We've had an eventful year - and an even busier week!

Four of us on the team got together in Vienna to help me record the hardest video I've ever done.

It's something I always wanted to be able to do (not just record the video but actually do the thing I show in it). I didn't expect it to be this difficult. But I'm excited to share it with you soon. Hopefully in the first half of the new year once it's edited.

As we wrap up 2024, I wanted to share some highlights - many of which came straight from your suggestions.

This year, we released 2 new courses:

• ​Business Charts in Excel​
• ​Excel Pivot Table Essentials - Basics to Mastery​

We also tried something new. We created 2 practice packs to let you flex your Excel muscles:

• ​Excel Practice Exercises​
• ​Dashboard Practice Pack​

In this time, we issued over 1,500 certificates and badges to students who completed our courses. We're super proud of your commitment to continuous learning and development. 👏

This year I also had the privilege to:

• Share machine learning experiments in Python at the Global Excel Summit in London. I'm currently workshopping my topic for next year. (I'd love for you to come if you can.)
• Explore AI in Office at a controllers’ conference in Steyr.
• Host my very first live webinar. I’m so grateful to the 1,800 of you who joined!

For those who missed the webinar (and the replay), we’re planning another session soon - possibly next month. Stay tuned!

We're now deep into planning for next year. It will obviously depend on your input. So if you haven't taken last week's survey, please tell us your ideas for XelPlus for next year.

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🤓 Geeky News

An assortment of Excel gifts from Microsoft, with some Insiders features moving to general availability in December.

❇️ Focus Cells

First announced just in October, Focus Cells is now rolling out to the Current Channel.

This feature highlights the row and column of the active cell. This helps you find the exact cell address of your current position.

You can enable it from the View tab or use the shortcut: Alt, followed by W, E, and F pressed in sequence. (Here's hoping for an easier shortcut soon).

If you toggle on "Show Auto-Highlight", Focus Cell comes up automatically when you use the Find feature (Ctrl+F).

Currently, it doesn't work when Freeze Cells is on, but there's a fix coming early next year.

🔃 Stale Value Formatting

This feature was stuck in Insiders for longer but it's finally rolling out to more users.

What it does? By default, Excel recalculates all formulas automatically. But if you find your file slowing down, you may switch to manual (Formulas > Calculation Options).

That’s exactly what I used to do with the big finance files I worked on in the past. The problem was that I sometimes forgot to press the recalculate button - and that got me in trouble.

The point of Stale Value Formatting is to avoid that. If you change a value, but don't recalculate, Excel gives you a visual cue - like this:

This crossed-out formatting highlights the stale - or incorrect - values.

Press F9 (or Formulas > Calculate Now) to recalculate. The formatting disappears as the formulas update to show the new values.

📝 Create Forms directly from Excel Desktop

If you have Excel for Microsoft 365, you might have noticed a new feature on the Insert tab: Forms.

​Excel for the web has had it for a while but after the improvements to Forms data sync introduced this year, we now get it in Excel Desktop.

When you select "New Form", the Forms opens in a new window with a blank form.

You can draft with Copilot (if your organization has the Copilot license) or choose from the available templates.

Meanwhile, a linked table appears in the workbook. It will automatically update as you edit the form or receive responses.

You can also create a new form from OneDrive, SharePoint, or a Teams channel.

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🎁 Gift a Course

Looking for a gift that needs no batteries, won’t get stuck in shipping, and says, "I care about your future"?

A course is perfect for anyone who wants to level up their data skills and impress their boss (or themselves).

Here's how it works:

1. Pick a course from our selection.
2. At checkout, select "Send as a gift".
3. Add the recipient's name and email.

Boom! You’ve just given them the gift of growth - and maybe even a future promotion. 🎉

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👏 Power Stories

Congrats to Yakubu! I'm sure confidence in Excel will go hand in hand with your professional development. Wishing you breakthroughs and career milestones ahead.

All the best to the entire XelPlus community! To your continued success in 2025!

See you in the New Year,

Leila

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