A friendly desktop app for everyday Excel tasks — built for people who have never used Excel formulas.
Big buttons · Plain English · Live preview · Undo that always has your back
- 🖱️ Point-and-click — no formulas to memorize; every button does the work for you
- 👀 Live preview — the table updates instantly after every click
- ↩️ Undo — reverses the last change (last 5 steps kept)
- 📄 Real Excel output — real formulas and real formats that work in Excel, WPS and Google Sheets
- 🛡️ Safe by design — your original file is never modified; you work on a copy
- 🎓 Practice data included — no file? Load a sample invoice or ledger and learn
- Install Node.js (one-time, only needed on a new PC)
- Clone or download this repository
git clone https://github.com/hackerzfx/Excel-Helper.git cd Excel-Helper - Double-click
Start Excel Helper.bat - The window opens (first start takes a few seconds while dependencies install)
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| 📂 Open Excel File | Pick any .xlsx file on your computer |
| 🧾 Practice Invoice / 📒 Practice Ledger | Load ready-made data to learn on |
| ⬇️ Download Result | Save your finished file with a normal Save As dialog |
| ↩️ Undo | Reverse the last change |
The big table in the middle is a live preview. Click a sheet tab to view other sheets. If the file changes on disk (e.g. you edit it in Excel), the preview refreshes automatically.
- Make the header row — bold white text on a colored background, centered and frozen while scrolling
- Add borders — around the whole table, or a range like
A1:E20 - Number format — money (₹ $ € £), thousands commas (
1,234.56), percent, or dates - Align a column · Auto-fit column widths · Style a column
- QTY × RATE — adds a new column with real formulas like
=B2*C2 - Totals & stats — SUM / AVERAGE / MAX / MIN / COUNT written below the column as a live formula
- Freeze formulas as values — same as Paste Special → Values
- Fill serial numbers — 1, 2, 3… down a column
- Decimal places — add or remove one decimal place
- Add Balance column —
balance = amount − paidas real formulas. Tick running balance to carry each row forward — perfect for cash books and ledgers.
Try it:
- Practice Invoice → QTY × RATE → SUM → Make the header row
- Practice Ledger → Add Balance column (Debit as amount, Credit as paid)
- Sort the table — A→Z or Z→A by any column. Formulas in rows are converted to plain numbers while sorting so nothing breaks. Rows with an empty cell in the sort column (like a Total row) stay at the bottom, just like Excel.
- Add filter dropdowns — arrow buttons on every header when opened in Excel
- Quick find — highlights matching rows (preview only)
- The preview shows the first 150 rows × 40 columns, but Download always saves the complete file.
- Everything written is genuine Excel — no proprietary formats.
npm run distBuilds a portable Excel Helper.exe. The packager is downloaded once (~200 MB).
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| "Node.js is required" | Install Node.js and run the .bat again |
| Window doesn't open | Wait for the first-run install to finish, then run the .bat again |
| Preview says file is locked | The file is open in Excel — close it there; the preview refreshes automatically |
| Button shows an error | Read the red message — it says exactly what's missing. Undo restores the last step |
Start Excel Helper.bat double-click launcher
main.js Electron main process (window + dialogs)
preload.js safe bridge: port + native dialogs
server.js embedded API server (127.0.0.1)
excel/
├── operations.js all 14 operations
├── formula_eval.js tiny Excel formula calculator
├── practice_data.js practice invoice & ledger
└── workbook_store.js current file, undo, live preview state
verify-engine.js self-test
Run the self-test:
node verify-engine.jsIssues and pull requests are welcome. Please run node verify-engine.js before submitting a PR.