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
Microsoft Excel
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.
Microsoft PowerPoint
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)
Microsoft Excel
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,
Microsoft Excel
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.
Thoughts, stories and ideas.
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.
Microsoft Teams video clips now record your screen and run up to five minutes. Here's where the feature lives, how to set up the camera bubble, and how to trim, send, and download the clip.
If you spend your day in Microsoft Teams meetings, get ready for a noticeable change. Microsoft is rolling out a redesigned meeting experience that simplifies the meeting toolbar, makes screen sharing safer, and gives users more control over the arrangement of meeting buttons. The goal is straightforward: reduce accidental clicks
The FILTER function spills back only the rows that match a condition. Three worked examples: filter by quantity, combine SORT with FILTER for sorted results, and build a between filter with two conditions.
Reply to email faster in Outlook with Copilot — use one-click suggested drafts for quick replies, or the Copilot task pane and Draft Assistant when you need to add details, cities, and venues the sender never mentioned.
July 15, 2026 - Chris Menard has been named a Microsoft MVP for the second year in a row, recognized for his work in Microsoft 365, Copilot, and Teams. Here's what the award means and how he's giving back to the community.
Microsoft Teams now lets you test your microphone and speaker right from the join screen. Here's where the Test mic and speaker link is and how to run both checks in seconds.
Windows 11 includes a free screen recorder inside the Snipping Tool. Here's how to record your screen with audio, choose the capture area, check your microphone, and save or share the result.
Use Copilot in the new Outlook and Outlook on the web to add 30-minute prep blocks and 15-minute hold blocks around your calendar events — with one specific prompt.
Microsoft 365 Copilot users are noticing a major change: the model picker no longer shows options like GPT‑5.5 and other models.
