Formula Completion Files and Copilot Function files
Masterminds Copilot Implementation - June 17, 2026
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How to Show Meeting Chats in Their Own Section in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams lets you pull all your meeting chats into their own dedicated, collapsible section in the chat list. Here's how to turn it on and move it where you want.
My Microsoft Teams Course Is Getting a Full Refresh — Here's What's Changing
My Microsoft Teams online training is getting a full revamp by July 28, 2026 — a current-look rebuild, better-organized lessons, written steps with every video, more quizzes, and live streams for students.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Updates: Smart Suggestions, Docking, and Shortcut in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
New Microsoft 365 Copilot updates in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint: smart suggestions on hover, docking the button to the far right, the Alt+C shortcut, and the upcoming Dock to the Ribbon option.
Excel COPILOT Function: Advanced Prompts with Real Examples
Push the Excel COPILOT function with five advanced prompts on a real sales dataset — regional totals, ranking, category comparisons, and finding the top improver by dollars and by percentage — plus how to verify every answer.
Full-Day Excel 365 Training — Coweta County | June 15, 2026
Hands-on Excel Training with Chris Menard | Microsoft MVP
Dollar Cost Averaging vs. Lump Sum Investing: A Side-by-Side Excel Comparison
Two people can put the exact same amount of money into the market and still end up with different numbers of shares — and different returns when they sell. That comes down to how the money goes in. The two methods are lump sum investing and dollar cost averaging, and I
M365 Copilot Work IQ Explained (Free PowerPoint Download)
Free PowerPoint presentation from Chris Menard - Microsoft MVP
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat's New Look: How Work IQ Replaces the Work and Web Toggle
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is getting a redesign, and I got it early at the end of May. This is the layout that rolls out to all users in July 2026, with an opt-in toggle available in June if you want to try it sooner. If you use Copilot
Excel Power Query vs. Manually Fixing Data: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Clean one messy Excel dataset two ways — manually and with Power Query — to see exactly when each approach saves you time.
Auto-Reschedule Conflicting Meetings with Copilot in Outlook
If you have a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license, there's a genuinely useful new calendar feature in Outlook: automatic meeting rescheduling. When a conflict arises, Copilot detects it and moves the meeting for you — no manual back-and-forth required. Here's exactly how to set it
How to Add Checkboxes in Excel with Claude AI (and Count Them with COUNTIF)
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 Now Has a Muted Chat Section: How to Enable, Use, and Disable It
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
Find and Remove Duplicates in Excel: 3 Methods with UNIQUE, VSTACK, and TEXTJOIN
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
Excel Conditional Formatting: Highlight Rows Where Spend Goes Over Budget
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
How to Use Claude in Excel to Clean Messy Data (Step-by-Step Walkthrough)
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
How to Use Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork to Build Word Docs, PowerPoint Decks, and Outlook Emails in One Prompt
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
Microsoft Word
How to Use the Copilot Legal Agent to Redline Documents in 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
Microsoft Excel
Excel Copilot Got 3 Updates: New Icon Location, Preview Mode & Anthropic Claude Models
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
APC Conference - Sep 2026 - Chris Menard's Full Schedule
September 13-16, 2026 in Nashville, TN
Microsoft Excel
Claude in Excel: Cross-Sheet XLOOKUP and Building a Data-Validated HR Spreadsheet from Scratch
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.
April 2026 Blog Roundup: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, Excel, and Word
Chris Menard - Microsoft MVP
Wispr Flow: AI Dictation That Removes Filler Words Automatically
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
Microsoft Excel
Fix Blanks in Excel Data with GO TO SPECIAL and the COPILOT Function
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