The spreadsheet has undoubtedly become one of the building blocks in today’s workplace. It’s almost unimaginable how we would be working with data as we do without being able to organize it as effectively as a spreadsheet allows.
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Excel and Google Sheets are some of the most popular structured data tools on the market. They are at the forefront regarding functionalities, empowering companies to work easier and faster. With their help, businesses improve productivity and bring order to diverse types of data – through complex formulas and in the form of tables, graphs, and reports.
Useful add-ons for Excel and Google Sheets
Excel and Google Sheets, undoubtedly, are very powerful tools, and that’s why we all use them. At the same time, they can be complicated and clunky to work with. That’s why it’s worth looking at the top innovative add-ons and add-ins which help you get more productive. Various extensions and platforms are constantly being developed, and a number of them can truly be a big help in the day-to-day work of spreadsheets.
We’ve selected the top 10 innovative tools for both Google Sheets and Excel, which will help you become a spreadsheet master. You can see their main functionalities, benefits, and pricing for each of them. Before you delve into them, though, here’s a short overview of how innovations push traditional data tools’ limits.
What’s new in prosumer structured data tools?
Spreadsheets are great at boosting productivity in a wide array of business fields. While their capabilities are significant, companies constantly need new ways to work with their data so that they can make the most of it. That’s why software providers develop add-ons and external tools which offer extensions to the functionalities of the renowned spreadsheet tools.
There are hundreds of thousands of additional tools for Google Sheets and Excel, yet not all of them will serve your business well. However, if you find the right extensions, they can tremendously contribute to your team’s efficiency. They can save a ton of time otherwise spent on repetitive and tedious tasks. Many add-ons are affordable, and their implementation is simple.
The 10 Innovative Tools and add-ons for Google Sheets
1. Open as App
Open as App is a no-code app builder that empowers you to use your business data fully. It allows you to create apps from your spreadsheets with minimum effort and with no need for technical expertise. You can easily build apps that perform calculations based on the logic in your spreadsheet, which is fully transferred and usable. The best part about Open as App is that you can use it in combination with other Google Sheets add-ons to further extend their capabilities.
Main feature: You can create powerful apps from your Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheets with just a few clicks.
Pricing: You can start with the Free plan and then move to Business at 75 euro/month when you need more features and functionalities.
2. Translate My Sheet
Translate My Sheet is a Google add-on that automatically provides you with translations for your spreadsheet texts in more than 100 languages. You can translate a selected range from a sheet or the whole of it. When you open the add-on, you can let it select the source language or choose it yourself. Then you have to select the target language.
Main feature: Automatic translation of spreadsheets
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: You can use Translate My Sheet with Open as App to create apps in different languages. First, translate your sheet. Then copy the app based on the original language and change to the sheet with the translation. Translate My Sheet works well, but you should watch out for empty or linked cells. Before you use it, you need to take them away, or it’ll stop working.
3. Power Tools
Power Tools is a suite of more than 30 tools that helps you organize your spreadsheets faster and easier. Some of its capabilities include removing duplicates, merging cells, replacing data, and importing ranges from different sheets.
Main feature: 30 different functionalities that save time spent on repetitive tasks in spreadsheets
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: You can use Power Tools to organize your spreadsheet so that it’s much easier to create your tailor-made app with Open as App afterward.
4. Lucidchart Diagrams
Lucidchart diagrams provide you with the extra capability to create flowcharts and diagrams in spreadsheets. It’s a visual workspace with which you can complement the data in your Google Sheets or Excel files.
Main feature: Add data visualization to your spreadsheets in the form of charts and diagrams
Pricing: The basic plan is free for 1 user. The Business plans start at $20/month for 3 users.
5. Icons from Flaticon
Flaticon is the largest icon database, with an extension for G Suite, including Google Sheets. It offers separate vector icons as well as whole packs of icons. With Flaticon, you can make your spreadsheets easier to digest by communicating parts of the data in them in a visual form.
Main feature: Add icons to your spreadsheets
Pricing: There is a free plan. The paid one cost 9.99 euros/month.
Pro tip: You can use Flaticon with Open as App. Hoover over the small icon preview, right-click, select ‘copy image link’ and insert it in the image column of your sheet. Then the icon will be visible in the app when you’re online. The Flaticon extension is browser-dependent but works in Google Chrome.
6. Geocode by Awesome Table
Geocode by Awesome Table extracts latitudes & longitudes from the addresses that are contained in a Google Sheet. Afterward, it places them on a Google map that you can easily share.
Main feature: Display of maps for addresses in a spreadsheet
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: You can review the map only when you’re online. If you want to use it with Open as App, you will need slight format changes, and you’re ready to go.
7. Form Approvals
Form Approvals is an add-on for Google Forms. With its help, you can turn form submissions into interactive workflows to automate your processes. The data collected in the form is displayed in a Google Sheet.
Main feature: Streamline the processing of form submission data
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: The Google Sheet you get with your form’s response data can easily be turned into an app with Open as App, including a handy chart dashboard. As you collect more answers from the forms, the app is automatically updated.
8. Sheet to Calendar Evento
The add-on Sheet to Calendar Evento allows you to create Google Calendar events from the data in your Google Sheets. It extracts the details from the spreadsheet to populate the event. The event is automatically updated when you modify the sheet.
Main feature: Create events in bulk in Google Calendar from your spreadsheet
Pricing: The monthly plans start at $15 per month.
Pro tip: With Open as App, you can extend the capability of Evento further. You can create an event app from a spreadsheet and include the data about each event, such as its agenda and participants.
9. XLMiner Analysis ToolPak
XLMiner Analysis ToolPak is an add-on similar to Analysis ToolPak for Excel. It provides statistical analysis functionalities, including all 19 interactive functions from the Excel tool, plus an extra one – logic regression.
Main feature: The most common statistical analysis capabilities
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: Based on your calculations with XLMiner, you can automatically set up an app with Open as App. It supports the most common formulas.
10. Google Analytics
One of the most famous Google products – Google Analytics – can be used in conjunction with Sheets. With this add-on, you can get all your Analytics data in a spreadsheet. This allows you to search and organize the data better, so you can extract business insights. To use Google Analytics 4 Data in your sheets, you must use an API plug-in add the moment. As Universal Analytics will not be available from July 2023, you should remember that you will have to update your add-on by then.
Main feature: Access Google Analytics data in your spreadsheets
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: It’s easy to build an app with Open as App, using your data from Google Analytics in a spreadsheet format. That’s how you can review the information through useful dashboards and visualizations.
The 10 Innovative add-ons and Tools for Excel
1. Open as App
In addition to Google Sheets, the innovative no-code app platform Open as App also works with Excel. You can build apps from your Excel sheets with minimum input and no coding skills required. The apps preserve the logic and calculations from your spreadsheet data, which are automatically transferred. Also, you can use Open as App together with other Excel add-ons.
Main feature: You can create powerful apps from your Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheets with just a few clicks.
Pricing: You can start with the Free plan and then move to Basic starting from 75 euros/month when you need more features and functionalities.
2. Bottleneck Detector
Bottleneck Detector helps you clear up your Excel file from segments that are slowing down its performance. The tool identifies the bottleneck in whole sheets or ranges. Then you can make the necessary changes to speed up the file.
Main feature: Locates bottlenecks in your Excel spreadsheets
Pricing: $4.99
Pro tip: Using Bottleneck Detector can be handy before you create an app from a spreadsheet with Open as App. That’s how you can prevent an unnecessarily big file from slowing down mobile performance.
3. HandyMap Places & Routes
With the HandyMap Places & Routes, you can add road, satellite, and street maps in your Excel file. That’s how you can illustrate address and route data straight into the spreadsheet.
Main feature: Add interactive maps in your Excel spreadsheets
Pricing: $9.99
Pro tip: You can include the map-sharing link in an app automatically created with Open as App.
4. XLTools.net Data Cleaning
XLTools.net Data Cleaning is a powerful cleaning tool for Excel. When you import or paste data into a file, you can handle the arrangement bulk with its help. It can clean empty spaces, convert cell formats, and change text cases, among other capabilities.
Main feature: Clean and arrange Excel spreadsheets
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: XLTools.net is another Excel add-in that you can use before building an app from a spreadsheet with Open as App. It can tidy up the sheet, and you only display productive data in your no-code app.
5. Duplicate Remover
Duplicate Remover is a simple Excel add-in that finds duplicates in your data. Once they are identified, it gives you 6 different options for dealing with each record. It streamlines the process of cleaning up your spreadsheets.
Main feature: Find and deal with duplicate content
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: The Duplicate Remover is handy in preparing your Excel file for app-building with Open as App.
6. Quandl for Excel
The renowned source for financial, economic, and alternative datasets, Quandl, offers an Excel add-in as well. With it, you get extended functionality in Excel through which you can work with large datasets in the financial sector. It allows you to download data volumes for creating reports. You get a vast scope for data exploration in different formats.
Main feature: Allows you to easily place Quandl datasets in Excel files
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: You can use the Quandl add-in to get the data into Excel and then create an app from it with the Open as App builder. It also works directly via API.
7. ASAP Utilities
ASAP Utilities is a package of 300+ utilities for Excel. They allow you to conduct efficient sorting, arranging, and other bulk actions. You can export sheets as separate files, apply formulas to certain cells only, and many other functions. The add-in is available in 10 languages.
Main feature: 300+ different additional tools for Excel for sorting and quicker use
Pricing: $49 for a single user
Pro tip: ASAP Utilities are a great way to organize your spreadsheet so that it is machine-legible. Then you can input it and build an app with Open as App.
8. Kutools
Kutools provides more than 300 additional powerful functions in Excel. Some of the capabilities include merging cells with no data loss, combining worksheets, content conversion, and dropdown lists.
Main feature: Simplifies complicated tasks in Excel, bringing them down to a few clicks
Pricing: $49
Pro tip: You can easily set up dropdown lists with Kutools, which are then automatically turned into dropdown menus in your no-code app with Open as App.
9. Bing Maps
Bing Maps has an add-in for Microsoft Office. It allows you to use location data in an Excel file and get it visualized on a Bing map. You can modify the map controls, such as zoom in or out.
Main feature: Plot locations from an Excel file and visualize them on a map
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: As with the map add-on for Google Sheets, with Bing Maps you can create maps that are embedded in your spreadsheet. Then, when you create an app with Open as App, you can insert the map link or create a map based on your long/lat data directly in Open as App.
10. QR4Office
QR4Office generates QR codes that can be integrated into Excel. QR codes are a great tool to quickly redirect and lead users to a certain link, which is handy for both spreadsheets and apps. You can select the color, background, and size of the image. Then you can easily embed it in a spreadsheet.
Main feature: QR code generator for Microsoft Office
Pricing: Free
Pro tip: You can save the QR code as a picture and add the image or a link to it in the Excel file. Then it is included in the app-building with Open as App.
Add-ons for Google Sheets and add-ins for Excel can greatly help your daily work with spreadsheets. They can save you a significant amount of time and effort, as well as streamline your internal processes.
Want to make better use of your business data? Get started today by creating your first no-code app with the Open as App app creator.
Just enter your contact data, and we’ll send you the checklist. This list will help you become a true Open as App master. Check it out for free!
Microsoft Excel is one of the best spreadsheet software available which can do many things like calculations, tables, graphs, macro programming, etc. Out of the box, the Excel is pretty powerful, but if you want to extend the functionality or want to make your life a tad bit easier, installing add-ins is the best way to go. Here are some of the best Microsoft Excel add-ins that you should definitely try.
1. Quandl for Excel
Quandl is one of the best data analyst tools that helps you save a lot of time and effort gathering and formatting all the data you want. The good thing about Quandl Add-in for Excel is that it allows you to search through massive datasets for free and without any restrictions whatsoever. Moreover, you can also download the datasets you need in any format you want.
2. Radial Bar Chart
Rather than reading through the tons of data, you can make your life easier by visualizing the data using charts and diagrams to quickly understand the big picture. Though Excel can create some good data visualization charts, you can also use free add-ins like Radial Bar Chart for something unique and special.
3. Geographic Heat Map
If you are working with datasets that make use of geographical locations, then visualizing that data in the form of maps is a good way to analyze and present the information. Using the Geographic Heat Map add-in, you can do just that. The add-in takes the selected data in your excel sheet and creates a geographic map out of it.
4. Percentage Calculator
Not every one of us is good at Math, especially when calculating percentages. So, if you find yourself needing to quickly calculate percentages, you can do that using the Percentage Calculator add-in. Other than calculating percentages, you can also calculate percent change and increase and decrease percentage value. The add-in also supports percentage markups.
5. Range Calculations
If you have worked with Excel sheets long enough, you will often find yourself in a situation where you need to change or recalculate numbers in multiple cells. Though you can do this manually, it is time consuming. In those situations you can use the Range Calculations add-in. This free add-in lets you easily recalculate the numbers in the selected range.
6. Favorite Bookmarks
If you regularly work on certain workbooks or Excel sheets in certain directories, then bookmarking them helps you launch those workbooks without fiddling around. To bookmark your favorite Excel sheets and directories, you can use the free add-in called Favorite Bookmarks.
7. RDBMail
If you want to quickly email your Excel sheets or parts of your Excel sheet without leaving your workbook, then you can use the free add-in called RDBMail to do that. The good thing about this add-in is that it allows a significant amount of customization of what you send and how you send.
8. Databurst for Excel
Databurst is a simple add-in that lets you create smart and interactive data visualizations. Databurst has several features and customizations like automatic data categorization, support for filters and Excel formulas, etc.
9. New Workbook Assistant
The default workbooks created in Excel are always the same; you cannot choose the default font for the workbook, number of sheets in the workbook, etc. Using the New Workbook Assistant add-in, you can create the Excel workbooks the way you want with just a few -clicks.
Do comment below sharing your favorite Excel add-in that you use in your daily workflow.
Vamsi Krishna
Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.
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The 7 Best Excel Add-Ins in 2023: Full Excel Plugin Guide
Microsoft Excel has a wide range of features and functionalities.
But, there are situations when you need more powerful capabilities than Excel provides 💪🏻
Particularly when performing data analysis, regression analysis, and financial analysis.
To increase the efficiency of Excel spreadsheets, there are a ton of add-on features available online 🧑🏻💻
While some of them are paid versions, others are free Excel add-ins.
In this article, we will look at the 7 Best Excel Add-Ins in 2023.
How to add Office add-ins for Excel?
Before we look at the greatest add-ins, let’s go over how to install and run them.
- Click Insert tab > Get Add-ins.
- Browse the Office Add-ins box for the add-in you want, or use the Search box to search.
- To learn more about an add-in, simply click it. Then, for the desired add-in, select Add, Try, or Buy.
Ablebits Duplicate Remover
Excel is not used only for calculations. Sometimes, Excel is used as a database as well.
Duplicate records are a very common problem when maintaining databases.
Inbuilt Excel Remove Duplicate feature only find duplicates and removes duplicate entries.
If you want a Swiss Army knife for that, Ablebits Duplicate Remover is the perfect match.
It will identify, select, highlight, delete, copy and move.
You can do this for;
- Unique values
- Duplicate values
- Absolute duplicate rows
- Partially matching rows
It can be done in 1 table or by comparing 2 tables, with or without first occurrences.
If you want to clean your data in your Excel spreadsheet faster download Ablebits’ free Duplicate Remove Toolkit.
Bing Maps
Do you want to create a data visualization using a map like the one below?
There is no need to create a custom add-in in Excel for that.
Bing Maps, an Excel application, may be used for such with ease 🥳
Select the Bing Maps App from the Add-ins group by clicking the Insert tab.
Using pie charts or circles, you can display several location-specific data points.
Additionally, the map type can be switched between road and bird’s eye.
You can filter locations to display only specific data points.
FRED data
Is collecting macroeconomic data on your list of complex tasks? 📃
Now that you have FRED data—a Microsoft Excel Add-in for that—you can cross that out of the list of complex tasks.
FRED Data is the abbreviation for Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Data.
FRED is a free Excel add-in that allows users to easily access over 810,000 data series from various data sources.
You may search multiple sources and download data for better presentations with just a few clicks.
You can search for this free Excel add-in by typing FRED in the add-ins tab.
Excel users can save time to analyze data by eliminating the time spent collecting data.
To find out more about the FRED Add-In for Microsoft Excel, go here.
Lucidchart
Excel offers a number of charting tools for making charts 📊📉
But it’s not that simple to make Gantt charts and flowcharts with Excel.
It will no longer be difficult if you use Lucidchart, a free add-in for Microsoft Excel.
This add-on provides a simple user interface with drag-and-drop functionality.
You can choose from a variety of templates and are not required to have any specialized skills to make your charts.
From the Excel Office Add-ins store, you can search for Lucidchart.
Analysis ToolPak
Analysis ToolPak is one of the best Excel add-ins for performing complex statistical analyses.
It will save time analyzing Excel data – especially if you’re a power user.
Analysis ToolPak can be used for many data analyses including;
- Descriptive statistics
- Regression analysis
- Correlation analysis
To access these tools, go to the Data tab and select Data Analysis from the Analysis group.
If the Data Analysis command is not available, the Analysis ToolPak add-in program must be loaded.
- Go to the File tab, click Options, and then click Add-Ins.
- In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and then click Go.
- You can see the all add-ins in the add-ins dialog box.
Check the Analysis ToolPak check box, and then click OK.
Professor Excel Tools
Professor Excel tools provide an extra edge to the default functionality of Microsoft Excel.
It will add 125 great functions in a whole new Excel ribbon.
This add-in has several tools that you need for your day-to-day Excel work.
- Copy & Paste Tools
- Formula Editing Tools
- Insert Elements Tools
- Quick Cell Tools
- Workbook Tools
- Display and Layout Tools
- Finalize Features
All the tools are structured in one ribbon and save time as you don’t need to navigate to sub-menus.
You can click here to read more about this best tool.
Wikipedia
Do you want to search for some data from Wikipedia?
You can search data on Wikipedia without leaving Excel if you have installed Wikipedia app from Excel add-ins.
You can easily insert images and texts from Wikipedia into your Excel spreadsheet.
If you want to add a table to your Excel file from Wikipedia, use power query.
Then you can easily clean and import your data.
That’s it – Now what?
These are just the top 7 Excel add-ins.
There are tons of premium and free add-ons available online that will increase your productivity. Not just for Excel but for the entire Office suite.
But what will boost your productivity too?
Learning the right tools and features in Excel.
Stuff like IF, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, and cleaning data.
You learn all that in my 30-minute free online course. Click here to enroll 🚀
Kasper Langmann2023-02-23T11:01:39+00:00
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Excel is by far the most used application for data analysis, and mastering it is a must-have skill in many companies. It can also be a huge time-saver: an Excel master can be tens or hundreds of times more productive than a beginner. And add-ins can play a significant role in improving your efficiency with Excel, bring you the tools you need to perform well.
What is an Excel add-in?
Excel add-ins are small programs that can be installed to enhance the capabilities of Microsoft Excel by adding new custom features.
There are hundreds of Excel add-ins on the market, covering a wide range of functions.
In this post, we list and describe over 75 add-ins, plugins and apps that complement Microsoft Excel with additional features and options to be even more productive and impress with your abilities with Excel. Some of them are free and some are not, but each of them perform tasks that can greatly help you becoming an Excel rock star.
What are the best Excel add-ins?
Here are 75 of the best add-ins for Microsoft Excel (free or not):
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Power-user
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Tableau desktop
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F9
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Excel Stock Market Functions
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Kutools
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Advanced Formula Environment
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PowerPivot
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XLGL
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ASAP Utilities
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MonteCarlito
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Intis Telecom
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Analystix Tools
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People Graph
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Analysis ToolPack
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Solver
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Power Query
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StatPlus:mac
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FRED
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Simtools
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Formlist
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NXPowerLite Desktop 8
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Jensen
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Anomaly Server
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XLSTAT
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Operis Analysis Toolkit (OAK)
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Table Analysis Tools and Data Mining Client
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Dose
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Supply Chain add-in
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Office Tabs
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ParallelDots
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vIcons
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Random Number Generator
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Random Sorter
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Audit Tickmark Toolbar
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QR4Office
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Geographic Heat Map
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Password Recovery
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Ultimate Suite
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Lucidchart
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Supermetrics
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GIGRAPH Network Visualization
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Selection Diff Tool
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XY Chart Labeler
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Hoadley Finance
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ModernCharts
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Microsoft Dynamics
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Risk Analyzer
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Panel Chart
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BulkQuotesXL Pro
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Vertex42 Templates Gallery
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Model Analyzer
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Weather by Visual Crossing
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Spreadsheet123
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Capital Budgeting
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Inventory
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Bubbles
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Excellent Analytics
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SEOTools
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SEOGadget
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Checkbook Assistant
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Loan Assistant
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Flash Card Assistant
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ActiveData
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Mekko Chart Creator
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Conditional Row Delete
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Power Utility Pack
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Exchange rates
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Mini Calendar and Date Picker
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Favorite Bookmarks
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Functions Translator
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RDBmail
-
Intrinio
-
Excel training and tips
-
Power Reconcile
-
Microsoft Flow for Excel
1. Power-user
Power-user is an add-in for Excel, PowerPoint and Word. It has dozens of impressive features designed for anyone who use the Office Suite on a frequent basis:
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Ability to create new charts like Mekko and Sankey charts,
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Robust Excel-PowerPoint links,
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Powerful new functions like SumColor, CountColor, CountVisible, IsFormula, IsMerged, LastCell, LastRowNumber, LastColumnNumber, SumFromAllSheets, VlookupMax, SlicerItems, CAGR, etc.
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Copy and paste visible cells only,
-
UnPivot a crosstab table, changing it into a database,
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Quickly format numbers, currencies and dates in Excel,
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Tools to clean your data from merged cells, remove empty cells or simplify formulas
-
Swap the position of cells or charts,
-
Easily format your tables with horizontal or vertical borders,
-
…and more!
But Power-user also brings amazing new features for PowerPoint and Word:
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A rich library of 600 beautiful PowerPoint templates,
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350 editable maps,
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7,000 vector icons and flags,
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1+ million high-quality pictures,
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Dashboard tools such as Gauges, traffic lights, Harvey balls, etc.
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Value chains, circular, relationship or pyramid diagrams,
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An automatic Agenda builder,
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A robust link to easily connect PowerPoint charts and tables to Excel data
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Waterfall, Mekko, Sankey, Tornado or Gantt charts,
-
… powerful formatting tools to align titles, harmonize fonts or colors, clean a presentation, edit multiple charts, align or move shapes, change languages, etc.!
Click to watch the demo video of Power-user:
2. Tableau Desktop — $999 to $1,999
Tableau is a data visualization add-in. You have to start by connecting it to your data. It can come from an Excel spreadsheet, but also from one of the data sources provided with the add-on. Then you start creating reports or dashboards by using drag and drop on the Tableau work space. Tableau claims its software is one of the fastest on the market; a well-created Tableau report should allow to quickly filter or zoom on part of the data to answer a specific question. Tableau is available on both Windows and iOS.
3. F9 — On quotes only
F9 allows you to work on your accounting data, preparing and distributing financial reports to a group of contacts throughout your organization. Some of your data can be linked between Excel and your accounting system. F9 is available on working on PC only, for versions 2003 to 2019, but not on Mac iOS.
4. Excel Stock Market Functions — Free
This add-in provides new user-defined functions that can be used to retrieve stock markets data from the web directly into Excel. Using these functions, you can for instance download the market capitalization of a company by entering its market symbol, the dates of the period and the frequency of the quotes (ex: daily). This add-in is ideal to build a dashboard of your personal portfolio, and then just refresh it on a regular basis. Excel Stock Market Functions is available on Windows only.
5. Kutools — $39
Kutools provides a very large number of little tools and Excel functions that can turn out useful time-savers in several situations. The cons of this add-in is that is has a lot of features, but a large numbers of them you will probably never use. The pros is that several tools can be really useful, such as the possibility to paste data only to visible cells, to count cells by colors or to combine sheets. Kutools works with Excel 2007 to 2019 on PC.
6. Advanced Formula Environment — Free
This Excel add-in is provided by Microsoft itself. It offers a new, modernized environment for writing named formulas and Lambda functions. Compared to the usual formula bar, it allows syntax highlighting, inline errors, comments and formatting. It’s also perfect for importing Lambda functions. The app works with Microsoft Excel 2013 and later on PC, Mac or the web.
7. PowerPivot — Free
PowerPivot is a Microsoft add-in designed to turn Excel into a business intelligence software. Basically, PowerPivot could be described as «Microsoft Access for dummies». You can build tables with relationships that will be much faster than the time-consuming classical VLOOKUP function in Excel. However our personal experience with PowerPivot is that it still lacks stability and it often causes Excel files to be corrupt… Since Excel 2013, PowerPivot is built-in and doesn’t need to be downloaded. You can activate it like any add-in. For prior versions of Excel, you need to download it from the Microsoft website.
8. XLGL — $299
XLGL is an accounting and reporting tool that fetches data from accounting software Sage to update Excel spreadsheets. GL stands for the accounting term General Ledger. Using XLGL, you can use formulas to work with updated data on customer orders, employee hours, inventories, etc. It is also provided with report layouts. XLGL works on PC with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.
9. ASAP Utilities — $49
ASAP Utilities is an Excel add-in focusing on saving time. Although many features are not rocket-science, some are interesting like the possibility to sort tabs alphabetically or by color, or the tool to insert cells before or after each cell in the selection. ASAP is one of the only add-ins available starting with Excel version 2000 and works with every version on PC up to Excel 2019.
10. MonteCarlito — Free
As the name suggests, MonteCarlito is designed to run Monte-Carlo simulations in Excel, as well as other statistical analysis to compute mean, median, standard error, variance, skewness, kurtosis, etc. It is quite an old and simple add-in, but MonteCarlito works with both Windows and Mac iOS versions of Excel.
11. Intis Telecom — FREE
The Intis Telecom plugin allows you to send SMS directly from Excel. Select a range with phone numbers in your spreadsheet and the plugin will send them the SMS of your choice. The plugin is free but requires to purchase credits to send SMS. Intis Telecom is compatible with Excel 2003 to 2019 on PC. It is not available on Mac.
12. Analystix Tools — Free
Analystix provides a free Excel add-in meant for financial analysis. It includes tools to calculate CAGR, WACC (weighted average cost of capital), Black & Scholes formula, as well as an histogram builder to visualize distribution and a date arranger. Analystix Tools works on Excel 2010 and later on PC.
13. People Graph — Free
This plugin lets your create and update people graphs, a typical tool for infographics. This add-in works on PC with Excel 2013 to 2019, on Excel 2016 for Mac, Excel Online and Excel for iPad.
14. Analysis ToolPack — Free
The Analysis ToolPack is a Microsoft add-in that allows statistical analysis such as correlation analysis, descriptive statistics or histograms. It is provided on every computer using Excel 2007 and later, Mac or PC. You just need to load the add-in.
15. Solver — Free
The Solver is a tool that is also provided by Microsoft with Excel 2007 and later. It can be used for what-if analysis, to find optimal value for a formula in a cell under constraints limiting other formula cells. Basically, the Solver will determine the maximum or minimum value that a formula can take while changing several other cells.
16. Power Query — Free
This Microsoft add-in is made to help access and explore data in Excel like with Business Intelligence tools, by allowing to import, transform or combine multiple data sources. Power Query requires Excel 2010 or 2013 on Windows.
17. StatPlus:mac — €189
StatPlus:mac is one of the very few Excel add-ins for statistics that works on Mac. It is a statistical analysis package allowing to analyze correlations, run regressions, time series or data processing analysis, to create statistical charts, etc. StatPlus is actually available on both PC (2007 to 2019) and Mac (2004 to 2016).
18. FRED — Free
Provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, this free add-in provides access to macroeconomic data from multiple sources such as the BEA, OECD, BLS or Census. Time series can be inserted into Excel with a few clicks, and you can then automatically calculate growth rate or change the data frequency. You can even refresh your spreadsheet with the most up to date data and see your entire dashboard adapt to it. The FRED add-in works with Excel 2010 and 2013.
19. Simtools — Free
Simtools adds 32 statistical functions to perform Monte Carlo simulations and risk analysis in Excel spreadsheets. Functions cover cumulative probability, correlations among random variables, decision analysis, analyzing discrete probability distributions, regression analysis, or random generation of discrete distributions. Simtools works on PC with Excel 2003 and later.
20. Formlist — Free
Formlist is an auditing tool that provides procedure for displaying the formulas of any selected range of cells in Excel. It is a very simple add-in with limited possibilities, but it’s free, and it works on Excel 2003 and later for PC.
21. NXPowerLite Desktop 8 — $50
Not exclusively for Excel but working with PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, as well as JPEG or PDF files, NXPowerLite compresses files and optimize them for screen, print or mobile devices. It can also automatically compresses your email attachment files, a feature that you can also temporarily disable if you don’t want it. NXPowerPointLite does not work on Mac iOS.
22. Jensen — Free
Jensen has actually created multiple Excel add-ins performing various tasks, mainly for statistics analysis purposes. One is for Markov analysis, one for random variables, one for decision analysis, one for simulation, etc. These add-ins are quite old and were designed for Excel 2003 on Windows.
23. Anomaly Server — Free
This tool helps you identify anomalies and outliers in a data set. the US directly into Excel from data.gov. This Excel tool works with Excel 2016 and up for PC and Mac, as well as with Excel Online.
24. XLSTAT — $235 to $940
XLSTAT works as an add-on with about 100 features for advanced statistical analysis: linear or non-linear regressions, k-means, principal component analysis, etc. XLSTAT is highly compatible, working on PC for version 97 up to 2019 and on Mac with Excel 2011 and 2016.
25. Operis Analysis Toolkit (OAK) — £311.66
This Excel add-in aims at helping you understand complex spreadsheets and reduce the risk of errors. The main features are a workbook summary, a spreadsheet structure map, a formula walker and other solutions to compare, audit and search Excel workbooks. OAK is compatible with Excel on Windows, but not with Mac iOS.
26. Table Analysis Tools and Data Mining Client — Free
These 2 add-ins for Excel are provided by Microsoft for data mining. Table Analysis Tools for Excel leverages SQL Server 2012 data mining models from an Excel spreadsheet, while Data Mining Client lets you explore data mining models. These tools require Excel 2010 or 2013 on Windows.
27. Dose — €33.84
Dose is a great collection of tools for Excel. It contains many, many features such as a date picker, an auto back-up solution, powerful functions, tools to find duplicated, list files, manage rows, clean data, count words and more. The add-in is compatible with Excel 2007 to 2019 on PC.
28. Supply Chain add-in — Free but requires subscription
This Excel plugin helps you build powerful geographical visualizations. Not only can you create data-driven maps, but also geocoding, distance calculations, warehouse locations optimizations and more. It works with Excel 2016 and later on Windows, Mac and web.
29. Office Tabs — Free
The Office Tabs add-in creates an easy interface allowing to switch between the windows opened on any Microsoft Office application. It creates a tab bar on your standard PowerPoint, Excel or Word window, displaying a tab for each currently open document of the same application. Just like on your Internet browser, you can click on a document’s title to switch to it. You can also save all open documents in one click, instead of saving them separately. Office Tabs works on Office 365 and all Office version above 2003, but non on Mac iOS.
Nota Bene: this tool is comparable to the Tab Explorer feature included in the Power-user add-in
30. ParallelDots — Free for limited use
This powerful gives you access to an AI for text analysis. Among the great tools it provide, you can use the AI API for sentiment analysis, keywords generation, text classification (taxonomy), to find abusive content and more. The add-in requires Excel 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019 (64 bit only) on Windows 7, 8 or 10.
31. vIcons — $99
vIcons is a library of 600 icons that can be inserted in Excel, Word or PowerPoint. Search icons using keywords or just pick them up in the library. vIcons works on Office 2007, 2010 and 2013 for Windows, but the add-in does not run on Mac.
Nota Bene: this is an equivalent to the Icons Library included in the Power-user add-in that contains over 4,000 vector icons.
32. Random Number Generator — $29.95
As the name suggest, this Excel add-in generates numbers randomly. It could be seen as an improvement of the RAND() Excel function, since you can choose the format of the data you want to generate: dates, boolean, integers, real numbers etc. It can also be used to generate strings of characters in order to create random passwords. Random Number Generator works on Windows computers with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. It does not work on Mac.
33. Random Sorter — $29.95
Random Sorter can be really useful if you need sometimes to extract randomly 25% of your population, to make a poll for instance. The add-in will shuffle your data. Random Sorter works on Windows computers with Excel version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019. It does not work on Mac.
34. Audit Tickmark Toolbar — $25
This small toolbar can be useful for audit, accounting or finance, allowing to add tickmarks to show GL (for General Ledger account), PBC (Prepared By Client), PY (agrees to Prior Year), TB (agrees to Trial Balance), etc. The toolbar works with Excel 96 to 2019 on PC but is not available for Mac.
35. QR4Office — Free
The QR4Office plugin creates QR codes that will allow to open your document with a pre-defined url of your choice. You can use it to make your Excel file or PowerPoint presentations more interactive, so that people can check it with their smartphone or vote for a poll, for instance. QR4Office is available for versions of PowerPoint, Word and Excel later than 2013 on Windows, as well as version 2016 on Mac.
36. Geographic Heat Map — Free
The Heat Map Excel app lets you display data-based colors on the map of the USA or the World map. You can move your mouse on each state as well to display its name. This app works with Excel 2013 and later on PC, and with version 2016 on Mac.
NB: for a broader choice of 200 map of continents, regions, countries or counties, you can use instead the Power-user add-in and insert one of the many Data maps from this tool. See how it works here in video.
37. Password Recovery — $29
If you protect Excel files with passwords and you tend to forget them, this plugin can be of use to you. Success is not guaranteed though, and recovering a password can take up to 36 hours so don’t rely on this if you are in an emergency situation. Password Recovery works with Excel versions 2003 to 2010 on Windows. It is not available on Mac.
38. Ultimate Suite — $99
This suite regroups all add-ins from the office-addins website (a company that is independent from Microsoft). Those tools include Password Recovery, the Random Number Generator and Random Sorter, as well as tools to find and remove duplicates, to split columns, to clean data from multiple sources, find broken links or cells similar to your selection, etc. This package is available on Excel versions 2003 to 2010 on Windows but is not available for Mac.
39. Lucidchart — Subscription required
This app for Excel lets you create flowcharts, UML, wireframes, mockups, org charts and more in your workbook. The app works for Excel 2013 or later on Windows, and for Excel 2016 on Mac.
40. Supermetrics — $99/mo
Supermetrics is a great tool for people in digital marketing, looking for a solution to analyze data in Excel. It can connect to a great number of sources like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Social networks and more, allowing you to crunch the numbers for traffic and conversions directly in Excel. You can also use it to create dashboards, refreshing them and emailing them automatically. It is available for Excel 2016 and 365, online and offline.
41. GIGRAPH Network Visualization — Free
GIGRAPH creates network diagrams that can be used to visualize relationships between multiple persons or entities. Your data would need to be organized for one-way or two-way relationships, for instance with a ‘from’ and a ‘to’ columns. GIGRAPH is available on Windows computers with Excel 2013 Service Pack 1 or later, as well as Excel Online.
42. Selection Diff Tool — €3.99
If you need to compare two strings of text and identify the differences between them, this tool is made for you. This app works on Excel as well as on Word, where it can be of great help if you are reviewing a different version of a document that was not made using Track Change. The app does not work on Mac and is supported by Excel and Word 2013 and later.
43. XY Chart Labeler — Free
This plugin lets you take back control of the chart labels in Excel. Working with labels can be very annoying, and you have limited options. So this plugin lets you add labels to data points on your XY chart data series or move XY labels. The XY Chart Labeler actually works not only for XY charts. It is available on Windows and on Mac 2011, but not on Mac with Excel 2016.
44. Hoadley Finance — $AU176
For people working a lot on Excel in finance, this add-in can be a useful addition. It allows you to perform portfolio analysis, calculate option prices, volatility, value at risk, asset allocation, company valuation, and even more. Formulas can also be used to stream quotes values in real-time from Internet sources. The Hoadley Finance add-ins works with Excel 2003 to 2019, on Windows but not on Mac.
45. ModernCharts — $4.99/mo
This Excel app allows you to reveal what your data contains with a number of charting tools and options. It can be helpful to create infographic charts in Excel or PowerPoint, relying on a comprehensive chart library. The app is available on all versions above 2013, including on Mac.
46. Microsoft Dynamics — Free
Connect your Excel spreadsheet to your Microsoft Dynamics data, read it, analyze it or feed your dashboard, and publish data changes back into Microsoft Dynamics. On Word, you can manage templates that will be fed by data from Microsoft Dynamics. If your company is using this CRM, then you will need this app. It is available on Excel and Word 2016 versions and later.
47. Risk Analyzer — $49.95
This add-in lets your perform Monte Carlo risk analysis, histograms and tornado charts, what-if analysis, etc. It does not work on Mac iOS, but is compatible with Excel 2007 and above on Windows.
48. Panel Chart — $29.95
When you create Excel line charts with many series, it can easily become impossible to read as lines cross one another or as the size of the legend increases. with the Panel Chart add-in, you can separate lines by categories in different panels, so that you chart is much easier to read and understand. Panel Chart works on Excel 2007 and above on Windows, but is not available on Mac.
49. BulkQuotesXL Pro — $74.95
This Excel add-in allows you to download free quotes from multiple data sources directly into spreadsheets. The tool can access data from Yahoo! Finance historical prices and dividends, to Google Finance historical prices, to PiFin historical prices and to CBOE. BulkQuotesXL is available on Windows computer with Excel 2010 and later, but not on Mac.
50. Vertex42 Templates Gallery — Free
Vertex42 provides a gallery of over 150 professionally designed templates for Excel and Word. Templates include calendar, planners, budgeting, inventory, invoices or financial statements. The app works on Excel and Word 2013 and later for Windows.
51. Model Analyzer — €354
This Excel add-in brings multiple solutions for Excel modelling. You can centralize input and output variables in your spreadsheets, but also perform statistical analysis, such as what-if analysis (with tornado charts, spider charts and sensitivity tables), scenario analysis, multiple goal seek, break-even analysis or Monte-Carlo simulations. Model Analyzer is made for financial analysts, economists and researchers. It is only available on the 32 bit version of Excel 2007 and 2010. It is not compatible with Mac either.
52. Weather by Visual Crossing — $5/mo
This small add-in for Office lets you get weather and climate records and forecasts directly into Excel. The data is available down to the hour. It also includes geocoding allowing to get the weather for a specific address.
53. Spreadsheet123 — Free
Before starting to build spreadsheets from scratch, you might sometimes want to pick up a nice template and work on it. That’s exactly what you can do with Spreadsheet123, a library of templates with financial statements, budgeting, payroll, invoicing, time sheets, checklists or inventory management templates. Spreadsheet123 works with Excel and Word 2013 Service Pack 1 or later as well as Excel and Word online, but is not available on Mac.
54. Capital Budgeting — Free
This Jensen add-in is made to identify optimized portfolios. Define a potential portfolio by providing its initial investment, annual return, salvage value and life. The model will use the standard deviation to estimate risk and will identify the optimized portfolio.
55. Inventory — Free
This Jensen add-in computes inventories, with the possibility to integrate backorders, lost sales, finite or infinite replenishment rates. The model identifies the optimum lot size with cost breaks.
56. Bubbles — Free
This app lets you create nice and colorful bubble charts, to display 3 or 4 dimensions of information. Use the horizontal and vertical axes, bubble size and colors to display complex information in a simple way. Bubbles works on Excel 2013 and later on Windows, as well as Excel 2016 for Mac.
57. Excellent Analytics — Free
Excellent Analytics is the must-have add-in to dig into your Google Analytics data directly from Excel. Use it to crunch your Analytics data and identify how you can bring more traffic to your website.
58. SEOTools — €79
This add-in lets you integrate data from Google Analytics, Google Adwords, the Google Search Console, SEMrush, Youtube, Ahrefs, Moz and other platforms directly into Excel so you can work your SEO data and identify key trends on your website.
59. SEOGadget — Free
SEOGadget lets you analyze your analytics data into Excel. It can access data from Majestic SEO, Moz and Grepwords and bring it to Excel for you to work on it and identify how you can boost your website’s ranking. The tool works on Windows with Excel versions 2010 and above, but does not work on Mac iOS.
60. Checkbook Assistant — Free
This add-in can help you manage your personal finance, letting you do you checkbooks and bank statements with Excel. You can move rows up or down in a single click, so you can align your Excel records with your bank statements. The tool detects and highlights the first unprocessed row. The Checkbook Assistant works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.
61. Loan Assistant — $19.95
This plugin lets you easily compute loans, playing with the annual flat interest rate, load amount and balloon payment at the end of the load to calculate the actual payment per period and total interests to pay. The plugin can also create a load detail year by year with the due capital and interest payments, as well as the remaining capital. The Loan Assistant works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.
62. Flash Card Assistant — Free
Turn Excel into a Q&A software with this simple plugin. Define a list of questions and their answers, choose the order or make it random and run it to get questions asked like flash cards and make it a game in a private or professional situation. The plugin is free and works with Excel 2007 and later. It is not supported on Mac.
63. ActiveData — $249
ActiveData adds data analytics and time-saving worksheet and workbook management features into Excel. Features include join, merge, query, summarize, find duplicates, split data, etc. The tool works with Excel versions 2007 and later on Windows, but is not available for Mac.
64. Mekko Chart Creator — $29.95
Create Marimekko charts with this tool, so you can display 3 dimensions of data in an appealing way. This plugin works with Excel 2007 and later on Windows only.
Nota Bene: for more advanced Mekkos that are editable, you can use instead the Mekko feature of the Power-user add-in for PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
65. Conditional Row Delete — Free
This small add-in simplifies the process of deleting rows selectively, based for instance on the value in a specific column.
66. Power Utility Pack — Free
For Mac users, this add-in is one of the best available options. Created by Ron de Bruin, it contains a collection of utility tools that can be relevant time-savers in several situations.
67. Exchange rates — $35.94
This plugin helps you by converting currencies with with real-time rates from the Internet. Rates are accessed from the MSN Money Central Investor website. The tool works on Windows only, for any version of Excel above 2000.
68. Mini Calendar and Date Picker — Free
When working with dates in Excel, it can be a pain — and a possible source of errors — to type manually multiple dates. With this app you can now just pick a date in a calendar and it will be automatically formatted as date. The app works with Excel 2013 or later on Windows, on Excel 2016 on Mac and on Excel Online.
69. Favorite Bookmarks — Free
Use this add-in to bookmark your favorite workbooks, sheets or range, so you can find and open them anytime from other Excel spreadsheets. The tools is available on Windows only, for Excel versions 2007 and later.
70. Functions Translator — Free
This add-in from Microsoft helps you translate functions and formulas between languages supported by Excel. It works with Excel 2013 and later on Windows, Mac and Excel Online.
71. RDBmail — Free
This mail add-in for Excel from Ron de Bruin lets you automate the process of sending sheets, data or workbook. When you have a workbook open, you can just click on the buttons on the ribbon to send it in an Outlook email, with options to send the entire workbook, just the active worksheet, or to send is with values instead of formulas. RDBmail works with Excel 2007 to 2019 on Windows.
72. Intrinio — Free
Intrinio lets you screen all equities in the United States, using filters on 500 parameters to identify the equities that meet your requirements, such as current stock price, return on equity, dividend yield, price to earnings ratio, sector, employee count, etc. Intrinio only works on Windows with Excel 2013 or later.
73. Excel training and tips — Free
This app helps you learn some Excel with a list of formulas to learn, for beginners, intermediates or Excel experts, Q&A on formulas and other information you need to know if you are to use Excel frequently. The app works with Excel 2013 and later on Windows as well as with Excel 2016 for Mac.
74. Power Reconcile — Free but $9.99/mo subscription required
This add-on is very relevant for people in finance who need to reconcile reports between vendor and accounts payable. The report will be created automatically, highlighting perfect matches or partial matches, saving you potentially a lot of time compared to a manual reconciliation. It is compatible with Excel 2013 and later on PC or Mac as well as the web version.
75. Microsoft Flow for Excel — Free
This add-in by Microsoft helps you create workflows between different applications like Excel, Outlook, Planner, Twitter, Trello, MailChimp and others. These workflows can include approval process, mobile push notifications, email sending etc. It is compatible with Excel 2013 and later on PC, Mac or the web.
Conclusion:
Excel is among the most used software in the world, and a key tool for business in most companies. However immensely rich and complex, the standard version of Excel is still just a fraction of what can be done on it by using the variety of add-ins that have been created around it.
If you are interested in PowerPoint add-ins as well, check our list of 40+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft PowerPoint.
If you are interested in PowerPoint add-ins as well, check our list of 60+ add-ins, plugins and apps for Microsoft Word.