After more than two decades of constant development, Microsoft has turned its Office collection of software into the world’s most popular productivity suite. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have become the go-to applications for word processing, spreadsheet management, and presentation design, respectively. But sometimes, it’s easy to find yourself struggling with these programs’ standard interface. This is especially true for those working in more technical fields. To further customize your Microsoft Office experience, here are just some useful add-ins you can take advantage of:
Consistency Checker: Lessen Mistakes and Inconsistencies
When the stakes are high, consistency is a crucial factor for creating professional Excel and Word documents. Consistency checker is a free add-in that allows for a more reliable way to find formatting and uniformity mistakes in your texts. Specifically, it weeds out errors in hyphenation, spelling, use of numbers, and more. These features allow anyone to focus less on squinting for minor errors and concentrate instead on polishing their document’s content.
ASAP Utilities: An All-Around Excel Upgrade
This add-in is known as one of the most downloaded by power users of Excel. It fills many gaps in the software with over 300 additional features. Just some of its new capabilities include easier number recognition, protecting multiple sheets, and more advanced sorting options. These features are even more useful for users of older versions of Microsoft Excel.
ToolsToo: Make PowerPoint More Intuitive
Even though the PowerPoint has become a standard for creating presentation slides, its interface isn’t the most user-friendly. Specifically, placing and adjusting elements isn’t the most fluid, with some functions that are frequently used together being divided among different tabs. With ToolsToo, arranging your slides’ visual elements becomes much easier. That’s because everything is filed under its own tab in the main ribbon. This allows for much easier access to PowerPoint’s most frequently used tools—improving overall workflow.
PowerPivot: Data Consolidation Made Easier
Users with Excel 2016 and newer will find this useful feature included from the start. But for those with 2013 and older, PowerPivot is also available as an add-in from Microsoft. Its main use is to extend an instant of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Tabular, which is then embedded into your workbook. This essentially turns Excel into a self-service business intelligence (BI) platform—making it indispensable for more complex data analysis.
Oomfo: Personalize Your Presentations with Charts
Another PowerPoint add-in, Oomfo is a smart PowerPoint add-in that helps add visually striking charts to your slides. Its streamlined interface allows for a DIY approach to transforming raw data into eye-catching and unique visualizations. What makes this add-in stand out even more is the use of specialized chart styles such as Waterfall, Pareto, Marimekko, Funnel, and Pyramid. They can even be animated for additional visual impact.
In Conclusion
Though Microsoft Office provides great user experience out of the box, add-ins provide extra flexibility to an already-popular collection of applications. If you find yourself having some trouble with the standard software, consider the above add-ins for a more personalized and productive experience.
