Drop-down boxes are useful in Excel but, like many things in Office, there’s more than one way to do it and more to know that the simple examples often given. Making a pull-down list is easy and there’re many tips showing the basics. In this article we’ll go beyond that. We’ll show that simple tip […]
The 21 June 2019 Office 365 for Windows Insiders release 11815.20002 has a new Dark Mode feature in Outlook plus some fixes. Here’s the details including Microsoft’s report on ‘Notable Fixes’. Outlook New features Outlook 365 for Windows now has a Sun/Moon button when using Dark mode and the black theme, Sun/Moon switches the reading […]
There’s a simple trick to ensure that an email is real, not a phishing trick to get your personal information. But Microsoft makes it easy for phishing attacks to pretend that are the real thing.. Hover over a link in an Outlook email to see the real url that you’ll visit if you click. Look […]
Microsoft is planning an Office key addition to keyboards, to go with the existing Windows key. Here’s what we know and don’t know. The company is testing physical keyboards with an Office key combined with preview versions of Windows. Source: originally Microsoft via leaks It seems the Office key code is in the current Windows […]
The 14 June 2019 Office 365 for Windows Insiders release 11807.20000 has a new feature in Word plus some fixes. Here’s the details including Microsoft’s report on ‘Notable Fixes’. Word – precision ink erasing PowerPoint already has small and medium ink erasers. They are now in Word too. In PowerPoint or Word go to Draw […]
A new feature in Outlook 365 for Windows is ‘Quick Actions’ which we’ll show you, why the name is confusing and the features limitations. From a very quick look (no pun intended) Quick Actions seems like a good idea. Alas, it’s not been properly developed or integrated properly into Outlook. Quick Actions only leaves customers […]
The latest hacker trick is sending fake ‘file deletion’ email, taking advantage of a useful Microsoft service for all Office 365 and OneDrive customers. If many files are deleted from a OneDrive account, Microsoft sends an email warning to the customer. It’s possible that the deletion was accidental or caused by ransomware. The warning is […]
The inverted or Spanish question mark ¿ is available in Microsoft Word, regardless of language setting. There’s even an in-built shortcut. ¿ is most commonly used in Spanish for the start of an question sentence. This guide is mostly for people without a Spanish keyboard or who only occasionally need the inverted question mark. See […]
The inverted or Spanish exclamation mark ¡ is available in Microsoft Word, regardless of language setting. There’s even an in-built shortcut. ¡ is most commonly used in Spanish for the start of an exclaiming sentence. As far back as the 1660’s there have been attempts to introduce ¡ inverted exclamation to denote irony. Despite its […]
You might think the simple ! exclamation mark is obvious in Microsoft Word or Office but there’s more possible even with this humble symbol. We’ll show you ways to insert FIVE different exclamation marks into Office, as characters, symbols and emoji with infinite variations possible on those five base symbols. We’re not including the inverted […]
What’s the difference between aligning to a page and align margin in Word documents? Quite often, there’s no practical difference between ‘Align Page’ and ‘Align Margin’ in Word. These options appear when positioning an object on a page and other places. Centering an object has to be done compared to some defined ‘edge’ of a […]
For Outlook software, the term ‘Archive’ means different things depending on the version of Outlook you’re using and the type of mailbox you’re connected to. Archive is a way to move messages from your regular folders to a separate location that’s ‘out of sight’. It’s a middle ground between keeping messages and deleting them completely. […]
Updating Office or Windows isn’t an easy choice, you’re taking a risk no matter what you choose. Star Trek fans know about these ‘no win scenarios’ aka ‘Kobayashi Maru’ At Office-Watch.com we’re often asked what to do about updating and, frankly, it’s hard for us to give a simple answer. Like any trainee Starfleet officer, […]
We’re delighted to announce a new ebook from Office Watch — all about Office 365 for Windows: Straight Talk. In-depth with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook 365 plus buying and configuration. For anyone with Office for Windows on an Office 365 subscription. It’s a truly independent guide to Office 365 for Windows. We take the […]
The Archive button in Outlook 2016/2019 and Outlook 365 is a very different thing than previous versions. Archive is just another folder among many in the same Outlook mailbox and data store. It’s a default folder (which can’t be changed) for Office 365 hosted, Outlook.com, and Exchange accounts. For other accounts (POP3, IMAP) you can […]
Microsoft’s PR department must be laughing themselves silly this week. A press release for an existing Excel feature is getting wide coverage even though there’s nothing new and the feature is at least six months old. The blog posting on 5 June 2019 announces Microsoft is working with “Nasdaq and Refinitiv to pull current financial […]
It’s now possible to quickly switch accounts while using Office 365 for Windows and even have different logins in separate programs. Many people wear different ‘hats’ while using Office. There’s a Work ‘hat’ or ‘hats’ with more than one job. Plus your personal or home role. Sometimes even more hats/roles like a volunteer task running […]
While most Office users have nothing to worry about, there are big changes in the next macOS codenamed Catalina. macOS v10.15 Catalina will be released for Mac computers later this year and represents a major change. Catalina = 64-bit programs only For the first time, macOS Catalina will only work with 64-bit programs. That’s not […]
Excel Mobile’s Data from Picture has one big problem, it can’t figure out what’s intended to be in one cell and puts text in many cells. Cell discernment is Data from Picture’s biggest weakness and the Review process makes it hard to fix those problems. For example, text using Excel’s own Accounting format which puts […]
Excel 365’s new ‘Data from Picture’ feature is now available for iPhone and iPad. It converts a photo into a spreadsheet grid you can work from. We told you about ‘Data from Picture’ back in March when it became available in Excel for Android. Data from Picture is on the Insert tab between Table and […]
How does Excel 365’s Data from Picture work outside the carefully selected demos shown by Microsoft? Data from Picture converts a photo of a document or table into an Excel worksheet. It does that by sending the image to Microsoft’s cloud servers for interpretation. The converted table comes back to your device for review and […]
Microsoft has announced that the Office apps for Android won’t update for older versions of Android. These are the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook apps for Android. Quietly, the system requirements were changed to cover only the last four major versions of Android. Misleading news alert Despite what you may have read, the Office apps […]
Don’t bother using cut / paste to manually sorting or adjusting a list. There’s a faster shortcut for moving a line or paragraph around a Word document which isn’t in the usual lists of Word keyboard shortcuts. Word has a simple shortcut to that move the current line or paragraph up or down without selecting […]
Here’s some other problems with the Word Sort feature and tricks to work around them. Generally speaking, long or complex sorting is better done in Excel. Excel has much better data management features to split and sort. The final result can be copied into Word. Sort a list of names by surname or more in […]
Word’s Sort feature is OK, up to a point but has its limitations.We humans insist on variations of the simple ‘first and last’ name that confuse a computer. For short lists, it’s probably enough to do a Word surname sort then manually adjust the list for any anomalies. Longer lists need the power of Excel […]
Microsoft has released a series of pages describing their support for the new Japanese era in Windows, Office and .NET. Plus a new Windows feature to support a nicety of Japanese date formatting. Japan’s traditional dating system works around the Emperor’s reign. The abdication of the last Emperor and enthronement of Emperor Naruhito meant a […]
As part of Microsoft’s support for the new Japanese Imperial era, they’ve added support for traditional Gannen writing of dates as well as the newer Ichinen style. Windows 10 now supports Gannen style Japanese dates but that support doesn’t flow through to Excel formatting. Normally the default date presentation in Excel uses the Windows defaults, […]
Word sorting is more powerful than it appears, with a few extra clicks you can sort last names or anything else in a list. Sort is one of those Word features that’s been around for a long time. These days it’s tucked away on Home tab in the Paragraph group. Select a list or paragraphs […]
Yet again, Microsoft Word is beaten by mere humans when we pit the software against words used in the 2019 Spelling Bee finals. We made a list of some words from the 2019 Spelling Bee finals including the last eight words which confirmed the winners. See for yourself how Microsoft Word did against the human […]
WhatsApp will starting showing ads in 2020 which is another reason to give up on the messaging app and move to a more private and secure but very similar app, Signal. WhatsApp has over 1.5Billion users which makes it a too tempting target for the owners Facebook and advertisers. Facebook will be able to target […]
Excel has a new currency option. Bitcoin BTC is now available as a Currency symbol or text from the main list but we’ll show how to get it now on any version of Excel. There are four options available: Bitcoin symbol ₿ prefix ₿12.34 Bitcoin symbol ₿ suffix 12.34 ₿ Bitcoin code BTC prefix BTC […]
The benchmarking software PCMark 10 has added a new test that directly checks the performance of Microsoft Office programs on various hardware and software configurations. There are three separate Office Applications tests: Word covers typical word processing tasks for office workers. The test measures PC performance when opening, editing, and saving a document. Excel test […]
There’s an important feature in Word and other Office programs that we all have, and many people use, except the US Congress … document collaboration and comparison. It’s even more amazing because most, if not all congressional offices have Microsoft Office. An article about the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress which is trying […]
Word’s Citation and Bibliography support is enough for some people, but not for everyone so there are tools available to go beyond what Microsoft provides. See Add a Bibliography to Word documents Custom Bibliography formats or styles in Word Citations for everyone in Word Source Manager for citations in Word JabRef JabRef is the commonly used, […]
Word has many supplied Bibliography formats or styles to choose from. It’s possible to add your own custom formats to suit your needs. First, a quick look at how Word figures out how to format or arrange a citation. See: Add a Bibliography to Word documents Citations for everyone in Word Note: this is another […]
Word can automatically add a bibliography or list of sources or works cited in a document. Here’s how to do it with formatting to make your teacher or professor happy. To make a Bibliography, you first have to add citations and sources to your document. Once you’ve added all the sources and citations to the […]
A lovely email from Mary S in New Hampshire proves that the Office-Watch.com money saving tips for Office 365 Home or Personal really do work. It’s exactly why we write those articles, so our customers can buy Office 365 for less than what Microsoft wants. “Just followed your “Office Watch” advice for my first renewal […]
Office 365 is the most popular target for phishing and scamming. A new record that you won’t find mentioned in all the hype about Office as a service. Vade Secure reports that Office 365 is the #1 target for criminals trying to get your password and login details. Microsoft has held the top spot for […]
Finally, and quietly, Microsoft Access has been given a new icon. We know people have worried about this omission <not>. A few months ago, Microsoft released new icons for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook to a collective yawn across the globe. Now they’ve slipped the MS Access icon into the latest Office Insiders build. No […]
Tucked away in the Windows 10 Explorer options is a choice that should be turned on and is now the default setting for Windows 10 May 2019. Normally Explorer is a single program no matter how many windows are open on the computer. That made sense when memory was limited even though it meant slightly […]
