M365 Changelog: Performance Improvements in Excel for the Web

MC239095 – Our mission is to enable fast, smooth, coherent, and delightful experiences for our customers in Excel for the web. Through recent performance improvements we’ve reached a significant milestone toward these goals, and with this update, end users will see this reflected in their Excel for the web. This change will positively impact several usage scenarios including opening workbooks, navigating within a workbook, and general Excel for the web user interface navigation.  

In response to customer feedback, this represents the next set of improvements targeting performance in Excel for the web. This communication is to share changes we’ve made that customers are asking for, and to let you know Microsoft continues to make ongoing investments in Excel for the web performance and improves the end user experience.

When this will happen

Microsoft is on a pathway to add functional and performance improvements to Excel for the web starting with performance improvements in scenarios: Loading, Scrolling, Selection, Navigating & Modifying. Look for more improvements in the coming months.

How this will affect your organization

When using Excel for the web, the following scenarios have been optimized for performance:

• Loading – We’ve significantly reduced the time it takes to load a workbook, making it faster for you to start working in Excel for the web.
• Scrolling – Scrolling is a fundamental part of working in Excel. Now, even in incredibly complex sheets, scrolling is smooth and fast.
• Selection – Even more fundamental than scrolling, is the need to interact with content in your workbook. We have optimized the speed of cell selection, so you’ll experience less lag and a more fluid experience when working in the grid.
• Navigating – We optimized several navigation actions: find/search, Go-To, page-up and page-down are all now faster.
• Modifying – We developed faster cell editing and formatting experiences.

What you need to do to prepare

You may want to notify your helpdesk to make them aware of these improvements, and to prepare them in response to Excel for the web performance related helpdesk calls.