Microsoft is releasing a new look for the Excel Quick Access Toolbar and Ribbon. The feature is rolling out slowly to beta Insiders now. Here is a first look at the QAT and Ribbon.
Transcript of the video:
Learn Excel from MrExcel Podcast episode 2414.
The new look for the Office ribbon and Quick access toolbar.
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast.
I am Bill jelen.
Well all week, people have been going crazy.
Microsoft teased that there's a new look and we keep updating Excel.
And finally, yesterday, Sergei in Russia said that he had it on his machine.
So: File, Account. This build 14301.20004 What you are supposed to do is come up here to the Search box - I have mine collapsed - and search for “Upcoming features” or “Coming Soon”.
And that gets you over to this box.
And you Scroll down and turn it on right there.
But everyone doesn't have it.
You have to be on Insiders beta.
Even then you have to be in the lucky 25%.
It is driving me crazy.
I installed on several different machines.
No one has it.
Finally, Mary Ellen's machine – she has it.
She's on a Home account instead of an enterprise account.
But, I've known a few people on Enterprise who have it.
Maybe it's 25%.
So since it's so hard to get it, let's switch over to Mary Ellen's machine and I'll show you what it looks like.
Wow, OK.
The first thing that I learned is that if you have the feature, you don't have to go into the search box.
You're going to have this little megaphone thing here called Upcoming Features - Try It Now.
And a big green box is going to pop up there telling you that something's changed and you can go in.
And toggle it on or toggle it off.
Alright, the big thing that seems to have changed… And again, I'm on Windows 10.
They say that it's going to be even better in Windows 11.
You'll notice that the Quick Access Toolbar is off by default.
If you've not customized the Quick Access Toolbar, you're not going to see it anymore, and that's a shame, because it's a really nice quick access toolbar.
That means that Undo and Redo have had to move from the quick access toolbar down here into the Home tab.
Now that's a real treat for everyone who's spending the summer writing books.
I'm updating three books.
So that means that all of the screenshots that show the Home tab have to be updated.
But that's good.
You know that that gives us something to do.
But let's get the quick access toolbar back and take a look at what's going on there.
So we go to File, Options, Quick Access Toolbar and select “Show Quick Access Toolbar”.
See, it's starting out above the ribbon, which is where it normally lives on my machine.
But the really good use for this I think is if we move it below the ribbon.
Right, so now it's interesting.
It actually kind of looks like it's part of the ribbon.
See how the top part of the ribbon here is rounded and the bottom part is rounded.
It just really feels like it's part of the ribbon now.
And then, they have another setting here that I really like.
Show Command Labels.
I actually love that.
because there's a lot of features that we can add to the quick access toolbar.
One of them is Go To Special.
Right-click, add to quick access toolbar.
That just shows up as the circle.
You end up with like 7 different circles on your quick access toolbar.
Being able to turn the labels on, that's the really good thing.
Now, of course, for those people that have 40 different items on your quick access toolbar, having the labels on is not helpful because then things won't fit.
But if you just have 10 like I have here, that's a really nice feature.
I can see a version of me living with this all the time.
There's another version of me who's upset that I'm losing two rows in the Excel grid And then we can say show above the ribbon.
Above the ribbon we lose the ability to have the labels, but we go back to Row 44.
So you either get two extra rows with no labels or put it below the ribbon and have the labels.
Sam Rad – you all know Sam Rad - he's the great guy who brought us the random data tool I talked about that on the podcast before.
Sam worked on this project and is the one that announced it.
But for those of you who were trying to get it, it is frustrating.
This whole flighting thing where only 25% of the people get it.
I mean, after all this is an opt in.
It really should have gotten to everybody.
So there's, there's your first look.
If you are writing a book or a LinkedIn classes or anything this summer, the Home Tab is changed.
It's funny.
The Home tab hadn't changed since January 30th, 2007 until they added analyzed data out here.
Thanks to Sam Rat and the whole Excel team for this new look.
It'll be a big question whether this is just Microsoft 365 or if it's going to go to the new Excel 2021.
They've been very explicit that Excel 2021 - no one should buy that.
There's only 3 very specific weird situations.
You're on a shop floor without access to the Internet.
They're being very open and honest that the new Excel 2021 should never be used by regular people that have access to the Internet because it won't have all the good stuff.
So, it'll be interesting to see if they indeed do not roll this out in the new Excel 2021.
I want to thank you for stopping by.
I’ll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
The new look for the Office ribbon and Quick access toolbar.
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast.
I am Bill jelen.
Well all week, people have been going crazy.
Microsoft teased that there's a new look and we keep updating Excel.
And finally, yesterday, Sergei in Russia said that he had it on his machine.
So: File, Account. This build 14301.20004 What you are supposed to do is come up here to the Search box - I have mine collapsed - and search for “Upcoming features” or “Coming Soon”.
And that gets you over to this box.
And you Scroll down and turn it on right there.
But everyone doesn't have it.
You have to be on Insiders beta.
Even then you have to be in the lucky 25%.
It is driving me crazy.
I installed on several different machines.
No one has it.
Finally, Mary Ellen's machine – she has it.
She's on a Home account instead of an enterprise account.
But, I've known a few people on Enterprise who have it.
Maybe it's 25%.
So since it's so hard to get it, let's switch over to Mary Ellen's machine and I'll show you what it looks like.
Wow, OK.
The first thing that I learned is that if you have the feature, you don't have to go into the search box.
You're going to have this little megaphone thing here called Upcoming Features - Try It Now.
And a big green box is going to pop up there telling you that something's changed and you can go in.
And toggle it on or toggle it off.
Alright, the big thing that seems to have changed… And again, I'm on Windows 10.
They say that it's going to be even better in Windows 11.
You'll notice that the Quick Access Toolbar is off by default.
If you've not customized the Quick Access Toolbar, you're not going to see it anymore, and that's a shame, because it's a really nice quick access toolbar.
That means that Undo and Redo have had to move from the quick access toolbar down here into the Home tab.
Now that's a real treat for everyone who's spending the summer writing books.
I'm updating three books.
So that means that all of the screenshots that show the Home tab have to be updated.
But that's good.
You know that that gives us something to do.
But let's get the quick access toolbar back and take a look at what's going on there.
So we go to File, Options, Quick Access Toolbar and select “Show Quick Access Toolbar”.
See, it's starting out above the ribbon, which is where it normally lives on my machine.
But the really good use for this I think is if we move it below the ribbon.
Right, so now it's interesting.
It actually kind of looks like it's part of the ribbon.
See how the top part of the ribbon here is rounded and the bottom part is rounded.
It just really feels like it's part of the ribbon now.
And then, they have another setting here that I really like.
Show Command Labels.
I actually love that.
because there's a lot of features that we can add to the quick access toolbar.
One of them is Go To Special.
Right-click, add to quick access toolbar.
That just shows up as the circle.
You end up with like 7 different circles on your quick access toolbar.
Being able to turn the labels on, that's the really good thing.
Now, of course, for those people that have 40 different items on your quick access toolbar, having the labels on is not helpful because then things won't fit.
But if you just have 10 like I have here, that's a really nice feature.
I can see a version of me living with this all the time.
There's another version of me who's upset that I'm losing two rows in the Excel grid And then we can say show above the ribbon.
Above the ribbon we lose the ability to have the labels, but we go back to Row 44.
So you either get two extra rows with no labels or put it below the ribbon and have the labels.
Sam Rad – you all know Sam Rad - he's the great guy who brought us the random data tool I talked about that on the podcast before.
Sam worked on this project and is the one that announced it.
But for those of you who were trying to get it, it is frustrating.
This whole flighting thing where only 25% of the people get it.
I mean, after all this is an opt in.
It really should have gotten to everybody.
So there's, there's your first look.
If you are writing a book or a LinkedIn classes or anything this summer, the Home Tab is changed.
It's funny.
The Home tab hadn't changed since January 30th, 2007 until they added analyzed data out here.
Thanks to Sam Rat and the whole Excel team for this new look.
It'll be a big question whether this is just Microsoft 365 or if it's going to go to the new Excel 2021.
They've been very explicit that Excel 2021 - no one should buy that.
There's only 3 very specific weird situations.
You're on a shop floor without access to the Internet.
They're being very open and honest that the new Excel 2021 should never be used by regular people that have access to the Internet because it won't have all the good stuff.
So, it'll be interesting to see if they indeed do not roll this out in the new Excel 2021.
I want to thank you for stopping by.
I’ll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
