In Adding Vertical Lines in Word we looked at the many common choices for lines down the page. Moving beyond that, let’s look at other, more interesting and creative vertical non-line choices to spice up a Microsoft Word document. Sidebars Sidebars are the starting point for many different design element
You’re not stuck with the Microsoft Office automatic settings when inserting a new text box. Change the Text Box defaults to whatever you like for faster text box formatting in Office; Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. There are TWO ways to add a Text Box in Word and Outlook –
As well as links to web sites, Word lets you make ‘internal’ links to other parts of the same document in at least three different ways. Longer documents can benefit from internal links that let you and readers jump within the document. Insert Hyperlink – Place in this document The
Microsoft Word has vital but hidden options for making a better PDF file from your document. PDF’s made from Word can be smaller than usual for faster sending or to get under size limits that apply to email or messaging services. There are choices for including better navigation (like the
A quick guide to reading and searching PDF files on an iPad, either with the Books app or the Adobe PDF viewer. There are many apps that can view PDF files on portable devices. They all have the same basic features (more or less). View Table of Contents (Bookmarks in
A close and in-depth look at what Microsoft Word does and doesn’t flag with the sometimes controversial Gender Specific Language setting in the ‘Grammar & Refinements’ section. Microsoft doesn’t reveal much (or anything) about the Inclusiveness options in Word so we’ve decided to look closely at what they do. We
Excel has two functions that round numbers to either the next Even or Odd numbers – these functions are called … wait for it … Even() and Odd()! Both Odd() and Even() round positive numbers UP to the next odd/even number. Negative numbers are always rounded DOWN to the next
Excel’s Ceiling() and Floor() function rounds a number up or down to the nearest specified multiple. The most common use is to match prices to denominations of coins or notes. Ceiling() is similar to MRound() except that MRound() rounds to the nearest multiple, Ceiling() always rounds UP. The reverse is
Each paragraph style can be seen alongside the text in Microsoft Word but it’s very much an afterthought that could be much improved. The Style Area Pane appears only in Draft and Outline view on the left-side. Turn on Style Area Pane Dig into Word for the Style Area Pane.
Reading an Office Watch ebook on a portable device like an iPad or iPhone is quite easy. We’ll take you through the steps, which work for any PDF or other files, not just our ebooks. Many thousands of our Office Watch ebook readers use their iPad/tablet to read our books.
How to insert the Zero Thirds (Baseball) ↉ fraction or symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Zero Thirds ↉ symbol (officially called ‘Vulgar Fraction Zero Thirds’) is a rarely used Baseball scoring symbol. The best explanation we could find was
MROUND() is lesser known but really useful rounding function in Excel, it’s worth considering for anyone dealing with cash money. In short: MRound() rounds up or down to the nearest multiple you choose. It’s very handy for rounding prices to match the lowest coin or note you want to handle,
There’s an important difference between two seemingly similar Excel functions: Int() and Trunc() don’t always give the same results so we’ll explain how to choose wisely. Both Int() and Trunc() ‘shorten’ a number by removing digits to the right of the decimal place. Int() rounds the number, Trunc() doesn’t. And
A bug in the Windows 11 Snipping Tool or Windows 10 Snip and Sketch could let people read info that had been cropped from an image. Microsoft has released an emergency update to fix the bug. Because it involves ‘cropping’ an image, the bug has been called ‘Acropalypse’. Taking screenshots,
Office’s Document Inspector is supposed to remove or scrub information being accidentally included in Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. It’s not perfect and misses out on some critical hidden information that can give away secrets. Details in images, layers and even highlighting. Document Inspector is at File | Info in
PowerPoint has, finally, added shortcuts to quickly make bullet or numbered lists without using the ribbon. Here’s the full list of typing shortcuts and how to turn them off. In Word, you’re probably familiar with a list being automatically created if you type * or 1. at the start of
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
How to number lines and paragraphs in Microsoft Word and format the numbers with a different font, size or color. Plus some ‘wish list’ features that are missing from Word. When you’re discussing a speech or other document ‘in progress’ you might want to number the lines or paragraphs for
How to insert the Construction or Roadwork Sign 🚧 emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Construction, Roadwork or Warning Sign 🚧 symbol can be used in PowerPoint slides and in other Office documents sometimes to mark WIP or “Work in
Speed up your work by adding and changing keyboard shortcuts to Word commands, styles, fonts and even symbols that aren’t on the keyboard. You can even override or remove Word’s in-built shortcuts so they do what you want (or nothing). We’ll show how to find the more useful and interesting
Make better and faster images with Bing Image Creation, Dall-E and other AI tools using a few simple tricks. Here’s some ideas and comments with plenty of examples. If you’ve tried Microsoft Designer, Dall-E or other AI image makers, Bing Image Creation is nothing new and works the same way.
Microsoft has released their version of an AI image maker (like Dall-E) called, imaginatively, Bing Image Creation. We’ll explain how to access and use the preview with some examples of freshly made images and how the Content Warning/Block works. All these images are original, made by Bing Image Creation from
Microsoft Loop is coming for everyone and is now in a public preview of this new way to collaborate online. Here’s how to get into the Loop preview and how to get started exploring this new tech. Loop components are live mini-documents, worksheets or lists that people can collaborate on
Looking back on Dumb Ways to Die – video and song. Links to the official site, song download, karaoke version, animated GIFs, parodies, full lyrics and the unexpected cameo from former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson! Here’s the all too cute original Dumb Ways to Die video from 2012. Dumb
