Microsoft talks about ‘grounding a prompt’ in their Copilot AI system. What do they mean by ‘grounding’ and how it can help anyone get more from AI magic. Grounding simply means telling Copilot to use a specific document or file to answer a question … as opposed to using general
The new Outlook for Windows can now import messages saved in single files as .eml .msg or .opt formats. Like most ‘new’ features in new Outlook for Windows, it’s really a catch-up feature to match something in the existing Outlook for Windows. All three formats are ways to save emails
After setting up Outlook for Windows (classic) maybe your older messages aren’t showing up quickly? That might be because of a hidden default set to suit Microsoft which should be changed to benefit you. For most mailboxes (Outlook.com, Exchange Server etc) Outlook for Windows (classic) can synchronize a copy of
The Microsoft muddle of naming their products continues with the renaming of Microsoft Teams. Not content to label many different programs as “Outlook”., Microsoft seems to enjoy a jumble of names for their Teams products. For instance, this new listing of changes between the old Teams app (left) and a
It’s possible to RSVP to an event or meeting and say whether they’ll be attending in the old fashioned way (aka “face to face”) or virtually. Look for an ‘in-person’ event option to appear just above the location line. An event can also be a Teams meeting, making it what
Outlook can now mark the difference between a virtual and ‘in-person’ event in your calendar. It’s part of Microsoft’s “Hybrid” features intended for the modern world where people mix remote and in-office working. For any calendar event/appointment you might see a switch ‘In-Person Event’. Turn that on for any occasion
Smart or Generative Erase in Microsoft Designer has returned after an unexplained absence. Use it for graphics or just to fix a photo. Designers’ Generative Erase can remove people or objects from an image, replacing it with the surroundings. It does a good job doing something that, a few years
The existing Recommended PivotTables feature is now smarter in Excel 365 for Windows with more options and flexibility. For some time Excel has been able to suggest PivotTables based on the current Table. Recommended PivotTables is in Excel 365, Excel 2021, 2019, 2016 and earlier. Now in Excel 365 for
How to insert the Eye 👁 emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Eye 👁 symbol is used for decoration “Look Here” or “See this”. Even as a fancy bullet point in Word or PowerPoint. How Eye 👁 looks in
Get better and more creative bullet lists in Word using an Icon or SVG graphic in Word or PowerPoint, you just have to be a little sneaky. Icons (Microsoft’s name for SVG graphics) would seem to be ideal for creative bullets. SVG’s can be resized, colored and adjusted without loss
Teams button creep into Office and Outlook ribbons because Microsoft tries to promote itself. Here’s how to get rid of it or any other Office buttons you don’t want. Teams icons prominently appear on Office ribbons, like this one on the Outlook Calendar ribbon. or this with Meet Now video
How to stop Microsoft Teams opening automatically when the computer starts – Windows or Mac. Microsoft wants to push their Teams software to as many people as possible. Part of that is making Teams (free or paid) really obvious or intrusive, depending on your point of view. Teams doesn’t take
Microsoft has released a preview version of Office 2024 LTSC. Here’s how to get it, what’s in the preview and why not to bother with the preview software. Office 2024 is the next fixed price or perpetual license version of Microsoft Office that will be released later this year. The
OneNote for Windows can straighten handwritten, digital ink, text so it’s nicely even across the screen. We tested Straighten to see how it really works … and it’s not bad. Microsoft doesn’t provide a working example of straighten just a mockup with grey lines and nothing like the real OneNote
Word, PowerPoint and OneNote 365 for Windows have digital ‘ink to text‘ feature to not only handwrite into documents but also edit text and add bullet or numbered lists. Ink to Text requirements Before we explain the new feature, we’ll detail the specific requirements of the new ‘Ink to Text’
A strange case of letter spacing with a Microsoft font showing differences between Word and PowerPoint. Here’s the anomaly with three possible fixes for it and similar situations. Office Watcher Paul B noticed this peculiar spacing between a fullstop/period and digit 1 with the Tenorite font. In PowerPoint, the two
Computers are being infected with at least eight different viruses in an attack that uses steganography to hide nasty code in images linked from Word and Excel documents. But there’s good news for most Office users. Steganography is a way to hide text or code in an image or object.
Paper shredding isn’t always welcome as recycled paper. Turns out there are hidden complexities even to just protecting your privacy and reducing waste. Wirecutter at The New York Times surprised us by explaining how putting shredded paper in a recycling bin can create all sorts of trouble. Shredded paper can
Quickly switch accounts while using Microsoft Office 365, Office 2019 and Office 2021 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
Pictures in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook can make the file sizes at lot larger than you expect. Here’s how to make images smaller (in file size) for Office documents without changing the look of the document, slide etc. The images in a document are what take up a lot
Microsoft has announced ‘extras’ for Microsoft 365 Basic but we can’t see anything new that wasn’t promised over a year ago and delivered six months ago. It’s a just a simple PR stunt that worked. The ‘Microsoft 365 Basic’ plan has just 100GB of OneDrive storage plus a 50GB Outlook.com
The world can be divided in many ways — how about by paper sizes? Letter/Legal/US sizes vs A4/Metric. Microsoft Word makes it easy to cope with both even with different paper sizes in one document. There’s a very handy way to rescale between Letter <> A4 for printing. Amazing Maps
How to insert the Coin 🪙 symbol or emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. How Coin 🪙 looks in different fonts Only Segoe UI Emoji font has the coin symbol in standard Windows. Coin 🪙 codes These are the
Microsoft Mesh is a new way to have online meetings with avatars and virtual “immersive” spaces. It works with computers but especially VR headsets like Meta Quest devices (Oculus). Mesh puts online meeting participants in a virtual setting, instead of the usual grid. This example shows two important parts of
