As promised last week, a test version ("beta release 0.0.b“) of the pi Add-ins for Excel is available.
Willing users who want to test a copy and provide me with feedback on points for improvement, performance and error messages can register via the contact form of pi-ProductivITy (please state on which system and with which version of Excel the test would take place). In exchange, you will receive a free license to the pi Add-ins (including updates and additional functions that will be released during that period) for at least 2 years.
Before going into more detail about what is already available and what kind of additional functions you can expect, there is first one regrettable observation that I must share in all transparency: last week it turned out that suddenly (for an as yet unexplained reason) the developed applications completely crashed Excel on M1 Macs. I've reported this to Microsoft, but haven't heard of an explanation (let alone a suggestion for a solution) yet.
Pending a response from Microsoft, operation on ARM-based Macs (the so-called “Apple Silicon”) has been suspended. Only Intel-based Macs can run it for the time being. Tested on a MacBook Air from 2015 (with 4GB RAM), the software appears to be running very well.
Already available today :
- Date picker (see article from 2021-11-19 already describing this feature)
- Improved crosshair application : it now works without further need of making any changes to your existing worksheets (see article from 2021-10-08 describing the initial approach)
- Built-in shortcuts always at hand instead of in a PDF (see article from 2021-10-29)
Some functions in the making:
- Automatically add a table of contents in a workbook (with possibility to sort worksheets by name and to update the table of contents ... without adding macros to the existing workbooks;
- Auto-complete missing values or formulas in data tables;
- Own functions for use in your worksheets (for manipulating text data, for generating or recognizing prime numbers, for working with file names and path names, ...
- Other suggestions for scenarios where an automated tool would come in handy are always welcome.
In time, there will also be a "cleaning module", which will clean up a workbook in terms of unused "custom formats", broken "conditional formatting" rules, broken name definitions, ...
