Tips & tricks For Microsoft Excel, Power BI, SQL and more

Microsoft 365 Copilot can super-charge Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams, but IT managers must align licensing, data governance, and clear business goals before launch. In this article, we discuss how engaging stakeholders early, piloting with a small cross-functional group, and phasing the rollout lets teams refine guidance and measure real productivity gains. Role-specific, hands-on training - prompt-engineering tips, quick-start resources, and “Copilot champions” - converts into confident daily use while resolving emerging user challenges.

In this guide, we explain variance as a measure of how widely data points deviate from the mean and shows why understanding this spread is useful for deeper insight and risk assessment. It walks readers through calculating variance in Excel, distinguishing between the VAR.S function for a sample and VAR.P for an entire population, then demonstrates each with a car-sales case study.

This blog explains how Excel’s LOOKUP functions—particularly XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP—can retrieve data based on multiple criteria. It walks through a step-by-step example of finding an employee’s sales in a specific region, showing both an XLOOKUP formula and a VLOOKUP alternative that uses a helper column.

Mаnу businesses need first and last names in separate Excel columns for easier sorting, searching, and personalised communications. Excel’s Text to Columns feature lets you split names fast by selecting a space delimiter, while LEFT/RIGHT formulas achieve the same result with flexible cell references. Dragging these formulas down fills the entire list automatically, saving hours over manual copying.

A stacked bar chart lets you see both totals and the category-level breakdown within each bar, making comparisons richer than a standard bar chart. The article walks you through creating one in Excel: organise data by categories, select the range, choose Insert › Stacked Column, and fine-tune titles, legends, colours, and data labels. Best practices include limiting each bar to roughly four stacks, adding concise labels, and using clearly distinguishable colours to keep the visualisation readable. W

Excel’s table formatting makes data easier to read and analyse, but you may need to remove it for a cleaner look, better compatibility, or a smaller file size. The guide also covers fixes for common hiccups, such as lingering visual styles and the Table Design tab appearing greyed out when no table cell is selected.

Microsoft Copilot for Excel, a generative-AI assistant built into Microsoft 365, turns natural-language prompts into instant formulas, pivots, charts, and summaries - eliminating much of Excel’s manual grunt work. After enabling Copilot in a cloud-saved workbook, users simply describe tasks like highlighting duplicates, cleaning data, generating complex formulas, or visualising trends, and Copilot does the heavy lifting while explaining its logic. The article also offers step-by-step setup guidance and a list of ready-made prompts to help users go from “zero to hero” in productivity.

Secure your Excel files with password protection and learn the simple steps to hide individual columns while keeping your data organised. This quick guide offers practical tips to enhance file privacy and streamline your workflow. Perfect for safeguarding sensitive information without locking down the entire spreadsheet.

Build a simple Excel calculator to forecast investment growth with compound interest.