The files I used to have in my corporate job were pretty large. Like 40+ sheets. Some had more.

I used to dread opening one of these during a presentation. Someone would ask me to pull up a specific sheet. And I'd be scrolling... checking... scrolling...

It wasn't fun.

Then someone showed me a simple click to see all the tabs in one place. I'd been using Excel for 10 years by that time and had NO CLUE this existed.

That's just one of 4 methods I cover in this week's video, including one that makes your workbook look like an app. You'll be amazed how simple it is.

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🔽 Download the file to get inspired.

Turns out Excel can be pretty user-friendly when you want it to be.

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📲 Learn on the go (even offline)

Did you know you can watch XelPlus courses on your phone using the Teachable mobile app?

And here's the best part: you can download lessons and watch them completely offline.

Flights. Long commutes. Or like Aneta, one of our members, shuttling kids around to after-school activities.

How to get started:

1. Open your app store and search for "Teachable online courses" (works on both iOS and Android)
2. Download the app and log in with the email you used to enroll in the course
3. Select XelPlus Academy by Leila Gharani and pick your course

Your progress syncs automatically across all your devices. Start a lesson on your computer, finish it on your phone.

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🤓 Geeky News

🤖 Agent Mode in Excel now on desktop (but not for us in the EU yet)

Microsoft just made Agent Mode generally available on Windows and Mac. It was already on Excel for the web since December, but now it's in the desktop app too. At least outside EU and UK.

What's new: you can now choose between OpenAI's GPT 5.2 and Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 models. Microsoft says different models handle different tasks better, so they're letting you pick. They've also added web search with source citations.

Unlike the "standard" Copilot experience (Agent Mode also requires a Copilot license), Agent Mode is supposed to be self-sufficient. You describe the desired end result, it figures out how to get there. No chatting, just doing.

My initial experiments (back when it was still in preview) didn't blow me away. Microsoft claims it's much more reliable now.

We'll have to see... I'm a Claude fan, so I'm curious to test that option when it finally rolls out here.

🤖 Anthropic published Claude's constitution (promises not to destroy humanity)

Speaking of... Anthropic just released Claude's constitution. It's the rule book for how their AI model should behave.

The big priorities: be helpful, be honest, be safe. Don't help anyone build bioweapons. Don't undermine human oversight. Pretty standard "please don't go rogue" stuff.

They also admit there's a gap between what they want Claude to do and what it actually does. Training is hard. They'll make mistakes and "hopefully correct them."

Well, that's... reassuring?

The constitution is released under Creative Commons, so anyone can use it. Check out the whole 80 pages if you're curious. Or ask Claude to summarize 👀

🌈 Google is killing Gmailify and POP email fetching

In non-AI-related news...

​Google's shutting down two email features this month: Gmailify and POP fetching.

Gmailify let you connect non-Gmail accounts (Yahoo, Outlook, AOL) and get Gmail's spam filtering, smart inbox sorting, and search. Not anymore.

You can still read non-Gmail accounts in the Gmail mobile app. But you lose the spam filtering and inbox organization that made Gmailify useful.

POP fetching pulled emails from other accounts directly into your Gmail inbox on desktop. The alternative is to set up automatic forwarding with your other email provider. It works, but it's an extra step.

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🙌 "They ask for my help now"

Big congrats to Francisco on completing Excel Essentials for the Real World.

Years of Excel experience... But like most of us, he learned by copying whatever solution someone showed him once. That became the way. Forever.

Francisco Eiras Product Engineer

Excel is not new to me, but I thought that I missed some of the Excel fundamentals because when I started using it more than 30 years ago, we did not "have time" to learn the background; we went directly to the solution taught by someone who knew a little more than us. And that solution became the solution forever, even if there exist dozens of different ways to do it, some of them even better. With this course, I get the basis to explore new things. I know some things more than my colleagues, and they are the ones who ask for my help/advice now.

30 years in, and he's still finding better ways. Well, same here. I'm still learning new things too.

See you next week,

Leila

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