Do you use Excel 365?

We are all very accustom to Microsoft releasing a new version of Excel every 3 years.  Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016 and now we are onto Excel 2019. These versions of Excel are a one-time purchase and each new release comes with a bundle of new features, functions and improvements.  You can buy Excel Standalone, or you can buy the Office package.  The next version is due for release would be Office 2022, however Microsoft have given no indication of an actual release date.

But why wait for a new release every 3 years?  When Excel 365, part of Office 365 rolls out changes on a regular basis. You could be working with the latest version today, instead of waiting. All the mod cons.  All the new features, functions and improvements. For a subscription fee, you can sign up to Office 365 and get all the benefits in Excel that I am going to list below.

5 Reasons Spreadsheet Users should be using Excel 365

1. Excel 365 gives you access to new Excel features immediately when they become available. With Excel 365 and Office 365 in general, Microsoft are continuously improving things. When something is ready to be released, you will automatically get access as soon as it’s rolled out. New builds are more frequent than every 3 years putting the latest productivity tools into your hands.  That means when XLOOKUP and Dynamic Arrays are rolled out, you will get then automatically.

2. OneDrive Storage and Auto-save. Utilizing the power of the cloud, with Office 365 comes cloud storage on OneDrive.  Excel files saved on OneDrive can use the Auto-save feature, which is not available in standalone Excel.

3. Improved Collaboration also come with cloud storage and OneDrive. Traditionally, collaborating and co authoring an Excel workbook was a bit of a headache. But not anymore. 

4. Live chat with mentions – again a feature of the cloud. You can quickly mention or tag someone from your organisation in an Excel workbook and they will receive an email notifying them.  Using the improved comments feature, when collaborating, you can also text chat live right from inside Excel.

5. Insiders Edition. We mentioned above that Excel 365 gives you access to new releases as soon as they go live.  However, you can also sign up to the Insiders Edition.  This gives you access to test features that have not yet been rolled out.  Features such as XLOOKUP and Dynamic Arrays.

Do you use Excel 365?  

Drop a comment below and let me know what version of Excel you are using.  It would be interesting to see where we are all at.

If you are using Excel 365, what are you favorite benefits and why?

If you are interested in trying out Office and Excel 365, you can sign up for a Free 1 month demo with this link https://products.office.com/en-ie/try