What’s New In Excel 2010?
Apparently, the Office 2010 Technical Preview was released today. I don't have a copy but PC World has covered it: Office 2010: A complete Overview of What's New
Here's what it says about the only Office 2010 app that I'm interested in:
Not much new in Excel
Excel hasn't been touched as much as the other major applications in Office 2010, but there have been some useful additions. The most important is called "Sparklines" -- small cell-sized charts that you can embed in a worksheet next to data to get a quick visual representation of the data. For example, if you had a worksheet that tracked the performance of several dozen stocks, you could create a Sparkline for each stock that graphed its performance over time, in a very compact way.
Conditional formatting -- the ability to apply a format to a range of cells, and then have the formatting change according to the value of the cell or formula -- has been improved as well, including the addition of more styles and icons.
As with other Office 2010 applications, Excel has new tools for sharing data with other people, including multiple people working on a document at a time.
For businesses, Microsoft is touting a Project Gemini add-on for Excel 2010 that can handle very large amounts of data -- even worksheets that include hundreds of millions of rows. It will ship as part of SQL Server 2008 R2 in the first half of 2010; a community technology preview will be available in the second half of 2009.
No surprises.
- Reader Comments -
Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.
- By jeff weir. Comment posted 13 July, 2009 4:01pmDamn. I was really hoping they'd give us a way to modulate the pitch of the Speak Cells on Enter function.
- By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 13 July, 2009 6:07pmThat would be nice. Maybe in Excel 2013.
Oops... Microsoft doesn't do unlucky product names, so it will probably be delayed a year. Expect Speak Cells modulation in Excel 2014. - By Mathias. Comment posted 13 July, 2009 10:58pmStated as is, the aim of the Gemini add-on sounds scary. Millions of rows, shipped as part of SQL Server 2008? It would seem to me that at that point, you should not be using Excel any more, but rather build a real app, with a real SQL server back end. Users need no encouragements building ever-bigger and scarier and hard to maintain spreadsheets! Well, I guess I should reserve judgement until I see it...
- By Jon von der Heyden. Comment posted 14 July, 2009 12:32am
As with other Office 2010 applications, Excel has new tools for sharing data with other people, including multiple people working on a document at a time.
I wonder if Microsoft may have finally developed a means to workbook sharing without all of the restrictions and inherent risks? Sounds promising...
For businesses, Microsoft is touting a Project Gemini add-on for Excel 2010 that can handle very large amounts of data -- even worksheets that include hundreds of millions of rows. It will ship as part of SQL Server 2008 R2 in the first half of 2010; a community technology preview will be available in the second half of 2009.
I don't know if I should be excited or afraid...
John, maybe too soon to ask but have the reintroduced FileSearch? - By squiggler47. Comment posted 14 July, 2009 7:27amNot seeing too much new, apart from the ability to edit and indeed create new Tabs/Items in the ribbon bar!
Also quick access to paste special using right click on a cell! - By Hui.... Comment posted 19 July, 2009 1:47amThere is a Customize Ribbon function under Options
It allows you to add/edit new Ribbons and Groups but not edit existing Ribbons/Groups - By Bob Phillips. Comment posted 09 August, 2009 9:11amMy understanding is that Gemini is an addin with built-in AS, separately released, not part of SQL Server at all. Sounds like a hell of an addin, but being an addin means that it can develop much faster than Excel. Again, I believe that in MS' grand scheme, you prototype using Gemini, prove the viability, then ship it back to a real cube - just my thinkings.
The slicer in Pivot Tables is new, but apart from making the choices more obvious, what does it do that the existing filter doesn't?
Jon, FilesSearch? Come on, MS don't make mistakes.
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