Dynamic Excel Workflows
Upgrade from fragile cell formulas to resilient, modern spreadsheet design. Learn how to leverage dynamic arrays, flexible lookups, and structured tables to build spreadsheets that never break when data updates.
Like Duolingo, but for Dynamic Excel Workflows. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Modern Formula Mechanics and Resilient Data Structuring. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Dynamic Excel Workflows
- XLOOKUP references lookup and return ranges independently instead of using a static column index number.
- Inserting a column automatically updates XLOOKUP's explicit range reference from B:B to C:C.
- VLOOKUP uses a hardcoded column offset number that breaks or points to the wrong column when new columns are inserted.
- XLOOKUP defaults to an exact match (match mode 0) when the match mode argument is omitted.
- VLOOKUP defaults to an approximate match, which can return silent, incorrect matches if the fourth argument is forgotten.
- XLOOKUP's optional fourth argument ([if_not_found]) specifies what to return when no match is found.
- Using [if_not_found] eliminates the need to wrap formulas in IFERROR or IFNA.
- Text messages passed to [if_not_found] must be enclosed in double quotation marks.
- An inner XLOOKUP can return an entire dynamic column or row array instead of a single value.
- An outer XLOOKUP consumes the dynamic array provided by the inner lookup to pinpoint the intersecting cell.
- Nesting two XLOOKUPs replaces the traditional INDEX/MATCH/MATCH two-way lookup pattern.
- A search_mode of 1 is the default and searches from first to last (top to bottom).
- Setting XLOOKUP's search_mode to -1 performs a reverse search from the last item to the first item.
- Handling unfound lookup values directly inside XLOOKUP without wrapping functions
- A reverse search returns the most recent entry in a running log without requiring data re-sorting.
- Identifying the role of each component in a nested two-way XLOOKUP
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Dynamic Excel Workflows the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You insert a new blank column between your lookup column and return column B:B. What happens to your XLOOKUP formula?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Dynamic Excel Workflows takes you
- 1
Modern Formula Mechanics
- Flexible Lookups with XLOOKUP
- Dynamic Arrays and Spill Behavior
- 2
Resilient Data Structuring
- Structured References with Tables
- Defensive Modeling and Error Auditing
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
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Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
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- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Dynamic Excel Workflows is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Dynamic Excel Workflows today.
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