Recent Discussions
Circular Reference Issues - A desperate woman needs help ASAP =(
I have an incredibly in-depth spreadsheet, with about 15 pages, and in-depth tables and calculations on most of those pages. Point being, I have a HUGE freaking file with tons of data collected over the years. Now, all of a sudden, I cannot input anything without the Microsoft Excel Warning popping up, stating: "There are one or more circular references where a formula refers to its own cell either directly or indirectly. This might cause them to calculate incorrectly. Try removing or changing these references, or moving the formulas to different cells." I understand what this pop up is saying, but my file is so huge, and there is so much information, I cannot find the error anywhere!!!!! And I don't have the option to search for it. So I cannot correct this error on my own, and I cannot input anything into the spreadsheet without having to exit out of that **bleep** pop up!!! I am defeated, INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED, and I cannot see a clear path to recovery. I have been working on this document for years now, and I cannot start fresh. HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOS!! Anyone! I am desperate and beyond frustrated =(
Xlookup with nested IF
Thank you in advance for your help. What I am trying to do is return a value (using Xlookup) but only if another value matches. Maybe I need to use Index/Match, but here's my example: Col A Col B Col C Col D Yes John Smith 1.50 No John Smith 1.25 So, I'm trying to enter an Xlookup that will search for "Smith" in column C and return Col D, but only if Col A is also "Yes". I tried =XLOOKUP("Smith",$C:$C,IF($A3="yes",$D:$D,"-"),"-") but I get a "#Value" error. For real life application, I would be replacing "Smith" with a cell reference and "yes" with another cell reference. But for the example, if A=yes, then return D if Col C=Smith. I just need to figure out in which order xlookup (or index/match) would look for those. Any help is appreciated.Hidden tabs showing for other users in shared file
I have a shared file saved on our network. It has many tabs, one for each week of the year, for a large remote team to enter data on weekly. There are then summary tabs to analyse the data. I have hidden most of the tabs, with currently only the January and February weeks showing, to make it easier to use / less scrolling through tabs. However, some users when they open the file, cannot see the same tabs as me - for example, the February ones are missing. They are able to Unhide them themselves, but why would the view be different for different users? Is there a setting on their laptops which means it doesn't show the same? When they enter data and save the file, the data shows when I open it, so they are using the correct file and it works. It is a Shared File so multiple users can enter data at the same time, and I have not used the new co-authoring feature, just the legacy Shared Workbook feature. I do not want to protect the file or lock it down, I just want it to show them the relevant tabs when they open it. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.Equation Editor Wrong Highlight Color In Dark Mode
The highlight color in the Equation Editor is not correct when using dark mode in Word. The white text is unreadable. I’m seeing posts mentioning this issue from 4 years ago. How has this not been patched? How do I fix this myself if Microsoft won't?Why Graph-added People Skills Don’t Show Up on the User Profile Card
Microsoft’s People Skills service can use AI to attribute 16,000 different skills to users. Those skills show up on the user profile card. However, once a Microsoft 365 tenant enables People Skills, they lose the ability to add custom skills for user profiles via Graph APIs or People Connectors. It’s a curious situation where Microsoft blocks custom additions because its AI-powered service is active. Couldn’t both exist alongside each other? https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/14/people-skills-graph/
Problem: Excel opened the first file quickly, but the second and subsequent files very slowly
Problem: Excel opened the first file quickly, but the second and subsequent files opened very slowly when launched externally (double click from Explorer or using excel.exe "file.xlsx"). Environment: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 Office 2021 Pro Plus Clean Windows installation Clean Office installation Modern hardware (Intel 13th gen + NVIDIA RTX) Symptoms: First Excel file opened fast Second and subsequent files became progressively slower Opening files from inside Excel was always fast Drag & drop from Explorer into an existing Excel window was fast Word did NOT have the problem Reinstalling Office did not solve it Disabling Defender, Protected View, StartAllBack etc. did not solve it Cause: Registry DDE handler related to Excel shell open behavior. Registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec The (Default) value was empty. Fix: Set (Default) to: [open("%1")] Then reboot Windows. After that: multiple Explorer launches became instant again no more progressive slowdown Excel external opening worked normally again Important note: On other healthy machines the value may still appear empty, so the fix may actually force Windows/Excel to rebuild or refresh the COM/DDE association/cache rather than the value itself being universally required.Line chart dynamic scaling of Y-axis
Micro$oft, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, END the ensh*ttification, and get the Y-axis of a line chart to dyanmically scale with the data range that is being plotted. The range defaults to 0 as the lowest Y-value. The only way to change it, is to manually set the ax range, or use a work-around involving VBA. So... NO! This is crazy! It should be easy as apple pie for you lot to add an option to dynamically scale the Y-range in the chart, but I guess you are far too busy pushing people onto your crappy AI, which you can really stick some place the sun doesn't shine. Thank you.Encryption in Microsoft 365 – How It Protects Your Data
In today’s digital workplace, data is constantly moving between emails, cloud storage, collaboration tools, mobile devices, and remote teams. As businesses rely more heavily on cloud platforms, protecting sensitive information has become one of the top priorities for organizations of every size. This is where Microsoft 365 encryption plays a critical role. https://dellenny.com/encryption-in-microsoft-365-how-it-protects-your-data/
Excel Documents printing an extra border around the outside of all of my documents
I have been printing and previewing my excel documents recently. I am not sure when this issue started. Any time I preview and/or print an Excel spreadsheet this extra border shows up AROUND the entire document. It is not the cells within the document. Also, it shrinks my entire document to fit it within this border. I have done all the things the website has recommended: turning off "print gridlines", gridlines are off when in print preview, checking margins, turning on/off borderless printing, set the correct print area, etc. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with anything I have done within the spreadsheet. It is outside of the spreadsheet. It is almost like I took a picture of the spreadsheet, saved it, and now a border image shows up. I have gone back and looked at all of my OLD documents that I have saved for years and those documents, like Invoices, now have this extra border around them that were never there before. I have even changed the printers in the pull down box. I tried changing it to my old printer which I never uninstalled the software and I get the same thing regardless. Does anyone have any ideas?Cannot turn off Copilot in MS Word for Windows as "Enable Copilot" is missing...
This is ridiculous. I have spent over 2 hours trying to turn off Copilot in MS Word O365 version. I am running MS Word in I I Windows 11 (updated) and running what I believe is the most current version. I have been able to go into Excel => Options and uncheck the "Enable Copilot". I do not see such a box in Powerpoint (thank God - I don't see it in the app at all) and have been able to turn it off on my Mac Office Apps. I have an O365 account. When I open Word in Windows and then select the Options I get what is displayed below. Do not see the enable coPilot option, but CoPilot is on. This is ridiculous. I have cleaned the registry and I have seen hacks on how to turn off coPilot by butchering the registry, which I refuse to do. I even removed the coPolite App. MS, I DO NOT WANT TO USE AI TO WRITE. How do I get rid of this? I am EXTREMELY frustrated with this. Bryan
XLOOKUP using 3 unique criteria
I have almost completed my pet project, but I have one final piece that I cannot figure out. First off, I work in insurance where I audit incoming (uploaded) spreadsheets from insurance reps. The auditing I do mainly is to be sure that all the data in the uploaded spreadsheet imports into our db accurately and completely. These uploaded spreadsheets list any new, cancelled or adjusted policy information. The policy could be one carrier or it could be multiple carriers. I built a dashboard (sorta) that sorts the rows of data in a way that makes it a TON easier to audit. My main focus here is to list out all the carriers of a policy and to show their cost related columns for each carrier's part. I am using a FILTER formula to list the carriers based off a policy # that is a Data Validation list in cell (Dashboard!A4). The carriers are then listed in cells (Dashboard!AN4 - AN25). Then, in columns (Dashboard!AO - AS) are the cost related columns. The Data Validation list, Carriers and cost related columns are all pulled from the Transactions worksheet. So far, this is working MOSTLY as intended, but because some policies use the same carriers, the cost related columns are not filtering by policy and will then therefor show the first available entry for each carrier (kinda like what VLOOKUP does). I am using the following formulas so far. List of carriers: =FILTER(Transactions!H:H, Transactions!A:A=A4, "No matches found"). This works as intended. Cost related columns: =XLOOKUP(AN5,Transactions!$H$3:$H$1000,XLOOKUP(Transactions!$O$2,Transactions!$A$2:$BA$2,Transactions!$A$3:$BA$1000)). This too works as (mostly) intended, but as you can see, I need an additional filter to sort by policy #. This should be the last step to finishing this pet project. I would appreciate it if anyone can help me add the additional formula criteria that would now filter out by specific policy. I tried adding another XLOOKUP to the formula to add the additional criteria based on policy # with no luck. For additional reference, the Transaction worksheet will list the same policy for each row that contains a unique carrier. So if a policy has 5 unique carriers, there will be 5 rows to list each unique carrier and their cost related amounts associated with each carrier (row). What I need is to add the additional filter based off the policy # to be sure that the cost related columns are specific to the policy # and individual carriers? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks
Why is Microsoft 365 setup (Groups + SharePoint + Domains) still so complex?
Microsoft 365 Setup Feedback Summary Summary of Experience: Setting up two small business workspaces (Cork & Clarity and Stone Clarity Consulting) in Microsoft 365 required navigating multiple disconnected systems including the Admin Center, Outlook, SharePoint, and an external DNS provider. The process was significantly more complex than expected and not intuitive for a non-technical user. Key Issues Encountered: 1. Identity and Account Confusion - Unclear whether to create separate users or use one account with aliases - Creating multiple users caused login confusion, broken permissions, and access issues 2. Domain and DNS Setup Complexity - Required switching between Microsoft and external DNS (Looka) - Instructions were unclear and required manual troubleshooting - No clear distinction between required and optional DNS records 3. Default Domain Confusion - New groups defaulted to the wrong domain - No visible option to change domain during group creation - Required changing global default domain (non-intuitive) 4. Inconsistent Group Behavior - Outlook groups and Teams-backed groups behave differently - No indication of differences or consequences - Groups appeared in some places but not others 5. Membership and Ownership Issues - Group creator was not consistently added as member - Ownership did not always persist after changes - Groups existed but were inaccessible or invisible 6. Outlook UI Limitations - Groups not visible despite existing and being correctly configured - No clear instructions on how to 'activate' or 'follow' groups 7. SharePoint Site Not Created Automatically - SharePoint sites were not created when groups were created - Required hidden steps: Outlook → Files → Open in SharePoint - No indication that the site did not exist yet 8. SharePoint Discovery Issues - Sites do not appear until manually accessed or followed - No onboarding or guidance for discovering sites 9. Ghost/Deleted Items Still Visible - Deleted group (Cork & Clarity Hub) remained visible - No clear distinction between deleted vs followed sites 10. Fragmented User Experience - Required switching between multiple platforms - No single place to manage or understand setup status - High cognitive load for basic configuration Conclusion: While Microsoft 365 is a powerful platform, the initial setup experience is overly complex and fragmented, especially for small businesses. Simplifying group creation, making SharePoint provisioning automatic and visible, and improving UI consistency across apps would significantly improve usability and adoption.ASAP utilities in power automate cloud flow
I have one server machine that installed ASAP Utilities for Excel. I want to eliminate individual server logins and allow users to run only 5 specific ASAP Excel plugin functions automatically, just by dropping an Excel file into a common server folder, so the backend processes it and returns the result—saving time. Will Office 365 excel with power automate cloud flow help? Thanks for you answers for my clarifications.Understanding How Graph Permissions for Groups Work
Understanding the set of Graph permissions required by apps can be challenging. In this article we discuss how the Group.Read.All and GroupMember.Real.All permissions work and why you should choose one permission over the other so that you respect the principle of least permission when it comes to assigning Graph permissions to your apps and PowerShell scripts. Experience of reviewing scripts shows that too many people use Group.Read.All without needing to. Don't over-permission your scripts! https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/13/graph-permissions-groups/
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