Excel Tips & Tricks #463 – Top Tips of 2022

This year we have seen the Excel Community change with the departure of David Lyford-Tilley, and the arrival of Ian Pay and Bani Lamba. ‘Tip of the Week’ was replaced with 'Excel Tips and Tricks', and we’ve been able to bring some new voices to the community through our Advisory Group. We hope the series continues to introduce you to various Excel capabilities that you didn't know existed or weren't sure how to use.

So, how about we reflect on the best? These are the most popular tips of the year among our community members:

1. Excel Tip of the Week #440 - How to get better at Excel
   
   In David’s final article, he revealed some of his guiding principles in developing Excel knowledge. Whether you're a novice or an expert, there's something in here for you.
   
   
2. Excel Tips and Tricks #444 - Revisiting XLOOKUP
   
   A reminder from Ian Pay that XLOOKUP really is the must-use Office 365 successor to VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH. And did you know, it’s available in Google Sheets now too?
   
   
3. Excel Tip of the Week #435 - Working with times
   
   Exploring different strategies on how to work with time data in Excel.
   
   
4. Excel Tips and Tricks #449 - Let LET simplify formulas
   
   An introduction of the LET function and how this can be used to simplify otherwise long and complicated Excel formulas.
   
   
5. Excel Tips and Tricks #455 - Data Conversion
   
   Learn how to convert different data types in Excel.

Throughout the year, our members get access to a variety of blogs and articles. This year, our content covered a huge range of Excel functionalities and concepts.

2022 was the year of all things ‘Power’ in Excel! Power Query offers an alternative way to address a range of Excel issues, but does require a mindset change. Our article on ‘Working with Power Query – don’t think cells’ helps members with this issue. While, this Power Pivot article provides a reminder on how to create some more unusual types of measurements in Power Pivot for more experienced users!

The Sparklines tool in Excel impressed our members when it was introduced on one of our most loved webinars of the year - "How to review a spreadsheet (2022 edition)”. If you can’t get enough of Sparklines, we cover more in this tip! And it was covered alongside a number of other useful functions in our series of articles on How to review a spreadsheet.

Last but not least, Dynamic Arrays have remained a hot topic. This article summarises how charts respond to dynamic arrays, while Microsoft released a huge range of new array functions which were summarised in our Summer New Tech Features article.

With the removal of numerous paywalls for ICAEW members, 2023 will be an exciting year for all of our ICAEW Faculties and Communities. From the beginning of 2023 ICAEW members will be able to access all Excel Community content for free, and renewing ICAEW members can now join all communities for free.

We are also excited to announce our plans to hold a brand-new live event for the community. Save the date for ‘Hackathon 2023’, which will be held in Chartered Accountants' Hall in London on July 5, 2023! This will be an opportunity for Excel enthusiasts to gather, explore the latest and best thinking around Excel, and get dug in on practical, real-world Excel-based problems! 

In 2023, we intend to cover more relevant content and topics through articles and webinars to help you Excel wherever you are in your professional and learning journey. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on what you’d like us to cover, do drop us an email at Excel@icaew.com. We’d be delighted to hear from you.