The good thing about Excel is formulas update automatically. Change an input, the output adjusts. Ok. You know that.

But what if you want the output to be a specific number. What should the input be?

Let's say, your boss is standing right by your shoulder, staring at your spreadsheet. "We need to reach $2,500 in revenue this month. How many units do we need to sell?"

You could keep tweaking the units cell until you get close. Guess, check, guess again. Pleasant enough if you're alone. Not so much with your boss watching. Or if you're short on time.

Goal Seek does this for you.

Tell it the result you want, and it finds the input that gets you there. Even when that output depends on more than one calculation, which you've probably run into before.

👉 Here's how to set it up​

🤓 Geeky News

🔍 Windows Search is getting less pushy

Microsoft is reworking the Windows Search Box. Apps, files, and settings are now prioritized over web and Store suggestions when they're the stronger match. You can even toggle web and Store suggestions off entirely if you just want your own stuff.

The results get clear labels (app, file, setting, or web). It's also more forgiving with typos, and apparently less likely to crash.

Rolling out to Insiders in the Experimental channel.

💬 Copilot in Microsoft Forms gets a real chat pane

​Copilot in Forms now works like it does in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. A proper chat pane, grounded to your form, instead of just a refinement bar. It can review your form for gaps or conflicting settings, bulk-edit questions, apply branching logic, and dig into your responses for you, follow-up questions included.

Rolling out now to Microsoft 365 commercial Copilot users. Consumer Copilot subscribers keep the older version for now.

📊 Google Sheets now imports 3D bar charts properly

Google Sheets used to flatten 3D bar charts into 2D when you imported a file. Not anymore. Import one from Excel or elsewhere, and it stays 3D.

Question is: why. 3D charts shouldn't exist in the first place. The extra dimension distorts the proportions and can flat out mislead whoever's reading it. I hope you already know better than to use them.

So no, Google. Supporting them properly isn't the flex you think it is. 🙄

👏 A matter of minutes

Elisabeth works as a Fiscal Analyst for a nonprofit. She knows the feeling of a boss asking for something out of nowhere.

She completed Fundamentals of Financial Analysis, so she was ready:

Elisabeth Schmidt ​ Fiscal Analyst

My boss randomly asked me for a revenue grid for one of our programs over the past few years, and thanks to this course, once I had the data, I was able to whip together a line chart in a matter of minutes that gave a visual representation of the data.

Congrats, Elisabeth. Nice when a random ask turns out to be no big deal.

Microsoft MVP for another year

July is the month for Microsoft MVP renewals. Many thanks to Microsoft for recognizing me as MVP for another year. I can't believe it's 10 times already! Time really does fly.

Many thanks to you for watching my tutorials, commenting and sharing your feedback.

Our graphic designer is away this month, so I created this image using Microsoft Designer. The last time I used Designer was 6 months ago and it drove me nuts.
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It's improved a lot and you don't need additional AI credits for most things like you did before. The interface is intuitive so I was able to figure things out mostly on my own.
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I did have to use ChatGPT to figure out how to add other elements, like the MVP logo and the background. The Microsoft documentation online was outdated and the buttons were no longer there. You'd think you could drag and drop from Windows Explorer to add elements, but no. It's copy and paste. Anyhow, sometimes it's good to be curious and revisit the tools you dismissed before. Things are changing fast.

See you next week,

Leila

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

🎓 Join 400,000+ members in our courses​

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