities include the ability to group data, rename column headings, transpose data, reverse rows, detect data types, replace values, split columns, merge columns, unpivot columns, invoke custom functions, create conditional columns, and parse data.
This tool makes it faster, easier, and more accurate to import data from external sources for manipulation and analysis in Excel.
2. Automated workflow: Excel 2019 now connects better to Microsoft Flow, which allows you to create automated workflows in which data are retrieved from other applications and then stored and/or manipulated in Excel. The dataflow can be further programmed to automatically send to or share those data with other people or third-party applications. For example, Flow might be used to collect favorable customer tweets about your goods or services on your Twitter account, and then store them in your Excel workbook (on your OneDrive or SharePoint platform). These Twitter data could then be pushed periodically (every Monday morning, for example) to selected recipients through email or text messages, or published directly to websites or other data destinations.
Flow can retrieve your data from practically anywhere — your accounting system, ERP system, CRM system, stock price databases, weather forecast databases, email messages, reminder notices, Salesforce.com, etc. As examples, you could use this technology to track your hours worked, travel locations, Facebook messages, Instagram posts, travel expenses, accounts receivable, etc. To create a new data flow, start at the My Flows webpage at login.microsoftonline.com, sign in to your account using your Microsoft ID, and click the Get started button.
Click Create a flow from blank, as pictured below in the bottom right corner, and then select one of more than 200 triggers and specify the event you want to launch your automatic flow process. For example, the receipt of an email with a specific attachment may trigger an automated flow process. Continue by specifying the action(s) you want to take, such as opening the email attachment in Excel and running a specific macro to produce a PivotTable or PivotChart, then specify a connector for sharing the results through other Microsoft and third-party apps such as Outlook or SharePoint. Learn more about Flow at click.linksynergy.com.
3. 3D images: Excel 2019 now includes new 3D imaging capability in which you can rotate a 3D model of an object. While it's difficult to convey the concept in a picture, the screenshot below contains three copies of the same butterfly image, which I have rotated to suggest the effect you might achieve.
Excel now includes hundreds of 3D images, which are available from the Inserttab's 3D Models option. Image categories include animals, electronics, gadgets, dinosaurs, geology, space, dioramas, letters, biology, and more. A few examples of 3D graphic images are displayed in the screenshot below.
You can view my brief video demonstrating this functionality at youtu.be/VLzglo1WBZ0.
4. Custom functions: Excel 2019 now enables users to create their own custom functions using JavaScript. Previous editions of Excel already enabled users to create user-defined functions using Excel's built-in Visual Basic for Applications programming language; however, since JavaScript has emerged as a commonly used platform for such purposes, Microsoft has added this new capability to allow for greater compatibility with third-party solutions. Itunes on xbox one.
5. New functions: Excel includes six new or improved functions, as follows: IFS, SWITCH, TEXTJOIN, CONCAT, MAXIFS, and MINIFS. IFS and SWITCH are simplified versions of the nested IF function, which eliminates the need for more complicated nested functions. For example, the screenshot below depicts both the nested IF approach (in red text) and the IFS approach (in blue text) for creating the formula in cell C16 that returns the proper tax base for income calculation purposes. While both approaches work, the IFS approach requires only one function while the IF approach requires three IF functions. Note that in this example the IFS approach produces a slightly longer formula because the IFS approach requires you to spell out each criterion, while the IF approach does not require you to spell out the last criteria.
The TEXTJOIN function is a simplified version of the CONCATENATE function in which inserted text need not be encapsulated by quotation marks. The CONCAT function allows you to combine text from multiple cells without specifying a delimiter. The MAXIFS and MINIFS functions work like the SUMIF or COUNTIF functions in that they calculate only the maximum or minimum for those data that meet the criteria you specify. For example, an auditor might use these functions to find the lowest and highest invoice amounts between $50 and $100, as part of statistical sampling procedures.
6. Custom visuals: To provide more visual ways to display and present your data, Microsoft has incorporated its Power BI suite of apps into Excel. To access these new custom visuals, from Excel's Add-ins tab select Get Add-ins to display the Office Add-ins dialog box pictured below.
Scroll through the apps, select the one you want to use, and then set up the app to link it to your desired data. For example, I selected the free Microsoft People Graph app to create the chart below as linked from the data displayed in cells A1:B5.
Other available visual add-in apps include Word Cloud charts, Bullet charts, Speedometer charts, the Prevedere Forecasting Tools, Lucidchart Diagrams for Excel, and Supermetrics, to name a few.
Note: I counted more than 350 available Excel add-in apps as of September 2018; more apps may be added. (Most of these add-in apps are available for free, while some are priced from $1.49 to $13.99, and others have subscription prices ranging from $1.49 to $5.99 per month.)
7. Full SVG graphics support: Excel 2019 now supports scalable vector graphics (SVG), which means your graphic images won't pixelate when you increase the image size, as illustrated by the small and larger hiker image in the screenshot below. (Note that this technology applies only to drawings and graphic images; it does not apply to photos, videos, or animations.)
8. 500+ new built-in icons: Excel offers 500+ new built-in SVG-compliant icons for creating dashboards and infographics; examples of the new hiker and mountain icons are displayed above.
9. New forms capabilities:Excel 2019 now works in unison with Microsoft Forms to produce better looking documents to solicit responses to questions such as those included in surveys, polls, and quizzes. For example, using this new technology, you can produce survey forms and share them via links within Excel. To get started creating a new Form, visit forms.office.com, sign in if necessary, and click the New form button (if this is your first visit, you may see an overlay screen with a Create a new form button).
As you collect automated responses, you can open the survey results in Excel for further analysis or charting of the collected data.
10. Map chart improvements: New options allow you to project your maps in Albers, Mercator, or Miller layouts (which basically means you can display your map charts as flat or curved). There are also new controls for selecting the map area to be displayed. For example, you might display a world map, even though the data span only the United States.
11. Chart improvements: New options in Excel 2019 allow you to better control axis information on your funnel charts, such as tick marks and number formats, and you can now also produce color-coded heat maps.
12. Co-authoring: New co-authoring capabilities enable you to share your workbooks with others so multiple users can edit the same workbook at the same time when your file is stored on either the SharePoint or OneDrive platform. The sharing tool also allows you to set permissions for collaborators, and workbooks can be shared with individuals or groups of users (see the screenshot below).
When a workbook is shared in this manner, the names of all active collaborators are displayed in the upper right corner. Also displayed are the worksheet and cell addresses where collaborators are actively editing. All changes are shared almost immediately with other collaborators, so there is little lag time between user updates (previously all changes made between shared workbooks were updated for all collaborators every 15 minutes by default). Workbooks can be shared in this manner to other computers, tablets, and smartphones running Excel. If a collaborator doesn't have Excel loaded on his or her device, then Excel Online launches automatically in a browser environment to display the shared workbook.
About the author
J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a conference presenter, and a JofA contributing editor.
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Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to jofatech@aicpa.org. We regret being unable to individually answer all submitted questions.
Summary: Are you unable to open Excel file after upgrading to a new version? Read this blog to know the possible reasons behind such an issue. Also, find the solutions on ‘how to repair Excel files after upgrade?'. If you are worried about losing your crucial spreadsheet data, try using a specialized Excel file repair tool to repair the file and recover all its data.
Microsoft Excel is an advanced spreadsheet software program by Microsoft, included in the MS Office suite of applications. Apart from the basic spreadsheet features, Excel is used for recording, organizing, analyzing, formatting and manipulating numerical data. In addition to that, Excel features graphing tools, pivot tables and also VBA macro capabilities. Microsoft Excel is part of the Microsoft Office Suite and it is used both for personal and business objectives. XLS and XLSX are the two extensions for an Excel file and thanks to backward compatibility each file can be easily opened in any of the two versions.
But do you think even after possessing such an impressive suite of features MS Excel is a full-proof application? The answer to that is no! There are a lot of unforeseen situations that Excel users can face when working with the application. Take the following problem scenario for example.
Problem Scenario
We were recently contacted by a user who claimed that:
'I recently upgraded to Excel 2016 and I am unable to open existing Excel files from outside Excel 2016 using the shortcuts or double clicking on icons. When I was using Excel 2013, it was working fine on Windows 7 Professional.'
Problems like these are of course confusing. After all, why would an update from Microsoft mess up the working of the already installed Excel application? But it is a sad truth. There are times when an Excel file doesn't open after a recent MS excel upgrade or Windows upgrade. What are the reasons behind such an issue and what can users do to repair Excel after upgrade?
Reasons Behind the ‘Unable to Open Excel File' Issue
Here are some of the reasons why Excel files might not open after an upgrade:
- Microsoft Excel hasn't been correctly installed or upgraded on your laptop/computer
- The Excel files might have been corrupted
- Microsoft Excel is not able to get access to the default printer setup on the laptop/computer
- Other third-party applications such as Tuneup utilities, Kaspersky Antivirus, Abby FineReader, etc. may cause the problem
- Sometimes add-ins can be the reason behind your problem
- Your MS Office might be running in a compatibility mode for a prior version than the current version of Windows you own
- Hardware Graphic Acceleration might be the issue
- There might be some issues in the Protected View
Regardless of whether you're able to spot the exact trigger for the issue, you can try the below mentioned solutions to repair Excel files after upgrade.
Solutions to Repair Excel After Upgrade
You can try the below fixes to repair Excel files after upgrade:
Solution 1: Install Updates
As a first step, update your Microsoft Excel and Windows to the latest patch.
Solution 2: Restart & Repair Excel
You can fix the issue by simply restarting Excel 2016. If it doesn't fix the issue, you need to repair Excel by following these steps:
- Open Windows Control Panel and go to the list of installed Programs
- Click the MS Office product you want to repair and click on Change
- Follow remaining instructions
Solution 3: Reinstall Microsoft Office
Solution 4: Change your default installed printer
If the issue is due to faulty printer setup, follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Close all open Office applications
- Change your default printer by going to: Start -> Devices and Printers. It may not be necessarily a physical one, it may be One Note or XPS or PDF or anything else.
Note: Remember to upgrade all the Printers Drivers to the latest version from the internet.
Solution 5: Check third-party problem causing programs
Sometimes third-party applications like antivirus utilities, etc. can cause issues within Office programs. Try closing all of them one by one and open the faulty Excel file each time to see the effect.
Microsoft Excel New Version Download
Solution 6:Disable Add-ins
Download Microsoft Excel New Version
Do you have to buy microsoft word. To determine whether add-ins are the ones creating the issue, you need to open Excel in Safe Mode and see if it helps. To open excel in safe mode-
- Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click on the Excel icon.
- Otherwise, type 'excel /safe' in the Run application and then press OK.
If the problem has been eliminated, restart Excel in normal mode and disable all add-ins one by one. You can try to determine which add-in is the main culprit by restarting Excel every time you disable one.
Solution 7:Disable the Hardware Graphic Acceleration
To disable Hardware Graphic Acceleration, follow these steps:
- Open Excel
- Go to File -> Options
- Go to Advanced tab -> Display
- Check the box for ‘Disable Hardware Graphic Acceleration'
- Click OK and then restart the Excel
Solution 8: Fix issues with Protected View
Follow the below mentioned steps:
- Open Excel
- Go to File ->Options
- Select Trust Centre ->Trust Centre Settings
- Click on Protected View
- Uncheck all options
Also change the below settings
- Under Trust Centre settings, go to ‘File Block Settings'
- Uncheck all options
Hopefully one of the above manual solutions should help you repair Excel after upgrade. If it doesn't, you might be dealing with a heavily corrupted file. In such a case, to overcome the issue use automated Excel repair utility, Stellar Repair for Excel.
The best alternative to manual solutions
Stellar Repair for Excel software is a professional utility to fix corruptions within Excel files.
The competent and efficient software quickly scans even the most severely corrupted Excel files and repairs them to facilitate the recovery of tables, forms, reports, cell data, formatting etc. from them. It is a complete DIY product equipped with an interactive GUI and comes with a free preview feature which lets you view recoverable data before saving the repaired Excel file data.
Final Words
Hope you'll be able to repair Excel files after an upgrade by using one of the above fixes. Remember to always backup your critical files to avoid data loss situations. If nothing works, you can place your trust in reliable products like Stellar Repair for Excel.
So, what are your views on this? Do let us know in the comments below.
