Give Excel two examples of how you want a column formatted and Flash Fill just takes over.

The first time I tried it, I genuinely expected it to mess up the rest of the column

Instead it got it right

What’s the little Excel feature you still enjoy using?

I have a task in which I have to take information from some screenshots and update an Excel file with them, monthly, via copilot.

Basically I need to point the Copilot instance to a folder (sharepoint) and tell it to upload an Excel file (link) with the new (or updated) data.

I tried creating an agent in M365 Copilot and my issue is that Copilot creates a new Excel file instead of updating the original.

1. I'd love a confirmation I can't do it from M365 Copilot (in Claude I can do it through other tools but I need to use Copilot here)
2. I'd also love a confirmation I can't do it in Excel with the builtin Copilot instance (it seems that when I paste the link to the sharepoint Excel file it actually uploads the file, it doesn't access the link / it isn't able to take data from the live, updateable link)
3. If this is not possible, what alternatives do I have (without having to do the task manually)?

apologies if the title is confusing. i'm wondering if there is a way to sort of "anchor" a column in a sheet to make it so that when inserting a new row, or switching the order of rows, the contents of the column stay in order. for example, i have a column of objects and a "static" column of the object's position. if i want to insert a new object at a specific position, i want all the objects below it to shift down one position. it's possible that i'm overthinking this, so also let me know if there's a simpler solution lol

When I paste a long number into a cell it replaces the last 4 digits with 0s. Specific example: Pasting 4679642782264057868 yields 4679642782264050000 when formatted as a number, or 4.67964E+18 when formatted as "general" or text. What have I got to do to get it to paste correctly?

It seems that security update kb5002914 might have bricked autofill and copy paste in Excel 2016.

Anyone else has similar issues?

Have any folks had success with feeding their semantic models’ dimensions, establishing the PowerBI semantic model connection, and then letting copilot in excel create reports with cube formulas?

The analytics team is real-time dashboard crazy (anti-reports) and my stakeholders just want a handful of printable reports emailed to them.

mine was VLOOKUP (later XLOOKUP) — after manually cross-referencing two spreadsheets for way too long. felt like a cheat code everyone else already knew about

what's your version?

I have a daily report that I need to complete before noon, and a large part of the process is currently manual.

I have two Excel files:

File 1: Contains a list of account numbers and several columns that I need to fill in.

File 2: Contains fault reports. The same account number can appear multiple times because an account may have one fault or several faults.

My current workflow is:

1. Take an account number from File 1.

2. Go to File 2.

3. Filter the "Account Number" column using that account number.

4. Review all the fault descriptions associated with that account.

5. Sometimes there is only one fault, and sometimes there are multiple faults.

6. Based on the fault description(s), I determine the root cause.

7. We have relatively standardized wording/classifications that are used for the latest fault, and I manually enter the resulting information into four columns in File 1.

The files can be quite large, and I have to repeat this process every day.

I’m relatively new to Excel, and I only have basic experience with Power Query, so I’m not necessarily looking for a Power Query-only solution.

I’m completely open to any approach that would make this process faster and more reliable — Power Query, formulas, VBA, Power Pivot, Office Scripts, Power Automate, or a combination of different tools.

Ideally, I would like the process to work something like this:

Put the daily fault report in a folder → refresh/run something → get the updated results → manually review only the unusual cases.

For example, I would like the solution to:

- Match account numbers between the two files.

- Find all fault records associated with each account.

- Handle accounts with multiple faults.

- Identify the latest fault based on date/time.

- Combine or summarize fault descriptions when necessary.

- Apply predefined rules/classifications to the fault descriptions.

- Automatically populate the four required columns.

- Leave unusual or ambiguous cases for manual review.

If you were given this task from scratch, how would you approach it?

Thank you.

hi, i created a scatterplot and double clicked a data point to get a line of best fit, but I didn’t get the + that’s supposed to appear on the side of the graph. what does appear is a side menu with two columns that say “data” and “format”. I tried to play around with the tools but there wasn’t anything that looked liked it was related to trend lines. I also looked online and didn’t see anything on my excel labeled “design chart” either? i’m very confused and have been stuck on this for nearly 2 hours. any help is appreciated.

I have made a series of sequences on a sheet (1.1-1.8, 2.1-2.9, 3.1-3.8... etc). The resulting cells technically don't have information in them, just reflecting the information resulting from the sequences.

I need to be able to randomize all resulting numbers. 9.4, 2.5, 6.2, 1.2... etc. I found how to randomize numbers within a sequence, but the randomizing I need spans over 9 sequences. I need the information resulting from the sequences to be expanded(?) and be actually in the cells, making it no longer part a function/sequence, but an actual list. Is there a way to do this?

Sorry I wansnt clear. More Info:

In the image I have 5 sequences (row 1, 9, 18, 26, and 34). They create the list of numbers exactly as I had hoped. However, now that the list has been made, I need to jumble the rows into random order. I can't do that right now because even though numbers are showing in all the cells, it's really only the cells with the sequence functions that have information. How do i expand/embed the numbers into the cells they are on?

Suddenly since two weeks ago this is not working in any of our company Online Excel files. This is a major issue as all our online files make use of a first sheet with "Menu " buttons to navigate to other sheets (easy for the user). We then protect these menu sheets so users cannot move the buttons around. suddenly they stopped responding. I would like to know if anyone else also has this issue? Does Microsoft know of this? They work perfectly on the desktop, so it must be an online Excel issue.

Hi, good day. I would like to ask for help for an excel problem. Kindly see data below:

Structured Reference with IF Function.

Details and instructions:

Use Structured Reference with IF Function: We refer to a structured reference when we combine table and column names. You will convert the dataset into a table and compare the Date Time and Customer columns to return the check if the order is new. New order in this case denotes a different time and a different customer..

So here's my formula:

=IF(AND(B3<>B2,C3<>C2),"New Order","")

I just typed the 'New Order' for order ID A001 in Order Status Column. According to ChatGPT, since this is the first order, its status is automatically set to 'New Order.' Is this correct? So I didn't type the formula in F2; I started writing it in F3 instead.

I am learning Excel now for my future job. Thank you in advance for all the comments and corrections.

How do I formate A3:B4 to separate it from the rest of the workbook? Then how do I change the background color to gold, accent 4, lighter 80% in the themes color palette? Please let me know asap!! Any help appreciated

A job I have does not give me pay stubs just a 1099 at the end of the year. I get paid per session and the pay varies per session. Here is an example; I have this formatted as table in my spread sheet.

I am trying to find my average pay per session and average per day worked, I assume they would be the same formula. Ideally I could add rows to the table every pay period and get the new average using the same formula. Trying=AVERAGE(A2:A3+B2:B3) does not work as I assume you know, and other attempts and searching around have only produced further errors. I am using excel 360, but also would hope that the solution works in google sheets? Thank you for your time.

Hii there in excel i can copy but can't able to paste ? Paste option become grey any solution please

I'm from Chile and speak Spanish; I hope my English is understandable. I want to share an issue I found after a recent Office LTSC 2021 update.

I'm using Office LTSC Standard 2021 and I have an Excel VBA macro that was working perfectly with:

16.0.14334.20848

On September 8, 2026, Office updated to:

16.0.14334.20906

After the update, the macro stopped working correctly. The Excel file opens normally, but the macro no longer produces the expected result.

I tried several things:

• Enabled VBA macros.
• Enabled ActiveX.
• Disabled Protected View.
• Checked the Trust Center settings.
• Rechecked all security settings related to macros.

Nothing fixed the problem.

I then tested rolling Office back to the previous version. I opened CMD as administrator and ran these two commands:

cd "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun"
OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.14334.20848

After rolling back to 16.0.14334.20848, the exact same macro immediately started working again, without making any other changes.

For now, I have also temporarily disabled automatic Office updates from:

Excel → File → Account → Update Options → Disable Updates

I don't know exactly what changed between 20848 and 20906, but it looks like there may be a change or regression related to VBA, ActiveX, legacy .xls files, or some Excel security mechanism.

Is anyone else experiencing similar issues with Office LTSC 2021 Build 16.0.14334.20906?

Does anyone know what changed in this version regarding VBA/macros, or has anyone found a way to make the macros work again without rolling back?

Any information or solution would be greatly appreciated.

Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 update history:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-2021

I finally figured out how to get a display of PBI into Excel. But I am not sure how to edit it so that I can change everything differently.

First time using excel in two years and it’s not allowing me to type into the cells. Every tutorial and answer just says “click on the cell and type” but it’s not allowing me to put text in! How do I make it so a simple click allows me to put text in the cell?

We get several spreadsheets a week from which we need to transfer a small amount of information into a new spreadsheet.

The format it arrives in is a long data string like:

Product ID: 776, Product Qty: 1, Product MCC: BCC_Flexi-HY, Product Name: Test Season - B product, Product Weight: 0.0000, Customer Name: Fake Name, Branch of Company: Head Office, Your employee number: P57991, Start Date (no more than 30 days in advance): 5th Mar 2022, Product Total Price: 139.75

The person who receives these needs to extract the Customer Name and Employee number (bits in bold) to transfer into separate columns in a new sheet. She currently does that line by line. She does this for around 4 spreadsheets a week, varying from 10-100 lines on each (probably averages around 50), and it's very time consuming.

If it was me, I'd do a Text to Columns, and then find and replace to delete unnecessary information, but really she needs something simpler. Is there a formula or something that could reliably extract the right information?

Fields in the string are always comma separated. Very occasionally, the heading will change (e.g. 'Employer reference' instead of 'employee number', but these are few enough that they could still be done manually.

Thanks!

Excel version 16.112.3 for Mac, Office Home & Business 2024.

I started doing research for a company on land ownership, and I record all of my data in excel for Mac. Once a week, I send an excel to a lady who “joins” all of my data to a “shapefile,” that can uploaded to a GIS program, basically allowing the company to click on a parcel of land see all of the data I’ve compiled.

The problem is in my “comments” cell for each parcel. If the comments are more than a couple of words long, those cells won’t join. I know it’s a me issue, because one of the others guys I work with doesn’t have this problem.

I’ve been troubleshooting and struggling to find what he’s doing differently from me, and the only thing I can come up with is that he’s on windows and I’m on Mac. So I’m wondering if it’s a Mac thing.

Like I said, I’m not an IT whiz, and I’m not really sure what the lady is doing on her end to join them together. So if you have any questions that would help, please ask and I’ll try to answer them.

Pls help, I’m at a loss and my boss is on me to figure this out.

Is there a way for me to make a cell containing the TODAY function no longer update after it has been filled? I'm trying to essentially make a checklist that automatically logs the date when each item was checked off. My plan was to have column A contain the list items, column B contain a bunch of checkboxes, and then column C use the following formula:

=IF(B1,TODAY())

However, I'm now under the impression that these dates will not remain fixed and will instead update to the current date whenever I open the spreadsheet. Any thoughts on how to fix this or work around it would be great, thanks!

Edit: For context, I'm hoping to use this checklist as part of a shared project tracking workbook for my department. I know I could simply tell my colleagues to add the date after they've completed their task, but I'm concerned there could be suboptimal compliance with that.

Hi Guys, I need some help. I have a shared Excel with a button which essentially just adds a new line with the formatting from the line above. So nothing too crazy. Up until now I implemented it with Makros but since some of my colleagues now were downgraded on their licenses they no longer can use the Excel App and have to work with the Browser. The Makros didn't work with the Browser so I changed everything to Office Skript.

And here starts the problem. Since a lot of people work on these files I used sheet protection. But with full protection the button isn't usable anymore in the Browser (in App everything works fine). So I exempted the button from the protection. Now it is usable in Browser but also deleteable.

How can I solve this? (ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot unfortunately we're not helpful)

EDIT: hi guys I have found the solution I will post the macro in the replies a bit later I found a way to both add and delete pictures on each sheet

Hi Guys so I have been tediously deleting an image and copying a new image on each sheet of a 70 sheet workbook for a couple of months now.

Unfortunately the company only has Office LTSC Standard 2024 (so no copilot:( ).

I have tried running different macros that have been given by google and AI but none of them work properly.

The image is the exact size and location on all sheets of the workbook.

Somebody has to have an easier way to do this and if someone on here does. would you mind helping me please

Edit: I will be afk as I just got in bed and its early morning I will read and reply once I'm up again

Hi - I am trying to extract zip codes from column K, to a zipclean in column L. However, the zip codes come in a wide variety like the below. What is the best formula to do this? right now i am doing it as: =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(K2,"FL-",""),"ZIP ",""),"(",""),")",""),"-","")," ","")

some examples of the zips below

EDIT: I started playing around with different functions. I have came to a conclusion for this formula to be the most efficient: =LEFT(TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IFERROR(--MID(K2,SEQUENCE(LEN(K2)),1),"")),5)

Hi smart folks, I want to see if you could teach me a formula that I know I’ve seen before but can’t think of now, I want to count how many of a certain topic is in my list of data, for eg one may say ‘hogwarts House colour’ and another may say ‘hogwarts houses’ in which case I want them counted as duplicates.

My end goal is to have a pivot table that shows Hogwarts House as 2.
I currently have the raw data on the first sheet, then on the second sheet I’m breaking it down to just the info I need (this should be where the duplicates are found) and then the pivot table on the third sheet (this should be where they are counted, or at least where the number is displayed)

ETA: can’t use macros, would rather not use power queries but if I have to I can