Excel

Office 365, announced today, gives professionals and small businesses a subscription service that lets them work from anywhere using familiar-feeling Web-enabled applications. Combined with hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, Office 365 is designed to enable users to share, collaborate, and communicate in the cloud. In our testing during the beta, we found that the tools worked well across the board (with some hiccups), and expect that many people who use Office on desktop Macs and PCs will appreciate the familiar look and feel, which should help them get up and running quickly.

Obviously, Office 365 is going to … Read more

Much energy has gone into finding ways to goof off at work without your boss finding out. Why not hide your Facebook indiscretions in plain sight?

Excellbook is a desktop application available for both Macs and PCs. Download it, install it, crank it up, and connect it to your Facebook account. It delivers the latest friend updates in a format that bears a strong resemblance to Excel. The app--which you can download from a site with a URL appropriately titled "Be Stupid At Work"--also lets you update your Facebook status on the sly.

This app wasn't made completely out of the goodness of someone's heart. It's a publicity stunt being pulled by Diesel, a company best known for its jeans. … Read more

Vertex42's Paycheck Calculator for Excel is a free spreadsheet template that lets users calculate where their paycheck goes every month. It calculates deductions, withholdings, and allowances, including state and local taxes, FICA, 401(k) contributions, and more. It requires Microsoft Excel 2002 or later; we also recommend having the necessary financial records on hand, such as pay stubs or tax forms.

We extracted Paycheck Calculator's zipped download and clicked it, which opened it inside Excel. It's a cleanly configured Excel spreadsheet with a variety of simple fields for entering data, which were filled with helpful example entries. … Read more

You have one more great reason to chuck your laptop in favor of an iPad when embarking on your next road trip. With only a few extra clicks you can edit Word and Excel files in the Safari browser on your iPad. The trick is to convert the files to the native Google Docs formats to make them available for editing on the iPad.

The easiest way to ensure the current version of your Word and Excel files are editable on your iPad is to use the free Google Cloud Connect toolbar for Microsoft Office, which I described in a … Read more

Annuities are a popular way to invest your money, especially if you're risk-averse and like the security of having a guaranteed income from your investments. Annuity Calculator for Excel is a simple Excel workbook that can help you determine exactly what you can expect your annuity income to look like.

Annuity Calculator for Excel comes as an XLS file and requires no installation; all you have to do is open it in Excel. Far from being just a spreadsheet full of numbers, the calculator has an attractive layout and enough explanatory text to give even beginners an idea of … Read more

Office², the app that lets you view and edit Microsoft Office Documents, has just today announced support for PowerPoint Presentations with version 4.0, making it a good way to take your Microsoft work with you on your iPad, but it has one major limitation.

It's no secret that when Apple's first iPad hit stores, working people wondered if they could get rid of their laptops and use the touch screen for business and productivity purposes. Apple offered up solid, but abbreviated versions of their own iWork suite (with some Microsoft compatibility), but many users' companies relied … Read more

Microsoft tweaked its Office Web Apps earlier this week with a few enhancements designed to make Excel and PowerPoint a bit more user friendly.

Excel aficionados can now insert, delete, and rename individual worksheets in a workbook, just like you can in the desktop version. To do this, open your Excel file in the online editor. Then simply right-click on a tab for an existing worksheet. You'll see the three familiar options to Insert, Delete, or Rename. Inserting adds a new worksheet in front of your current selection. Deleting asking for your confirmation to permanently get rid of the … Read more

With all the talk lately about working in the cloud, you might think desktop applications were about to go the way of the dot-matrix printer. In fact, running our everyday apps off the desktop remains the norm, especially in organizations. And considering the slow pace of technology change at most companies, the norm isn't likely to change anytime soon.

Still, there's no denying the long-term trend toward Web-hosted applications and storage. Facilitating the transition from local to remote apps is Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, a toolbar that adds a Sync button to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint … Read more

Microsoft Office has always been outrageously overpriced (and probably always will be). For example, Office Home and Business 2010 has a list price of $279.99, while Office Professional goes for a whopping $499.99. Not in this lifetime, Microsoft.

Fortunately, every now and again a deal comes along--or, in this case, a "steal." Today only (the deal expires at midnight, ET), DailySteals has Microsoft Office Professional 2010 (download) for $99.99.

This version of Office comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

Now for the bad/weird news: after you place your order, DailySteals … Read more