The paid upgrade version of Outlook.com is now available with the usual, but enticing, opening offer. For an annual fee you get extras beyond the usual free offering: No Ads – on the browser interface version of your mailbox. Custom Domain – instead of using outlook.com, email addresses with your
The February update to Office for Android has one new feature, one overhyped change and a reannouncement of something they’ve already done! Office-Watch.com knows from twenty years’ experience that you have to carefully read Microsoft’s announcements. They are usually carefully worded to be true but sometimes misleading. In this case,
Here’s the complete list of non-security updates for Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2013 plus our notes on some bug fixes that caught our eye. As usual, these updates will be pushed to most Office computers automatically. No action is necessary. Unexpected Issues Microsoft is always using different words
WhatsApp, the popular messaging system, has added a new security feature that’s being called ‘Two Factor Authentication’ but it’s NOT. Really the new option is more annoying than helpful. We’re not the only ones critical of WhatsApp and it’s lip-service attitude to security. The company adds security features but too
It was only a matter of time, the first attack targeting Word for Mac has been released. It’s a simple, almost primitive hack, but it’s out there so beware. There even a ‘silver lining’ of sorts. The document is named U.S. Allies and Rivals Digest Trump's Victory - Carnegie Endowment
Would you like to try adding an Outlook appointment, just to see how it works? We’ve made a simple test .ics you can download: Add a test appointment It’s a normal .ics file that can be added to Outlook for Windows/Mac or any other compatible programs (most calendar programs do).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the latest gallery to put many of their images into the public domain. Now you can, legally, use them to decorate your PowerPoint presentations or Word documents. The Met has released about 375,000 images under Creative Commons Zero CC0 licence. That
Microsoft announced Touch Bar support with much fanfare back in October 2016. Over 3 months later and paying customers are still waiting. There’s been lot of talk about this feature including web sites with ‘tips’ on using Office with the Touch Bar without noting that it’s not got into ‘insider’
To many people the Oxford Comma is an obscure grammar issue but, boy!, can it get people excited. We’ve had lots of messages, pro and con, from readers. This all started because Microsoft dropped one of the options available for the Oxford Comma check. In Office 2016 (Windows or Mac)
LibreOffice, a free alternative to Microsoft Office, now has an optional ribbon interface. Version 5.3 is now available with many added features which will be familiar to Microsoft Office users. Write (equivalent of Word) now has Table Styles and a Go To box which have been in Word for some
A few years ago we had a close look at the Oxford Comma (‘Comma required before last item’, serial comma, Harvard Comma etc) in Word 2013. We’ll now repeat those tests with the new “Microsoft’s own” grammar system to see if there’s any improvement. Office-Watch.com has already noted that the
Microsoft has restored an important missing part of Word 2016 for Windows; the Grammar and Style checking! It’s available for all Word 2016 for Windows users including the ‘perpetual licence’ users who normally don’t get ‘new’ features. This important improvement hasn’t had the usual Redmond hype, presumably because it’s more
Office 2013 won’t be available for Office 365 Enterprise customers from the end of February 2017. Incomplete reports have unnecessarily raised concerns, so Office Watch will try to clarify. This deadline applies to Office 365 ProPlus client applications customers only. It does NOT apply to Office 365 Home or Personal,
Microsoft’s cloud push continues. Redmond’s conversion and deployment service for Enterprise customers, FastTrack, now includes Windows 10, Dynamics 365 and Teams. FastTrack is a ‘service’ to corporate customers. ‘Helping’ them to migrate to Office 365 or other Microsoft products. It’s a sales vehicle, presented as a ‘help’ to customers. The
The saga of the Comic Sans font never ends. Like the font itself, stories about the font won’t die. Now we have “Comic Sans: The Man Behind the World’s Most Contentious Font” the video. Contentious is a polite word. Hated, Loathed, Despised, Reviled, Detested might be more accurate. It’s not
Microsoft has applied for a patent for paper … a new type of paper. It’s an interesting idea, part way between current ebook readers and paper. We won’t be seeing it anytime soon but, one day, Word might print to this type of electronic paper. Ebook readers use very little
In How to share a single Excel worksheet or tab we explained how to send or share a single Excel worksheet or tab from a larger workbook. That’s OK as a one-off measure to send out a sheet but how can you do it easily as a share or ongoing collaboration?
The latest updates to Word, Excel and PowerPoint is the usual mix of good news and a mystery. The good news is for Excel and PowerPoint. You can now format multiple objects at once. Move, resize, or format them by taping and holding, then tap another object. It’s the equivalent
Office Lens, a way to convert pictures of documents or whiteboards into text is finally available for Apple iPads. Back in 2015 Office-Watch.com demonstrated some of the clever crop and rotation tricks in Office Lens, plus the ‘convert to text’ option shameless stolen from OneNote. Source: Microsoft Images can be
Microsoft continues to expand the uses for their cloud storage of calendar information with the introduction of StaffHub. It’s an extension of the existing calendar and resource scheduling to include shift workers and especially those who mostly use mobile devices. Staff can download a StaffHub Apple or Android app (no
Ever wondered about scam phone calls? Either cold calls or calls prompted by an email? Maybe a fake virus warning or false Microsoft Office activation scam? For a look at the other side of those phone calls, check out India’s Call-Center Talents Put to a Criminal Use from The New York Times.
There’s a new type of infected Office document that can bypass some protections and trick people into installing a keylogger on their computer. A keylogger is software that records each keypress and send it to a hacker. They can use that info to get your login details for many sites
David Ringstrom writing at Accountingweb.com makes some good points about how the shifting versions of Office 2016 can cause trouble. The problem is most acute in Excel 2016 but can happen in Word and PowerPoint too. When you share a workbook or document, the receivers Office has to be compatible
“Why doesn’t Word for Mac have a reading view like Word for Windows?” Clare C. Nottingham, UK? Word 2016 for Mac does have a variation on reading view. It’s similar to Word for Windows, but it’s renamed. Look for Focus on the View tab. Word for Windows has Read mode.
