This stops the filter chaos


Shared Excel files are great until your whole team needs to work on it at once.

You filter for your tasks. Your colleague filters for theirs. Now your filter's gone.

You filter again. They filter again. ๐Ÿ˜ค

It's like fighting over the TV remote, except it's a spreadsheet so more annoying.

The fix: Sheet View.

Go to View tab > Sheet View > New.

You'll notice the column and row headers change to black.

Give it a name. This way you can reuse it later. Just type over the "Temporary View".

Now filter and sort however you want. Everyone else sees their own view. No more filter wars.

When you're done, just Exit or go back to Default view.

Next time you open the file, select your view from the dropdown and all your filters apply instantly.

You can create multiple views this way, to tackle data from many directions.

It's a lifesaver when working on shared task lists or project trackers.

But fair warning: it can be buggy. 8 times out of 10 it works great, but I also had it override the default view on exit. ๐Ÿคจ

Speaking of learning new tricks, mark your calendar for March 14th:

Global Excel Summit Community Day

โ€‹Global Excel Summit Community Day is back. Completely online. Completely FREE.

It's a day when the Excel community comes together

You can expect:

  • Expert-led sessions with live Q&A
  • a live Excel battle (yes, Excel is an eSport)
  • special appearance by the reigning Excel World Champion - Diarmuid Early
  • plenty of opportunities to interact and network with fellow Excel fans

It runs from 9 am to 8 pm GMT on March 14th. Jump in for an hour or stay all day.

Zero cost. Just register (seats limited).

If you've been putting off learning something new because courses are expensive or you're not sure where to start, this removes every excuse.

This is your chance to get inspired.

๐Ÿค“ Geeky News

๐Ÿ’ป Windows pulls back on AI

Microsoft admitted Windows 11 went off track in 2025. Too many bugs. Too much AI shoved into places it didn't belong.

Now they're hitting the brakes. They're cutting back Copilot in built-in apps like Notepad and Paint. Some features might get removed entirely. Others might lose the Copilot branding.

The shift happened after users made it clear they weren't happy. When the Windows president posted about turning Windows into an "agentic OS" in November, thousands of negative replies forced him to turn off comments.

Microsoft's now focusing on what should have mattered all along: making Windows stable, fast, and reliable.

The AI retreat isn't just happening at Microsoft.

๐ŸฆŠ Firefox gives you the kill switch

Firefox just added an AI controls page in their Nightly (preview) version. You can toggle individual AI features or use the "Block AI enhancements" option to shut everything off at once.

It covers page translations, PDF text generation, AI tab grouping, link previews, and sidebar chatbots.

Mozilla says they're giving people control. But these features are still opt-out, not opt-in. And the settings page is arriving months after the features rolled out.

Firefox is also testing split-screen mode and tab notes. Split-screen lets you open two pages side by side in the same window. Tab notes let you add reminders to specific tabs.

Meanwhile, Google's going the opposite direction.

๐ŸŒˆ Google doubles down on AI search

Google AI Overviews now lets you ask follow-up questions. Click "Show more" and a chat box appears at the bottom where you can keep asking.

They're also upgrading to their Gemini 3 model for better responses.

The catch? Data shows 26% of users stop browsing at the AI Overview. That's up from 16% with traditional search results. That's 26% of people trusting AI without checking the sources. ๐Ÿ‘€

๐Ÿค” Did You Know?

The fastest way to apply a filter to your Excel range:

Ctrl + Shift + L

It's a toggle. Ctrl + Shift + L to apply a filter. Ctrl + Shift + L to remove it (and unfilter the data in the process).

If your mouse needs a break, open the filter menu with Alt + Down arrow. Move around with arrow keys. Check and uncheck filter options with Space.

๐Ÿ™Œ Forever? Literally took just minutes

Congratulations to Matt on completing Python in Excel for the Real World!

Matt's a Connections Planning Engineer who'd been trying to wrap his head around Python in Excel since it launched. Powerful tool, but overwhelming. Random videos only helped a little.

Then this:

It's amazing to see him already building solutions that work and save him time & effort.

That's the beauty of Python in Excel - it fills the gaps that this (already powerful) tool had. And when you can achieve something faster or easier, why wouldn't you?

Have a great week ahead,

Leila

When you're ready, here are some ways we can help:

๐ŸŽ“ Join 400,000+ members in our coursesโ€‹

๐Ÿ“บ Get free tutorials on YouTubeโ€‹

๐Ÿ‘ฅ Train your whole team with our courses. Team pricing and progress tracking - reply for details.


This newsletter contains affiliate links, which give us a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Leila Gharani - XelPlus

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

Read more from Leila Gharani - XelPlus

You import a CSV in Power Query... Dates have errors. Numbers won't calculate. What just happened? Here's what's usually happening. Your computer is reading the file with your regional settings. So if your CSV uses commas as decimal separators (like 1,5) but your system expects dots (like 1.5), Power Query gets confused. Same with dates. Is 04/05/2025 April 5th or May 4th? Depends on where you are. The fix: Change Type Using Locale. But here's the part that trips people up - order matters....

Let's say you're waiting for colleagues to submit the latest data. You need to check if the files came in. And if the data is complete. So you start opening files one by one. It's tedious. And completely avoidable. When Microsoft released the new IMPORTCSV function, I wasn't ready to throw Power Query out the window. It still handles far more sources and does things this new function simply can't. But it got me thinking. What if you could peek at a CSV without fully loading it? Just enough to...

Excel's chart formatting menu is dangerous. Not because it's bad. Because it gives you too many options. And some of them have no place in a professional report. Take this social media trend: pasting images directly into your chart bars. Looks creative. Gets lots of views on YouTube. But would you put that in front of your manager? In just a few extra clicks, the same data can look like this: Same logos. Matching brand colors. Just used with intention. ๐Ÿ‘‰ Watch: How to build this chart in just...