Excel adds new data transformation and connectivity features in January update

The Office team announced today that Excel is getting six new data transformation and connectivity features as part of the January 2017 updates for the spreadsheet app. These new features are based on the Power Query technology, a new Excel add-in that enhances data discovery, transformation and enrichment.

The following new data transformation features can be found accessed through the Get & Transform section on the Data ribbon:

• You can now connect to OLE DB Drivers by using the new OLE DB Connector, which can be found can be found under Data > New Query > From Other Sources > From OLE DB.
• The “Combine Binaries” experience has been improved when importing from any folders, letting users combine all binaries within a folder with a homogeneous file type and column structure.
• The Navigator and Query Dependencies dialog can now be maximized or restored by using new icons in the top-right corner of the dialogs.
• Percentage data types are now supported in in arithmetical operations for Get & Transform scenarios.
• The “Function Authoring” experience has been improved by making it easier to update function definitions for functions that are based upon another query.
• The performance of the OData connector has been improved when expanding records from an OData feed.

These new updates are available now for Office 365 subscribers using Excel 2016. If you’re using an older version like Excel 2010 and Excel 2013, you can still get these new by downloading the latest Power Query for Excel add-in.