Excel Canvas offers to turn your workbook into the boss's next report

Copilot builds charts and metrics from spreadsheet data, with automatic refreshes when the numbers change

Microsoft plans to roll out Excel Canvas through October, adding Copilot-generated reports to its veteran spreadsheet.

Excel Canvas "transforms workbook data into a polished report containing visualizations, metrics, and insights," said Microsoft. The reports automatically refresh as the underlying data changes.

Users need access to Copilot in Excel and can tweak reports through natural language prompts. Presumably along the lines of "Why the heck did you use that as the x-axis?"

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Lately, Microsoft has been relentlessly fiddling with Excel. Last week it added an opt-in feature to allow multiple values in the same cell, potentially complicating life for third-party tools that expect one value per cell.

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Earlier Copilot additions have met resistance or been withdrawn. Earlier this year, there were howls of outrage from users when a Copilot Dynamic Action Button was unceremoniously dropped onto their workspaces. In response, Microsoft swiftly allowed users to send it to the toolbar. Microsoft also abandoned the COPILOT() function in August this year, barely 12 months after introducing it, saying it had "decided not to move forward with this feature."

The function carried a warning that its output should be checked for accuracy, particularly when used for business decisions or reports. Hardly reassuring when the spreadsheet feeds the accounts.

Automatically refreshing reports could save users some work, provided Copilot selects appropriate metrics and charts. Canvas also enters a crowded market: businesses already using dashboard tools will need a reason to add another. ®