It's almost the end of the month, which means that it is time yet again to recap all the new functionalities Microsoft introduced in its popular spreadsheet software, Excel. Last month, we welcomed the general availability of Copilot in Excel, along with some new functions and an Accessibility Assistant. This month is similarly interesting, so let's dive right into the good stuff!

What are some of the major features available for everyone?

This month, Excel for the web received the ability to clean data through Copilot. Users can leverage this handy functionality through the Clean Data utility in the Data tab. The Copilot-powered tool will detect inconsistencies in text, number formatting, and extra space characters, along with offering you suggestions on how to fix them with a single click.

Another great feature now available in Excel for Windows is an enhanced color picker which shows you the contrast between the foreground and background colors in a tooltip whenever you are changing the color. You can also use the High-contrast only toggle to choose between colors which will offer adequate contrast.

That's not all, though. The Windows version of Excel also netted three new templates for Python. The first is a Python in Excel tutorial, the second is a QR code generator, while the last one is a Dummy data generator. You should be able to access them by heading over to File > New. Finally, Excel customers on the web, Mac, and Windows can also utilize the GROUPBY and PIVOTBY functions to aggregate data efficiently.

Which features are still exclusive to Insiders?

Excel Insiders received three features this month. The first is the Focus Cell utility in Windows, which makes the active cell more visible in your sheet by highlighting relevant rows and making the cell border visibly thicker. Next, Windows customers can take advantage of Draw and Hold to convert doodles into more refined shapes which can also be resized. Lastly, Apple customers can use the Handoff functionality in their operating system to seamlessly switch between Mac and iOS devices.