I bet there's been the odd time you've said to yourself "wouldn't it be nice if Excel had..." Or maybe even "I really hate how Excel...."
Well, now you can have your ideas heard by the very people responsible for developing Excel.
Excel User Voice is where you can make suggestions for new features you’d like to see in Excel. In fact there is a User Voice for every Microsoft product.
How Excel User Voice Works
Everyone starts with 10 votes. You can make a suggestion for a new feature, or vote for an idea someone else has made. Either of these equates to 1 vote.
Consider your votes carefully because they run out fast. The good news is they get replenished; votes are replenished one of two ways:
- When an idea is marked as “Completed” or “Declined”.
- You can reclaim a vote from an idea you voted on (un-vote).
And before you think of cheating the system by voting with multiple email addresses, they have means to prevent that.
Getting Your Idea Noticed
Currently, for an idea to get traction it needs upwards of 20 votes. That may increase in future as more people use the system.
Help your idea get votes by providing example files, mock-ups etc. where necessary i.e. make it easy for your fellow Excel enthusiasts to understand your idea and see the benefits.
Before you post an idea make sure no one else has already submitted it.
Get Started
Here are a couple of ideas, some by fellow Excel MVP’s, that you might like to vote on:
- CTRL+arrow key and CTRL+SHIFT+arrow key navigation in Excel Online by Shawn Keene
If Excel Online has any chance of competing with Google Sheets this is a must fix. I used 3 of my votes on this idea!
- PivotTable Field List layout Side by Side view by Ken Puls Excel MVP
Notice the detailed supporting documentation Ken provided.
- Option to calculate at workbook level rather than globally for all open workbooks by Charles Williams Excel MVP
At the moment you can calculate a range or a worksheet or all open workbooks, so Workbook.Calculate is missing.
From the UI this would be implemented as an additional Calc Mode : Active Workbook Only.
Spread the Word
The Excel team want to hear your ideas so please click the buttons below to share it with your friends on LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Twitter and encourage them to take a look at Excel User Voice.
fran cammock says
hi Mynda
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for quite a while but no luck. wondering if you might be able to help me…
i have two tables each with two columns
I need to compare concatenated columns of one table to the other table
I then need to compile a list of unique values from both tables
if you can help – this would be fabulous!
thanks, Fran
Mynda Treacy says
Hi Fran,
There are few ways to tackle this; if it’s a one off job then you can simply copy the columns from the second table below the first and use ‘Remove Duplicates’ (Data tab of the Ribbon) to get a unique list. If it’s going to be a repetitive task then Power Query would be ideal.
Let me know if you get stuck.
Mynda