Microsoft Excel
Excel can now hold a list of items in one cell. Create lists with Ctrl+J, filter by a single name, and summarize them with FLATTEN, UNIQUE, SORT, and COUNTIF.
Chrome can show two tabs side by side in one window. Right-click a tab, choose Add tab to new split view, and pick the second tab. Here is how to start it, exit it, and swap sides.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot can create images from a prompt. Start from Apps and more > Create or from a new chat, open the result in the image editor, and refine it with a follow-up prompt.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Already built a PowerPoint presentation without your organization's template? Attach the template to Copilot, prompt it to apply the template to the existing deck, then review the slides for layout and content accuracy.
Microsoft Copilot
Join Chris Menard live on October 20 at noon ET for a hands-on look at six new Copilot Skills in PowerPoint. No registration required.
Microsoft Excel
A full day of hands-on Excel with the UGA Terry College Executive MBA class, from essential skills to break-even analysis and the three financial statements.
Microsoft Excel
Copilot Chat can see your screen and hear you at the same time. Start a voice chat, share your Excel window, and ask for highest, lowest, totals, averages and rankings out loud — no typing, no formulas.
Microsoft Excel
Working with a large data set? Turn on Defer Layout Update in the PivotTable Fields pane, arrange every field you need, and apply all the changes at once with a single click on Update.
Microsoft Copilot and Excel Advanced sessions - Gaylord Opryland Resort
Microsoft 365, Copilot, Excel, and Teams tips and training from Microsoft MVP Chris Menard.
It was a pleasure presenting my Microsoft 365 Copilot training sessions at APC 2026 at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to the two Copilot sessions that I ran, we also ran two advanced Excel sessions. More than 300 people attended each of my two Copilot sessions on September
Chris Menard's Session on Monday, September 14, 2026
The COPILOT function retires on September 14, 2026. I ran three real data tasks — sentiment ratings, ZIP code extraction, and address cleanup — through both the function and the Copilot Dynamic Action Button (DAB) in Excel to see what you actually lose.
The Create interactive slides skill in PowerPoint Copilot turns a table, an Excel workbook, or plain slide content into a clickable slide with filters, live totals, and swapping visuals — and it all works in normal editing view.
Copilot in Excel has two features that let you customize how it behaves: Personalization and Workbook Rules. Both are great on their own, but if you use both, an obvious question comes up — what happens when they conflict? Which one does Copilot actually listen to? I ran four hands-on
Microsoft is rolling out a small but genuinely useful update to Excel: when you create a new Table, you can now name it right in the Create Table dialog box — instead of accepting the default "Table1" and renaming it later (or, more likely, never renaming it at all)
Turn a flat list of names and departments into a column per department that updates on its own. UNIQUE pulls the distinct departments, TRANSPOSE turns them into headers, and FILTER drops the right names underneath each one.
RIP =COPILOT(): Why Microsoft Is Retiring Excel's Newest Function Before It Ever Really Took Off. If you've been playing around with the =COPILOT() function in Excel, mark your calendar: September 14, 2026 is its last day. Microsoft quietly updated its support documentation with the retirement notice,
The same XLOOKUP built two ways: against a plain range with absolute references, then against named tables with structured references. See why the table version survives new data without an edit.
If you're not using live captions in Teams meetings yet, here's a quick rundown of what's possible — it's more customizable than most people realize. Why Turn On Live Captions? Live captions in Microsoft Teams are one of the most underused features in
Microsoft Copilot's new Prepare for questions skill in PowerPoint reads your whole deck and predicts the objections your audience will raise, with slide-level evidence for each one.
Join me live on Thursday, August 6th at noon ET as I walk through the newest features in Microsoft 365 Copilot — no registration required.
