Excel in Practice: Formulas, Tables, Charts and Copilot

What's inside

1. Level 1: What You Have: Plans, Features and Copilot AccessFree
   Find out which Excel features and Copilot capabilities your consumer, small business or corporate plan includes, on the understanding that this course is independent of Microsoft and that plan details change, so each one is checked against Microsoft's current pages and dated (last checked 1 November 2026).
2. Level 2: Workbook Layout Across Desktop, Web and MobileFree
   Lay out a workbook so that inputs, raw data, calculations and outputs are kept apart, and find the same commands, including the Copilot pane, on desktop, web and mobile.
3. Level 3: Data Types and Dates Done Right
   Enter and convert numbers, text and dates so that Excel stores them as the correct type, and fix numbers stored as text and dates entered in the wrong regional format.
4. Level 4: Cleaning Text: Functions, Flash Fill and Copilot
   Clean and reshape text with TRIM, CLEAN, PROPER, TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER and Flash Fill, then compare these with cleaning steps suggested by Copilot (where your plan includes it) and check what Copilot produced.
5. Level 5: Removing Duplicates and Validating Input
   Find and remove duplicate records safely, then use data validation lists, rules and input messages to stop bad data being entered.
6. Level 6: Cell References and Named Ranges
   Use relative, absolute and mixed references correctly, and create named ranges and constants that make formulas easier to read and harder to break.
7. Level 7: Conditional Totals: SUMIFS and COUNTIFS
   Sum and count by one or more conditions using SUMIFS and COUNTIFS, including date ranges and wildcards, and check every result against a hand-worked total.
8. Level 8: Decisions and Lookups: IF, IFS and XLOOKUP
   Build logic with IF and IFS, and retrieve matching values with XLOOKUP, including exact matches, not-found results and approximate matches for bands.
9. Level 9: Dynamic Arrays: FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE
   Produce spilling results with FILTER, SORT, SORTBY and UNIQUE, combine them into live lists and reports, and handle #SPILL! and empty results.
10. Level 10: Excel Tables, Sorting and Filtering
    Convert ranges into Excel Tables, use structured references, and sort and filter reliably, including multi-level sorts and slicers.
11. Level 11: Summarising with PivotTables
    Build PivotTables to summarise data by category and period, group dates, show values as percentages, and compare your results with analysis produced by Copilot.
12. Level 12: Charts That Tell the Truth
    Choose the right chart for the data, build it from a Table or PivotTable, and avoid misleading axes, scales and formatting, including in charts suggested by Copilot.
13. Level 13: Conditional Formatting That Informs
    Apply rules, data bars, colour scales and formula-based conditional formatting to highlight exceptions without cluttering the sheet.
14. Level 14: Building Budget, Invoice and Tracker Workbooks
    Combine layout, validation, Tables, formulas and formatting into working budget, invoice and tracker workbooks that others can fill in safely.
15. Level 15: Power Query for Repeat Imports
    Use Power Query to import, clean and combine a recurring export, so that next month's file refreshes in one step instead of being cleaned by hand again, and note where this depends on desktop, web or plan.
16. Level 16: Sharing, Protection, Co-authoring and Printing
    Share workbooks through OneDrive or SharePoint, co-author safely, protect sheets and structure appropriately, and set up reliable print layouts. Note where sharing options depend on your plan or IT policy.
17. Level 17: Copilot Today: Status and a Checking Routine
    Review what Copilot in Excel currently does and which plans it needs (checked against Microsoft's pages on 1 November 2026), including that the preview COPILOT worksheet function was retired on 14 September 2026 and now returns #NAME?, and adopt a repeatable routine for checking AI output.
18. Level 18: Final Challenge: Messy Export to Checked Workbook Exam
    Take a messy data export through to a clean, documented and checked workbook with a summary, an honest chart and written findings, using skills from every earlier level.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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