Microsoft Excel
I wanted to see whether Claude inside Microsoft Excel could handle something visual instead of a formula: adding a column of real, clickable checkboxes. One short prompt, no fiddling with Form Controls — that was the test. Here's how it went, plus the manual fallback and the formula I
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams just added a new Muted section to the chat list that automatically groups your muted meeting chats. Here's how to turn it on, how it behaves, and the one limitation to know about.
Microsoft Excel
Finding duplicates, highlighting them, and removing them is something I do all the time in Excel. There's no single best tool for the job — the right approach depends on whether your data has a unique identifier, whether you need to compare one list or two, and whether you
Microsoft Excel
Use a formula-based conditional formatting rule with a mixed reference to highlight every row where the spend column exceeds the budget column.
Microsoft Excel
I wanted to see how well Claude in Excel can actually clean data — not just a row or two, but a genuinely messy spreadsheet with broken dates, inconsistent states, extra spaces everywhere, dollar signs glued to text, and possible duplicates lurking in the rows. So I built a fictitious order
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft Copilot Cowork is the most exciting addition to Microsoft 365 Copilot I have used in a while. It is a multi-step agent that works across Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and your other apps at the same time — give it one prompt and it can search your mailbox, build deliverables in
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Copilot in Word has a great new feature that just rolled out: the Legal Agent. It can review a contract, leave clause-level comments, and apply insertions and deletions with track changes — all from a prompt inside Word. I am not an attorney, so consider this a demo of the
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Copilot in Excel just picked up three updates I think you'll want to know about. I caught these on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, and they change how I use Copilot day to day. Let's walk through each one. Update 1: The Copilot Icon Moved Out
public speaking
September 13-16, 2026 in Nashville, TN
Thoughts, stories and ideas.
Two real tests of the Claude add-in for Excel: a cross-sheet XLOOKUP profit calculation, and building an HR spreadsheet from scratch with data validation dropdowns, hidden source lists, and dynamic tables.
Chris Menard - Microsoft MVP
One of my favorite productivity tools right now is Wispr Flow. It's an AI dictation tool, but it does a lot more than just transcribe what you say. It strips out filler words automatically, handles mid-sentence corrections, and even formats your text into bullet points when it thinks
Every serious Excel user should have Go To Special in their toolkit. It is one of the fastest ways to find blanks, formulas, constants, or other specific cell types in a worksheet — and it pairs beautifully with the new Excel COPILOT function when your data needs more than a quick
Extra spaces are one of the most common data problems in Excel — leading spaces, trailing spaces, and the trickiest of all, extra spaces in the middle of words. The TRIM function handles all three. But what happens when you switch to Power Query for a larger data cleanup? Power Query&
Microsoft Teams has rolled out new recap features for recorded meetings that work with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Alongside the AI summary and transcript we have had for a while, there is now a Custom summary section with three options — Speaker summary, Executive report, and Create template — plus an
Microsoft 365 Copilot can summarize a Word document in seconds, and it is one of the most popular features for licensed users. What is not obvious is that the summarize experience differs between Word Desktop and Word for the Web. The summary itself is identical in both, but Word for
Copilot in Excel can create PivotTables in seconds, and that is great for basic summaries. But when you need calculations that go beyond what a PivotTable can show — median, second highest, third highest — functions are the better approach. Here is how to use Copilot for both, and when to choose
I'll be presenting in-person on M365 Copilot at the APC Conference on September 13-16, 2026, in Nashville, TN. Updated on 4/13/2026
Videos cover M365 Copilot, Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Teams
By default, pressing Enter in a Microsoft Teams chat sends the message immediately. If you have ever accidentally sent a half-finished message, there is now a setting to change this behavior so Enter starts a new line instead. The Default Behavior In the default Teams configuration, typing a message and
Change was originally scheduled for April 15, 2026. Moved to May 16, 2026.
