The Explore feature in Google Sheets: How to use it

Most of us work with loads of data on our spreadsheets. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an assistant that can help intuitively help us with our work, so that we can speed it up? The Explore feature in Google Sheets does exactly that. It intelligently gathers the context that we are working upon, and gives us the right suggestions that might be suitable for the purpose. And its insightful suggestions include tips for formatting, charting, pivot tables etc. If we can’t find something, we can even ask for answers. No, it isn’t anything like the annoying MS Office Clippy, but rather an extremely intelligent yet reliable assistant.

Explore Google Sheets

Please note that this functionality is also available on Google Docs and Google Slides. However, we will focus our discussion within the confines of Google Sheets. We have a spreadsheet that has a sample of sales data as shown in the screenshot below. Since we are seeking contextual help, let us select one of the cells within the data range. Now, let’s click on the Explore button at the bottom right corner of the Google Sheets user interface.

On doing so, we will see a non-intrusive, floating window pane that appears on the right side of the Google Sheets user interface. We’ll notice it comes up with multiple suggestions.

The ANSWERS section

This is where we ask specific Google Sheets questions in the most human way possible, within the context of the data. It already shows us some of the questions that we might be interested in. We can either choose one of those or type our own. For instance, we tried “Which Product has the highest Sum of Units”, and here’s what it came up with.

The result displays a pivot table that lists products in order of their total units, with the highest totals at the top. Therefore, it is clear that Product A has sold the highest number of units.

The FORMATTING section

As we can see, it offers us multiple options for “alternating colors”. Although we chose just a single data cell, it automatically recognized the entire data range. Therefore, if we select one of the suggested options, the formatting will be applied to the entire data range.

The PIVOT TABLE section

Scrolling further down, we see a suggestion for a pivot table. However, if that is not what we are looking for, we can click on the MORE hyperlink within this section to see other options. Let’s say we liked a suggestion and want that pivot table. All we have to do is click the Insert Pivot Table button corresponding to the suggested pivot table. Doing that will insert a pivot table in a brand new worksheet.

It is possible that we may not see what we are looking for. In such scenarios, insert a pivot table that closely resembles what we are looking for. Insert that table, and then proceed to make changes to it.

The ANALYSIS (Charts) section

Depending on the nature of the data, the Explore feature automatically suggests the most suitable charts to use. Scrolling further down to the ANALYSIS section reveals the charting suggestions it generated. As we did in the PIVOT TABLE section, we can click on the MORE hyperlink if we don’t see the chart we like. Once the chart is selected, click the Insert Chart button corresponding to the chart you want to insert. Again, should we need to edit the chart that we chose, we can easily do so.

Note

The Explore Google Sheets feature will display suggestions that it deems relevant to the spreadsheet’s context. Needless to say, the suggestions can vary depending on the composition of the underlying data set.