Microsoft Excel now converts your photos to digital spreadsheets

Microsoft is rolling out a feature that allows users to add data to Excel directly from a photo. — AFP Relaxnews

Microsoft has recently begun rolling out a new AI-powered feature that will import the photos of tables and charts that you take with your phone camera into an Excel spreadsheet.

At Microsoft Ignite in September 2018, the company announced that we will soon be "saying goodbye to manual data entry", and according to the Office 365 team, those farewells can now finally begin. The Excel app can now convert camera pictures of tables and charts into fully editable digital spreadsheets.

The new "Insert Data from Picture" function uses image recognition technology to import printed data tables into Excel where they can be modified and used as necessary.

This feature began rolling out for Android devices this weekend, and support for the iOS Excel is coming soon.

More new features coming to the Office platform this month include improved security via a threat-hunting service and new security alerts, improved communication between teams through notification prioritising in Microsoft Teams, and better compatibility between desktop and app platfroms with Desktop App Assure. – AFP Relaxnews