Microsoft Excel Reviews

Pros
I liked Excel for the longest time since there are a lot of useful tools available for use but I loved it better with the smooth transition after the updates. I'm using the 2019 version and the transitioning became smoother. Working online is also available and I am no longer afraid to lose any document I worked on. The ability to import the excel document to other formats especially PDF is a life-saver!

Cons
There's nothing much I hate about Excel since it helps me with all the reports I do. I'm just a little bothered with the CSV import after some updates were done. I noticed in the 2019 version, whenever you import a Data from text/CSV, it automatically goes to a new tab and the design has Header Rows, Banded Rows, and Filter Button. For me, it's more time consuming to remove those every time I import a CSV.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
This software is a company standard use for a lot of other programs. It can filter data, create .csv files for upload and download of data, and handles equations to help with data analytics. There are a lot of guides on this program online if you are struggling with a problem and there are plugins that you can use to help make your job faster. Many companies have this as a standard so sending files to others is usually not a problem.

Cons
It is not meant to be used as a database for large data. It can lag out after you get to 60K lines of data. The biggest issue I have with this program is that it likes to convert large number text to scientific notation and you have to constantly do workarounds to prevent it from happening. It has some minor glitches if you have too many different files open at the same time. It is not the greatest with group collaboration because the files are meant to be used as one user at a time. You have to also manually save your files from time to time as you are working. Although you can often times get your file back if it wasn't saved and the program shuts off, it still is a practice you have to get into a habit of doing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I love the versatility, look and ergonomics of Excel. The wide formulas and small assistance tools, which make it unnecessary to do certain things manually. Example, if you copy / paste / move formulas and references, it almost always manages to adjust and correct.

Cons
In years of excel the most terrible thing that ever and continues to have is poor support for CSV files. In LibreOffice, for example, when opening a CSV, it tries to detect the conventions and display for you to confirm. Excel has a persistent bug with this, and it almost never manages to open CSV correctly (regardless of whether you use a semicolon, comma or other), the best way to use this is to open CSV in LibreOffice, copy and paste in Excel , which is very annoying. At the office level, it is also bad to be forced to install all the applications in the package, even if you only want excel and a few others.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The pros are thin on this software. I'll list them by number. 1. The software is over 20 years old and has been refined and recreated numerous times over that period. 2. It makes creating lists very easy when copying and pasting information from tables on web forms. It intuitively pastes tables by column and row quite accurately 99% of the time and enables you to take one column as a list and paste it anywhere else. This utility reduces the tedium of quickly conveying information to co-workers considerably. 3. The ability to import data by comma or tab delimited text files is also exceedingly powerful in reducing time spent listing or reporting on specific items in a format that is not conducive to pasting into a table, or perhaps powershell script derived data outputted to a comma delimited text file. As a computer engineer, this takes hours and hours of time and compresses it into minutes. 4. The formulas, while available on Google or other spreadsheets, are also good pros and help with calculating anything you need to do in terms of math from other columns, in my case and in short, capacity and utilization percentages of storage devices on hand.

Cons
What I like least are the frustrating things, and while few, these really irk me and stand out as a problem, especially in creating reports for people using the formulas, math and functions that spreadsheets are best known for. Case in point: The ability to copy and paste just the function into another spreadsheet that is open. It simply does not work unless you tab out of the existing cell and this is because, annoyingly, separate files, completely separate Excel spreadsheets, all act as if they're part of the same file. If I have one spreadsheet xlsx file open and a separate one open where I'm copying and pasting pertinent data from one to the other, it acts as if I'm in the same spreadsheet and the behavior is inexplicably wonky and unusable. I just want to copy the formula plain text as is into the cell of another spreadsheet because I want to use that same math for data related to other irrelevant items. Google Sheets does not do this at all. Maybe this was something Accountants wanted for some crazy reason that I'll never encounter as an engineer. But this is obnoxious and makes me scream at the computer often. The other con is that I do not like the non-intuitive UI and clunky way to simply save files. It pushes One Drive, and pushes it hard like non stop telemarketing calls. Also, I just prefer the old way to save files. Call me old fashioned but it was simple. I don't need the whole screen to change when cling the file tab.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
There is nothing to dislike about Excel - it is the standard for data creation and manipulation. The best features are its easy functionalities via simply clicking on icons in the header (ribbon display) and efficiently creating equations in the cells/rows. Copy/paste, insert columns and automatic population of rows with either mathematical formulas or counts is so helpful and efficient.

Cons
Sometimes the Search function doesn't return the best results. I'd also like to see a function where right-clicking on the workbook name (located at the top of the display header while the workbook is open) enables copying the filename with its file path so as to send a link to someone wither in an email or other method.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I have been using the excel for the past 20 years and the most excel features i use on my daily routine are the pivot table, vlook functions, graphs, calculations and it keeps on going. all the monthly salary calculations, deductions, are all compiled into one sheet and its very easy to share the files with password protection facility. i have purchased both home office 365 and for business. very compatible with the microsoft teams. Another feature of excel is the low

Cons
everything in excel is very easy to learn, but only while using Macro and Micro features, i had found a little bit of difficulties. but using the help button itself, the same can be resolved within few minutes. the total features in excel in overwhelming and i feel like that i have been using only less than 20% of the total features of excel.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
This software has been able to handle most business solutions, it's been around for a very long time and provides enough help to answer the most difficult excel questions

Cons
formatting when copying and pasting to word, adobe or powerpoints can really look bad sometimes, you have to copy as an image, which i prefer not to

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Excel is such a powerhouse of functionality and there's such a wealth of how-to videos available on the internet that there's no excuse not to have a working knowledge of how to use this miracle software. I still prefer it over most fancy financial software because it allows me to do exactly what I want every time. If I can't do something in Excel, it's because I don't know how to, not because it can't be done. Excel is a miracle of software.

Cons
There isn't really anything that I don't like about Excel. The only gripe I can conceive is that there's so much functionality that it's hard for a beginner to learn how to use the software which turns off neophytes. But learning is good, so learn it; you'll be happy you did.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Excel is the industry standard for a reason. It's compatible with everything I own and use and that makes is well worth to me.

Cons
Some features are hard to get into, but I don't think I'll be switching form Excel to anything else in my lifetime. Given that, I think the time invested in learning it was well spent.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Excel is the tool that has given me the most help in solving simple and complex issues that require urgency. I love macros, data management and data presentations.

Cons
I do not recommend it for transactional or concurrent solutions.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Keeps all of your data neat and clearly in one place, easy to locate, easy to use, the spreadsheets are great for tracking everything - personnel, clients, daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly incomes, etc.; invoices, tracking venue of outstanding balances and denies with a place for explanations and follow up, clients information:name, email addresses, phone and cell #s, etc. for easy access, can store on laptop, flash drive or print out, use daily to add date with ease, customer service and data software personnel easy to reach and mange your issues within minutes, not much the program can't do. I also use it for person use to track Christmas, Birthday and other special Cards I send, I use it for church projects, and all home budgets including home projects. Been a user for over 18 years - love all the updates it has made with great improvements and it is the best software for spreadsheets money can buy. Would never change to another program. Loyal customer for life.

Cons
Wish the spreadsheet always fit on one page and at times I have difficulty using it with other apps Can't think of anything else.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Excel is full-featured. If you can think of a feature you would want, it probably has it. It may be buried somewhere, but it is there. It is like a powerful sports car in a station wagon body.

Cons
Excel has so many features, it can be difficult to use: All that depth and power leads to incredible complexity. Between the ribbons and the menus, and all of the other user interface "features," it can be like using two or three different programs at once. So many features have been crammed in over the years, it can be hard to figure out what's there and how to get to it. I've helped many beginners with learning Excel, and so much of what is obvious to me is completely opaque to them, and likewise, there are many advanced, number-crunching and heavy-lifting features that I just have no idea about. Most people I work with consider me a super-power-user, and I probably use less than 10% of what Excel can do!

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
When I first started using Microsoft Excel I instantly realized how efficient this program was because it eliminated the use of pen and paper for me. The installation of the program is quick and easy with just a few clicks of the mouse and the program is ready to use. MS Excel enables me to work with multiple worksheets simultaneously and linking these worksheets together to create a graphical and tabular summary. My favorite feature in excel is the availability of various graphs and pivot charts that allows me to display complex data in simple format, so that my audience is able to absorb information faster and easily. Furthermore, excel has other great features which really helps in my daily job as an administrator when I need to export high volumes of data from application software or active directory. These functions include data filtering and sorting, and data calculation with a simple drag and highlighting of cells. I also love how you can easily customize the interface of the program to your liking. For me this feature is very important because it makes the program more user friendly and dynamic. Overall, the program is just amazing to use because its packed with so many features, that even I am still learning as I go along.

Cons
Th least thing I like about Microsoft Excel is that it starts to hang in an idle state when the file size increases and I have noticed this problem when the file starts to reach 350MB in size and beyond. Excel also contains a great deal of formulas and I found this quiet confusing when I started using the program, which resulted in watching a few tutorials first and doing further research on how to use these functionalities. The program also cannot run directly on the Linux operating system, and as a frequent user of both excel and Linux I would have preferred if this was possible. However, there are a few alternatives out there you can use to make this work, but I would not recommend it for a novice user.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
What not to like about excel? I mean, I am a numbers person, very data driven, and I have used excel as a tool to manage and get information in so many different ways. I have to say that my favorite feaure is that it's higly customizable and it can be used for very basic calculations, but advanced features are also available to anyone willing to use them.

Cons
I am an advanced user of microsoft excel and I have learned on my own. I have not taken any course and maybe for that reason I have found some functions a little bit more complicated to learn. Fucntions like conditional "IF", for example, could be improved and be more obvious and simpler when using for columns or raws of data.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Easy to use. From basic to next level functions, you don't have to be a computer whiz to figure it out. If you ever have a question, search the help function. If you want to do something complex and don't want to read help article after help article, just google it. Everyone uses excel, or at least they should, and someone out there has done what you are trying to do. Simple design. I do not need fancy graphics and displays when I am trying to accomplish a task...I just want to get my job done. Excel is a hit for me. Straight and to the point. Capable of so much more than you could ever imagine.

Cons
If there is something missing from Excel, I haven't found it. In fact, I think you would have to be an engineer to find something that excel cannot do for you. It's not going to build you a website and it likely can't do your taxes for you (at least not out of the box); but if data is your world, if organization is your world, and excel can't help you accomplish the task, you probably shouldn't be using a computer at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It makes calculations easier and enables the user to carry out tasks efficiently and effectively. Microsoft excel masterminds information or data in an efficient and consistent way which makes simpler for investigation. Using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet it will be simpler for examiners to do broad examination the utilization of cutting edge microsoft excel capacities, for example, CHOOSE function (utilized in financial modelling for situation investigation and SUMIF and COUNTIF utilized when managing colossal measure of information. Microsoft excel is likewise used to construct decent diagrams and tables, for example, reference charts, pie graphs and turn tables. It is additionally used in pattern investigation and regression and correlation examination. The other general favorable position of Microsoft excel is that it enables users to utilize other programming, for example, SPSS and Eviews.

Cons
It requires training to be familiar with the formulas and it requires users to continuously improve skills in Excel. Another disadvantage in using excel is that it results in garbage in garbage out scenario ,that is, the input you put whether wrong or right results in the same outcome of whether wrong or right. Excel requires consistency in skill improvement

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
EVERYTHING is easy with Excel. You have the options to colour co-ordinate cells, selections, and entire spreadsheets. You can name each sheet for easier clarification. Calculations can be done automatic which is a huge time saver with very large amounts of data. Currency symbols can automatically be added to certain columns, rows, selections. You have the option to use number formatting (to include 1 or 2 numbers after a decimal point for example). You have full control over text formatting (Bold, Italic, colours, fonts, underlines, strike-through etc just like you would from any other Microsoft products such as 'Microsoft Word'. You can add fully custom conditions to cells, selections, rows columns, sheets (If 'X' > 0 then change the cells background colour to red - which highlights negative numbers). And to really put the cherry on the cake... you can go deeper using Visual Basic to create macros for automating many tasks. Seen as Visual Basic is a programming language, you could even stretch to create a login for your spreadsheet (if you know what you are doing). There really is 0 limitations to using Excel.

Cons
There is no options to have a cloud based Excel spreadsheet. If there were, I am pretty sure most businesses would ditch their current software and stick with Excel. Our business has multiple physical shops, so being able to share to document amongst all shops for them to collaborate would be ideal. But unfortunately Excel doesn't have this. Such a shame.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Microsoft excel arranges data or information in an orderly and logical manner which makes easier for analysis. Through the use of excel spreadsheet it will be easier for analysts to carry out extensive analysis the use of advanced excel functions such as CHOOSE function (used in financial modelling for scenario analysis and SUMIF and COUNTIF used when dealing with huge amount of data. Excel is also used to build nice charts and tables such as bar graphs, pie charts and pivot tables. It is also used in trend analysis and regression and correlation analysis. The other general advantage of Microsoft excel is that it helps analysts to make use of other software such as SPSS and Eviews.

Cons
The main disadvantage of excel is that it needs more time and attention for practice for the analyst to fully benefit from it. There is a problem of garbage in garbage out because of human error such as ommited negative signs and incorrect arrangement of rows may not be harmful but when they erode investor trust or cause a loss of investment opportunity. The other con of excel is that it contains several functions which needs time for an analyst to learn.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Microsoft Excel allows me to import thousands of rows of marketing data from web analytics software. I can then analyze it to see success metrics such as trend in year-over-year growth in new customers, cases sold, merchandising category such as grocery, etc. This analysis can be done by creating column or bar charts which show both a spike and lift in traffic or conversions during periods when the marketing campaigns ran. So, I can quickly correlate the lift or drop in performance to when the marketing campaigns started and when they ended. I can also use advanced analytics functions such as vLookup or pivot charts to associate email addresses to those customers who didn't purchase so my marketing team can run re-targeting campaigns against them. Or, deduplicate function to remove duplicates and extract a unique set of customer ids and names so I can run business intelligence reports against them.

Cons
Microsoft Excel uses significant ram of a computer when number of rows being analyzes is in thousands. Or, if multiple files of Excel are open simultaneously. In such scenarios, Excel crashes and all open files close. It has to be restarted and not all changes are saved in backup versions of the files. Unless Excel being used is part of the cloud version of Microsoft Office also called Office 360. Similar challenges are faced when using advanced analysis functions like vLookup. When using vLookup against thousands of rows and multiple columns, Excel hogs more ram and slows down cpu so whole system freezes.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is the most widely used tool across organizations to maintain a large data set in a tabular format, to perform calculations, for visualization and analysis. Excel supports basic mathematical functions including filter, sort, color code, add, subtract, multiply, divide to much-advanced formulas such as pivot table, if-else etc. for data manipulation. Excel has built-in support for macros which can automate your manual task and can save a lot of time. Even if you are naïve user of excel and want to apply some functions, user community support is quite extensive. All you have to do is just type ‘how to do XYZ in excel’ and you would get ready answers. Excel is also very useful tools for basic graphs and charting and if you want to take analytics to a pro-level then it supports integration with advanced analytics tools such as Power BI. Autosave feature and excel subscription as a part of Office 365 allow you to save your excel files on the cloud which can be accessed anywhere using internet connectivity.

Cons
Features on Excel mobile App are somewhat limited. Large size excel file makes your system slow, time-consuming and sometimes it even crashes. If you want pro-level expertise in Excel, you need to undergo training. The good part is that excel online tutorials are widely available across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Courseera, etc.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Microsoft Excel is the gold standard for most users. It's flexible enough for the type of usage that 99% of the world will need in terms of spreadsheet functionality. It has a myriad functions, many of which aren't even used by most users. We use a fraction of the functionality and it is more than powerful enough to get the job done. The support and knowledge base is improving but generally if users have issues, a simple Google search will yield tons of solutions to choose from. In addition to the standard rows, columns, graphs, tables, forumulas, etc, Excel features a programming langugae called Visual Basic or VBA. It allows users and programmers to write code using an editor. We use this heavily to automate repetitive tasks.

Cons
Excel is a very powerful tool but there are some small bugs that many users will never deal with. Things like converting text into dates has caused us issues. In reality, if there is anything Excel hasn't been able to do for us, it has been because we didn't know how to do it. We aren't trying to do advanced statistical analysis, coding, or importing of enormous data sets that bump up against the row/column limits. In that way, Excel really is a gold standard for spreadsheets.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The extensive capabilities of Excel are always unfolding themselves. It really should cease to surprise me that when we ask "Can Excel do that" there is a way to achieve it. When working with data, it can be customized and ordered to present information, organize information, as well as manipulate data. It has been great to see features that enable it to be a basic database from which other applications or sheets/workbooks can read increase since 2010.

Cons
The overwhelming amount of options and complexity to it. While there are so many features and capabilities, it seems as though it would take a lifetime to become proficient at all of them. I do appreciate how many different sources there are for information, but the built in explanations for how to achieve a function take for granted a lot of understanding of things. It is at this point taking for granted people have been using the same program for 20 years and not just learning.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Microsoft Excel is one of best software designed by Microsoft cooperation to organize and store our data in efficient way. Many advantages can be obtained when using Microsoft Excel for our data processing works. Best advantage is, it saves our time lot. As engineering students we have to do large amount of data analyzing works in our projects. That process can be easily done using Excel. Special characteristics in a set of data such as mean, median, average, quartiles, min, max etc. can be calculated easily using the built in formulas in Excel. Another great feature I saw is the fill handle that can be found in the right down corner of a selected cell. We can create any patterns of data using this fill handle tool. Therefore we do not need to type everything. Software automatically fills up cells according to the pattern. Cells can be customized in many ways using different background colors, fonts, cell sizes etc. Therefore people who look at the spreadsheet can get a clear idea about the data.

Cons
Though the software is very useful in our data processing works, we need good knowledge about the software to use it. We have to keep many formulas in our memory to do various works. Excel can be controlled with many keyboard shortcuts. It is very hard to use Excel only a using mouse. We have to go through long menus to do a simple task. But now this has been fixed through updates. Older versions of Excel do not have good user friendly graphical interface. So if you want to use Excel, first learn about the software with help of video tutorials that freely available in YouTube.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I use Excel almost every day, even when I am not at work. I find it easy to use and allows me to sort, filter, and color code anything I am working on. I do not just use Excel for accounting or data manipulation – I use Excel probably more than I use Word, if you can believe that. I love using it for lists and organizing information I want to keep track of. I even will email myself Excel files so I can access them on my smart phone when I am out shopping or whatever. I just finished making my Christmas card list and of course I used Excel. Now I can turn that sheet into my check off list so I can keep track of who I have or haven’t mailed a card to yet, and even add a column for the dates mailed and if I use more than one card I can keep track of which card I send to who. My kids recently got part time jobs, and trying to keep track of who is working when and who does or doesn’t need a ride is certainly more manageable with their work calendars that I created in Excel. I love it.

Cons
I’ve been using Excel for so many years and they have made some good changes over the years, and being able to add the Spelling checker icon to my Quick Access Toolbar is super helpful, but I do wish it would underline or highlight a misspelled word (like MS Word does) while I’m typing information into Excel before I click on the Spelling checker so I can see if I even need to use it or not. If I have a lot of data sometimes I’ll just copy it all and paste it into Word just so I can quickly see my spelling and/or grammar errors, then I’ll go back to Excel and make the corrects as needed.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I can’t recommend Excel highly enough. The biggest advantage is its complexity - it helps you from doing simple math operations to create complex graphs or write basic programming concepts (IF/THEN). It's probably the best spreadsheet software and as a result is an irreplaceable tool for many businesses. Paradoxically, even though it’s a complex tool, Excel is relatively simple to use. People who previously used Microsoft Word and PowerPoint won’t face big problems when using Excel. I like the most to create pie charts or any visual - these says more than a plethora of rows and columns. Excel is the best at this chapter.

Cons
Using the basic functions of Excel is simple. However, getting the most from this amazing tool is pretty challenging. Excel is jam-packed with useful features and some users might face troubles. There are tons of YouTube tutorials or Udemy courses teaching you how to use Excel like a pro. Check any of these courses if you want to become an advanced Excel user.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10