Tech Tips & Tales from The MS Office Maestro

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

🌴 This Week: This week: Confidence grows when you understand what’s possible

I’m still in Florida, working a little while while enjoying precious family time, and this week has reminded me that learning Copilot is rarely about one big lightbulb moment.

It is usually more like peeling back the outer layers and gradually seeing what is actually possible.

This week I spent 90 minutes with a couple who wanted to understand Copilot properly in a work context, not just hear the headline claims. We explored where it helps, where it needs steering, and where human judgement still matters. One of them described it as being like peeling the outer layer of an onion, which I thought was such a good description.

That same idea came through in the feedback from the latest cohort of Microsoft 365 with Copilot: The Human Advantage too. People who began feeling unsure or completely new to Copilot came away feeling much more comfortable, clearer on what it can do, and more aware of how to start using it in everyday work.

That feels like real progress to me.

✨ This week's Copilot Moment

Standardise a recurring email

You know those routine updates that go out every week, the ones that should sound clear and consistent, but somehow vary depending on who writes them?

This is one of those small but very practical ways Copilot can help.

Instead of starting from scratch each time, ask Copilot to reshape the message using a repeatable structure that keeps it warm, clear and easy to scan, without sounding stiff or robotic.

Try this in Copilot:

Role: Acting as my style guide
​Goal: Rewrite this draft using a clear, repeatable structure
​Context: Keep the tone warm and concise
​Steps: Use this structure - Context, three bullets, Ask, Thanks
​Expectations: No more than 150 words

Why this helps at work:

Readers know exactly where to look, approvals are faster and you spend less time rewriting the same message over and over.

Quick Win

Try this structure for your next routine update and notice how much quicker it is to get from draft to send.

📌 A tiny Microsoft tip

Text to Columns in Excel

If you’ve ever pasted a list into Excel and everything ends up squashed into one column, Text to Columns can fix it in seconds.

It splits information into separate columns based on spaces, commas, or other separators.

Where to find it:
In Excel, go to the Data tab and choose Text to Columns, then follow the short step‑by‑step wizard.

Why this helps: ​
It cleans up messy data quickly and saves you from manual cutting and pasting.

Try this today: ​
Find one column with combined data and split it into proper columns using Text to Columns.

💛 Before I go...

One of the things I have been reflecting on this week is that confidence with Copilot does not come from memorising lots of prompts or trying every new feature the moment it appears.

It comes from understanding what the tools can do, trying them in your own work, and building judgement as you go.

That is exactly what has come through in the feedback from the latest cohort of Microsoft 365 with Copilot: The Human Advantage. As one anonymous participant put it:

I love that because it captures what so many people feel. You do not need to know everything at once. You just need a clearer starting point, a bit of structure, and the confidence to begin.

Also, a quick heads-up if you’ve been thinking about joining the next cohort of Microsoft 365 with Copilot: The Human Advantage. The landing page is almost ready, and once it is, I’ll be sharing it with the waiting list first, along with a very good early bird rate before it goes out more widely.

More next week.

✍️ Shelley Fishel

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

PS: One for the “watch this space” file: Copilot Cowork moved from Frontier preview to general availability worldwide on 16 June 2026. Microsoft says it is designed for longer, multi-step work across Microsoft 365, rather than just giving you a draft or suggestion. It does, though, require both a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and usage-based billing via Copilot Credits, so it is one to be aware of rather than assume you already have.