Microsoft added a number of new features to its free Excel Web App in June, including a way to view workbooks that have freeze panes, This week, the company revealed a list of possible new features that it is thinking about adding to Excel Web App, but they also want to get some feedback from their users as well.
In a post on the official Excel blog, Microsoft goes over how the development team comes up with what new features to add to the free web app, and at the right time. They consider feedback from SkyDrive and Office 365 users, along with how the app compares to competing products. It also takes into account opt-in anonymous user data and plain old feedback from anyone else, including "Excel users we meet in Starbucks."
The team then creates a formula (in Excel, naturally) that takes all of the feedback into account and then ranks the new features they want to put into the Excel Web App in order of importance. The blog also has a partial list of features that are under consideration for adding to the free app:
- Adding and Editing Freeze Panes (they are already viewable)
- Adding and Editing Comments (they are already viewable)
- Android Tablet Support
- Editing Files with VBA
- Chart Editing
- Viewing, Moving, and Resizing Shapes
- Loading XLS files in O365 (already works in SkyDrive)
- Print to PDF
- WEBSERVICE Functions
- Common Keyboard Shortcuts
- Custom Sort a Range (sort on multiple columns)
- Insert an Image
- Hide/Unhide Rows & Columns
- Reorder Sheets
- Show Aggregates for the Selected Range in the Statusbar
- Rename a Spreadsheet from within Web Excel
- Drag and Drop Cells in a Sheet
- Protect Sheets from Being Edited by Others
- Insert and Modify Apps for Office
The end of the blog entry contains a link to an online survey which asks anyone which feature they would most like to add to Excel Web Apps and why. The feature can come from the above list or users can also choose to add their own suggestions. The blog did not state when we can expect to see any of the features on the list added to Excel Web App.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft