Microsoft announces new features included in Excel Feb 2023 update

Microsoft announced a handful of new features it introduced to Excel in February. While some of the features are still limited to Insiders, there are also some features that arrived to general users of Excel for Mac and the web.

These features include manual sorting for PivotTables and PivotCharts, which was previously available only to the desktop app of Excel. The feature, also now accessible in Excel for the web, allows customization of sort order of PivotTable row and column items through a drag action or using the context (right-click) menu.

Excel for Mac users, on the other hand, get Power Query Editor, which should now allow the authoring of queries from local files, SharePoint, OData, and other sources. Mac customers will also have the ability to import data from additional sources, thanks to Power Query. With this, it is now possible to do this import data process from XML and JSON files, OData, SharePoint Online List, Blank Query, and Blank Table.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said it also gave Insiders some new features to try. However, these tests in this update are limited to Excel for Windows and Mac. For Windows, Insiders can try the Automatic Recalculation Optimization and the new XLL Add-Ins block feature. It can be recalled that Microsoft first revealed the plan for the former in January in hopes of deterring hackers from distributing malware using XLL add-ins. Now, the Redmond company is testing it, which will give you “a layer of security to your worksheets.”

Microsoft is also testing the Automatic Recalculation Optimization feature in Excel for Mac. Aside from that, Insiders will also try the new ability to import data from SQL Server databases via Power Query.

What of these features do you want to try first? Let us know in the comment section.