This article describes several more variations of combo boxes, making them even more useful. Linked Combo Boxes You can use a set of linked combo boxes to filter a list, making it easier to get at the specific item you want to select. As an example, in the sample database (Specialty Combo Boxes, Part 2), […]
A regular combo box that gives you a choice of an item from a list (usually displaying items from a query or table) is very useful, but sometimes you need something more. This article describes several ways to expand the utility of a combo box. Hard-Coded List Combo Box When you have a small number […]
Back in 2002 I wrote an Access Archon article dealing with reference issues, among them the problem of certain references being upgraded when a database is opened in a higher version of Access, but not downgraded when it is again opened in a lower version. You might think that over the last 16 years Microsoft […]
A private April 2018 Gartner report confirms what Office-Watch.com has been saying for years. Microsoft is forcing customers away from perpetual licence/one-off software purchases and into software rental like Office 365. As reported by Gregg Keizer at Computerworld, Microsoft will continue ‘encouraging’ customer to annual fees by limiting access to key cloud features for perpetual […]
While North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was busy in Singapore, his government hackers were busy with new malware called TypeFrame and delivered by, you guessed it, a Microsoft Word document. Typeframe has eleven different elements bundled with a Word document. As usual, the hackers send the document and try to trick people into running […]
The ASUS Zenbook Pro series comes with a snazzy touchpad which doubles as an extension toolbar for Microsoft Office. Source: ASUS Instead of a blank touchpad, it’s a small high-res touchscreen that can display icons or even full videos (play Lawrence of Arabia on a tiny, tiny screen!). For Microsoft Office it means that mini-toolbars […]
The news that Microsoft is adding Javascript support to Excel is important for developers and regular Excel user, but also a security concern. Javascript is a programming language that’s used on many web pages to provide the fast interaction we’re used to. Javascript is able to get data from external sources and display in Excel […]
Here’s how to convert the Last Trade time in Excel’s Stock data type into an Excel date/time that’s usable in other parts of Excel. Stock data type is a new live or linked data type in Excel. It’s currently available to Insiders of Office 2016 for Windows. Stock and index information from across the globe […]
Sometimes you need to convert a date from the Excel cell saved format to a particular format. Microsoft makes that easy with the Text() function. Use it to convert an Excel date into a specific format like this; =TEXT(A2,”dd-mmm-yy”) The date value in cell A2 is converted into a text string using the formatting string […]
Date handling in Excel can be confusing and it’s not your fault. Microsoft could do a better job. Here’s a quick guide to how Excel handles dates and date arithmetic with the settings you should know. What you see isn’t what’s saved What Excel shows in a cell is only a version of what’s actually […]
Microsoft has announced that the community support forums for Office 2013 and Office 2010 are ending next month, July 2018. The Community Support Forum are online forums where Microsoft staff and volunteers answer questions from Microsoft customers. From July 2018 Microsoft won’t be responding to queries in these forums: Office 2010, 2013 Windows 7, 8.1, […]
Office 2011 for Mac is just one of many programs that won’t work at all on the upcoming MacOS release ‘Mojave’. That’s not a surprise for anyone who follows Apple’s policy announcements. Many years ago, Apple warned that they’d eventually stop supporting 32-bit programs with 64-bit applications becoming the required standard. Among the programs that […]
Microsoft has announced that a perpetual licence version of Office for Mac will be released later this year. Office 2019 for Mac will come out alongside Office 2019 for Windows. Both are for non-subscriber / perpetual licence customers only. Anyone with Office 365 ‘subscription’ doesn’t need to bother with these ‘2019’ releases. Source: Microsoft The […]
For the first time in a decade, Microsoft is making substantial changes to the Office ribbon interface. But not to worry, the changes don’t appear to be enough to put anyone off Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. The existing ribbon is retained, that’s an important point that’s not emphasized enough in the leaked Microsoft video. […]
Modern Excel can grab information from multiple files in a single folder. Just open the worksheet, refresh the query and it’s up to date! This article is a condensed version of just one chapter in Real Time Excel – the new 2nd edition has a lot more detail and example files ready to use. […]
Criminal have found another way to (mis)use Microsoft Office and infect computers using the latest ‘zero-day’ hack. You may know that Adobe’s Flash was a popular add-in for web pages to display multi-media content. But Flash was very insecure and unstable so it’s been mostly replaced with other secure systems. Most modern browsers block Flash […]
As usual, Microsoft has released non-security updates and bug fixes for Office 2016 and Office 2013 on the first Tuesday of the month. A few caught our eye: Late last year, Microsoft was caught out leaving a horribly vulnerable Equation Editor in Office for 17 years. A new patch restores the MT Extra font so […]
Two Indian banks clamped down use of unlicensed Microsoft Office, leaving staff to use calculators or open-source alternative spreadsheets. Mid-Day.com reported that Bank of India and Saraswat Bank had some licenses for Microsoft Office but not enough for all the computers the bank had allocated to staff. Branches were instructed to uninstall Office from many […]
A recent news story about the Australian airline, Qantas, caught our eye because of the email signature block. “We work flexibility at Qantas. I’m sending this message at a time that suits me. Please feel comfortable know that I don’t expect you to read, respond to or action it outside of regular working hours.”
Both Windows and Office send an astonishing amount of data from your computer to Microsoft. Here’s how to see what’s being sent. The Diagnostic Data Viewer shows, as it happens, what your computer is sending to Microsoft. The tool does NOT give you the choice to not send your private information. It only tells you […]
Later this year, you’ll be able to buy an Office 365 annual ‘subscription direct from the App Store on a Mac. Buying through the App Store will be a bad move for any Mac users. That was one of the lesser noticed announcements at Apple’s WWDC 2018 conference. The whole App Store is being redesigned and […]
Office Watch reader, John Hoffmann has some more detail on variable fonts, now supported in Windows 10. Variable fonts are a single package that includes many variations (Light, Heavy etc), instead of having separate font files for each variant. That takes up less disk space (important on tablet devices) and, as John explains, are easier […]
There are plenty of audio and music options available in PowerPoint, if you want to give your audience a break from your voice. We’ll go beyond the simple ‘adding music’ help to give some practical advice for audio in presentations: opening or closing music playing one song after another music playing over the entire presentation […]
In late 2016, Microsoft removed the PowerPoint audio ‘Change Picture’ option from the right-click menu for the music icon and they show no interest in bringing the choice back. The feature hasn’t gone away, it’s just not on the right-click menu where it should be. The workaround is on the Audio Tools | Format ribbon […]
It’s time again to put the mighty brains and resources of Microsoft against the best and brightest of American youth. Yet again, the kids put Microsoft Word to shame. Each year, Office-Watch.com get the word lists from the finals of the US Scripps National Spelling Bee and runs them through the Microsoft Word dictionary. There’s […]
An overdue and very welcome addition to OneDrive for Office 365 customers is password protected sharing links. Until now, you could send a link to a OneDrive stored file or folder but there was no control over who used that link. If the link ‘escaped’ to other people, they could download or even edit the […]
Microsoft has extended their OneDrive Files Restore feature to all Office 365 customers, not just their business users. It’s a simple way to recover files that have been lost, in particular if you’ve been caught in a ransomware attack. Ransomware will encrypt all the files on your computer and network so you can’t access them. […]
The increasing popularity of Office 365 hosting has a downside; targeting of the platform by hackers. Just like Microsoft Office software, the wide deployment of Office 365 means it becomes a large target for baddies to try infiltrating. They are succeeding. A report from Beazley Breach Response Services suggests that attacks against Office 365 are […]
The latest early release of Office for Windows/Mac gives you ‘choices’ for sharing diagnostic information about Office. You can choose to send Microsoft a lot of information or just a little data but you can’t refuse completely. There are legitimate questions about what information is being sent to Microsoft and how it’s being used. That […]
Office 2016 for Windows or Mac has an inconsistent set of privacy and diagnostic data options depending on exactly which Office variant you have, your ‘Insider’ choice and even the toss of a coin! Microsoft’s intention is clear … they want more information about how you use Word, Excel and Powerpoint to the extent that […]
With the sale of fonts via the Microsoft Store, there’s now a complication in the familiar way fonts are managed in Windows 10 and how Office for Windows handles new fonts. For as long as anyone can remember, all Windows fonts where in a single folder: /Windows/Fonts But not anymore … Fonts installed from the […]
Here’s how to make a parallax slide transition from one slide to another. Strictly speaking, to fake it! The parallax effect is created by making a text box ‘below’ the visible slide then animating that text box into view. See Cool Parallax Slide Transition in PowerPoint Ideally, you’d be able to transition to the next […]
Here’s some Outlook tricks to help planning for the Soccer World Cup 2018 or any other event. (Obviously, we’re joking about ‘normal’ people. Our football loving friends are sure they are normal and pity humans with no interest in the round-ball game.) We’ve already looked at how to import a list of all World Cup […]
New and improved ‘Pro’ fonts are a lesser known part of the April 2018 update to Windows 10. You can install, free, updated alternatives for Windows standard fonts like Arial, Georgia, Gill Sans and Verdana. Windows 10 now supports ‘Variable Type’ fonts where a single font file contains many variations like bold, italic, regular, condensed […]
Sharepoint hosted by Microsoft Office 365 continues to get more features with a few indicating changes coming to broader Office products. Changed Opening Pane The Office.com pane is changing with a ‘Recommended’ section that lists items that Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence thinks you should see. Discover shows documents other staff are working on, including new documents […]
The North Carolina State Bar is proposing attorneys get an hour of computer training, including Microsoft Office, as part of their annual Continuing Legal Education (CLE). Only one US State, Florida, has a computer component of their current CLE. Amazing! In Florida, lawyers have to get three hours of technical training every three years. That’s […]
The upcoming Football World Cup (soccer) is a little more complicated than usual. There are 64 matches playing across three time zones in Russia which makes it hard to figure out what time the live broadcast will be for you. Outlook for Windows or Mac can help, combined with an online calendar of World Cup […]
Microsoft Word for Android devices has achieved a seemingly impressive milestone, 500 million downloads. Is that ‘half a billion’ number truly big when compared to the number of Android devices in use? We’re inspired by the wonderful More or Less program and podcast from BBC Radio 4 to ask the question ‘Is that a big […]
Here’s how to make the latest web ‘parallax’ effect in PowerPoint. Parallax effect is where a photo appears to move ‘out of the way’ as a new slide appears. You see it in modern web sites like this: See how the photo moves up, as the new slide also moves up? That’s the parallax effect. […]
Continuing our tutorial on making a parallax slide transition in PowerPoint. In Parallax Effect in PowerPoint, part one we setup the extended slide with the image and text boxes needed. We showed how to add text boxes outside the visible slide area, the vital selection pane, renaming objects so they are easier to identify and […]
