Enabling Copilot and Creating Tables

Working With Copilot In Excel

Copilot is built into Excel and helps with one of the most common starting tasks — getting data into a clean, structured table. This lesson covers three ways to create one: manually, from existing text, and from a prompt.

Checking That Copilot Is Available

Copilot works in both Excel Online and the desktop app when you're signed in with a Microsoft 365 account.

• Excel Online: go to excel.cloud.microsoft.com and look for the Copilot icon in the top-right of the Home tab;
• Excel Desktop: the icon appears in the same place once you're signed in and Copilot is enabled for your organisation.

If the icon is visible, Copilot is active.

Creating A Table Manually

You can always type data directly into the worksheet. Once it's in place, convert it into an official Excel Table:

1. Select the data range;
2. Open the Insert tab;
3. Choose Table.

This isn't just cosmetic. Excel Tables add automatic filtering, improve readability, and — crucially — make it much easier for Copilot to understand and work with your data. The same data sitting in raw cells vs. inside a Table behaves very differently when Copilot looks at it.

Creating A Table From Existing Text

If your data is already somewhere else — a document, an email, a text file — Copilot can convert it into a structured table.

Copy the text, open Copilot in Excel, and give it an instruction like:

"Convert the following into a table:"

Then paste the content. Copilot analyses the text, finds the implicit structure, and produces a clean table without manual entry.

Creating A Table From A Prompt

Copilot can also generate a brand new example table from a topic alone — no source data needed.

You can ask it to:

• Describe a category;
• Compare items;
• Outline characteristics;
• Organise information you want to explore.

Useful for brainstorming, prototyping datasets, or generating a structured starting point when you don't yet have real data. Common case: building a sample table so you can design formulas or formatting before the real data arrives.