Get the Office Watch newsletters!
since 1996 thousands of people receive the latest independent news and tips from us -- join them today - FREE!
Go to the File | Open pane in Word 2013, right-click and choose ‘Remove from List’ will delete any indication that a particular document/s had been opened. Right?
Wrong – Office 2013 retains information about past documents that anyone can see. The Windows registry still retains recently used document information that’s not directly editable by users and most people would not realize was there.
It’s a clear privacy breach and means Microsoft has forgotten the basics of customer privacy as well as the history of Office development.
‘Remove from List’ was a feature that users asked Microsoft for many years and finally got it in Office 2010.
But that privacy hasn’t lasted long. In Word 2013 (including Service Pack 1), Microsoft has effectively restored the list of past documents opened and not made it editable by users. That’s because the ‘Remove from List’ action in Office 2013 doesn’t completely remove the Most Recently Used information.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Jason Hale has done a nice job checking out where Office 2013 leaves footprints showing what documents you’ve worked on.
Office programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint have MRU – Most Recently Used – lists that let you re-open a recently accessed document.
In the ‘olden days’ there was one MRU list saved in the Windows Registry. Office geeks could peek in the registry to see what documents had been recently opened.
Office 2013 and Office 2010, at least, you can right click on an MRU item and ‘Remove from List’ to maintain some privacy.
Starting with Office 2010 you could directly remove items from the MRU list. In Office 2007 and before you had to tinker in the Registry to remove your document footprints from a computer.
What Jason discovered is that the MRU’s have been expanded a lot in Office 2013. The integration with Microsoft Live Account logins mean that there’s a lot more information stored.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...One of the nice little features in Office 2013 is the ‘Welcome Back .. Pick up where you left off’ tag that appears when you re-open a document.
Click on that tag and you’ll move to the last place you were in the document. Very nice, though you could always use Shift + F5 in earlier versions of Office to do the same thing.
Most people would have thought this useful information would be stored in the document (the .docx file). After all it’s an XML file so it can contain all sorts of detail. You’d think that the document position, time accessed and the user ID would be saved there.
But no … it’s not. Microsoft has chosen to save it in the Registry instead!
Jason Hale has figured out that the ‘Welcome back’ details are stored at Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\Reading Locations in the registry. The document path and name are saved with the saved date/time and two numbers representing a position in the document.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...When you save a document to SkyDrive, Microsoft collects some more details than you’d expect but hasn’t bothered to tell its customers.
We’ve already told you about Jason Hale and his discovery that the ‘Welcome Back’ details when re-opening a document are not saved in the document itself. Instead they are saved, with the document name and path in the Windows registry. Microsoft should disclose that information to customers but it’s missing from their web site.
While checking out that discovery we noticed that there were no SkyDrive documents in the 50 Reading Locations saved. Yet if the same Microsoft account holder opens a Word document from SkyDrive on another computer they’ll get a ‘Welcome Back’ message.
Somehow the ‘Welcome Back’ information is being passed between computers and that isn't disclosed by Microsoft.
Again, the obvious place for that information is in the document itself. However our look inside a .docx could not find anything (maybe someone with sharper eyes can find it?).
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...We recently told you about the Helvetica font in Windows and Microsoft Office – or rather it’s noticeable absence. Microsoft plays some strange font substitution tricks that got us digging further.
As we’ve noted, if you open up a document with Helvetica formatting, Office for Windows will show you Arial as a substitute. That’s not unusual because Mac computers have Helvetica but Office for Mac doesn’t support font embedding.
For example, here’s a document in Word 2011 for Mac with both Helvetica and Arial fonts. Notice the difference between the right down stroke on the capital R – it’s almost vertical in Helvetica and more of an angle in Arial.
Now open the same document in Word 2013 for Windows (or any Word for Windows) and check out the capital R – they are the same even though there’s two different fonts. That’s because Windows has, without warning, replaced Helvetica with Arial on the displayed page.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...We’ll show you how to capture or grab a proper, full size, high-resolution still image from a high quality video file then paste that picture into an Office document or Outlook email.
Why do this? Sometimes a video turns out badly but has some moments that would look good on their own. Or you don’t want to share an entire video but some images are easier to send around.
Microsoft Office users often want to insert images from video into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations or Outlook emails.
Many video editors and players have a ‘Snapshot’ function to grab a still image from a video. Unfortunately those features are limited to the screen size displayed as opposed to the true video size.
For example, if you take a still image from a 1920x1080 video using Windows Movie Maker you’ll get a much smaller image based on the preview pane size. Even VLC (the favored video player) will only grab a still image based on the current video window. That wasn’t a problem but these days recording a a high-resolution video is becoming quite common even in a modestly priced camera or smartphone.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Mike Parker isn’t a household name but the chances are the every household has an example of Helvetica, the font he helped make popular. When he worked for Mergenthaler Linotype Co., Mr Parker added many fonts, including Helvetica, to the Linotype range and therefore made available to designers and printers around the world. While he did not make Helvetica (that kudos goes to Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann) he’s rightly called the ‘Godfather’ of Helvetica.
And boy did Helvetica spread around the world. You’ll see it in public signs from Vienna to Chicago and even in Earth orbit as the font on the side of NASA’s Shuttle. It’s a favorite of logo designers so you’ll see it use by McDonald’s, Motorola, Verizon, Lufthansa, 3M and many more.
Helvetica isn’t a font normally available to Windows or Microsoft Office users. To get it you’d have to buy a licence from Linotype or another authorized distributor.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Over the years we’ve shown a lot of people, mostly travelers, how to get more from Skype. As well as our Skype Hidden Extras article, here’s a few more tips from the Skype coalface.
When you make a Skype computer-to-computer call there’s a useful toolbar at the bottom of the call window. Microsoft ‘hides’ this toolbar and it’s doesn’t appear automatically. A dubious feature that confuses the *@%@#$ out of many Skype novices or people trying to explain during a call!
Hover your mouse pointer near the bottom of the call window (below the call video or profile images) until the toolbar appears. There’s no way to ‘lock’ this toolbar so it’s always visible.
From left to right the buttons are:
Instant Messaging – turns the IM / texting window on or off.
Video – turns your camera on / off
Audio – turns your microphone on / off
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Recent versions of Office have the name SkyDrive (with the extra capital letter) in the supplied dictionary. However the new OneDrive name hasn’t made it to the Office dictionary yet.
Here’s what you’ll see in a default Word 2013 with US English dictionary:
If you want to fix the spellings and encourage use of the new name, change both the custom dictionary and the exclusion dictionary.
Adding to the custom dictionary is easy. Type in OneDrive then right click and choose ‘Add to Dictionary’. Or go to File | Options | Proofing | Custom Dictionaries and add to the word list. Network Administrators can add the name to a shared custom dictionary.
The exclusion dictionary is a little more tricky because it’s not accessible from Office options. We have full instructions in a separate article on Removing words from the Microsoft Office dictionary. In the exclusion list add the word ‘skydrive’ all in lower case.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Microsoft has finally released a Service Pack for Office 2013, the first major update to Office 2013. It’s a bundle of fixes for known and previously unknown (secret) bugs in Office 2013.
In this article we’ll tell you about the fixes and gotchas in Service Pack 1 as well as how to get it and why you should wait.
Microsoft’s list of main Service Pack 1 (SP1) fixes is short
“ Among the functionality improvements and changes are the following:
“ Outlook 2013 SP1 Provides support for task pane apps in Outlook 2013 to enable third-party developers to extend the compose experience for email messages and calendar items.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...
Microsoft Office – what’s the latest update?
A list of Microsoft Office versions and their latest Service Packs. click here for more ...9 'Hidden' extras in Skype
There's more to Skype than just free calls. click here for more ...Skype's glaring missing feature
There’s one glaring omission from Skype that’s an embarrassment to Microsoft click here for more ...Office for iPad and beyond
Don't get excited about an 'Office for iPad' until we see it. click here for more ...Picture problems in Office
How to find your pictures to insert into an Office document. click here for more ...A better 'Recent Places' folder
Making Windows Explorer’s Recent Places feature a whole lot better. click here for more ...Dropbox Alerts in Outlook
Get Outlook to show changes in Dropbox folders click here for more ...Get alerts from Outlook RSS feeds
How to get a message when certain RSS feeds are updated click here for more ...Windows 8.1 for Microsoft Office users
A fully updated book now available at the same low price. click here for more ...Office 365 two factor authentication
Better login security for some Office 365 users. click here for more ...Another view on Office 365 subscriptions
We hear from an Office 365 supporter. click here for more ...Connecting to Windows Server from Windows Standard
Save money, you don’t always need to pay for the ‘Pro’ version of Windows. click here for more ...Windows 8 Pro upgrade for less than $2 extra
Amazon has an amazing deal ... Windows 8 Pro upgrade for just $1.74 more than the standard upgrade. click here for more ...Sharing your Office 365 / Office 2013 subscription
How to share your Office licenses around to the family. click here for more ...Opening a mystery file with no extension
What can you do with a file attachment that has no file extension? click here for more ...Cloud storage summary
Choosing and mixing cloud storage options for file send and sync. click here for more ...Office 2003 support countdown
What it really means for Office 2003 users plus a better countdown to the ‘end’ of Office 2003 and Windows XP click here for more ...UK Government to drop Microsoft Office?
Moving from MS Office will be harder than politicians think. click here for more ...Windows into the soul of a scammer
Have some fun with calls from 'Microsoft Support' click here for more ...Skydrive/OneDrive Camera Roll / Camera Backup
Upload photos automatically from smartphones. click here for more ...Skydrive/OneDrive software
Sync your OneDrive folders automatically click here for more ...Sending files using Skydrive / OneDrive
A simple guide to sending files via Skydrive / OneDrive click here for more ...Dropbox Camera Upload
One of the best Dropbox features - Camera Upload click here for more ...Sending files using Dropbox
A simple guide to sending files via Dropbox. click here for more ...Dropbox software
Getting the free Dropbox software. click here for more ...Office Online ... maybe
It’s not just Skydrive getting a rename … click here for more ...Skydrive becomes OneDrive
Microsoft’s online storage service gets a court mandated name change. click here for more ...Kardashian in Office 2013
Why is the word Kardashian in the Office 2013 dictionary? click here for more ...Word Count / Table cell bug in Word
Select the wrong part of a MS Word table and the word count is wrong click here for more ...Office sales continue to rise
Office continues to rake in cash for Microsoft click here for more ...
Office News Wire
Free Office extra for the blind and visually impaired
Screen reader software now available for Office 2010 and Office 2013 users. click here for more ...Paste in Microsoft Word
Demystifying the many paste options in Word. click here for more ...Office 15 starts external testing
The Office 15 Technical Preview has begun. click here for more ...Online Cloud-Based File Repair Service for Corrupted Microsoft Office Files
Innovative Online Data Recovery Technology Allows Users to Repair Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access Files from Web Browsers Faster Than Ever click here for more ...SSD's - some tips
If you want to take the plunge to Solid State Drives, here are some comments from our experience. click here for more ...Low use of Bitlocker
Why the low use of Bitlocker when it can secure your private documents and emails? click here for more ...Office 2010: the real startup guide
Things you should know that Microsoft won’t tell you: saving money, installing, configuring and using Office 2010. click here for more ...Office 2010 licence terms
A full copy of the licence terms (aka MSLT formerly EULA) for Office 2010. click here for more ...Microsoft Office 2010 Retail Pricing Comparison Chart
This is a direct copy of the Office 2010 pricing as presented by Microsoft with all the footnotes described as a 'more detailed guide'. click here for more ...Microsoft Office 2010 Reaches Beta, Bringing Productivity Gains to the PC, Phone and Browser
Q&A: Kurt DelBene, senior vice president of the Office Business Productivity Group at Microsoft, discusses what is new in the public beta and what developers can expect from the upcoming release of Office 2010 and related products. click here for more ...
|
|
