Disable incessant nagware popups
I don't know about everyone else, but I am sick and tired of the nagware pop ups in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Every single product harasses me with pop ups trying to tell me "hey, did you know this feature was here?", "you can do this if you click that", "let me hold your hand through using products you've used for decades even though you don't want daddy Microslop to do that". This is a prime example. I keep getting the same ones again and again and again and everything I've read indicates they should only appear once. But they don't. They keep coming back like a psychotic stalker ex who wants alimony even though you were never married. How do I get this nagware to stop?!
Excel won't follow Cell Number Formats
My Excel for Mac 16.43, part of Office for Mac 2020, recently recently started failing to recognise Number Formats instead insisting that, for instance, a value entered as '1' must be displayed, stored and calculated with as '0.01'. The only other change I've noticed is that Excel also refuses to Find and Replace anything with the traditional blank,instead insisting on either a poipulated space, as ' ', or at least one of the quotation marks, as either ' or ", as seen in techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/excelgeneral/find-and-replace-with-blank---how-to-please/3908014unpivot data and handle merged cells without using Power Query (Unpivot_Toolkit)
Hey, guys!! I’ve been working on a set of functional Excel Lambdas to solve a common headache: transforming "Wide" human-readable data into "Long" database formats without having to open Power Query every time. =UNPIVOT_PLUS(table, [no_of_cols], [no_of_headers], [attribute_names], [value_name], [remove_errors], [remove_blanks],[pad_blanks_with],[pad_errors_with]) Don’t worry about the full list, most use cases only require 5 arguments. I've included a table of default values at the end. Merged Cell Support: Automatically handles fill-down/fill-right logic for merged headers/columns. Bonus Helper: SPLIT_INJECT =SPLIT_INJECT(array, target_indices, delimiter, [ignore_empty], [match_mode], [pad_with]) It targets specific columns, splits them by a delimiter (like TEXTSPLIT), and expands the entire table horizontally while keeping all other columns perfectly stable. Optional arguments match TEXTSPLIT defaults. Feel free to tear this apart or adapt it for your own edge cases. I’d love to hear how you end up using it! You can grab both functions from my GitHub Gist https://gist.github.com/Medohh2120/f8553c149684e39bb499249e39f01017 File with use cases https://1drv.ms/x/c/6c310c8fd1669a94/IQCscpo3yh7jR5XdGZe2AQGyAf4-vCd8K6BvLZQgrP2V8Oo?e=gPdbOd Argument Description Default Behavior table The array or range of data to unpivot. Required argument (no default) [no_of_cols] Fixed left columns to keep as identifiers. 1 [no_of_headers] Top rows used as headers, handling merged cells. 1 [attribute_names] Header name for the unpivoted attributes . "Attribute" [value_name] Header name for the unpivoted values. "Value" [remove_errors] Excludes grid rows with formula errors. FALSE [remove_blanks] Removes grid empty cells and empty strings. TRUE [pad_blanks_with] Value to substitute for empty cells. Leaves cell blank [pad_errors_with] Value to substitute for errors. Leaves error as-is
LABS.GENERATIVEAI() Not working (03/2026)
I am trying to utilize the ai function in a project at work but something isn't working. I have both a user and admin key from OpenAI that both start with the "sk-" syntax. I have 365 Premium (personal not business) When I do a simple function like "=LABS.GENERATIVEAI("Hello World")" it just returns with #N/A! error. I'm using the gpt-5 model for Excel Labs I'm at a loss as to why this isn't working... I have credits in the "vault" of OpenAI and have double checked what seems like every parameter for this to work. I'm also on the beta stream of Excel Labs to access the latest updates and Excel is fully updated, computer has rebooted, and it is still not working. Any ideas or are others having issues with this working too?
Excel 365 (version 2307&higher) crashes when refreshing pivot tables (more pivot tables at once)
Dear all, I am currently experiencing the following problem in Excel 365 version 2308 with pivot tables (on MSAS connections): Excel always crashes if I'm refreshing data for all connections for more pivot tables at once - especially when I have 2 pivot tables with the same connection on 1 sheet . This happens always :o(. Excel will NOT crash under any of the following situation, 1. I have to change some filter on each! pivot table (without refreshing); 2. After that I can refresh pivot tables. I must do the same after opening Excel file next time. I have tested it on multiple machines and the symptoms are consistent over all the machines with Excel 365 version 2307&higher. Stable workarround is NEXT: 1. I must have PC with lower version of Excel (I have old notebook with Excel 365 version 1808 at home). 2. Change connections to local PC with local MSAS (I have no connection to original MSAS from local PC). 3. Open file & refresh all connections. 4. Save & copy to PC with Excel 365 version 2308 5. Open file & change connections to original MSAS 6. After that refresh works fine. Now this file will work in Excel 365 version 2308. Can you kindly advise if anything can be done to this issue? - I have many Excel files on version 2308. Thank you in advance.Use Copilot in Excel to build your brackets
The matchups are finally set, and the annual question is back: how do you pick a bracket that’s fun and gives you a real shot at predicting the winner—whether you’re following the men’s tournament, the women’s tournament, or both? This year, you can use Copilot in Excel as your bracket sidekick—turning past tournament patterns into quick “what-if” scenarios, stress-testing upset paths, and sanity-checking your picks against historic data. Instead of manually building an analysis, copy/pasting data, and building multiple versions, you can ask in natural language and let Copilot build the analysis for you right inside an Excel workbook. Below are a few fast, practical ways to use Copilot in Excel to build a bracket workbook, explore upside picks (hello, Cinderella runs), and model “if this happens, then what?” outcomes so you can fill your bracket with more confidence than the rest of the group. 1) Set up a bracket workbook Open a new workbook, then open Copilot in Excel. Make sure “Edit with Copilot” is turned on. Start by asking Copilot to create a bracket template: “Create a 2026 [men’s or women’s] college basketball bracket including all the latest teams and seeds. Build dropdowns for each round so I can choose the winner of each matchup all the way to a champion, formatted like a standard bracket. For each dropdown, show only the 2 teams in the matchup based on the winners chose in previous rounds using helper columns." With that foundation in place, you’ve got a clean structure for picks and scenario assumptions. From here, you can make your picks and Copilot can help you add calculations, create “what-if” views, and summarize the implications of different upset paths. Bonus: Want to theme your brackets around your favorite team? First have Copilot generate a simple skills sheet and ask it to follow the instructions when creating brackets. “Create a skills sheet for my favorite team, [Team]. Include the official team colors (with hex codes), mascot/nickname, text colors, and conditional formatting rules for winners/losers.” 2) Stress-test your bracket with real-world scenarios Now for the part that can actually give you an edge: use Copilot to spin up scenario tabs and see how your bracket performs under outcomes that happen all the time in March—Cinderella runs, unexpected seed collapses, and “hot team” momentum that goes against conventional logic. Try some follow-up Copilot prompts like: Cinderella path: “Pick a 10–13 seed to reach the Sweet 16 based on past tournament frequency. Create a version to reflect that upset path, and show which higher-seeded teams I’m fading.” All the 1-seeds don’t make it: “Create a version of my bracket where at least two 1-seeds lose before the Elite Eight. Identify the earliest-round upsets needed and how my champion pick changes.” Favorite team: “Assume my favorite team is [Team]. Build two paths: (1) optimistic (reach the Final Four) and (2) realistic (based on projected path). For each path, show who they’d likely face by seed line and which matchup round matters most for them.” Momentum model: “Calculate a “momentum multiplier” using the conference tournament games and recent performance for each team and use that to fill out a version of my bracket weighted by momentum.” 3) Compare bracket variants and choose your entry Once you’ve built a few scenario versions, Copilot can help you compare them—so you’re not guessing which bracket is better, you’re choosing the one whose risk/reward matches your needs. Use a prompt like: “Create a comparison analysis for all my bracket scenarios in this workbook including charts. Include number of upset picks by round, and my top 5 most ‘contrarian’ picks across all my brackets. Give a recommendation for which to submit if I’m trying to win my bracket challenge or simply play it safe.” Copilot can generate the comparison table, highlight the key differences, and summarize the tradeoffs in plain language—so you can decide whether you want a safer entry, a balanced upset strategy, or a bold bracket designed to win big. Your turn: build your bracket with Copilot Ready to try it? Open Excel, start a new workbook, and use Edit with Copilot to create your brackets. Once you’ve got a bracket you like, share it with your league, your family, or your coworkers.
