Sharing out the work in a Microsoft Excel project across your team should soon be getting a lot easier due to a new update.
The spreadsheet software is rolling out a new feature to all users that it says will make collaborating smoother than ever through the use of “@mentions”.
In the entry on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the company notes that @mentions can also be used to “create, assign and track tasks within your workbook.”
Microsoft Excel @mentions
Collaborating on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can often be awkward, especially when teams across different time zones or locations all feed into a central or main file that changes often and requires constant attention.
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.
The entry says that although the feature had a general availability date of October 2022, it is only “rolling out” now, meaning all users should finally be able to access it – although only desktop Excel users will get the feature for now.
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.
Another recent update allows users 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.
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