Write Excel Formulas in Plain English Using Claude

If you've ever stared at a formula you didn't write and had no idea what it was doing, or searched "Excel VLOOKUP" for the fourth time this month, this class is built for that moment. You'll use Claude to write formulas from plain-English descriptions, track down errors that have quietly been wrong for months, and get a clear explanation of any workbook, tab by tab and cell by cell. The hands-on work uses a deliberately messy, realistic workbook so you can see the payoff on something that looks like your own work. The aim is to make formula-writing and error-tracing feel more approachable.

Learners will have the opportunity to:

1. Describe what they want a formula to do in plain English and have Claude write it, including modern functions like XLOOKUP, FILTER, and dynamic arrays
2. Practice tracing #REF!, #VALUE!, and circular reference errors to their root cause, working with Claude to identify what went wrong and suggest a fix
3. Open an unfamiliar workbook and ask Claude to walk through what each tab does and what each formula is calculating
4. Work with cell-level citations to verify Claude's explanations against the actual cells
5. Explore a sample workbook built by someone no longer around to explain it, the kind of file most people avoid
6. Enable the Claude Log tab to create a running record of every action Claude takes
7. Experiment with how to describe what they need so Claude gets the formula right on the first try
8. Explore what dynamic array functions are and when they make a task easier

Topics

- Writing formulas from plain-English descriptions
- Modern functions: XLOOKUP, FILTER, dynamic arrays
- Tracing and fixing #REF!, #VALUE!, and circular reference errors
- Walking through and decoding unfamiliar workbooks
- Cell-level citations for verifying explanations
- The Claude Log tab
- When to double-check output before using it in a live file