Excel interactive canvas creates Copilot dashboards

Key insights

• Interactive canvas is rolling out in preview, and the demonstration requires Copilot in Excel.
• The report appears on its own sheet and reads data in the workbook.
• You can ask Copilot to add cross-filtering, a minimum-value slider and drill-downs.
• The demonstrated detail view showed up to 50 rows.
• The report updated after a source value changed, without a manual refresh.

Excel’s interactive canvas lets Copilot build dashboards on a separate workbook sheet, with filters and interactive controls connected to workbook data. It matters to Excel users who want to explore or present reports without manually assembling every visual element. Leila Gharani [MVP] demonstrates the feature using expense, project and customer data in a YouTube video.

What’s new

Interactive canvas is a Copilot skill for generating a report from a description of what you want to see. In the demonstration, a travel-expense prompt produced KPI cards, charts, filters and commentary, including totals and missing-receipt information. The report also included dropdown filters for department, category, month and receipt status.

Copilot can then be asked to extend the report with interactions. The examples include clicking a chart bar to filter the rest of the report, hovering to see an amount, selecting a KPI to view related expenses and adding a slider for a minimum expense amount. A separate prompt created a Play button that moved through findings by applying filters and showing captions.

The feature also generated a project status report from multiple workbook sheets, with a Gantt chart, risk matrix, workstream status and budget-versus-actual information. Another example added an animated ranking of customers by monthly net sales. These are examples from the demonstration, not a guarantee that every prompt or workbook will produce the same result.

Who it is for and what you need

The demonstrated task is aimed at people who already have data in an Excel workbook and want a visual report for an audience such as a finance team or project steering committee. The examples use a travel-expense table and, separately, project information split across several sheets. The video does not specify a required data format beyond those workbook examples.

The description says interactive canvas is rolling out in preview, so it may not yet appear for every user. It also says you need Copilot in Excel. It does not identify a specific Copilot license, Excel version, region, platform or tenant requirement, so those details cannot be confirmed from the available material.

To find the skill in the demonstrated interface, open Copilot and look under Manage plugins and skills. The interactive canvas skill was enabled in the example. If it is turned off, the description says you can still use it by @mentioning the skill in your prompt.

How it works

The canvas is not presented as a conventional worksheet made of cells. It appears on its own sheet and behaves more like a web page inside the workbook, reading the workbook data. In the demonstration, the ribbon and formula bar were grayed out on the canvas sheet, and the report’s calculations were not exposed as ordinary cell formulas.

1. Open Copilot in Excel and locate Manage plugins and skills. Check whether the interactive canvas skill is enabled; if it is off, @mention it in your prompt.
2. Describe the report you want and the information it should include. The example asks for travel spending by department, category and month, missing receipts, total spend and notable findings.
3. Review the generated report and test its filters. In the expense example, changing the month updated the figures, charts, missing-receipt list and commentary.
4. Ask Copilot to add interactions or revise the design. The demonstration’s follow-up request added chart cross-filtering, hover values, KPI drill-downs and a minimum-amount slider.
5. For data spread across sheets, describe which sheets the report should combine and what each visual should show. In the project example, the prompt also requested a separate calculation sheet and an explanation of how the sheets were connected.

When the source expense value was changed, the report updated without a manual refresh in the demonstrated workbook. The user could also ask Copilot how a number was calculated or ask it to create a separate calculation sheet. That provides a way to inspect the reasoning without editing formulas directly on the canvas.

If you work with Excel reports more broadly, see our Excel coverage for related topics.

Limitations and open questions

The canvas does not behave like a normal worksheet. The demonstration says you cannot right-click an element to edit it, and you cannot directly inspect the calculations behind its numbers. To change the design or request an explanation, you ask Copilot instead. The source does not establish whether the generated report can be edited through other methods.

Drill-down also has a demonstrated limit: selecting total spend showed a detail list labeled as displaying up to 50 rows. The presenter noted that Copilot could be asked to adjust it, but the example does not verify a larger result. Treat that as a point to test with your own workbook rather than assuming the canvas returns every underlying record.

Preview status means access may be limited, and the material does not clarify rollout timing or licensing beyond the need for Copilot in Excel. It also does not provide a formal list of supported data sources or workbook constraints. Before relying on a generated report, check its figures and interactions against the underlying workbook data.

Sources

• Leila Gharani’s interactive canvas demonstration

Frequently asked questions

What do I need to use Excel interactive canvas?

The description says you need Copilot in Excel. It does not specify a particular license, Excel version, region or platform.

Where is the interactive canvas skill in Excel?

In the demonstrated interface, the skill is under Copilot’s Manage plugins and skills. If it is off, the description says to @mention it in your prompt.

Can I edit an interactive canvas report like a worksheet?

Not in the demonstrated way: the canvas has no regular cells, and you cannot right-click an element to edit it. Ask Copilot to change the report or explain a calculation.

Does an Excel interactive canvas report update when data changes?

The expense report in the demonstration updated after a source value changed, without a manual refresh. The material does not establish that behavior for every workbook or scenario.