Hands on: Copilot Pro for Excel review
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This comment first appeared in Issue 355 PC Pro.Unlike other Copilot Pro tools, copy Excel Called “beta”. But even in this qualified state, it promises to be a game-changer for anyone who needs to use data but doesn’t want to be an expert in writing formulas, thus being the best way to do it in large data sets or the best way to discover trends.Excel’s Copilot exists in the toolbar, but it is sometimes figured out. That’s because it can only be used. xlsx or .xlsm files are saved in OneDrive or SharePoint. When the button is green, turning it on allows you to write natural language instructions to create formulas, analyze data, or highlight cells based on any criteria you want. If you’ve ever worked hard to create a complex formula (even simple formula), you’ll love it.The first thing to note is that secondary copper only works in the table. If your data is unstructured, you won’t let you do anything to it. For most people, this may not matter (every serious Excel user I know is inhabited or died by a table), but this can affect some users with large and different datasets.But if your data is in the table, the secondary copper is miraculous. You can ask for simple queries such as how much you spend between two dates, or the category that costs the most. It’s also good at creating graphics: just type “Make a pie chart based on month’s spending.” You can manipulate existing data by requiring the use of conditional formatting to emphasize a specific range of numbers, which is easy for those who are not experts in Excel.(Picture source: Future)You can also use Copilot to find outliers in your data and highlight them, which is not what you should think if you are trying to clean up your dataset or are finding results. If you are using a large dataset, that is a great time saving. You can’t do this with Excel’s existing tools – but for users who don’t live in Excel, it will involve a lot of online searches to understand where to start.What the real power starts is when you ask it to make formulas for you. I’m doing a simple expenditure table Small Businesstrack spending in various categories. But I also want to have a column indicating the total amount of my spending running. If you don’t know Excel, this is not an easy formula, as it involves a SUMIF function based on the date of that row and compares it with other functions in the table.I asked Copilot to “add formula columns to summarize the total expenditures for this date sequence so far” and in seconds a formula was created and added to the end of the table.This formula creation will save Excel hours of users, and it may be worth it if you use data regularly but don’t call yourself an expert. Even in situations where I want to do what I know how to do, I find myself using the secondary and vice president because it produces better results than the various hacks, shortcuts and cheats I have learned over the years.We also rank the best customer relationship management software for small businesses.
