Also included are a number of formulas that were previously found only in Excel 2013 for Windows, improving cross-platform compatibility.

So if you havent yet, check out the reviews of Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.

You can read more about these features in the above-mentioned reviews; they work just the same way in the new Excel.

As with the other apps, you can only presently get Excel 2016 if youre an Office 365 subscriber.).

When you launch Excel 2016, youll be greeted by Excels clean new appearance.

You can choose from a colored header (new in 2016) or the usual gray header from previous releases.

Workbooks with multiple tabs get a much cleaner tab bar, losing the fake 3D appearance.

Colored tabs are now colored with a thin bar, instead of a gradated fill on the entire tab, making it easier to read tab names.

Overall, I found the new interface pleasant and easier to use than in older versions of Excel.

Excel includes the Smart Lookup feature found in other Office apps.

Smart Lookup uses Bing to show contextual information for a highlighted wordwhile this is undoubtedly useful in Word, I didnt really find myself using it much while working on spreadsheets.

But if you suddenly need to look up everything there is to know about the word amortization, Smart Lookup is ready for you.

So whats new and unique to Excel 2016 Quite a few things, starting with the removal of the Standard and Formatting toolbars.

While you could hide these in Excel 2011, theyre completely gonereplaced by the task panein Excel 2016.

I dont miss them at all, as they were redundant and took up screen space.

Save your file to OneDrive, and you can then use a sharing button to invite people via their email address, copy a link you can then email to others, or send the workbook as either a PDF or native workbook attachment.

Recipients can (assuming you grant permission) edit your file, even if they dont own Excel, through Microsofts web-hosted Excel app.

Fans of pivot tables will find a new slicer tool that greatly increases the usability of pivot tables.

A slicer is a way to limit the data you see in a pivot table.

In a pivot table showing years of sales by salesperson, for example, you can use slicers to restrict the table to one or more years, or to one or more salespeople.

Slicers let you limit what you see in a pivot table; you can add one or more to really refine what you see.

Another new feature is the inclusion of the Analysis Toolpak add-on.

I say new in quotes because while new to Excel 2016, long-time Excel vets will remember the Analysis Toolpak from the pre-OS X days.

If you need to do complex statistical andor engineering analysisthink Anova, Fourier Analysis, Regression, etc.youll find the Analysis Toolpak invaluable.

Excel For Mac Is Awful