Streaming into the Spirit of Halloween

While everyone has their favorite Halloween movies, some of our favorite TV shows also have thematic episodes. These are easy watches to have on in the background while decorating, passing out treats or just setting the mood. 

From iconic costume reveals and chaotic office rivalries to spooktacular Halloween heists, the best comedy series know how to turn autumn nostalgia into pure entertainment.  

To save you from endlessly scrolling through streaming menus trying to remember which season had that one costume or plot twist, I’ve mapped out a streamable guide to the absolute best Halloween episodes across our favorite shows. Grab some corn candy and Butterfingers quickly navigate to your favorite shows and let the terrors and hilarity roll! 

 

Ghosts (US) - Paramount (or purchased on Amazon Prime)

Ghosts is one of my favorite shows, and of course a show centered around the undead is going to have some interesting twists on All Hallows Eve.

• Season 1, Episode 5: "Halloween" - Sam and Jay try to protect Woodstone Mansion from neighborhood teens who vandalize the property every Halloween. Meanwhile, the ghosts panic when Thor accidentally sets fire to the freshly renovated gazebo while trying to turn off the lights.

• Season 2, Episode 5: "Halloween 2: The Ghost of Trevor's Past" – The Woodstone spirits throw a Halloween party, and Sam and Jay try to impress some snobby neighborhood friends.

• Season 3, Episode 4: "Halloween 3: The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave" – Sam and Jay try to get rid of a persistent ghost/guest at the house.

• Season 4, Episode 4: "Halloween 4: The Body" - Sam hosts a Halloween yard sale to sell old mansion odds and ends, but chaos ensues when Patience puts Sam on trial for witchcraft.

   

The Big Bang Theory - HBO Max

The nerdy costuming of regular comic con goers meets the sexy party culture for some great Halloween hilarity! 

• Season 1, Episode 6: "The Middle Earth Paradigm" – Penny throws a Halloween costume party, where the guys all show up as different variations of The Flash (and things get wonderfully awkward).

• 
  Season 4, Episode 11: "The Justice League Recombination" – (Bonus costume episode - New Year's, not Halloween): The guys dress as the Justice League for a New Year's Eve contest at the comic book store with Penny and Zack.   

• Season 5, Episode 7: "The Good Guy Fluctuation" - Sheldon attempts to scare the guys for Halloween

• Season 6, Episode 5: "The Holographic Excitation" – Howard and Bernadette host a Halloween party at the apartment. 

• Season 12, Episode 6: "The Imitation Perturbation" - Howard dresses as Sheldon; Halloween tension

 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Peacock / Netflix

• Season 1, Episode 6: "Halloween" – The original bet between Jake and Holt that started the iconic Halloween Heist tradition.

• Season 2, Episode 4: "Halloween II" – Holt tries to get revenge after losing the first heist.

• Season 3, Episode 5: "Halloween III" – Amy takes on both Jake and Holt to prove herself.

• Season 4, Episode 5: "Halloween IV" – The precinct scrambles to win ultimate bragging rights.

• Season 5, Episode 4: "HalloVeen" – A heist full of surprises, including a life-changing proposal.

• Season 6, Episode 16: "Cinco de Mayo" – (Note: The precinct holds the heist in May since Halloween was canceled, but it keeps the true Halloween spirit!)

• Season 7, Episode 11: "Valloweaster" – A triple-holiday heist spanning Halloween, Valentine's Day, and Easter.

• Season 8, Episode 9 & 10: "The The Last Day (Parts 1 & 2)" - The final series finale heist

   

Friends - HBO Max

• Season 8, Episode 6: "The One with the Halloween Party" – Monica and Chandler throw a costume party where Phoebe dresses as Supergirl, Ross as "Spud-nik" (a potato satellite), and Chandler as a pink bunny.

 

Scrubs - Hulu

• Season 2, Episode 6: "My Big Brother" – The canonical Halloween episode where the hospital staff dresses in costumes, Dr. Kelso pulls a gorilla suit trick, and J.D.and Turk spend Halloween night at a bar wearing pig heads.  

   

Family Guy - Hulu

• Season 4, Episode 26: "Petergeist" – Peter accidentally disturbs an ancient Indian burial ground in his backyard, unleashing terrifying paranormal hauntings upon the Griffin home.

• Season 9, Episode 4: "Halloween on Spooner Street" – Brian takes Stewie trick-or-treating, Meg attends a costume party, and Peter and the guys wage a prank war.

• Season 14, Episode 4: "Peternormal Activity" – Peter and the guys try to write a horror movie at an abandoned asylum, but panic when they accidentally kill a security guard.

• Season 20, Episode 3: "Must Love Dogs" – Quagmire meets a woman who loves dogs, forcing him to pretend he owns one while trick-or-treating with Stewie and Brian.

 

The Simpsons - Disney+ / Hulu

No list of Halloween episodes would be complete without the longest running animated sitcom's storied history of horror hilarity. Nearly every season features a Treehouse of Horror Special. A few absolute standouts include:

• Season 2, Episode 3: "Treehouse of Horror" - The very first classic: the haunted house and "The Raven".

• Season 5, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror IV" - "Bart Simpson's Dracula" and Homer selling his soul for a donut.

• Season 6, Episode 6: "Treehouse of Horror V" - The legendary The Shining parody: "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy".

• Season 27, Episode 4: "Halloween of Horror" - Rare canonical, non-Treehouse Halloween story

Here is the full listing:

• Season 2, Episode 3: "Treehouse of Horror" – A haunted house turns deadly, Kang and Kodos arrive to fatten the family, and Lisa recites "The Raven" 

• Season 3, Episode 7: "Treehouse of Horror II" – A cursed monkey's paw grants disastrous wishes, Bart gains telepathic powers, and Burns builds a robot with Homer's brain 

• Season 4, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror III" – An evil Krusty doll attacks Homer, King Homer falls for Marge, and zombies invade Springfield 

• Season 5, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror IV" – Homer sells his soul for a donut, Bart spots a gremlin on the bus, and Mr. Burns is a vampire 

• Season 6, Episode 6: "Treehouse of Horror V" – Homer goes crazy at an isolated hotel, a broken toaster travels through time, and teachers eat the students 

• Season 7, Episode 6: "Treehouse of Horror VI" – Giant advertising mascots come to life, Groundskeeper Willie stalks dreams, and Homer enters a 3D dimension 

• Season 8, Episode 7: "Treehouse of Horror VII" – Bart discovers his evil twin Hugo, Lisa creates a tiny civilization, and Kang and Kodos run for president 

• Season 9, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror VIII" – Homer survives a nuclear bomb, Bart merges with a fly, and Marge is accused of witchcraft 

• Season 10, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror IX" – A killer toupee possesses Homer, Bart and Lisa enter an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, and Maggie turns out to be an alien 

• Season 11, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror X" – The family covers up Flanders' death, Bart and Lisa get superpowers, and Y2K brings apocalypse 

• Season 12, Episode 1: "Treehouse of Horror XI" – Homer tries to perform a good deed for Heaven, fairy tales get dark twists, and dolphins conquer the land 

• Season 13, Episode 1: "Treehouse of Horror XII" – A gypsy curses the family, an ultra-smart home falls in love with Marge, and Bart attends wizard school 

• Season 14, Episode 1: "Treehouse of Horror XIII" – Homer uses a magical hammock to clone himself, gun-control ghosts attack, and Dr. Hibbert turns people into animals 

• Season 15, Episode 1: "Treehouse of Horror XIV" – Homer becomes the Grim Reaper, Frink reanimates his dad, and Bart and Milhouse stop time 

• Season 16, Episode 1: "Treehouse of Horror XV" – Flanders predicts deaths, Victorian Eliza Simpson hunts Jack the Ripper, and the family explores Mr. Burns' body 

• Season 17, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XVI" – A robot boy replaces Bart, Mr. Burns hunts humans for sport, and a costume party curse turns adults into real monsters 

• Season 18, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XVII" – Homer becomes a giant gluttonous blob, a Golem terrorizes town, and Orson Welles' alien hoax comes true 

• Season 19, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror XVIII" – Bart and Lisa harbor a stranded alien, Homer becomes a celebrity hitman, and Flanders hosts "Heck House" 

• Season 20, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XIX" – Homer kills celebrities for advertising rights, Milhouse awaits the Grand Pumpkin, and giant transformers battle 

• Season 21, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XX" – Classic movie monsters clash, tainted burgers turn Springfield into zombies, and Moe brews a theater-themed musical beer 

• Season 22, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXI" – Board games come to life, Homer and Marge rescue a strange passenger, and Lisa falls for a young vampire 

• Season 22, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXI" – Board games come to life, Homer and Marge rescue a strange passenger, and Lisa falls for a young vampire 

• Season 23, Episode 3: "Treehouse of Horror XXII" – Paralyzed Homer communicates via gas, Flanders turns into a Dexter-style vigilante, and Bart enters an alien avatar world 

• Season 24, Episode 2: "Treehouse of Horror XXIII" – A black hole swallows Springfield, a demon stalks the house, and Bart time-travels to 1974 

• Season 25, Episode 2: "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" – Homer goes on a Dr. Seuss rampage, Bart's head is sewn to Lisa's body, and a 1930s circus hides dark secrets 

• Season 26, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXV" – Bart and Lisa visit Hell school, Stanley Kubrick films get parodied, and the modern Simpsons meet their 1987 Ullman-era selves 

• Season 27, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" – Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart repeatedly, Homer becomes a giant Godzilla-style monster, and three kids gain superpowers 

• Season 28, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXVII" – Kids fight in a battle royale, Sarah Wiggum turns out to be an undercover agent, and Lisa's imaginary friend kills people 

• Season 29, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" – A possessed book controls Maggie, Lisa enters a Coraline-style world, and Homer turns into a cannibal 

• Season 30, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXIX" – Plant aliens invade Springfield, Lisa suffers from multiple personalities, and senior citizens turn into dinosaurs 

• Season 31, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXX" – Milhouse gets trapped in an upside-down dimension, dead Homer shifts into new bodies, and Selma marries a sea creature 

• Season 32, Episode 4: "Treehouse of Horror XXXI" – Homer sleeps through Election Day with terrible consequences, a toy world turns dark, and Homer gets trapped in a time loop 

• Season 33, Episode 3: "Treehouse of Horror XXXII" – Trees seek vengeance, Homer retells a dark Bambi story, and a creepy book haunts Marge 

• Season 34, Episode 6: "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII" – Marge fights a demonic picture book monster, Lisa uses a death notebook to target criminals, and a Westworld-style park collapses 

• Season 35, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror XXXIV" – Bart gets turned into an NFT, adult Lisa consults Sideshow Bob to track a killer, and infected beer creates zombies 

• Season 36, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror XXXV" – Political rage spawns giant kaiju monsters, Victorian Mr. Burns is haunted by ghosts, and Homer is possessed by alien jeans

• Season 37, Episode 3: "Treehouse of Horror XXXVI" – The town is menaced by a mysterious, murdering monster from out of the sewers

Bonus Standalone Horror Specials:

• Season 27, Episode 4: "Halloween of Horror" – Homer and Lisa defend the house from angry Halloween pop-up store employees

• Season 31, Episode 8: "Thanksgiving of Horror" – A holiday trilogy featuring turkey massacres, an AI Marge, and a cranberry sauce space monster

• Season 34, Episode 5: "Treehouse of Horror Presents: Not It" – A full-length Stephen King parody where Krusto the Clown terrorizes young Homer and friends

South Park - HBO Max / Paramount+

• Season 1, Episode 7: "Pinkeye" – A space station crash causes a zombie outbreak that the town doctor mistakes for pinkeye. 

• Season 2, Episode 15: "Spookyfish" – Aunt Flo buys Stan a killer goldfish while Cartman's polite, goatee-wearing evil twin appears from a parallel universe.

• Season 3, Episode 10:"Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" – The rock band Korn helps the boys solve a Scooby-Doo-style mystery involving pirate ghosts haunting the docks.

• Season 10, Episode 11:"Hell on Earth 2006" – Satan throws a lavish MTV My Super Sweet 16-style Halloween party in Los Angeles while the boys summon Biggie Smalls.

• Season 16, Episode 12: "A Nightmare on Face Time" – Randy buys a deserted Blockbuster Video and slowly loses his mind Shining-style while Stan tricks-or-treats via iPad. 

• Season 21, Episode 6: "Sons a Witches" – The men of South Park hold their annual drinking ritual in the woods dressed as witches until a real witch attacks the town. 

• Season 22, Episode 5: "The Scoots" – E-scooters invade South Park on Halloween night, threatening to wipe out the town's entire candy supply. 

• Season 23, Episode 5: "Tegridy Farms Halloween Special" – Randy brews a special Halloween strain of weed while Butters falls victim to a haunted museum exhibit. 

 Bonus/Borderline Halloween-Adjacent Episodes

• Season 17, Episode 4: "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" – The Goth kids fight back when Emo kids start turning everyone in school into "posers".

• Season 24, Episode 1: "The Pandemic Special" – Randy hosts a special "Special" event with Halloween-themed decorations and antics throughout the town.

 

Modern Family - Hulu

• Season 2, Episode 6: "Halloween" – Claire turns the Dunphy home into a haunted house, but everyone's personal chaos threatens her elaborate plans.

• Season 4, Episode 6: "Open House of Horrors" – Claire is forced to tone down her terrifying pranks while Phil tries to host a Halloween open house.

• Season 6, Episode 6: "Halloween 3: AwesomeLand" – Phil takes over decorating duties with an "AwesomeLand" theme, while Jay wants to dress up as Prince Charming.

• Season 8, Episode 5: "Halloween 4: The Revenge of Rod Skyhook" – Luke throws a Halloween party that falls flat until the family steps in to save it.

• Season 9, Episode 5: "It's the Great Pumpkin, Phil Dunphy" – Phil and Claire realize their kids are outgrowing their obsessive love for Halloween.

• Season 10, Episode 5: "Good Grief" – The family navigates Halloween night after receiving unexpected, bittersweet family news.

• Season 11, Episode 5: "The Last Halloween" – Phil plans a terrifying scare for Claire, and the family celebrates their final official Halloween together.

   

Community - Hulu

• Season 1, Episode 7: "Introduction to Statistics" – Annie throws a Halloween party for extra credit, where Jeff tries to romance his professor while dressed as Batman.

• Season 2, Episode 6: "Epidemiology" – Tainted military surplus taco meat turns Greendale's Halloween party into a full-blown zombie outbreak set to ABBA's greatest hits.

• Season 3, Episode 5: "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" – Britta gives the study group psychological evaluations, prompting everyone to tell their own personalized campfire horror story.

• Season 4, Episode 2: "Paranormal Parentage" – The study group visits Pierce's eerie mansion on Halloween to find his emergency panic room code.

 

The Office (US) - Peacock / Netflix

• Season 2, Episode 5: "Halloween" – Michael has to fire someone by the end of the day while wearing a two-headed paper-mâché costume.

• Season 5, Episode 6: "Employee Transfer" – Pam is the only one in costume (Charlie Chaplin) at the corporate office.

• Season 6, Episode 8: "Koi Pond" - Includes the famous deleted cold open where Michael hosts a haunted house in the warehouse

• Season 7, Episode 6: "Costume Contest" – The office competes aggressively for a coupon book.

• Season 8, Episode 5: "Spooked" – Erin tries to throw an adult Halloween party for Andy.

• Season 9, Episode 5: "Here Comes Treble" – Andy's old acapella group visits, leading to tension with Dwight in a pumpkin head.

 

Parks and Recreation - Peacock

• Season 2, Episode 7: "Greg Pikitis" – Leslie wages war against her teenage prankster nemesis on Halloween night.

• Season 4, Episode 5: "Meet 'n' Greet" – April and Andy host a chaotic Halloween house party.

• Season 5, Episode 5: "Halloween Surprise" – Features Ben's iconic proposal to Leslie.

• Season 6, Episode 7: "Recall Vote" – Leslie tries to distract herself from local politics with a haunted house

 

 

The Good, The Bad and The Kickass: Expectations of Microsoft Excel 2013

Since I pretty much live in Excel, I get excited by new features that I find useful, and disheartened by oversimplification (read, stupidification) of tools and analysis; it's a very personal thing for me because I work so closely with it.  Computers are very smart, and in a lot of ways smarter than humans, but there are some things that humans can see and do that computers are just not developed enough yet to get; it is for that reason that analysts like myself are empowered by Excel's tools, while people less skilled at Excel and data analysis cannot replicate our work by simply trying to make Excel "go". 

I will really only be able to evaluate Office 365 after it is forced upon me at work and have been working in it for a while, and really, a better evaluation could result from getting used to Office 365 and then having to go back to Office 2007.  I recently made a similar move when I changed companies; I've gotten so good and comfortable in Excel 2007 and my new company currently has Excel 2003, so I'm having to re-learn how to do things in that old format (the menus like File, Edit, Data, and Insert were replaced with ribbons in 2007).  Not only am I having to find where the functions are again, I have a feeling of being handicapped because I try to use the features of 2007 and then realize I can't (filter by color, filter by multiple values with checkboxes), so then I have to find workarounds. 

The good news is that I just discovered my company would be moving forward with Office 365 in the new year, and that means, at a minimum, I should (I hope) regain the functions I have become used to in Excel 2007.  But upon hearing the news, I decided to take a peek into what we can expect in the coming year that goes beyond what I'm familiar with in Excel 2007.  So, without further ado, based on what I've seen and read about Excel 2013, here's my analysis.  

The Good

 

The most immediately useful and intriguing function I noticed is called Flash Fill.  The way Microsoft explains it, it is "like a data assistant that finishes your work for you."  They use vague, colorful terminology to describe it, but what I see it as is like an automatic VLOOKUP, with a twist that the lookup table is inherent in the data and does not exist elsewhere.  That is impressive and exciting for a few reasons: (1) people who suck at or forget how to use VLOOKUP will get immediate benefit, (2) people who are good at VLOOKUP will save time, (3) files can be smaller and less complex by not requiring lookup tables to exist in the files, and (4) where files would have referenced tables on a specific user's computer, those files are less likely to get corrupted or have non-evaluating formulas because the lookup tables are not needed.  It is a bit scary that, from a programmer's perspective, we're no longer in control of or prescribing exactly what the values should be, but exciting if it actually works intelligently.  This does not mean that VLOOKUP is dead, it will definitely have a very important role, but perhaps needed a bit less with the advent of Flash Fill.  Only time will tell how helpful this feature really is.  

"One workbook, one window" shows great insight on Microsoft's part into how users actually deal with multiple workbooks, recognizing the need for ease across multiple monitors and comparing workbooks.  It will be a big time-saver and reduce frustrations with Excel.  This is low-hanging fruit that Microsoft went after and I applaud them for doing so. 

Animation in charts is probably more of a gimmicky thing than anything else, but I still like it a little.  It's very Apple-kind-of-sexy-feeling, and may help real analytics in a small subset of scenarios of which it is used. 

The idea of using multiple tables and relationships may be a good one, but my guess is that most users won't get that deep.  This sounds a little like they're directly attacking Access and integrating its database operations into Excel.  This is going to make Excel more of a monstrosity than it already is, and perhaps push Access towards obsolescence.  Personally, I like the separation of the tools.  Excel is very good at x, y and z, and Access is good when you need more than that.  By blurring the lines, we are looking at Excel becoming much more complex and difficult to follow, bigger less manageable files, and much more technical skills required to be an Excel guru.  And I could just see scenarios all over the place of where you suddenly find that you do actually need Access, and it will probably require a whole restart on relationships and logic and will cause people to miss deadlines.  Still, I'll reserve my judgment and suffice it to say that this could be a nice feature in a pinch, and used on a small scale, will be a helpful time-saver in lieu of a quick VLOOKUP here or there.

Thankfully, Microsoft heard our cry on number format.  In Excel 2007, the ribbon contained a quick way to format numbers as Accounting, but to get Currency you had to go the long way.  This annoyed the frick out of me, and I'm glad to see they have wisened up.  Another good addition is better Conditional Formatting and "Sparklines".  In Excel 2007, Conditional Formatting was cumbersome at best, and wrong at worst.  Assuming this enhanced Conditional Formatting works, it will be a strong analytic tool as well as a nice visualization.  

 

The Bad

PivotTable recommendations make me shudder.  Who are these people who would go to create a PivotTable and not know what summary data they are after?  If I'm dealing with a sales spreadsheet, then I'm going to summarize sales by product grouping and time periods or a salesperson.  If I'm dealing with part counts, then my summary data is going to be a count of the number of parts.  My fear is that this will get in the way of doing real work on PivotTables, and at best it was a waste of development time and effort on Microsoft's part. 

A new file format?  Again?  I haven't encountered anyone saying that they wish their Excel files would save in an ISO8601 date format, yet Microsoft has introduced a new file format to do just that.  If I had been advising Microsoft, I would have told them to steer clear of new file formats, and instead offer, as they rightfully did, a function to convert the dates. 

Microsoft is using their updated save feature to push their cloud storage solutions.  I'm sure they are obligated by marketing to do so, but it's in poor taste in my opinion.  They are being a little Apple-licious and closed-minded.  Most companies already have shared drives or SharePoints and will default to continuing to use those.  It'll be one of those features that is always in the way and in your face but highly ignored. 

I have a few nested formulas that I use on a regular basis, and it would be great if Microsoft created single functions that did what my nested functions do.  So I had to take a peek at what new functions were coming out, and I was wholeheartedly disappointed.  Lots more niche math, trig, statistics and engineering functions have been added, which I feel are just going to convolute the function world.  We need more business stuff, and I'm not talking financial, I'm talking useful.  Nobody in business cares about the hyperbolic cosecant of a complex number.  I get spell check errors just writing the description down!  There are a few nuggets of goodness (with caveats) that I will credit them with:  

• IFNA function - this does replace my nested formula IF(ISNA(... and takes it to a new level of efficiency and simplification.  I initially thought this would be a direct replacement of what I was doing, but upon further examination, it is much better.  See, the downfall of my IF(ISNA(... nested formula was that it invariably contained a complex VLOOKUP as the argument for the ISNA function, and then I had to not only specify what to use if the VLOOKUP evaluated to #N/A, but then I had to repeat (usually by copying and pasting) the VLOOKUP for the "else" part of the IF function.  IFNA does away with that duplication.  Genius!  Just enter the argument to evaluate in as the value, and it will return the value of that argument unless it evaluates to #N/A, in which case it returns your value_if_na.  
• FLOOR.MATH function - this rounds a number down to the nearest number of significance, which is interesting.  CEILING.MATH is the version that rounds up, and is also new to Excel. 
• DAYS function - I thought this already existed, but upon further inspection, it was NETWORKDAYS that I was thinking of.  DAYS gives you the number of days between two dates, while NETWORKDAYS gives you the number of work days between two dates.  Regardless, the ability to calculate the number of days between two dates is already available; just subtract one from the other.  Microsoft's website did not define whether the DAYS function would treat the dates as integers or have a decimal element when working with dates that have time elements.  To make matters worse, NETWORKDAYS uses the syntax (start_date, end_date) while DAYS uses (end_date, start_date).  This is a jarring oversight.  The only redeeming feature of the DAYS function is that it converts date-like strings automatically, whereas without the function you'd have to use DATEVALUE to do so. 
• ARABIC function - I just had to highlight this one because it makes me laugh that its new and that its opposite, ROMAN, has existed and been flying solo at least since 2003.  It makes me think of the Super Bowl, because that's the only time I ever see Roman numbers.  So for those of you who need to figure out what Super Bowl number we're on, you can now get it from Excel 2013.  In other words, =ARABIC(XLVIII) evaluates to 48, but only in the new version of Excel. 
• BASE function - The best way I can explain this is with an example: how do you convert a number to binary?  Binary has a base of 2, so with this new function, you can type in =BASE(7,2) to convert 7 to binary, with the result of 111.  Base 16 would be hexadecimal, but only programmers to my knowledge use that.  That's probably true of binary, too, but at least more people know and understand it. 
• SHEET and SHEETS functions - this is very telling that programming-minded people are demanding more of Excel.  These functions have existed for years in the less-traveled recesses of Excel's Visual Basic macro programming, but are finally being given the light of day in Excel 2013.  An obvious and well-founded move on Microsoft's part. 

Some functions I still have to use nested formulas for are things like what I would call CONTAINS.  You can filter on Contains and Does Not Contain, but you can't create a simple formula to do the same.  I'd like a =CONTAINS(target_cell,search_string) that is true or false, and an =IFCONTAINS(target_cell,search_string,value_if_true,value_if_false).  Today, I have to use a series of IF and FIND functions to do this.  STR or STRING to convert a number to a text format is another idea I see in the programming world that would be well-suited in Excel formulas.  Instead, I use =LEFT(target_cell,40) where 40 is some number of characters much larger than what I anticipate the number of characters actually being. A WEEKOF or STARTOFWEEK function would replace my slightly painful =date_cell-WEEKDAY(date_cell)+2 to get the Monday at the beginning of the week for a given date.  STARTOFMONTH would replace =DATE(YEAR(date_value),MONTH(date_value),1).  There is some possibility that Flash Fill will do some of these, but I'm not positive yet.  I would rather have hard-coded formulas that I know how to operate than have to trust a hokey, artificially intelligent algorithms which I don't understand or have any control over. 

As far as charting, there is one dire chart that still does not and cannot exist in Excel, even with workarounds, and that is one with side-by-side bars with internal stacked groupings.  That is, if I want a chart of all my inventory by category, and see what type of inventory it is (i.e. slow-moving, obsolete, high-runner), I need two or more separate charts, one for the total and one for each category or just type of inventory.  What I want is one chart with vertical bars side-by-side representing the primary grouping, each with the ability to show sub-groupings as stacked bars.  The stacked bars are like making a pie chart out of each major bar.  This type of chart would instantly be a big hit, if they only thought to create it.  Why, Microsoft, can you create intelligent things like Flash Fill but not give us a simple enhancement such as this?  

My rendering of what a bar chart with stacked subgroupings might look like.  In this example, within the "Vegetable" category there might be "Spinach" in dark green and "Carrots" in orange, and within the "Fruit" category there is "Apples" in red and "Bananas" in yellow.  You get both the total from each category as well as the breakdown within each category.

Histograms have been available for several iterations of Excel, and I presume will continue to exist, but hidden in the shadows of the Statistical Analysis feature.  I wish Microsoft would put Histograms as a predominant chart type, because they are so telling and powerful in business.  Until such time, the Histogram will continue to be my secret weapon.

 

The Kickass 

 

We have a new term called Slicers.  Not all users will understand this immediately, but I'm excited about it.  It is a way to "slice" the data, or filter it, probably in chunks rather than individual, painstaking filters.  It sounds like there is some setup to it, which is good news, because this is not something I would want the computers of today to try to guess at for me.  I suspect this will be one of my favorite new features.  Future enhancements will undoubtedly create automatic Slicers, just like we are now seeing automated guesswork done for charts and basic summary data, and I think it's wise to let the users create them first and then build the automation logic based on that. 

What Microsoft's page calls "Richer data labels" I call beautiful.  Having had to go back to Excel 2003 (temporarily, thankfully), I have been constantly reminded of how far we've come with our chart graphics, and this is absolutely the next step.  The look and feel of it is just so right.  It claims that they will stay in place when you switch to different types of charts, which is a relief if you've ever perfected a chart only to have to change one thing and have all your beautiful formatting get reset.  I am stoked to see more beautiful data labels. 

I'm going to return to Flash Fill for a moment, because there is a unique application that goes beyond VLOOKUP-type functionality, and this is perhaps the more ingenious aspect.  It can be used to "Split" a column of data.  Imagine you get an Excel sheet with names in one column, but they are first and last name all in one cell, and you need the first names in one column and the last names in another column.  What I've always done thus far is use some combination of string functions like =LEFT(cell_with_name,FIND(" ",cell_with_name)-1) for the first name and =MID(cell_with_name,FIND(" ",cell_with_name),40) for the last name (which assumed no middle names and thus was incorrect when more than two names were present).  I always thought they would create a formula which would find FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME, but instead, they made it even smarter.  Flash Fill will guess, based on the context of what you start typing in the column one over from the combined names, and if you accept its assistance, does the heavy lifting for you.  Now that is cool.

While Microsoft didn't readily spell it out for me, I'm seeing something called PowerView which is mega enhanced charting.  Finally a better pie chart (and not just the dumb old pie chart in 3D)!  However, this seems to be a premium feature, and does not come with standard Office 365. 

Quick Analysis is another feature I will definitely be playing with.  I don't know exactly all the ins and outs yet, but look for this to help summarize tables of data quickly and easily.  



All in all, I'm excited about what Office 365 brings to my Excel experience.  There is nothing devastatingly different like the transition from menus in Excel 2003 to ribbons in Excel 2007, but certainly a lot of goodness and some annoying things that we'll just have to look beyond.