☕ Tech Tips & Tales from The MS Office Maestro

Your weekly guided mini lesson on Microsoft, Copilot & smart working

☕ A Trip Down Memory Lane...

This week I found myself searching for an old document I'd written years ago.

The funny thing was that I could remember the content perfectly. I remembered the stories, the examples and the reason I wrote it. What I couldn't remember was the title.

After a fair bit of digging through old files, I finally found it.

It was an e-book from my first training business, The IT Training Surgery. As I started reading it, I was transported back to a very different world of Word templates, Excel formulas and PowerPoint presentations.

What surprised me most wasn't how much the technology has changed. That was obvious from the first few pages.

What surprised me was how familiar the stories felt.

There was a marketing executive called Matt who spent more time trying to work out spreadsheet formulas than analysing the information he needed for his job. There was Jennifer, who regularly lost hours reformatting reports because she didn't know there was a better way.

As I read through those examples, it struck me that although the tools have evolved dramatically, the challenges people face at work are remarkably similar.

Very few people wake up in the morning thinking, "I really want to learn Excel."

What they want is to complete a task more quickly, feel more confident in what they're doing, and spend less time wrestling with technology so they can focus on the work that really matters.

Twenty years on, that's still the conversation I'm having with clients every week.

Today, we're talking about Microsoft 365 and Copilot instead of the software I was teaching back then but the reason people come to training hasn't really changed at all.

In fact, finding that old document couldn't have been more timely. Over the past few weeks, I've been putting the finishing touches to my upcoming Excel with Copilot webinar and reading those stories reminded me why I enjoy teaching Excel so much.

It's rarely about mastering complex formulas or becoming a spreadsheet expert. More often, it's about discovering a quicker way to complete a task, making sense of information that feels overwhelming, or finding the confidence to work with data instead of avoiding it.

The software may have become more sophisticated and we now have tools like Copilot to help us along the way but the real reward is exactly the same as it was all those years ago: helping people spend less time fighting with technology and more time focusing on the work they do best.

✨ This week's Copilot Moment

Clear file names (versioned)

You know when you're looking for a document and you're faced with a list of files called things like Final, Final-Final, or Updated Version? It makes work harder than it needs to be, for people and for Copilot.

This is a simple way to create clear, human-readable file names that make documents easier to find, understand and reuse.

Try this in Copilot:

Role: Acting as my filing assistant

Goal: Suggest five improved file names for the list below

Context: Pattern = YYYY-MM-DD_Project_Topic_Audience_v01

Steps: Rewrite each name so the purpose and version are obvious

Expectations: Output only the five improved file names

Why this helps at work

Files are easier to find, version confusion drops, and Copilot has clearer context when working with your documents.

Quick win

Rename three files you use regularly today using a clear, consistent pattern.

📌 A tiny Microsoft tip

Version History in OneDrive

If a document has been overwritten or changed unexpectedly, Version History can often save the day.

It lets you see previous versions of a file and restore them if needed.

Where to find it

In OneDrive or SharePoint, right-click the file and choose Version History.

Why this helps

You can recover earlier versions without panic and work more confidently knowing changes aren't permanent.

Try this today

Open Version History on one important document so you know where it lives before you ever need it.

📊 Excel with Copilot Webinar

Finding that old document also reminded me why I'm looking forward to my upcoming Excel with Copilot Webinar on August 18th.

Whether we're talking about file names, document versions, formulas, or data analysis, the biggest productivity gains rarely come from complicated techniques. More often, they come from learning a few practical skills that save time every single day.

If Excel is one of those tools you've always felt you should know better, or if you spend more time than you'd like wrestling with spreadsheets, I'd love you to join me.

We'll focus on practical, real-world Excel skills, alongside the ways Copilot can help you analyse data, understand formulas and work more confidently with your spreadsheets. No jargon, no overwhelm, just techniques you can start using straight away.

After all, the goal isn't to become an Excel expert overnight. The goal is to spend less time battling with technology and more time focusing on the work you do best.

I hope to see you there.

💛 Before I go...

This week's trip down memory lane has left me wondering what other forgotten gems might be lurking in my archives.

I'm slightly nervous about what I might find next. There are decades of training materials in there and, if I'm honest, probably more than a few file names that would fail this week's Copilot Moment test!

If nothing else, I've reminded myself that some productivity challenges are timeless.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see what other forgotten treasures are lurking in my archive folders. In the meantime, if you'd like some practical ways to work more confidently with Excel and Copilot, I hope you'll join me at the webinar. 😊

Warm regards

✍️ Shelley Fishel

The MS Office Maestro​
Expert-led, human-centered Microsoft 365 training