Julia N.
Sample Excel reports look professional now
The formatting lesson made my automated reports look as if I had made them by hand.
Automate boring work with Python: files, web and sheets
Write small, reliable Python scripts that rename files, clean spreadsheets, fetch web data, send emails and run on a schedule
Created by Arjun Mehta
- Updated September 2026
- English
- Beginner
What you will learn
- Organise, rename and move files safely with pathlib and shutil
- Read, clean and write Excel and CSV files with openpyxl and pandas
- Call web APIs with httpx and extract data from simple pages with Beautiful Soup
- Automate a browser with Playwright to fill forms and download files
- Send emails with attachments from a script
- Schedule scripts and keep logs so you know what ran and when
Course content
Automation foundations
Spreadsheets and CSV files
- Video: Reading and writing Excel with openpyxl 13 min
- Video: Cleaning messy data with pandas 14 min
- Video: Merging monthly files into one report 12 min
- Video: Formatting reports people will read 10 min
Data from the web
- Video: Calling web APIs with httpx 12 min
- Article: API keys and secrets 9 min
- Video: Extracting data from web pages 13 min
- Video: Watching a page for changes 10 min
Browser automation with Playwright
- Video: Installing Playwright and recording a script 11 min
- Video: Filling forms from a spreadsheet 14 min
- Video: Logging in and downloading files 12 min
- Article: Making browser scripts reliable 9 min
Email, notifications and scheduling
- Video: Sending emails with attachments 12 min
- Article: Chat notifications with webhooks 8 min
- Video: Scheduling on Windows, macOS and Linux 13 min
- Video: Logging and error reports 10 min
Making scripts last
- Article: Configuration files instead of edits 9 min
- Video: Testing a script before it touches real data 11 min
- Video: Sharing scripts with your team 9 min
- Article: Your own automation backlog 7 min
- Quiz: Final check 5 min
Requirements
- Basic Python: variables, conditions, loops, functions and lists
- Python 3.12 or newer installed
Description
Most office work has a repetitive core: renaming files, copying numbers from one spreadsheet to another, checking a website every morning, sending the same report every Friday. Python is very good at this kind of work, and you do not need to be a professional developer to use it.
This course teaches you to write small scripts that save real time. Each section solves a common task end to end, with code you can adapt to your own job the same day.
What you will automate
- Organising folders and renaming hundreds of files safely
- Reading, cleaning and writing Excel and CSV files with openpyxl and pandas
- Fetching data from web APIs and simple web pages
- Filling in web forms with browser automation using Playwright
- Sending emails with attachments
- Running scripts on a schedule on Windows, macOS and Linux
Writing scripts you can trust
A script that deletes the wrong files is worse than no script. So we build habits from the start: dry runs that show what would happen before it happens, logs that record what did happen, and clear error messages. We also use uv to run scripts with their dependencies declared at the top of the file, so a script still works when you share it or come back to it months later.
You should know basic Python: variables, loops, functions and lists. If you do not, take a beginner course first and come back.
Who this course is for
- Office workers and analysts who repeat the same computer tasks
- Beginner programmers who want practical projects
- Small business owners who manage their own spreadsheets and reports
Instructor
Arjun Mehta
Python developer teaching clean, practical Python for beginners and working engineers
- 4.5 instructor rating
- 23 reviews
- 10,251 students
- 3 courses
- Sample
I write Python every day: automation scripts, small web services and internal tools for teams who need to stop copying data between spreadsheets by hand. I started as a self taught programmer, so I remember exactly which concepts felt confusing at first.
In my courses I explain the idea, show a short example, then give you a task that uses it in a realistic way. I care about readable code, sensible project structure and modern tooling such as uv and Ruff, without making beginners learn everything at once.
I also volunteer as a mentor in beginner coding groups.
Student reviews
Sandra H.
Sample Saves me two hours every week
The monthly merge script from section 2 replaced a task I did by hand every Monday. My manager asked me to share it with the team.
Rohan P.
Sample Dry run habit is gold
Starting every script with a dry run mode is such a simple idea. I have avoided at least one disaster thanks to it.
Elise V.
Sample Very practical, a bit Windows light
Most examples are shown on a Mac. The Windows scheduling lesson is good but I wanted more Windows screenshots.
Musa I.
Sample uv inline dependencies are great
I did not know scripts could carry their own dependencies. Sharing scripts with colleagues is painless now.
Agnieszka W.
Sample Playwright section was my favourite
Filling forms from a spreadsheet saved our admin team a lot of copy and paste. The reliability tips helped.
Diego F.
Sample Real tasks, real code
Every section felt like something from my actual job. No toy examples.
Hassan Q.
Sample Assumes basic Python
Make sure you know loops and functions first. I had to pause and review, then it went well.
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$34.99
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