I find this to be one of Excel’s best-kept secrets.

After 40 years of cool new features (yes, Excel has a birthday coming up 🎂),

this one still ranks in my top 5 favorites.

Number formatting is capable of things most people have no clue about - instantly and without affecting the underlying data.

🎥 Watch this new video to see how you can use a simple number formatting trick to:

• Hide values
• Scale numbers on the fly (millions or thousands)
• Create instant alerts (without conditional formatting)

​

🤓 Geeky News

✈️ Edge experiments with Copilot Mode

Microsoft is testing a new Copilot Mode in Edge.

Open a new tab and you’ll get a clean page that blends chat, search, and web navigation all in one.

If you opt in, Copilot can access all your open tabs and assist with research, comparisons and decision-making.

(Good luck making sense of Anna's 500 open tabs 😅)

There’s also a new “Actions” feature with voice navigation, and Microsoft hints it could eventually handle tasks like making bookings for you.

It’s free for now, but the announcement makes it sound like a paid plan is on the horizon.

🌈 Google organizes the web with AI

Not to be outdone in the AI experiments arena, Google's Search Labs is launching Web Guide.

Instead of showing results by popularity, it uses the Gemini AI model to group them into related categories, making complex, open‑ended searches easier to explore.

Behind the scenes, Web Guide uses a fan‑out technique: it splits your query into smaller pieces and runs multiple searches at once.

The results are (supposedly) more relevant clusters of traditional links (no AI Overview here). It combines the old-school search with new AI enhancements.

If you’re curious, you’ll find Web Guide under the Web tab, but only if you opt in.

🤖 GPT-5 is here

OpenAI just launched its latest AI model - GPT-5.

At the same time, it's retiring its older models, promising even better coding and writing results from GPT-5, and fewer hallucinations. We'll have to see...

For harder problems, it uses a deeper reasoning model, called GPT-5 Thinking. ChatGPT now automatically swaps the models to fit the task at hand.

The paid accounts can still manually switch between GPT-5 and GPT-5 Thinking.

You can now also customize your ChatGPT experience, from accent colors, to chatbot "personalities".

You can choose between 🤨 "cynic", 🤖 "robot", 👂 "listener" and 🤓 "nerd", in addition to the default style.

GPT-5 is also coming to Copilot.

​

💚 My Favorite Shortcut

Ctrl + 1 has a special place in my heart.

Because it’s not just a way to format numbers (though: hello, custom formats 👋).

It’s also where you’ll find:

• Alignment: including the hidden gem Center Across Selection (so much better than Merge & Center)
• Borders: forget clunky built‑in table styles - design your own
• Protection: lock your sheet down like a pro

A lot of use in a single shortcut.

​

👏 Still leveling up

Some people finish their MBA and call it a day.

Not Alec.

He went back to the fundamentals - not because he had to, but because he wanted to truly master them.

Concepts, which once felt abstract, now make sense in a whole new way.

If you’ve ever struggled with formulas or wanted to feel more confident in financial tasks, Alec’s journey is proof:

real growth happens when you revisit the fundamentals with the right guidance.

Congrats on your new Financial Analysis badge!

See you next week,

Leila

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