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Office Watch

 

 

Google gives you 15GB

Google has announced that the free storage available to all comers has now been combined into a single 15GB limit that you can use as you like across their services.

Previously Google gave away Gmail, Google Drive with Google + photos with separate storage limits:

Now each account gets 15GB of online storage that can be shared among your Google services as suits you.

For example, most people probably don’t get even close to the Gmail 10GB limit but might like some more Google Drive or photo space. Now you have it.

You don’t have to request or allocate the 15GB of space, just start using it however you like. For example, add more documents to Google Drive or photos to Google +.

See your overall storage usage at https://www.google.com/settings/storage/ where you can buy extra storage if needed (though the prices seem a little high).

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Office 365 and Office 2013 – what’s the difference?

Microsoft uses the terms ‘Office 365’ and ‘Office 2013’ interchangeably and confusingly so it’s no wonder Office-Watch.com gets asked about differences between the two.

Strictly speaking ‘Office 2013’ is the software – the successor to Office 2010 and before. You install Office 2013 on your Windows computer.

‘Office 365’ is a new way to rent Microsoft Office related services. Those services usually includes the right to install and use ‘Office 2013’ software as well as other features during the rental period (usually a year at a time).

It’s the same software. It doesn’t matter how you buy Office 2013, you get the same software. Same features, same functionality.

(Well, OK – there are a few small differences due to the ‘Click to Run’ or streaming installation for Office 365 renters. But those differences are minor and a by-product of the installation method not a decision by Microsoft.)

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Word’s ‘New from Existing …’ feature

A common way to make a new Word document is to use an old document at the starting point. Word has a few ways to do that quickly.

Why do it? Often you want to make a letter, proposal or other document that’s similar to one you’ve made before. Or perhaps the document has formatting that you want to use again. Whatever the reason, making a new document from an existing document happens all the time.

Sadly Microsoft has never really considered this a ‘good’ way to make a new document so the options to do it are hidden. Microsoft thinks that all new documents should be made from templates but in the real world we need other methods.

New from Existing …

This handy feature was in Word 2007 and Word 2010 only.

Word 2010

On the Word 2010 New menu at the end of the template list is ‘New from existing ….’

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

New from existing document .. the alternatives

There’s more than one way to get a similar result as ‘New from Existing…’ that are worth keeping in mind. They apply across all recent versions of Word as well as Excel and Powerpoint too.

You can just open the source document then 'Save As...' to the new name, that takes a few steps. There's a risk that the user will forget the important 'Save As...' step and accidently overwrite the source document.  

Mature programs like Word should provide a more elegant and safe solution that gives the user a clone of the selected document with the ability to choose a new document name of their choice.  'New from Existing ...' did all that nicely.

New choice in Explorer

This alternative only works from Windows Explorer, not from the File New or File Open dialog boxes in Office.

In Explorer, go to the document you want to use as the source, right-click on it and choose 'New'

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Windows 8: changes or tweaks?

It’s been interesting to watch Microsoft trying to trick the media with their orchestrated campaign of ‘leaks’ and announcements about a Windows 8 update.

We’re now told that an upcoming Windows 8 Service Pack will address some of the obvious concerns about the new operating system. The planned ‘leaks’ have been coordinated with the familiar but unsubstantiated boasts about sales of Windows.

Some commentators have gushed about how Microsoft is making a ‘U-turn’ or even comparing the move with the ‘New Coke’ debacle of 1985. Frankly we don’t expect an update to Windows 8 to reverse course as much as some people are guessing or hoping.

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Signed emails appear blank in Gmail

If you send your emails with a digital signature they might appear ‘blank’ to a Gmail receiver … something like this:

The above message had HTML text in the message body but neither are showing up in the Gmail web browser view. There’s only a small ‘p7m’ file which is the S/Mime digital signature.

Here’s the same message displayed in Outlook with an IMAP connection to the same Gmail account.

The problem is not the message, it’s how Gmail in a web browser handles the display of the content. For some reason, Gmail’s web browser code doesn’t display a signed message properly. A signed message isn’t encrypted so there’s no good reason for the message not to show up properly.

Happily, the Outlook developers are aware of this and other situations where a signed message isn’t displayed properly by the receiving software. In Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2010 go to File | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings | E-mail security and ensure that the setting ‘Send clear text signed message when sending signed messages’ is checked (as well as ‘Add digital signature to outgoing messages’). In Outlook 2007 go to Tools | Trust Center | E-mail security to find the same option.

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Data Mining ‘fun’ coming soon

The WikiMedia foundation, operators of Wikipedia among others, is developing a new site called Wikidata.

It will be a home for public ‘structured data’ in other words, lists. There are plenty of lists already in Wikipedia. Wikidata will link with Wikipedia and help structure those lists into standardized forms.

"Unlike Commons, which collects media files, and the Wikipedias, which produce encyclopedic articles, Wikidata will collect data, in a structured form. This will allow easy reuse of that data by Wikimedia projects and third parties, and will enable computers to easily process and "understand" it."

At the moment you have to manually copy tables from Wikipedia - a messy process Office-Watch.com detailed in the past Copying tables from Wikipedia to Word

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Outlook 2013 bug sending signed messages

You install a digital certificate to sign your emails, but when you try sending a signed message … Outlook 2013 totally ‘hangs’, it stops working. What’s going on?

There’s a bug in Outlook 2013 – if you install the certificate via Outlook then Outlook hangs when you try to send a signed message.

Sending an unsigned message works fine but using the digital certificate you’ve installed sends Outlook 2013 off to la la land.

The solution is simple. You have to remove the certificate and reinstall it from Windows rather than from the Import certificate option inside Outlook.

It should not matter how you install the certificate – but it does in Outlook 2013. It’s certainly a bug with Outlook 2013 and Windows 8, perhaps also Windows 7. I t’s a large bug that Microsoft won’t admit to.

To fix the bug first make sure you have a backup of your digital certificate saved as a file.

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Simple and free email signatures for Outlook

Email digital signatures aren’t used a lot which is a shame because they are very useful. Signed emails are verified to come from you while it’s possible to encrypt your messages (to prevent anyone else reading them) when both you and other party share the public key in your certificate.

We go into all this in step-by-step detail in Privacy and Security in Microsoft Office .

Office-Watch.com has been trying another free provider of email certificates - StartSSL They offer one year S.MIME certificates with either 128 or 256-bit encryption.

The certificates are easy to get. It’s easiest to get the certificate on the computer where you have Outlook installed. However you can do it on any computer because there’s a Windows option to export certificates and import them onto another computer.

Go to https://www.startssl.com/?app=12 – choose ‘Sign-up’ and follow the prompts.

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Disappearing comment lines in Word 2013

Word 2013 has changed, yet again, the way comments are displayed in documents. It appears that the old line between the comment box and the place in the document has been removed – but it can be easily restored.

Word 2013 defaults to ‘Simple Markup’ mode in response to people who found the full set of revision and comments made a document too difficult to read … and they were right.

If you do a few edits and add a comment to a document with track changes on, here’s what you’ll see

The vertical bar on the left means there’s changes on the adjacent lines while the callout on the right means there’s a comment.

Hover your mouse over the callout icon to see where the comment relates to in the document. Click on the icon to see the comment.

This is all the new ‘Simple Markup’ mode however it lacks some of the essentials like the ability to read comments without clicking and see where exactly in the document the comment relates to.

... click here to read more at Office-Watch.com ...

Boston Bombing and Texas explosion nasty emails

Really obvious spam/phishing messages not caught by Microsoft’s spam filters. click here for more ...
Markup View quick switch in Word 2013

A fast way to switch Markup views in Word 2013. click here for more ...
Aussie charade day

Down in Australia, software companies acted out a little play with politicians click here for more ...
Future Subscription Possibilities

How might Microsoft increase the cost of Office 365? click here for more ...
Subscription price trap

Even the New York Times falls for Microsoft’s spin on Office 2013/365 prices click here for more ...
Adding a background image to a Word page

Using a picture as the background for Word page isn’t as straight forward as it seems. click here for more ...
Office 2013 install woes

Problems installing Office 2013 made much worse by a useless error message. click here for more ...
Office 2013 licenses now transferable

Microsoft backs down and lets you move Office 2013 between computers. click here for more ...
Office Mobile Apps coming soon

Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint will soon be on mobile devices. click here for more ...
Office 365 small business subscription pricing

The initial Office 365 pricing is very enticing ... maybe suspiciously so. click here for more ...
Watermarks in Word using VBA

Just one example of VBA users being shortchanged in Microsoft Office click here for more ...
Is your photo showing in everyone’s Outlook?

Control your Facebook photo as displayed to others via Outlook. click here for more ...
Canadian prices for Office 2013

Moving above the 49th parallel causes magical price changes in Microsoft Office. click here for more ...
A nice little earner with UK prices Office 2013

British customers can pay up to 45% more for Microsoft Office than across the pond. click here for more ...
Aussie pricing ripoff

Why are Australians still being asked to pay too much for Office 2013? click here for more ...
Another look at Aussie Office 2013 pricing

Let’s take into account US State Sales taxes and see if it makes much difference click here for more ...
Excel LEN anomaly for large numbers

A little Excel quirk to mention using LEN() with large numbers. click here for more ...
Big numbers rounded in Excel

Excel and really large numbers – they don’t play nice together. click here for more ...
Submarine cable map

Where are the undersea cables that link the Internet? click here for more ...
Outlook 2013 To Do bar limitations

The 2013 To-Do bar is a step back in usefulness. click here for more ...
Are you sure about non-transferable?

Office 2013 can't be moved from the computer you first install it on - we’re quite sure. click here for more ...
Office 2013 Aussie price comparison

Australians still get shafted when paying for Office 2013. click here for more ...
Dynamic Date Charts

How to make an Excel chart that changes as you add more cells. click here for more ...
Custom Oscars for every year

Your own Oscar statue for each year. click here for more ...
Office 2013: the real startup guide

Our famous guide to Office, saving money, install and new features. Now for Office 2013. click here for more ...
New Prime Number is too big for Excel

They've discovered a new Prime number but not for Excel. click here for more ...
Date formatted charts in Excel

The secret to a timeline chart in Excel is the data. click here for more ...
Office 2013 – watching the sales pitch

How well are the changed terms for retail sales being disclosed? click here for more ...
Office 2013 on sale

Office 2013 is now on sale – but should you bother? click here for more ...
HP Printers exposed!

How to check if your printer is exposed to anyone on the Internet. click here for more ...

Office News Wire

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 ...
Jive Connects for Microsoft Office

Jive Extends its Social Layer Deep into the Enterprise, Wide Across the Firewall, and Out into the Marketplace click here for more ...
Office Web Applications – half measures for now

If you get access to Office via your browser, what’s on offer now? Only half. click here for more ...


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