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There has been plenty of unquestioning press reports from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2014. Statistics and commitments are quoted without much consideration for their worth.
The good news is another commitment to Microsoft Office ‘cross platform’ meaning, for the moment, not just Windows and Macintosh. Here’s one slide from the keynote address:
We’ve already seen Office for iPad. That’s a success from Microsoft’s POV because it’s encouraged more people to switch to their annual payment model for Office software. That’s what makes Office for Android such a likely release.
We also heard about the Microsoft vision for ‘universal’ apps. That means programs that work across the complete range of Windows devices, smartphones, tablets, laptops, PC’s even Xbox and gigantic Perceptive Pixel displays.
It’s a nice ‘vision’ which we’ve heard in similar refrain for a long, long time. It almost never happens in the real world because the platforms and hardware are so different. The software we are eventually asked to buy inevitably isn’t as compatible or consistent as Microsoft’s visions promised.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Last week we talked about the Unicode v7.0 symbols and how to use symbols in Word.
With over 100,000 characters in the Unicode specification, it’s important to know the character code number for the symbol you want.
That raises the question, how can you find out the Unicode character code for a symbol already in a Word document. You might open a Word document and want to use that symbol elsewhere.
Of course, you can copy the symbol and paste into another document, but it’s sometimes handy to know the code number itself. Happily there’s a simple, but not obvious, way to do it.
In an Office document, select the symbol you’re interested in then choose Insert | Symbol | More Symbols. Yes, it’s called Insert Symbol but the dialog box will open to the pre-selected symbol and show you the character code.
This trick is useful not just for getting the character code. You can also use this method to find similar characters to the one selected.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...We laughed at this sign, seen in a Tesco’s supermarket in the UK.
Thanks to @sparkigol for the image
Now, we don’t know that Microsoft Word was used to make this sign, but it’s a good bet. So we wondered how anyone could print out those sentences without noticing the red or blue squiggly lines?
Guess what – according to Word 2013 that entire document has no grammar mistakes at all! Even ‘incontinence’ doesn’t get a contextual spelling query. It’s the same in the US, UK and Aussie variants of the installed English proofing tools.
That’s surprising but a warning to all of us ...
Do NOT trust Word’s spelling and grammar checking too much.
It's surprising that the first sentence doesn't trigger something in Word's grammar check. Surely 'and is removed' would be flagged? We tried changing the capitals from 'Chillers Break' thinking that might be fooling the software a little - but no.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...As we mentioned last month, Microsoft decided to greatly increase the OneDrive storage available for Office 365 subscribers. The base storage for paid customers is now 1 Terabyte.
That change has now been implemented. If you’re an Office 365 subscriber, go to OneDrive in your browser and look in the bottom left corner.
Or in Windows 8.1 go to Change PC Settings | OneDrive | File Storage to see the online storage available.
OneDrive users with free account should now see 15GB of total space available.
>... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...
At the recent Microsoft conference there was mention of Microsoft Delve. But what the ?^%$ is ‘Delve’?
It’s an enhanced search tool for your documents and online info. Not just standard Office documents but also videos, audio, links to web sites etc that are posted on SharePoint. It tracks your online actions and then tries to display content based on those actions.
Delve will be available to some Office 365 customers (presumably those on business plans) by the end of 2014.
Delve can be setup with links to the various places your data is stored, on the current computer, network shares and online storage.
The default display shows you ‘the most interesting, most useful and most relevant information from across all of Office 365’ using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Microsoft puts it:
“Delve highlights key information of interest to you, based on what you are working on and the actions of people in your network.”
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...There’s plenty of new symbols included in the Unicode 7.0 standard, here’s how to get them into your Office documents.
Most fonts do NOT have all the Unicode characters, after all, there are over 133,000 of them. There are far too many characters so most fonts only have a select ranges of fonts.
Some Microsoft supplied fonts have a lot of the Unicode symbols. If you’re looking for something unusual then check out:
which have more complete character sets than other Microsoft supplied fonts. None of Microsoft’s main Unicode compatible fonts have the new Unicode 7.0 characters available and some may never appear.
Enter ‘SymbolA’ a font available from http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ courtesy of George Douros.
This TrueType font that has many of the Unicode symbols including the new characters from Unicode 7.0. On the web page there’s a PDF download which displays all the symbols available with the Unicode 7.0 additions marked in blue.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Unicode has added another 2,834 new characters in the Unicode 7.0 specification, mostly support for 23 new scripts. That takes the total to a whopping 113,021 characters!
But we’ll have to wait for these new characters to appear automatically in Office, Windows and mobile devices.
The release of Unicode 7.0 meant the press gave a lot of coverage to the new ‘Emoji’ characters adopted into the Unicode standard, but there’s a lot more than smiley faces in the new release.
Added to the official Unicode set are currency symbols for the Nordic Mark, Azerbaijani manta and Russian ruble. Here’s all three, in order, with their character codes (in Hex):
Most of the media coverage is about ‘Emoji’ characters which we used to call Wingdings or Symbols. Some of the new characters are:
But there are other ‘hand’ symbols added:
As life-long Trekkies, we have to love the Vulcan greeting symbol (bottom right). It’s officially called ‘1F596 Raised Hand with part between middle and ring fingers’.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Miracast is a clever trick that lets you wirelessly connect some Windows 8.1 portable computers, Android and other devices to any HDMI capable monitor or TV screen. All you need is a Miracast dongle available online for around US$20 or perhaps a Miracast ready TV.
This feature is mostly sold as suitable for PowerPoint presenters but Miracast can be used by anyone to mirror, extend or replace the main monitor. That’s the same as a second, cabled, monitor.
We’ve seen Miracast used to display a laptop screen on a large lounge room or hotel room TV without a cable running across the floor.
Miracast is available to send from other devices. Android 4.2 and later will Miracast as long as the device hardware supports it. Windows Phone 8.1 and BlackBerry 10.2.1 are also Miracast capable, but check the hardware specs as well.
A portable computer has to be created with Miracast in-built, most likely as Intel’s WiDi feature (WiDi 3.5 and above support Miracast). Alas, you can’t add Miracast to an existing computer.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...Figuring out what are the latest updates for Microsoft Office isn’t easy which is why we’re delighted to see Update center for Office, Office servers, and related products from Microsoft.
It’s been a long time coming but as Sam Seaborn once said “ Let's forget about the fact that you're comin' a little late to the party and embrace the idea you showed up at all. “
That page lists the updates available for:
There’s links to the most recent:
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...The Guardian has a nice little guide to maintaining an inkjet printer and saving money.
We’ve never had good experiences with recycled ink or toner cartridges and have always found their quality to be poor. But others swear by recycled/refilled cartridges so if you find a reliable supplier, stick with them.
If you do buy original manufacturer cartridges, shop around for a good price. Most office supply stores charge near retail while online suppliers or Ebay (reputable merchants only) can ship to you the same thing for much less.
Whether you use original or recycled cartridges, ignore the ‘low’ indicators since they are often rigged to trigger prematurely and increase sales. We use the ‘low’ indicator as a reminder to order a replacement online but don’t replace until the pages noticeably deteriorate.
An air duster is a great addition to any computer users toolkit. Either a small manual blower or better, a can of compressed air. A high pressure can of plain air can blow away all manner of stuff from the innards of printers and the undersides of keys.
... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...|
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