You'll be able to read a large sheet using sort and filter, write your first formulas, understand how Excel stores dates and why the right format matters, and use Copilot to explain functions and suggest formulas while you learn.
Sort and filter
A spreadsheet is a tidy grid of rows and columns, and the habit that saves the most grief is one thing per column, one record per row, and no blank rows in the middle of your data. Once a sheet is tidy, two tools answer most of the questions you will have of it.
Sort puts the rows in order, by date, by name, by amount. Filter hides the rows you do not need right now, so you can see just this month, just one community, or just the jobs still open. Between them, a wall of rows turns into an answer.
Wall of Rows to Answers: Sort & FilterOpens in a new windowThe everyday formulas
A formula is just a question you write into a cell, starting with an equals sign. The everyday few carry most of the load: SUM to add a column up, AVERAGE to find the middle, and the fill handle to copy a formula down a whole column in one drag. Understanding what a cell reference means, that A2 points at a cell and moves when you copy it, is the small idea that makes the rest click.
Your First Formulas: SUM, AVERAGE & the Fill HandleOpens in a new windowDates are really numbers
The one that trips everyone up. A date in Excel is really a number: the count of days since 1 January 1900. That is why you can subtract one date from another and get the days between them, and it is why a date typed as plain text sorts in the wrong order. The fix is to make sure your dates are real dates, in a format that sorts correctly every time.
Dates Are Numbers: Dates & FormattingOpens in a new windowCopilot as a patient tutor
Excel is where Copilot is at its most useful as a teacher rather than a doer. You can ask it what a formula does, describe what you want in plain English and get a formula to try, or paste an error message and ask what went wrong. Used this way it helps you learn the tool, rather than doing the work for you.
One thing is worth knowing before you lean on it. Large language models are weak with grid-shaped data, and will sometimes hand you a wrong formula with complete confidence. So the rule is the same as always: try the formula on your own sheet and check the result before it counts. The presentation below walks through using free Copilot chat as a formula helper, where it genuinely helps, and where it does not.
Using AI in Excel: From Copilot Chat to Add-insPresentation · opens in a new windowCopilot prompt · explain a formula
Explain, in plain English, what this Excel formula does and when I would use it: [paste the formula]. If there is a simpler way to write it, show me that too.
Why it works: it asks Copilot to teach rather than just answer, so you come away understanding the function. A formula on its own carries no council data, so there is nothing to take out first.
Copilot prompt · suggest a formula
I have a column of dates in A and a column of amounts in B. I want to add up only the amounts from this month. Suggest an Excel formula, and explain each part so I understand it. I will test it on my own sheet.
Why it works: it describes the columns and the goal plainly, asks for the reasoning as well as the formula, and states that you will check it on your own data, which is the habit that keeps Copilot honest.
Going further, when you are ready
When the basics feel comfortable, three more tutorials pick up where this leaves off. Grouping and outlining tidies a long sheet into collapsible sections; PivotTables summarise a big table in a few clicks; and XLOOKUP pulls a matching value from another list, the workhorse of tidy spreadsheets.
Grouping & OutliningOpens in a new window PivotTablesOpens in a new window XLOOKUPOpens in a new windowBe a Champion Prompt Critic: Excel edition
The session closes the way Session 3 did. Eight everyday Excel questions from around the region are about to be sent to Copilot, and every one of them has a problem: a sheet Copilot cannot see, a financial year it guessed wrong, a contact list that should never have been pasted in. Call out the problem before the send button gets pressed, watch the prompt get fixed, and take the Prompt Critic's checklist with you.
Prompt Critics: Excel with CopilotPresenter game · opens in a new windowRecap, and what is coming
You can now read a sheet with sort and filter, write the everyday formulas, handle dates properly, and use Copilot to explain and suggest formulas while you check its work. The last session brings the whole course together, answers any remaining questions, and finishes with a look at how generative AI creates images.