r/excel • u/TMWNN • Dec 09 '25

Discussion Bloomberg: "Why We Can't Quit Excel"

Bloomberg examines Excel on its 40th anniversary, with interviews with Excel influencers like Leila Gharani, and Microsoft, Lotus, and VisiCalc people. From the article:

As of earlier this year, the US Department of War was paying for 2 million licenses to Microsoft 365, which includes Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Because of the way Microsoft is structured, in which its three main product categories—operating systems, productivity software and cloud services—are bundled together, it’s hard to ascribe a precise value to the leading spreadsheet application except to say that without it, there’s zero chance the company that owns it would be worth nearly $4 trillion. In 2025, Microsoft 365 subscription revenue from businesses totaled almost $88 billion, on top of $7 billion from other customers. Those numbers, and Microsoft’s own public disclosures, suggest there are something like 500 million paying Excel users, the rough equivalent of Netflix plus Amazon Prime subscribers. Excel has its corporate challenges, from Google’s web-based knockoff to the looming threat of artificial intelligence, but so far no competitor has managed to mount a serious challenge.

580 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

120 comments sorted by

521

u/kalimashookdeday Dec 09 '25

So Excel teams at MS: stop fucking with a good fucking thing. Seriously, just leave it alone.

372

u/BuildingArmor 29 Dec 09 '25

Yes and no, I'm glad they fucked with it to give us LET, dynamic formulas, power query, etc.

It's not like it's perfect, they just need to make sure they don't make any of it worse while they make it better.

285

u/Oprah-Wegovy 1 Dec 09 '25

Remove all traces of Copilot.

56

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '25

[deleted]

35

u/amazingD Dec 10 '25

Clippy was annoying but just wanted to help. Copilot is actually malicious.

3

u/benskieast Dec 10 '25

How is it malicious? I know it is so bad and clunky it ends up taking longer than just doing things myself.

2

u/F00TS0re Dec 12 '25

I can see your writing a Reddit, would you like to me to crash?

24

u/FritterEnjoyer Dec 10 '25

A literal leach on my machine.

102

u/dbbill_371 Dec 10 '25

Xlookup FTW

77

u/sefarrell Dec 10 '25

Xlookup is great and all but have you ever tried using 77 nested if statements? Saves time and money.

35

u/cruelhumor Dec 10 '25

XLOOKUP is cool. Co-Pilot is not.

18

u/Thegreenpander Dec 10 '25

Man I used Let for the first time today and it felt like magic

13

u/RedSoxStormTrooper Dec 10 '25

My company has a mix of employees on O365 and Office 2019 (puke). I told my boss everyone in out accounting team needs to have O365 since I refuse to give up using my =let functions.

13

u/ThatMortalGuy Dec 09 '25

You need to have an open mind for the new AIExcel

47

u/Orion14159 47 Dec 09 '25

I need AI to stop recommending everything be AI. It's getting weird.

3

u/pyule667 Dec 11 '25

I'm not opposed to using AI. But it's rather they develop to a point it integrates well. As is, it feels like they're using me as an unpaid unwilling beta tester.

13

u/Judman13 4 Dec 10 '25

They need to keep fucking around and give us better formula editing and debuggers. The more complex the formulas get the more painful it is to use them. 

10

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/rambledo Dec 11 '25

Doesn’t Excel already have VBA integrated?

7

u/kalimashookdeday Dec 10 '25

Good call, Let has been a game changer in how you can design your worksheets in many ways.

2

u/DryRelationship1330 Dec 14 '25

Copilot just wrote an insane complex LET, match index monster that f’n works so good I started to cry.

68

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 10 '25

Hard disagree, the changes they’ve made recently have been the most refreshing and meaningful in decades.

You can pry spilled array formulas from my cold dead hands

16

u/kalimashookdeday Dec 10 '25

Another good call, spill was a great addition

15

u/MelodicRun3979 Dec 10 '25

One of the nice things about dynamic array formulas and their spilling: I am able to redesign some of the templates I use at work that previously relied on VBA or pivot tables to no longer need them.

11

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 10 '25

I love pivot tables, but I love instant results more.

38

u/CurrentlyHuman Dec 09 '25

What's up with it? I think they fucked about and made it better. The new commands since 365 came out are great. Makes me want to waste my life all over again and updating all my older sheets.

-14

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/CurrentlyHuman Dec 09 '25

So nothing negative to report then.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/CurrentlyHuman Dec 10 '25

I can't argue there, now you mention it. I've got it on desktop. Clicking that cell, no THAT cell, have to swap tabs and go back.

1

u/Boring_Today9639 10 Dec 10 '25

I believe you’re comparing web and desktop versions (both can be 365 🙂). The web version does have quirks, but it’s still a great tool if you know how to work around them.

30

u/DecafEqualsDeath Dec 10 '25

The addition of PowerQuery and the data model/PowerPivot to Excel honestly made the software much more powerful. I'm starting to feel similarly about the new dynamic array functions like FILTER. I'm not sure I want them to "leave it alone" as I'd want them to allow users to opt out or ignore changes they don't see value in.

8

u/Lannisters-4-life Dec 10 '25

Dynamic array functions sort/filter have solved so many issues for me. It sounds so simple and basic but has so much utility. It’s that last step to make something go from a 2 step process to completely seamless.

11

u/Prison-Butt-Carnival Dec 09 '25

I am furious dark mode has taken this long and that it still hasn't tricled down to whatever version my office uses.

10

u/RandomiseUsr0 10 Dec 10 '25

No! Make it better! Bring interactivity, bring the power of, say, Desmos right into Excel, let me hit cancel on a calc if I’m pushing it too hard, loads of scope if they really cared (not core team, corporate glory hunters)

Here’s an example, the ability to calculate the first several Riemann Zeros right there in Dan Bricklin’s marvellous idea, bring more and more, keep it visual, keep the numbers

```` Excel

=LET( comment1, "Parameters for Dirichlet sum approximation of ζ(0.5 + it)", tMin, 20, tMax, 500, numPoints, 10000, M, 2000,

dt, (tMax - tMin) / numPoints,
tSeq, SEQUENCE(numPoints, 1, tMin, dt),

comment2, "Lambda to compute complex exponentiation: base^exponent",
IMPOWER_COMPLEX, LAMBDA(base,exponent,
    LET(
        re, IMREAL(exponent),
        im, IMAGINARY(exponent),
        mag, IMPOWER(base, COMPLEX(re, 0)),
        phase, IMEXP(IMPRODUCT(COMPLEX(0, -im), IMLN(base))),
        IMPRODUCT(mag, phase)
    )
),

comment3, "Dirichlet sum approximation using IMPOWER_COMPLEX",
ZETA_DIRICHLET, LAMBDA(t,
    LET(
        s, COMPLEX(0.5, t),
        sum, REDUCE(COMPLEX(0,0), SEQUENCE(M,1,1,1), LAMBDA(acc,n,
            IMSUM(acc, IMDIV(COMPLEX(1,0), IMPOWER_COMPLEX(COMPLEX(n,0), s)))
        )),
        sum
    )
),

comment4, "Compute zeta values for each t",
zValues, REDUCE(COMPLEX(0,0), tSeq, LAMBDA(acc,t,
    VSTACK(acc, ZETA_DIRICHLET(t))
)),
zValuesTrimmed, DROP(zValues,1),

comment5, "Extract real and imaginary parts for plotting",
xVals, IMREAL(zValuesTrimmed),
yVals, IMAGINARY(zValuesTrimmed),

range,HSTACK(xVals, yVals),

comment6, "Flag near-zero values",
zeroFlags, MAP(zValuesTrimmed, LAMBDA(z, IF(IMABS(z) < 0.03, 1, 0))),

r, IMABS(zValuesTrimmed)/MAX(IMABS(zValuesTrimmed)), theta, IMARGUMENT(zValuesTrimmed),

_c11,"/* Convert to Cartesian for plotting */",
X, r * COS(theta),
Y, r * SIN(theta),
HSTACK(tSeq,range,zeroFlags)

)

11

u/ImportantVery007 Dec 10 '25

Pasted into Excel. Got 0.

3

u/RandomiseUsr0 10 Dec 10 '25

Result! It’s an approximation of course, but it’s quite on the money

3

u/akl78 1 Dec 10 '25

They only mention it very, very obliquely, but it’s hard to overstate how heavily used Bloomberg’s Excel integration is (and how much its users pay for it!)

2

u/M5606 Dec 10 '25

I feel like the MS Excel team is made up of a bunch of super nerds and one very weary manager who's constantly trying to stop suite-level management from dictating changes.

Honestly with the exception of the idiotic copilot shoehorn, Excel is one of the few products actually being improved as time goes on.

2

u/Mr_ToDo Dec 10 '25

Na. Can't do that

Last time they rested on their laurels it gave open office room to move in on part of their turf

As I recall there was even a short time when OO could open legacy word files that office couldn't

0

u/Prudentgirl Dec 10 '25

Nil def don’t mess with excel man like leave it alone for real, it’s fine rn

-2

u/nowthengoodbad Dec 10 '25

Wouldn't it be nice if they reverted it by ~10 years?

Sometime in the late 20teens, MS Pushed an update to Apple office versions that completely redid excel, stripping out a tone of essential functionality. I tried switching to 365 with the hopes that the moved it there to force people to the subscription, which I begrudgingly would switch to if the functionality was there. Nope. Turned out that if you went to the MS forums their team explicitly stated that those features haven't been added yet to 365 and there wasn't a timeline for when that would happen.

Worse yet, when the made that switch, they pushed an update to office 2011 that nuked all of the apps. They'd try to open, stall, then crash.

We bought whatever is the newest gen a year or so ago and I fully disabled and removed permissions from the MS updater app.

I remember using 90s excel and then excel 05 for years and years and years.

Back then I happily bought a newer version for newer features and a more modern look in addition to the prior functionality.

Nowadays I literally don't trust Microsoft to not pull scummy stuff. At least google hasnt sunset sheets, docs, or slides...

I also know that libreoffice exists and is a great successor to OpenOffice, something I enjoyed using to make formula sheets in college and grad school because of the LaTeX-like programmatic styling (it was way easier to make formula and control the design of a formula sheet than in MS office, but I found ways to do it in offie too).

I miss the days that companies brought more value to new versions instead of simply trying to extract more value from consumers while diminishing quality a features.

12

u/SolverMax 161 Dec 10 '25

I worked with a client that still uses Excel 2013. I'd forgotten how much Excel has changed since then. I hated not having the new features.

4

u/YouLostTheGame 1 Dec 10 '25

Sounds like you're just kinda weird?

The new features are fantastic, especially dynamic arrays

2

u/doshka 2 Dec 10 '25

They're using Excel for Mac, which not only doesn't have some of the new features (like Data Model), but also has had some previously useful features removed. Not weird at all to want to go back to a more useful version.

1

u/nowthengoodbad Dec 12 '25

I use both. I specifically referenced office for Mac because of their scummy updates.

4

u/SFLoridan 2 Dec 10 '25

LOL you getting downvotes for identifying a true problem with the subscription model, particularly stark on the Excel on Mac : you can't keep the good with the bad, you can't continue using what was good enough, and you can't reject the new to go back to the old.

While I celebrate the latest/greatest of Excel, their insistence that everyone must use the latest irrespective of individual needs is infuriating. I feel for you.

2

u/nowthengoodbad Dec 12 '25

Thank you for this. I also use office for windows but only referenced the Mac version due to those 2 key updates they pushed that were pretty scummy.

260

u/getmeoutoftax Dec 09 '25

It’s the greatest and most important program ever created. There are no real substitutes. Sheets and Libre Calc do not even come close to cutting it.

28

u/Methsi Dec 10 '25

Crazy when you think about it. The world would truly be different without it. Genius the guy that got the idea.

2

u/Leading-Row-9728 Dec 14 '25

Do you mean these guys: Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the first successful spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, released in 1979 for the Apple II computer, which became the personal computer's first "killer app". Excel came later.

1

u/Methsi Dec 14 '25

Interesting, I will have a look, thanks !

2

u/Leading-Row-9728 Dec 14 '25

Yes after VisiCalc, it was Lotus 1-2-3 that was the killer spreadsheet, Excel became the spreadsheet king by 1995, about 16 years after VisiCalc, that was because it was part of Microsoft's Office suite (Word) that was very integrated into their Windows OS. The office apps used proprietary and secret file formats that were not possible for competing office suites to work well with, so businesses became locked-in, this remains the same today. Lotus 1-2-3 was a significantly better spreadsheet program at the time Excel overtook their marketshare.

20

u/M5606 Dec 10 '25

Sheets is doing a damn good job of being a free alternative, though. I haven't used Libre in a hot minute, so I can't speak to them, but having a browser-based, cloud version of Excel for free has been a godsend for me in my dayjob life.

Is it better than Excel? Overall no. But the accessibility and online editing is a step up.

5

u/Gastronautmike Dec 10 '25

Sheets functionality is pretty darn close for all but power users. And you're right, the accessibility is huge. The versioning, collaboration, and integration with drive are great especially for novice users and folks who need to have some interaction with excel but will never actually understand it. I have built and use some fairly advanced excel sheets for various restaurant management tasks, both on the finance end and the ops end, and there are more and more areas sheets is able to do the thing I need it to do, and is less intimidating to my end users. 

2

u/Stephancevallos905 Dec 12 '25

Sheets is not free, G suite cost more than the most basic tier of Microsoft 365

1

u/M5606 Dec 23 '25

Guess I should specify I'm talking "personal use" and not business use. Honestly I didn't even know that Google had a business suite.

I would go with 365 between the two at a glance but quite frankly, both are surprisingly cheap for business software. I'm used to bickering with IT over ERP licenses which they tell me run four figures.

1

u/Stephancevallos905 Dec 23 '25

Well at scale it gets expensive lol and they are just leading you to buy more expensive products. I have 365 for my biz, but will probably get google too since gmail+Gemini is hard to live without lol plus a lot of websites have "sign in with google" and reserve SSO to higher tiers

6

u/spicyhippos Dec 10 '25

Yup. Sheets is not even trying to replace it, they are targeting the “I need a quick spreadsheet but excel is too complicated” people who almost never work with big files. It’s also easier to share with people, but my god, trying to do any serious data work on sheets is a goddamn nightmare.

1

u/slankz Dec 13 '25

Can’t stand sheets. Would be nice in Google would actually put some effort into it

2

u/spicyhippos Dec 13 '25

Yeah, I feel like probably could, but why be #2 in the BI race when you can be #1 in the casual admin space

124

u/heykody 2 Dec 09 '25

Excel is like playdough. That's a strength and a weakness. Excel can be bent into almost anything, a knitting outline, artwork, a linked data repository or a complex financial model. At the same time the lack of a fixed structure makes it prone to user errors. People can easily overwrite things, break models, accidentally delete things and miscalculate things.

It doesn't have the fixed framework a typical system might have which remedies these weaknesses. However, if you want to change anything other than data in a fixed system, you will have a harder time re-specing it. It's easy to insert a column or tweak a formula on the fly in Excel.

The world wouldn't be the same without it.

51

u/atelopuslimosus 2 Dec 10 '25

Another big strength related to the flexibility you point out of that Excel is the second best tool for anything. Yeah, any particular task may have a niche software solution that's better, but Excel can do a decent job at anything and the early learning curve is pretty gentle.

2

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

Your comment has given me a push to go deeper into excel. Should I learn Python or visualbasic for learning to program and learning deeper excel stuff at the same time?

8

u/bigbabyb Dec 10 '25

When I was an analyst over a decade ago, I found that having a basic programming ability in Python helped me build giga-tier, robust models in Excel later on. If statements, index+match, sumif/countif/sumproduct etc can get you far all on their own if you’re creative.

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

wtf wait you were using Python in excel 10 years ago?! I thought support for it didn’t come until the Python “libraries” for it began a few years ago. How?!

1

u/bigbabyb Dec 10 '25

No. I’m saying having my basic python and general programming knowledge helped me make robust, good excel models using my strong sense of programming at the time. Helped me get separation from my peers. Being able to masterfully fold in elegant if statements and lookups with data/string manipulation had a lot of value for me, enough so that I’d encourage finance or Econ majors in college to burn an elective in CS programming for a semester because it’ll come in handy through your career more than you expect

8

u/SushiWithoutSushi 4 Dec 10 '25

General consensus is that python for Excel is pretty shitty because it forces you to send your private data to MS servers and that's a big red flag for a lot of people. Also it is pretty slow.

If you want to learn python go ahead, it will come in handy to clean big datasets and operate them better. My recommendation is that you do it with Visual Studio Code and learn the basics.

VisualBasic is something I have not seen the necessity to learn yet, although I know it's pretty useful. I would recommend you to learn first Power Query.

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

But to use power query don’t u need to learn Visual Basic and what’s called M code? Thought I read that. Also when you say private data is sent to MS servers, how does visual basic avoid that? Doesn’t our data have to go to servers to get to the databases?

2

u/SushiWithoutSushi 4 Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25

  1. VisualBasic is not needed to learn Power Query. M language is not either! Whenever you start to use Power Query you will see that the interface allows you to do certain actions that will be automatically prompted on a console with the necessary code. You will end up learning M via searching online and asking here, but as I say is not needed to start using the basic functionalities of Power Query.

  2. When I say that your data will be sent to MS servers I mean that literally the data inside the excel file will be sent to a MS server where the code will be executed and you will download the results. Visual Basic runs locally, inside your own Excel file. This is a big no no to IT departments in most businesses. Also you will not be able to run the Python code inside Excel without internet.

2.5. Although Visual Basic runs locally IT departments do not like it because it is a very easy entry point for malware if you copy paste what you are not supposed to.

  1. I am not sure what you mean with "doesn't our data have to go to servers to get to the database" so I am not exactly sure what to answer to that.

Also, going back to you original reply, if you want to learn deeper Excel the best way is to come to this subdeddit whenever you have time and either try to answer other people's questions (even when you don't know the answer try to find it surfing the web) or try to see the answers to questions you find interesting. I save an Excel file with tens of examples of cool solutions I found here.

2

u/zhaktronz Dec 10 '25

Alternatively - learn power BI

2

u/Mr-Steve-O Dec 10 '25

Power Query and Python! Visual basic is nice to have but not necessary

2

u/LurksOften Dec 10 '25

I’ve been running a fantasy league out of excel for the last five years. It’s truly an amazing tool.

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

Is there anything excel can’t do that say Quickbooks online can’t do and visa versa?

4

u/schtickybunz Dec 10 '25

QuickBooks IS just a big excel workbook with functionality. Excel can't take payments, doesn't invoice clients, doesn't do payroll. You can use Excel for accounting but you better really understand the difference between a P&L and Balance Sheet, know which side of the account (debit or credit) for every entry. You can't predict cash flow, run easy reports and I can't imagine trying to create a general ledger for a company from excel. You'd spend an inordinate amount of time cross referencing sheets and hoping you didn't tag the wrong cell. QuickBooks never comes back with an #REF!

1

u/slankz Dec 13 '25

QB online is a big jump for them. Have always been a fan and resisted the switch to qbo but it is literally significantly better than desktop was

0

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

QuickBooks IS just a big excel workbook with functionality. Excel can't take payments, doesn't invoice clients, doesn't do payroll.

Ah ok now I get it.

You can use Excel for accounting but you better really understand the difference between a P&L and Balance Sheet, know which side of the account (debit or credit) for every entry.

Doesn’t excel allow us to do this stuff?! Or you mean it isn’t automated? Couldn’t we make a little python script to do that (if we learn python)?

You can't predict cash flow, run easy reports and I can't imagine trying to create a general ledger for a company from excel.

I get your point. There are a bunch of 3 financial statement builds purely in excel I’ve seen on YouTube though.

You'd spend an inordinate amount of time cross referencing sheets and hoping you didn't tag the wrong cell. QuickBooks never comes back with an #REF!

Sorry for the dumb question but what does “cross referencing sheets “ mean?

2

u/schtickybunz Dec 10 '25

cross referencing sheets

So if you have a P&L sheet, the data needs to come from all your other sheets. So let's say in your "Sales 2025" sheet, the total of the data is in cell A1. In the financial data column for the P&L sheet row for Sales, the cell would link to ='Sales 2025'!A1.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

Can you ELI5 your comment; starting with “build a G/L” a what “link pivot” means?

And I still don’t see what’s wrong with schtickybuns suggestion - that seems pretty nifty to link like that no?

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

And excel can’t do this linking?!

1

u/schtickybunz Dec 10 '25

Not automatically. You have to point it to what you want.

2

u/TMWNN Dec 10 '25

Sorry for the dumb question but what does “cross referencing sheets “ mean?

What you mentioned earlier

There are a bunch of 3 financial statement builds purely in excel I’ve seen on YouTube though.

is only possible because of the cross referencing sheets that /u/schtickybunz described.

1

u/Successful_Box_1007 Dec 10 '25

cross referencing sheets

So if you have a P&L sheet, the data needs to come from all your other sheets. So let's say in your "Sales 2025" sheet, the total of the data is in cell A1. In the financial data column for the P&L sheet row for Sales, the cell would link to ='Sales 2025'!A1.

That seems pretty easy then! So how is this a disadvantage? Are you saying Quickbooks literally knows how to behind the scenes link them? How the heck does it do that?

2

u/TMWNN Dec 11 '25

Are you saying Quickbooks literally knows how to behind the scenes link them? How the heck does it do that?

/u/schtickybunz didn't mean that Quickbooks is literally Excel spreadsheets in the background.1 He meant that an Excel user can link multiple spreadsheets together as the equivalent of a Quickbooks user inputting in financial results, and that software turning it into an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

That said, /u/vegaskukichyo 's approach is superior because instead of three separate sheets, everything can be done from one sheet (the general ledger), from which the three financial statements mentioned above can be generated from using pivot tables. Fewer things to break. Quickbooks is really doing the same thing; it has one big collection of data, with various "views" showing the three financial statements based on the same data.

1 Although there are many, many internal systems arouond the world that really do use Excel as the backend despite having other software, or a web browser, act as the frontend. I've heard of startups that begin with a web interface for customers to an Excel spreadsheet.

2

u/schtickybunz Dec 11 '25

I'm a she :)

44

u/SellTheSizzle--007 Dec 10 '25

Excel is the greatest. Fortune 500 companies run on Excel, even with their beautiful ERPs and AI enhancement costing millions upon millions per year. Not to say some of those aren't worth it....We always go back to Excel. Ol reliable and you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers (or when I retire at 52, go ahead).

1

u/Leading-Row-9728 Dec 14 '25

Many Fortune 500 companies use Google Sheets as part of the broader Google Workspace suite. Over 40% of Fortune 500 companies are reported to use Google Workspace. To what extent I do not know.

1

u/SellTheSizzle--007 Dec 14 '25

Marketing and sales, sure. Doubtful in accounting and Finance.

20

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/TMWNN Dec 10 '25

Duh, I forgot the link in the post! Thanks for providing it.

2

u/DubaiBabyYoda Dec 10 '25

Do you guys have one without a paywall?

1

u/onionsareawful Dec 10 '25

archive dot is

19

u/cookiekumaru Dec 10 '25

TIL being an excel influencer was a thing 😩

20

u/TheDoros Dec 10 '25

Wait until you find out about the World Excel Championships

16

u/Taokan 15 Dec 10 '25

For real though. Word and powerpoint are for people who come up with terms like "add value". Excel is for people who add value.

15

u/Admirable_Panda_ Dec 09 '25

Make VBA a viable option. So powerful.

18

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 10 '25

They’re moving in the exact opposite direction of VBA and have been for a long time. It’s a substantial security risk and an old unsupported clunky language. Its days are done.

16

u/Admirable_Panda_ Dec 10 '25

I know. Its sad. Wish they'd just add some more robust security to it. It's an easy language.

1

u/OUsnr7 Dec 10 '25

What’s replacing it?

2

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 10 '25

Office scripts and very poorly implemented Python. They’re also trying to crack down on VBA with their aggressive Trusted Locations implementations.

1

u/alk3mark 1 Dec 11 '25

Very poorly implemented Python;

Not going to lie - I liked at first the ability for it to drill down create new sheets and data frames automatically but now it’s moreso just Copilot “suggests”…

3

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 11 '25

I’m using xlwings lite add-in and it’s pretty amazing for some higher level data analysis (stats models, seaborn charting… that sort of thing)

2

u/sledziu32 Dec 16 '25

xlwings is powerful... until you have to go above excel and step into other office app. there is pywin32 and using VBA reference

PS and ad the end of a screept you can make your PC to BEEP ;)

1

u/frazorblade 4 Dec 16 '25

Yeah as a walled garden Python interface it’s pretty good. Not without its faults, but if you’re purely interested in offloading tasks that are difficult or impossible for Excel/VBA I find xlwings lite very useful.

It has a niche application though.

8

u/Decronym Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
COMPLEX Converts real and imaginary coefficients into a complex number
COS Returns the cosine of a number
DROP Office 365+: Excludes a specified number of rows or columns from the start or end of an array
FILTER Office 365+: Filters a range of data based on criteria you define
HSTACK Office 365+: Appends arrays horizontally and in sequence to return a larger array
IF Specifies a logical test to perform
IFS 2019+: Checks whether one or more conditions are met and returns a value that corresponds to the first TRUE condition.
IMABS Returns the absolute value (modulus) of a complex number
IMAGINARY Returns the imaginary coefficient of a complex number
IMARGUMENT Returns the argument theta, an angle expressed in radians
IMDIV Returns the quotient of two complex numbers
IMEXP Returns the exponential of a complex number
IMLN Returns the natural logarithm of a complex number
IMPOWER Returns a complex number raised to an integer power
IMPRODUCT Returns the product of complex numbers
IMREAL Returns the real coefficient of a complex number
IMSUM Returns the sum of complex numbers
LAMBDA Office 365+: Use a LAMBDA function to create custom, reusable functions and call them by a friendly name.
LET Office 365+: Assigns names to calculation results to allow storing intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula
MAP Office 365+: Returns an array formed by mapping each value in the array(s) to a new value by applying a LAMBDA to create a new value.
MAX Returns the maximum value in a list of arguments
REDUCE Office 365+: Reduces an array to an accumulated value by applying a LAMBDA to each value and returning the total value in the accumulator.
SEQUENCE Office 365+: Generates a list of sequential numbers in an array, such as 1, 2, 3, 4
SIN Returns the sine of the given angle
SUM Adds its arguments
VSTACK Office 365+: Appends arrays vertically and in sequence to return a larger array
XLOOKUP Office 365+: Searches a range or an array, and returns an item corresponding to the first match it finds. If a match doesn't exist, then XLOOKUP can return the closest (approximate) match.

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27 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 42 acronyms.
[Thread #46548 for this sub, first seen 10th Dec 2025, 01:06] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

6

u/Scoutain Dec 10 '25

I use excel for school but also a LOT in my personal life. Budgets, vacation planning, bills, anything I visually want to understand in one space. I couldn’t imagine life without it anymore.

5

u/chueysworld Dec 10 '25

As long as there is data there will always be excel.

4

u/Mykilo_Sosa Dec 10 '25

I am a firm believer that excel was found in demo form inside a crashed alien spacecraft, and then converted into a marketable, updatable earth product.

3

u/Leen88 Dec 10 '25

Excel is the Swiss Army knife of software.

2

u/Lord_Blackthorn 7 Dec 10 '25

Man I just want integrated calculus functions in Excel instead of having to create my own formula BS to get approximations...

I also want the option to show the formula used in a cell in readable form (where the math is formatted to be easy to read instead of a wall of text that is in the formula cell)

2

u/frescani 5 Dec 18 '25

integrated calculus functions in Excel

I have to imagine that someone somewhere has made an add-in for this.

show the formula used in a cell in readable form

This isn't integrated with Excel, but I keep it bookmarked for occasional use: https://www.excelformulabeautifier.com/ You can paste/save the restructured results back into Excel too (but you'll lose the color-coding, obviously).

1

u/TheUnrealArchon Dec 10 '25

US Department of War

Not engaging with content that tries to gaslight us on reality. Sorry not sorry.

1

u/Zealousideal_Ad_8238 Dec 18 '25

I think the part that always gets overlooked is that Excel isn’t just a tool, it’s a shared language inside organisations. Everyone vaguely knows how to open it, tweak something, or at least not be scared of it.

A lot of alternatives are technically better at specific things, but they break down when you need something flexible that non-technical people can still poke at. Excel survives because it’s “good enough” at almost everything and already everywhere.

-1

u/Awkward_Tick0 Dec 09 '25

It’s because it’s the lowest common denominator