To create a drop-down list in Excel, select the cell, open the Data tab, click Data Validation, choose Allow: List, and either type your items in the Source box separated by commas or select a range that contains them. Click OK, and a small arrow lets users pick from the list instead of typing.
To set an out of office in Outlook, open Automatic Replies: in new Outlook or on the web go to Settings > Accounts > Automatic replies; in classic Outlook go to File > Automatic Replies. Turn it on, set a start and end time, type your message, and save. Automatic Replies works on Microsoft 365 and Exchange accounts.
To recall an email in Outlook, open Sent Items, open the message, and choose Recall Message (new Outlook) or Actions > Recall This Message (classic Outlook). Recall only works if you and the recipient are on Microsoft 365 accounts in the same organisation; it cannot recall emails sent to external addresses like Gmail.
Copilot in Excel is an AI assistant built into Excel that can draft formulas from plain English, analyse a table of data for trends and outliers, create charts and PivotTables, and clean up data. It can’t handle messy, unstructured data, it needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and its output always needs checking. Used well, it’s a genuine time-saver.
Excel keyboard shortcuts let you perform common tasks instantly instead of hunting through menus. The most useful include Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste, Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Arrow to jump across data, and Alt+= to AutoSum. Learning even ten of them can save you several hours a week.