Overview
Option 1 - Claude Foundations and Excel Essentials Focus: This 90-minute session gives Excel users a practical, easy-to-follow introduction to Claude and shows how it can support everyday spreadsheet work.
You begin by understanding what Claude is, how it differs from other AI platforms, what its plans and limitations are, and how to navigate the screen confidently.
The session then moves into practical Excel tasks including sorting data, designing proper tables, counting different types of data, charting non-adjacent ranges, adding a secondary axis, protection options, age formulas, and text case changes.
You also learn how to ask better questions, use your own data for stronger results, and record your best Claude outputs in a referenced document for future reuse.
Key Benefits:
- Build practical confidence using Claude with common Excel tasks and real data
- Improve prompt quality so Claude produces more accurate and useful outputs
- Leave with a repeatable workflow for saving and reusing your best results
Option 2 - Practical Productivity and Data Management Focus: This session is built for professionals who want to combine Claude and Excel in a practical way that improves speed, accuracy, and everyday productivity.
You learn how to frame effective and more advanced questions, how to work with your own uploaded data, and how to understand what Claude can and cannot reliably do.
Applied Excel examples then show how Claude can support multi-column sorting, table design, counting functions, chart creation, workbook and worksheet protection, selected cell locking, age calculations, and text conversion.
By the end of the session, you will also have a structured method for documenting strong Claude responses so they can be reused as part of your personal reference library.
Key Benefits:
- Use Claude more effectively with Excel for practical day-to-day work tasks
- Strengthen data handling, charting, and worksheet management skills
- Create a personal referenced document of useful prompts and outputs
Option 3 - Easy Start with Claude and Excel Focus: This session is ideal for attendees who want a clear and practical starting point for using Claude alongside Excel without unnecessary complexity or technical jargon.
You cover Claude basics, plans, limitations, screen navigation, effective questioning, more advanced prompting with your own data, and a broad range of workplace examples.
You then apply these skills to Excel essentials including sorting, data structure, counting, charting, protection, formulas, and text handling so the learning stays practical throughout.
Every part of the session is designed to help attendees use Claude with more confidence and get better Excel-related outcomes from the very first tasks they apply at work.
Key Benefits:
- Gain a simple practical starting point for Claude and Excel working together
- Learn real Excel techniques supported by better prompting and data use
- Build confidence, accuracy, and reusability across everyday work tasks
Why should you Attend
- Understand what Claude is, how it works, and how it differs from other AI platforms
- Learn Claude plan options, costs, limitations, and practical cautions before using it more widely
- Navigate the Claude screen confidently and understand the key options and capabilities available
- Ask clearer and more effective questions so Claude gives more accurate and useful responses
- Use your own data in more advanced prompts to produce more relevant and specific outputs
- Create a referenced document that captures and organises your best Claude responses for reuse
- Apply Claude to Excel tasks including sorting, data structure, and counting large ranges
- Build charts from non-adjacent data and add a secondary axis when different scales are involved
- Protect workbooks, worksheets, and selected cells more confidently and appropriately
- Use formulas and text functions more effectively for age calculations and case conversion
Areas Covered in the Session
- Claude explained - what Claude is, how it works and what makes it different from other AI platforms
Claude options, costs, disclaimers, copyright and knowledge base - understanding the Claude plans, usage costs, important copyright and knowledge limitations - Tips and wider examples of uses - practical tips and a broad range of real-world examples showing how Claude can help you at work
- Understand the screen, key options and Claude capability - navigating the Claude interface and understanding what you can ask and expect from Claude
- Presenting effective questions to Claude - how to frame clear, well-structured questions that get you accurate and useful responses
- Present more advanced questions with your own data for best results - how to incorporate your own data into prompts to get highly relevant and specific Claude responses
- Record more advanced Claude responses in your own referenced document - creating a structured personal reference document to capture and reuse your best Claude outputs
- Sort data by 2 columns (uploading a sample file) - how to ask Claude to sort your Excel data by two columns and how to upload a file for Claude to work with
- Sort data columns - using Claude to sort Excel data vertically by column values for organised analysis
Proper table design for data management - designing well-structured Excel tables that support accurate data management and reporting - Count various types of data in cells in a large range - using Excel functions to count numeric, text and conditional data across large datasets
- Chart non-adjacent columns of data - creating Excel charts from columns that are not next to each other in your worksheet
- Add a secondary chart axis - adding a second vertical axis to an Excel chart to display data with different scales on the same chart
Protect workbook - applying Excel workbook protection to prevent unauthorised structural changes - Unprotect a workbook - safely removing workbook protection when authorised changes need to be made
- Protect worksheet - restricting editing on a specific Excel worksheet while keeping others accessible
- Protect specified cells - locking individual cells to control exactly which parts of your worksheet can be changed
- Formula to calculate age in years - building an Excel formula to calculate each person’s current age from their date of birth in a large list
- Change the case of text - using Excel functions to convert text to upper, lower or proper case across your worksheet
- NOTE: Topic sequence may be subject to slight variation
Who Will Benefit
- This webinar is designed for Excel users who want a practical and easy-to-understand introduction to Claude, along with real examples of how it can support spreadsheet work, data handling, and everyday productivity. It is suitable for attendees who want useful workplace outcomes rather than abstract AI theory
- Administrative staff, business users, analysts, coordinators, finance staff, and anyone who regularly works with Excel data, reports, lists, or charts will benefit from the combined focus on Claude prompting and practical Excel essentials delivered in this session
Speaker Profile
Ray Evans blends a professional, easy-going style with a strong grasp of adult learning-demonstrated across classroom, seminar, workshop, and live-online delivery, supported by practical, high-retention instructional materials.
Backed by Microsoft certifications, Ray teaches more than 2,500 topics spanning Microsoft Excel, Access, Outlook, Project, PowerPoint, Word, Visio, and Publisher-and is one of very few presenters delivering expert-level webinars across all six leading AI cognitive engines: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Grok, Gemini and DeepSeek.
He holds qualifications in Frontline Management, Accounting, Training and Assessment and is certified in Six Sigma business-improvement methodology.
Since 1990, Ray has trained over 40,000 students, business owners, and executives, and authored extensive training documentation, complex reports, and engaging web content-consistently demonstrating exceptional communication and knowledge transfer.
Ray's webinars replicate the in-person classroom experience and include:
A comprehensive step-by-step Learning Guide
Demonstrations and practical exercises
Exercise files; and
Productivity techniques, tips and shortcuts