{"id":899,"date":"2013-08-28T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vm-officeblogs.cloudapp.net\/2013\/08\/28\/creative-and-unexpected-uses-of-excel\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T10:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T17:25:54","slug":"creative-and-unexpected-uses-of-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2013\/08\/28\/creative-and-unexpected-uses-of-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative and unexpected uses of Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things that is incredibly satisfying about working on the Excel team is seeing how people use Excel in unbelievably cool and unexpected ways for work and for fun. There have been a few great examples of this floating around the internet and the news recently, and I thought I\u2019d share a few of my favorites.<\/p>\n

Pixel spreadsheet<\/h3>\n

The bright minds over at Think Maths have developed a tool that lets you turn a digital photo into an Excel spreadsheet<\/a> with the clever use of the conditional formatting feature in Excel.\u00a0 If you ever wanted to convert your photo collection into Excel pixel art, now you can!<\/p>\n

\"Excel<\/p>\n

To learn more, visit Think Maths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Slaying dragons like an Excel boss<\/h3>\n

Accountant Cary Walkin from Canada built an entire role playing game (RPG) leveraging the power of macros in Excel.\u00a0 You can download the game and even modify it for free here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 The game has over 2,000 enemies, a variety of weapons, and even spells.<\/p>\n

\"ArenaXlsm<\/p>\n

Learn more about the game at Facebook.com\/ArenaXlsm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Excel art<\/h3>\n

We have certainly seen a lot of Excel art over the years, but Tatsuo Horiuchi in Japan creates some very impressive pieces leveraging shapes and illustrations tools built into Excel.\u00a0 Imagine what you could do for your next budget review!<\/p>\n

\"Tatsuo<\/p>\n

Take a look at some Horiuchi creations here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come to the rescue<\/h3>\n

One of my favorite cartoons growing up is now available within Excel.\u00a0 Reddit user Hoguemr <\/a>had some downtime at work and created this awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animation by leveraging VBA and Macros in Excel.\u00a0 Cowabunga!<\/p>\n

\"Teenage<\/p>\n

See an animated GIF with the beloved TMNT here<\/a>.\u00a0 You can also download the original file<\/a> from SkyDrive.<\/p>\n

Let us know in the comments what other cool and creative uses for Excel you have seen or invented!<\/p>\n

–Carlos Otero, Excel Program Manager<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things that is incredibly satisfying about working on the Excel team is seeing how people use Excel in unbelievably cool and unexpected ways for work and for fun. There have been a few great examples of this floating around the internet and the news recently–here are some favorites. 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