Solve the cube every time


I've been teasing an unconventional project for a while...

Well, it's finally here!

Dive with me into the world of Rubik's cubes. And let's solve one together.

If solving a Rubik’s cube feels impossible, this technique makes it easy for beginners. Promise.

Then read on to learn how you can register for my upcoming webinar (on Excel, not cubes πŸ˜‰).

🟨🟦πŸŸ₯🟩🟧⬜

Solve Rubik's Cube in 7 Steps

My son got me hooked. You know I love a challenge and I love to learn new skills.

But most tutorials out there were too technical and difficult to follow.

Algorithm this, algorithm that...

So I broke it down in a way that I was able to fully understand.

This is the framework that worked for me.

I tested it on my team when they were here in Vienna, and it worked on them too!

So now it's your turn.

Let's get cubing...

video preview​

Some cube facts:

  • last year it celebrated the 50th anniversary (invented in 1974 by a Hungarian architect, Erno Rubik)
  • in this time, about 500 million cubes have been sold worldwide (as of Jan 2024)
  • the classic 3x3x3 cube can be scrambled into approximately 43 quintillion combinations 🀯
  • the current world record, set in 2023 by Max Parks, is 3.13 seconds 🀯🀯🀯

I'm a long way from any record 😁 but it's still satisfying to solve it.

As with any skill - whether it's Excel, or Rubik's cube - mastery is all about practice.

So get practicing! 😁

To help you along, we also prepared a handy cheat sheet.

Know someone with a cube collecting dust? Share this with them. Trust me, they’ll thank you.

🟨🟦πŸŸ₯🟩🟧⬜

Join me for a Live Webinar

Are you ready to work smarter in 2025?

Next Thursday, January 16th, I'll be hosting a webinar showcasing the tools that transform how you use Excel.

If you missed the webinar in December, this is your chance to get caught up.

See how you can use AI and non-AI tools in Excel to save time and get ahead.

I'm planning more webinars this year. I'm excited about a lot of topics that I'd like to share with you.

πŸ€“ Geeky News

πŸ‘¨β€βœˆοΈ Improve your Copilot prompts with images in Word and PowerPoint

You can now add images to your Copilot prompts in Word and PowerPoint.

Simply paste or upload the picture and provide the instruction. For example:

  • extract text from an image
  • identify key takeaways from a chart or table
  • ask for suggestions on how to improve content
  • generate alt text.

By including images, you're making your prompts clearer. This should get you exactly what you need faster.

🌈 Generate AI images from other images using Google Whisk

In Google's latest AI experiment, you don't even need words. Whisk from Google Labs lets you create new images using only pictures as prompts.

You provide (or randomly generate) pictures to represent the subject, scene and desired style. Whisk will then combine them in a new AI-generated image.

You can provide more detail using text prompts, but it's not required. You can also refine the image with additional instructions.

Whisk uses the latest version of Google's Imagen 3 image generation model and it's currently available in the US.

πŸ‘₯ Microsoft Teams updates for 2025

Teams is getting some updates in early 2025. Keep your eyes out for:

  • Copilot file summary in chat: AI summaries of documents shared via Teams to quickly get the gist, especially on the go.
  • Copilot to analyze content shared on screen during meetings
  • Live transcription for multiple spoken languages
  • Intelligent recap for unscheduled meetings: more meeting types support Copilot summaries + recap translations.

(We've started using it in our team meetings and I must admit - Copilot is really good at cutting out the fluff and leaving only the action items. The AI summaries are quite useful. As long as we remember to enable meeting transcript at the start πŸ˜…)

  • Loop workspace in a channel: an easy way to give everyone on the team access to the workspace.
  • Name pronunciation in user profile: Frustrated with colleagues mangling your name? Record and share the correct pronunciation.
  • Microsoft Places (in Teams Premium): AI-powered solutions for hybrid work.

πŸ‘ Power Stories

Congrats to Sophie for completing Fast Track to Power BI! I'm glad you enjoyed the journey 😊

Wishing you many exciting BI projects ahead!

Got a success story about using your XelPlus skills? I’d love to hear it! Hit reply to share the details, and inspire other students πŸ˜‡

See you next week,

Leila

Want more?

▢️ Subscribe on YouTube

πŸ–‡οΈ Follow us on LinkedIn

πŸ₯‡ Join 400,000+ students in our courses

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Leila Gharani - XelPlus

XelPlus is a leading online education company, providing training courses for Excel, Power BI, Finance, and Google Sheets. XelPlus’ bestselling courses are popular among financial analysts, CFO’s, and business owners. Technology is changing fast. We help our members turn confusion into confidence with every skill learnt.

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