Here’s a little behind the scenes on the new Copilot course. There’s so much you can do with Copilot these days, so before planning what goes into the course, I sent out a survey with one main question:

"What’s one task that takes you too long every week that you’d love to hand to Copilot?"

1,773 people answered.

We went through the answers, grouped them by the task people wanted help with, and (in Excel) counted.

Most of it wasn’t about using AI better, like writing better prompts. It was about specific tasks people want to hand over. Many were Excel related, but plenty were outside Excel too, like clearing the inbox after a day off or working across multiple apps. We grouped these into 34 topics.

Then we looked at what Microsoft had released recently. Some of it, people didn’t even know to ask about yet. And sometimes they’d asked for something that had just arrived. A lot of people wanted reports that refresh when new data comes in, and Microsoft had just released a Copilot option for exactly that. So of course, that one made the cut. That’s how the course came together.

There’s quite a bit happening behind each lesson. I plan it, prep the datasets and record it. Then it gets edited and goes through three reviews before it goes on the course platform. That’s where the subtitles and course files are added, plus the text under each lesson, like things to watch out for or other prompts to try.

The Copilot in Excel part is 99% done. We’re finishing the last 1% on Monday, and on Tuesday it opens to insiders. If you’d like to get the email about it next week, join the list. The Microsoft 365 part goes live later, inside the same course. Once those lessons are ready, they’ll pop up in your course dashboard.

Oh, and if you’ve got a pile of open-ended feedback sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere, there’s a lecture on getting Copilot to make sense of it 😉

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🤓 Geeky News

💻 Windows 11 gets better at sharing its desk

If you’re working on a laptop with 8 GB of memory, Windows just got a bit faster.

Microsoft says the newest update makes everyday clicks, like opening Start, Settings or File Explorer, up to 20% quicker. Jumping between lots of open apps is up to 40% faster in their lab tests.

The secret is how Windows uses memory. Think of memory as your desk. Anything on the desk is quick to grab. Anything in the drawer takes longer to fetch. Windows now packs less-used stuff more tightly so more of it fits on the desk. So the Excel file you left open an hour ago is less likely to make you wait when you come back to it.

There are two smaller changes too. Edge now puts tabs you’re not using to sleep after 15 minutes instead of two hours. And Widgets only loads when you actually open it.

To get it, go to Settings > Windows Update and look for version 26H2.

Good news for everyone who keeps 30 tabs open “just in case.”

I can’t help but wonder if the AI-driven RAM shortage has something to do with Microsoft’s sudden love for 8 GB laptops...

🌈 Google catches up in Sheets and Gemini

Two small but handy updates landed in Google Sheets.

​Box and whisker charts. These charts show how your numbers are spread out: the lowest, the highest, the middle, and anything that looks odd. Before, you needed extra formulas to build one.

Now you just select your numbers and Sheets does the math for you. Even better, if you open an Excel file with one of these charts in Sheets, the chart no longer disappears.

​Compact layout for pivot tables. You can now put all your row fields in one column, with little buttons to expand or collapse each group. It saves a lot of scrolling sideways.

Personally, I’m not a fan of compact layout. In Excel, it’s the first thing I change. I always switch to tabular or outline, so each field gets its own column and the table is easier to read and reuse. But if you like compact, Sheets now has it, and it stays that way when you move files between Excel and Sheets.

Gemini also got a bunch of updates in Google Workspace (mainly for paid accounts):

• Meeting recaps in Google Chat. If Gemini takes notes in your Meet call, a short summary now shows up in the meeting chat when the call ends. It includes key decisions, action items with owners, and links to the notes and recording.
• Edit a whole deck in Google Slides. One prompt can now change fonts, colors or content across every slide. For example, “Make all titles the same size and color.”
• Create and edit files in the Gemini app. Ask for a tracker, a doc or a slide deck, preview it right in the chat, make changes, then open it in Sheets or Slides.

If this sounds familiar, Copilot users have had most of these for a while. The AI race is on, and Google is playing catch-up.

🤔 Did You Know?

You can open Copilot in Excel without reaching for the mouse. Just press Alt + C. It works whether Copilot sits as the floating button in the bottom corner or you’ve moved it to the ribbon. And if you’re using the floating button, F6 jumps straight to it too.

👏 A separate skillset

Yamel is a data analyst in the finance industry. She completed Business Charts in Excel and shared this:

Yamel Marshall Senior Analyst

Before taking the course, I struggled with data visualization and storytelling. I found selecting the right visual challenging. I also had no idea how to go about highlighting data points that were noteworthy. I knew this was a separate skillset that I needed to develop, and that led me to enroll in this course. ​ I couldn’t be more satisfied with the content. I am certainly better equipped to build insightful dashboards and reports after completing it. The immediate win for me is that I have gained the knowledge needed to generate better reports. I have no doubt that the impact of this course will be significant in my career.

Congrats, Yamel!

Working with finance teams, I saw this a lot. The numbers were rarely the hard part. The hard part was getting people to see what mattered in them, before they flipped to the next slide.

See you next week,

Leila

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