Microsoft"s Office 365 apps on the web are a decent alternative for those who want to use a pared-down version of the software for free without downloading full-fledged applications. Microsoft continually updates the web versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and others to enhance the UI as well as introduce new features.
Today, the firm has announced a bunch of improvements that have made their way to Excel for the web.
First up is new customization options via a color palette. As can be seen above, users can click on the "more colors" dialog box to get a color slider across which they can drag their cursor to select the color they desire, or directly enter RGB or hex values for the same outcome. A cell styles gallery has been made available as well which allows users to ensure consistency for fonts, cell borders, and shading.
On the formatting side of things, you can now highlights your content and then choose whether to draw or erase borders. This is a simple but handy option for scenarios where you decide where gridlines are most applicable. A mini toolbar can also be accessed with a right click that shows you the most common formatting options in a small window.
When it comes to tables, which are arguably the core part of the Excel experience, Microsoft is trying to bring parity with the desktop counterpart. It is accomplishing this by enhancing table formatting options to include styling options, renaming capabilities, total rows, and the ability to format any data as a table.
In terms of what"s next, Microsoft has announced that a new printing experience is coming soon. It will support print preview with page layout options where you can set print area and insert or delete page breaks.