Microsoft’s customers in the United Kingdom can now choose their own country as the place for data to be stored. Microsoft has announced that they’ve opened UK data centres in London, Durham and Cardiff which can store Office 365, Azure, OneDrive and other Microsoft hosted data. These ‘local’ data centres
From 1 Nov 2016, only a few weeks away, Microsoft will stop updating their junk email filter in Outlook for Windows and Mac. What does that mean for you and your Outlook Junk Email settings? What’s happening? Microsoft won’t be updating their email spam ‘Smartscreen’ technology any more. That’s the
Microsoft has announced that they’ll stop updating the Outlook spam filter (“Smartscreen”) at the end of this month – on 1st Nov 2016. This might be a worry, but not a disaster, for most Outlook users and we’ll explain why. What’s Happening From 1st Nov 2016 there will be no
Mercedes has announced a new project ‘In Car Office’ which will put your calendar, contacts etc on your car dashboard, starting in 2017. This is interesting because there’s some specifics and a date. Usually these car related tech announcements are long on catch phrases (‘strategic alliance’, ‘future’, ‘vision’) and short
Microsoft has released details of a new way Office documents can be used to infect your computer. The documents can contain disguised OLE objects which are the real danger. We’ve often said that ‘new’ Office documents (.docx .xlsx etc) are safer than their .doc etc predecessors. That’s because the new
Microsoft is gradually adding to Office some interesting new Ink related features; Replay and Math. Rewind and Replay Until now drawings or ‘ink’ in Office documents has been static and fixed, much like real ink. OneNote Mobile for Windows 10 is the first Office app to make ink additions animated.
Microsoft is expanding their public testing program for Office Insiders and adding options to accept changes quickly or slowly. Microsoft ‘Insiders’ programs let the public become testers of upcoming software with the risks that come with using somewhat untested programs. Strange as it may seem to many, there are people
A quick look at importing data into Excel. Excel has sooo many ways to import information into a worksheet. Go to Data | Get External Data to see the selection. There are options to grab information from other databases, cloud services, web page tables etc in a variety of ways.
When typing or importing data into Excel, the program tries to set the cell type (number, date etc) based on simple rules. This is the default ‘General’ cell format at work. But Excel’s guesses aren’t always right. We humans insist on typing or importing data that doesn’t comply with Microsoft’s
A new report shows that Excel is causing errors to creep into genetic studies because of data conversion problems. Excel tries to figure out the type of information you are typing or importing into a worksheet. Those rules work most of the time, but not always. If Excel converts a
Sometimes we wonder what happens in Microsoft development meetings because the software we get from those discussions seems so out of touch with reality or even sense. Today’s example comes from Outlook for Windows and it’s curious ‘one way’ translation feature. Office for Windows has good language translation options, though
Outlook.com users might strike a problem connecting with Outlook for Windows or Mac which looks like a password problem but isn’t. Outlook.com may put a security block on your account. Most likely this happens if you login from a different location or country. To protect you, Outlook.com will restore the
Microsoft has released a 30 second ad to promote the Surface 4 computer and denigrate the iPad. The video makes some good points about Surface’s ability to run full Office for Windows and the important external ports for USB and video. It boasts that the Surface has a keyboard just
Microsoft has bought the Genee calendar system and promptly announced that it was being killed off. Genee customers have only until 1st September to move. Genee has some clever technology for setting up meetings with many people. It can check each calendar and suggest a time and place that works
Microsoft has now released new ‘all in one’ Authenticator apps for both iOS and Android devices. In our Windows 10, Office 2016 and Windows 8.1 books we have chapters on ‘Two factor authentication’ and its importance for Windows and Office users. The new app combines the authentication needs of Microsoft
Quick Steps is an Outlook for Windows (not Mac) feature that lets you combine common or oft-repeated actions into a single clickable icon. It can be a time saver. There’s no programming involved so you don’t have to worry about VBA or the Developer tab. The Quick Steps are very
The OneDrive app for Apple iOS devices now lets you create Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly. A small change but handy if you’re in the OneDrive app already. Tap the + icon at top left, then choose the type of document you want to make. The appropriate app will
If you’ve ever felt an overwhelming urge to scribble on your iPhone, Microsoft has updated their Office for iPhone apps just for you. After a strangely long delay, Office for iPhone apps now have the Draw options that are already available in the Office for Android apps. Tap on the
Congratulations to all the young people at the 15th annual Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships held earlier this month in Orlando, FL. The event pits 13- to 22-year-olds from around the world to test their skills in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This years winners are: Lai Tin Ming, age 16,
Microsoft has, too slowly, admitted that they allowed their supposedly ‘Secure Boot’ system to be bypassed with a special ‘golden key’ built into their system. Secure Boot is sold as a way to stop computers being compromised by hackers before Windows starts. It’s an important part of securing your computer
BleepingComputer has detailed a nasty little virus that copies all your Office documents and more to a hacker. It’s a clever little nastie which disguises itself as a Chrome browser add-on then goes to work sending to the hackers details like: Your name Computer name List of installed programs Version
Windows 8.1 is a perfectly good Windows release once you get rid of that silly full screen Start Menu*. Many people have decided to stay with Windows 8.1 and not switch to Windows 10. Despite all of Microsoft’s hype, that’s a perfectly reasonable choice. We’ve just released a Third Edition
Office 2016 for Mac users with Office 365 subscriptions have some new features heading towards them. They are now available for ‘slow ring’ insiders and will eventually be released publicly. Many of the innovations are similar to features recently added to other Office products. Office 2016 for Mac version v15.25
A worrying number of wireless keyboards from major companies can be hacked to grab passwords and other info from you. Keyboards from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Kensington and GE are vulnerable and there could be many others not tested. The broad problem is that the wireless connection is ‘in the
