One Cool Tip Newsletter

January 19, 2026

Your daily dose of tech-savvy brilliance!

😀Greetings!, Happy Monday, Cool Tipper!

Get ready to streamline your digital life with simple, actionable tips delivered straight to your inbox.

Today's Cool Tip Theme: Agent Mode in Excel for the Web

IN THIS ISSUE

• 🚨 Windows 11 Shutdown Bug and Emergency Fix.
• 🤖 AI Prompt: Analyze Sales Trends in Excel.
• 📊 Turn Excel into Your AI Teammate with Agent Mode.
• 👀 Show Changes in Excel for Shared Workbooks.
• 🧩 Modernized Excel Grid Features on the Web.
• 🎨 How to Draw and Annotate Directly in Excel.

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• 😂 Laugh with Us! Enjoy our Tech Joke of the Day, Haiku and Cool Tip Comics.



• 🌐 Stay Informed! Check out ICYMI, and our One Cool Tip Video.

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Today's Tech Trivia

Answer at the end of this newsletter.

🚨Windows 11 Shutdown Bug: Check for the Fix 🚨

Microsoft released an emergency update after a recent Windows 11 patch caused some PCs to reboot instead of shutting down. Only certain 23H2 devices with Secure Launch were affected, but everyone should confirm they have the latest fix installed.

How to check Windows Update

1. Select Start then Settings.
2. Choose Windows Update from the left menu.
3. Select Check for updates and install anything listed as Available.
4. A reboot ensures the emergency fix is fully applied.

Quick Cool Tip

If your PC still restarts instead of shutting down, use this temporary command:

1. Open the Start menu
2. Type cmd.
3. Select “Command Prompt”
4. Choose the desktop app from the search results.
5. Type: shutdown /s /t 0
6. Press Enter
7. The PC will shut down immediately.

Try this Cool AI prompt:

Copy/Paste this AI-powered prompt. Try it in the One Cool Tip AI Companion (free ChatGPT account required) or Copilot, Gemini or ChatGPT:

Try this in Excel with Copilot or copy your data to another AI and enter this prompt:

"Analyze this table and summarize key sales trends by region and product. Highlight any seasonal patterns or anomalies."

Adjust as needed.

Turn Excel Into Your AI Teammate: How To Use Agent Mode In Excel For The Web

Agent Mode in Excel turns Copilot from a polite assistant into a hands-on builder that can reshape your workbook for you. If you work with reports, budgets, or messy data, this is the rare feature that can actually give you hours back each week.

You know that feeling when a “quick” spreadsheet tweak quietly eats your entire afternoon? 

One more column, one more formula, one more chart, and suddenly you are deep in a maze of references and formatting.

Here's a Cool Tip: Use Agent Mode in Excel for the Web

Instead of nudging Copilot one prompt at a time, you describe the outcome you want, and Agent Mode plans, builds, and revises a multi-step workflow inside your workbook. 

It behaves less like a chatbot and more like a junior analyst who can explain what it is doing as it goes.

Feature Explanation

Agent Mode lives inside Copilot in Excel for the web. When you turn it on, Copilot gains the ability to:

Plan multi-step workflows based on a single request.

Manipulate your workbook directly by inserting tables, formulas, PivotTables, and charts.

Explain its reasoning so you can see how it interpreted your prompt and what steps it took.

You might ask: “Create a revenue forecast model with monthly projections, a summary dashboard, and a chart that highlights year-over-year growth.”

Agent Mode breaks that into steps, generates sample or grounded data, builds formulas, creates charts, and then shows you the logic behind each move.

This matters because it shifts Copilot from reactive to proactive. 

Instead of you orchestrating every click, Agent Mode handles the structure while you focus on whether the result matches your business question. 

For anyone who spends time in Excel but is not a full-time spreadsheet engineer, that is a big upgrade.

What You’ll Gain

Faster builds: Turn vague ideas into working models without hand-building every formula.

Cleaner structure: Let Agent Mode propose tables, PivotTables, and charts that follow best practices.

Better explanations: Use the reasoning view to understand how your data is being transformed.

More experimentation: Try “what if” scenarios without fearing you will break your original workbook.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here's how to do it.

Excel For The Web

1. Go to Excel on the web, excel.cloud.microsoft/.
2. Sign in with a Microsoft 365 account that includes Copilot.
3. Open an existing workbook or create a new one.
4. In the ribbon, select Home > Copilot to open the Copilot pane on the right.
5. In the Copilot pane, open the Tools menu.
6. Select Agent Mode.
7. You should see an Agent Mode indicator and a prompt area that confirms you are in Agent Mode.
8. In the Agent Mode prompt box, describe what you want. 
9. Examples:
10. “Build a loan calculator with monthly payment, interest, and remaining balance columns.”
11. “Create a sales dashboard with a PivotTable by region and a chart showing top 10 products.”
12. Press Enter and watch Agent Mode plan and execute steps.
13. If something looks off, refine your prompt:
14. “Use currency formatting in US dollars.”
15. “Limit the chart to the last 12 months.”
16. Use Excel’s undo if you want to roll back a change.
17. Once you like the result, save the workbook as usual.
18. Reopen Agent Mode later to extend the model, add new scenarios, or clean updated data.

fig. 1 - Use Agent Mode in Excel to Create Complex Worksheets

Excel For Windows And Mac

• Agent Mode is not yet available on Excel for the web.

Pros And Cons

Pros

• Multi-step automation: Great for building full models, not just single formulas, such as a full budget workbook with summary dashboards.
• Direct workbook edits: No copy and paste from chat. Agent Mode writes formulas, creates tables, and inserts charts in place.
• Transparent reasoning: Helpful for training newer analysts or documenting how a report was built.
• Strong language support: Multiple languages are already supported, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Simplified Chinese.

Cons

• License requirements: You need a qualifying Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Premium subscription, with Personal and Family support listed as coming later.
• Web-first rollout: If your organization prefers desktop Excel, you may need to shift some work to the browser.
• Learning curve: You must learn to describe outcomes clearly, and some early prompts may produce structures you want to refine.
• Governance questions: For sensitive data, admins may want to review how Agent Mode uses web grounding and future Work IQ features.

Feature Access

• Platform: Agent Mode is generally available in Excel for the web.
• Licenses: Available for commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users and Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers.
• Languages: English (US), Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Japanese, French (France and Canada), German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Simplified Chinese, with more languages expected later.
• If you do not see Agent Mode yet, treat it as currently rolling out.

Score

Criterion Score (0–10) Justification

Value 9

Delivers significant time savings for anyone who builds recurring reports or models in Excel.

Usability 8

Clear entry point in Copilot and good explanations, though prompt crafting still takes practice.

Wow Factor 9

Watching a full workbook structure appear from a single request feels transformative compared to traditional Excel work.

Total: 26/30 🌟 Excellent 

Agent Mode in Excel for the web is one of the most impressive upgrades to everyday spreadsheet work since PivotTables, and it compares favorably to traditional macro-based automation because it is more transparent and easier to adjust.

Key Takeaways

Agent Mode turns Copilot into a workflow builder that can design, populate, and explain complex Excel models from a single request. 

It is especially powerful for recurring business processes like monthly reporting, forecasting, and dashboards. 

If you already have Copilot access, this is a feature worth piloting on a real project, not just a test file.

Cool Tip Snapshot

• Feature Name: Agent Mode in Excel
• Platform(s): Excel for the web, with desktop support coming to Windows and Mac.
• Quick Benefit: Describe the outcome you want and let Copilot build multi-step workbook solutions for you.
• Access Type: Subscription - requires eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Premium license.

Try It Yourself

Open Excel for the web, turn on Copilot, switch to Agent Mode, and give it a real task from your week, such as a monthly report or a planning model you have been dreading. 

Then share how it went in the comments, and pass this article along to your team, family, and friends who live in spreadsheets.

READ MORE

• Copilot on Windows Can Now Export Office Docs
• How to Instantly Edit Data Label Text in Excel for the Web
• Unlock Excel Compatibility Versions to Safeguard Your Formulas
• MORE Microsoft Excel Cool Tips

Read the Full Cool Tip.

🆒Tell Me More

• Agent Mode lives inside Copilot in Excel for the web.

• It builds tables, charts, and formulas directly in your workbook.

• You can undo or refine any step Agent Mode takes.

• Reasoning view shows how Agent Mode interprets your prompt.

• It’s currently rolling out to desktop Excel and mobile browsers.

⏩Quick Tips

• 🧠 Describe outcomes, not steps: Say "build a dashboard" instead of "insert a chart."

• 🧪 Start small: Try a single table before asking for a full model.

• 💾 Save a backup: Keep a copy before running big Agent Mode tasks.

• 🏷️ Label clearly: Use named ranges and scenario tags.



• 🔍 Inspect formulas: Always check logic before sharing your workbook.

✅ More Must-Read Tech Tips

👀 How Do I Show Changes in Microsoft Excel?

Have you ever lost track of changes in a shared Excel document? 

'Show Changes' in Microsoft Excel is a feature that allows users to track and view the most recent edits made to a workbook. 

It’s designed to enhance collaboration by displaying changes to cell values and formulas, including operations like moving, sorting, inserting, and deleting cells or ranges. 

This feature is particularly useful in shared workbooks, as it helps users see who made specific changes, what those changes were, and when they were made.

Here's how to do it.

1. Open your shared Excel workbook.
2. Click on the 'Review' tab.
3. Select 'Show Changes' from the toolbar.
4. A sidebar will appear, displaying a list of changes made by different collaborators.
5. Use the filters to sort changes by sheet, range, or user.
6. Click on a specific change to highlight it in the workbook.

Note: Ensure that your workbook is saved on OneDrive or SharePoint, as this feature is cloud-based.

The 'Show Changes' feature brings transparency to collaborative work, making it easy to track who did what and when. 

However, it’s important to note that this feature only tracks changes for the last 30 days.

Imagine a budget planning document shared among finance team members. 

'Show Changes' allows each member to see updates in real-time, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

'Show Changes' in Microsoft Excel is a game-changer for team collaboration. 

Discover more HERE. 

🤔 Have You Ever Wondered How to Use Excel's Modernized Grid?

Have you ever felt limited by the traditional spreadsheet grid? 

Are you ready to experience a level of control and customization in Excel that was previously unimaginable?

Here's a Cool Tip. Use the improved grid features in Microsoft Excel on the web.

Microsoft Excel on the web is a powerful online version of the popular Excel spreadsheet software. 

It allows users to create, view, and edit Excel workbooks directly from their web browser without the need for installing the full desktop application. 

This web-based version is part of the Microsoft 365 suite and offers many of the core functionalities of Excel, including organizing data in familiar spreadsheets, creating modern visuals, and working together in real-time with others.



Here's how to do it.

• Resize Rows and Columns

1. Hover over the border, 
2. Click, hold, and drag to resize.

• Simplified Insert Options

1. Click on the small circles that convert to ‘+’ on hover to add rows or columns.

• Streamlined Unhide Feature

1. Select the small arrows that appear to show hidden rows or columns.

• Freeze Panes

1. Drag the handles in the top left corner to keep headers visible while scrolling.

• Drag & Drop

1. Rearrange elements by selecting, holding, and dragging when the cursor shows the hand icon.

• Highlight Cells 

1. Select cells to emphasize critical information.

The Modernized Grid for Excel on the Web is not just an update; it’s a revolution in spreadsheet management that caters to the needs of today’s data-driven world.

Find out more HERE.

🙋‍♂️ Here's How to Draw in Excel.

Have you ever thought of Excel as a canvas for your creativity? 

Beyond its rows and columns, Excel hides a powerful drawing tool that lets you express your ideas visually. 

Excel's drawing tools are a hidden gem, offering a simple and effective way to enhance your spreadsheets with visuals. 

By creating diagrams, flowcharts, and illustrations directly within Excel, you can improve data visualization, communication, and overall engagement. 

Here's how to do it.

Activate the Draw Tab:

1. If you don't see the "Draw" tab in your Excel ribbon, right-click on the ribbon and select "Customize the Ribbon."
2. In the customization window, check the box next to "Draw" and click "OK."

Explore the Drawing Tools:

1. The "Draw" tab offers a variety of tools, including pens, pencils, highlighters, and erasers.
2. Experiment with different line colors, thicknesses, and styles.

Start Drawing:

1. Click on the desired drawing tool and start drawing directly on your worksheet.
2. Use the "Shapes" tool to insert pre-designed shapes like rectangles, circles, and arrows.
3. Combine shapes and freehand drawing to create more complex visuals.

Format Your Drawings:

1. Select a drawn object to reveal formatting options like fill color, outline color, and effects.
2. Use the "Arrange" tools to layer, group, or align your drawings.

Your drawings stay within the same Excel file, making it easy to reference them alongside your data.

Your colleagues will appreciate the extra effort, and who knows—you might even become the Picasso of pivot tables!

Learn more HERE. 

❓Did you share this newsletter with three friends yet?

😎 Cool Facts

• 57.2% Accuracy: In initial benchmarks, Agent Mode scored 57.2% on complex "SpreadsheetBench" tasks, lower than a human expert (71%) but rapidly improving. Source

• Multi-Step Reasoning: Agent Mode is powered by OpenAI's "o1" (Strawberry) class models, which are designed to "think" before they answer. Source

• Visual Thinker: The Agent can generate over 15 different types of charts, including complex histograms and box-and-whisker plots, without user intervention. Source

⌨️Today's Cool Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + Z: Undo Agent Mode changes.

• Ctrl + S: Save your workbook.

• Ctrl + Arrow: Jump to edge of data range.

😜 Tech Joke of the Day 😅

Why was the spreadsheet always cold?

Because it had too many rows and only one sheet!

🔎 Do you have a Cool Tip or tech question? Email us at onecooltip.com@gmail.com.

Cool Tip Haiku

Numbers wait in rows

Agent hears what you intend

Sheets solve themselves now

How Google Gemini’s New AI Feature Connects Your Apps for Smarter Answers

How to Use ChatGPT’s New Dedicated Translation Tool

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Explore Floor 796: The Internet’s Most Delightful Where’s Waldo for Tech Culture

Unlock the Power of Excel: How to Convert Image Data to Spreadsheets Without Rekeying

Have you ever wondered how to transform data trapped in an image into an editable Excel spreadsheet? 

And you don't want to rekey in all of the data manually?

Watch

Management level unlocked: coffee in hand, feet on desk, AI doing the overtime. ☕💻

Trivia Answer: B) 1985

Excel debuted on the Macintosh in 1985, two years before its Windows release.

Microsoft prioritized Mac development early on to compete with Lotus 1-2-3, which dominated the PC market.

Excel’s graphical interface and mouse support helped it stand out.

Image Credit Exhibition Invites, ethw.org

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Tomorrow's Cool Tip is waiting to amaze you.

Until then, go forth and conquer the tech world with your newfound knowledge!

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Enjoy!



Rodger

Chief Cool Tipper

onecooltip.com@gmail.com

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