Microsoft Excel update solves one of your biggest workplace problems

Creating the monster Microsoft Excel workbook of your dreams could soon be a lot easier thanks to a new update.

The spreadsheet software can often be cumbersome to use, especially when teams of people are all feeding into a central or main file that changes often and requires constant attention.

Now, Microsoft Excel has revealed it is rolling out a new feature that will make collaborating on your spreadsheets smoother than ever through the use of “@mentions”.

Microsoft Excel @mentions

A common sight for users of Microsoft’s great office software rival Google Workspace, @mentions allow users to tag their colleagues or co-workers, both within an organization and outside. These tags can be requests for edits, adding more information, or just clarification on a certain point.

In the entry on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company notes that @mentions can also be used to “create, assign and track tasks within your workbook.”

The entry says that the feature has a general availability date of October 2022, but it has already been added to the “rolling out” cycle, meaning some users may already be able to access it.

Only desktop Excel users will get the feature for now, with the new addition available to users across the world.

The update is the latest from Microsoft Excel as it looks to help encourage greater online collaboration across teams in the age of hybrid working.

The company also recently included the ability to add hyperlinks into comments added to spreadsheets, rather than having to copy and paste from plaintext as had previously been the case.

Microsoft Teams users will also soon be able to launch into Excel documents from their meeting screen courtesy of a new feature called Excel Live. Instead of tabbing out to work on a shared spreadsheet, collaborators will be able to make edits in real-time without ever leaving the Microsoft Teams client.

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