Your Microsoft Excel spreadsheets could soon be more dynamic than ever due to a potentially huge breakthrough by the company.
A new Excel update will allow the spreadsheet software to insert images directly into a cell, making them part of a worksheet for the first time, as opposed to just floating on top of the sheet.
Microsoft says this new function should make your Excel sheets more personalized and customizable, giving your work a whole new dimension.
Microsoft Excel images
In its entry on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the company notes that as well as inserting images into cells directly, the new “IMAGE” function will also give users a range of extra customization options.
Users will be able to move and resize cells, sort and filter, and even work with images within an Excel table.
Exactly how this will all work in practice is unclear, as the feature is still listed as being “in development” for now. However, it does have an expected general availability date of December 2022, meaning we should hear more about how it operates soon.
When launched, Microsoft says the feature will be available for all users across desktop, web, Mac and Android.
The news is the latest update to Microsoft Excel aimed at making the software more appealing and user-friendly as it looks to help encourage greater online collaboration across teams in the age of hybrid working.
Recently, the company has said it will be rolling out “@mentions” in Excel to make collaborating on your spreadsheets smoother than ever.
@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, but can also be used to create, assign and track tasks within your workbook.
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.
