What's new in Excel 2016 for Windows

Excel 2016 for Windows has all the functionality and features you're used to, with some added features and enhancements. If you purchased Excel 2016 without an Office 365 subscription, you get all of the features listed under "September 2015" at the bottom of the page. If you are an Office 365 subscriber, you get the features listed under "September 2015," plus all other updates as well. Keep in mind that updates first roll out to Office Insider participants, and later to consumer and commercial Office 365 subscribers. If you have an Office 365 subscription, make sure you have the latest version of Office.

Easier background removal

We've made it easier to remove and edit the background of a picture. Excel automatically detects the general background area; you no longer have to draw a rectangle around the foreground of your picture. The pencil for marking areas to keep or remove can now draw free-form lines, rather than being limited to straight lines.

Updates for Get & Transform and the Power Query add-in

• Support for the same file extensions in Text and CSV Connectors:We have revised the list of supported file extensions in the From Text and From CSV connectors. Browse and select any text (*.txt), comma-separated value (*.csv), or formatted text space delimited (*.prn) file, as the first step of the import flow for both connectors. Switch to the “All files (*.*)” filter option to import data from any other unlisted file. 
• ODBC and OLEDB Connectors – Support for “Select Related Tables”: We have enabled the Select Related Tables button in the Navigator dialog, when using the ODBC and OLEDB connectors. This option, which is already available for other relational data sources, allows you to easily select tables that are directly related to the set of already selected tables in the Navigator dialog. 
• Enhanced Folder Connector – Support for “Combine” from the Data Preview dialog: In a previous update, we shipped a set of enhancements to the “Combine Binaries” experience. We've made further improvements to the feature this month. You can combine multiple files directly from the folder Data Preview dialog within the Get Data flow, without having to go into the Query Editor. Use the Combine or Combine & Load options to further refine your data before loading it into the Data model.
• “Change Type Using Locale” option in Column Type drop-down menus inside Query Editor: In the Query Editor, you can view and modify column types using the Column Type drop-down menu in the preview area. With this release, we have added the Change Type Using Locale option to this drop-down (previously available when you right-click on the column header > Change Type > Using Locale). This option specifies the desired column type and locale to use for the conversion, and changes how text values are recognized and converted to other data types, such as Dates, Numbers, etc. 
• “Insert Step After” option in Steps pane inside Query Editor: Use the new context menu option in the Query Editor window to easily insert new steps in existing queries. Insert a new custom step right after the currently selected step, which can be the final step or any previous step within the query.