It’s prudent to delay activating MS Office until well after installation. Microsoft’s setup encourages you to activate your copy of Office as soon as you install – however you don’t have to do that and we’d encourage people NOT to. Getting a product activation registers your use of Office on
Putting Office variations on the one machine. You can install and run multiple versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint on the one computer. For example you can have Word 2003 and Word 2007 installed together. Outlook is the exception – only one version of Outlook can exist on a computer
Is it true that you can only install Office twice before buying another copy? Microsoft’s Product Activation is the source of a lot of questions to Office Watch and clearly it’s not well understood. Microsoft has little interest in making the rules clearer, partly for their security reasons and partly because
Office 2003 users have a hard choice now main support for their software is ending. Office 2003 users have a hard choice now main support for their software is ending. Microsoft has quietly announced that the main lines of support and updates for Office 2003 will stop in less than
The next service pack for Office 2007 has been leaked. The next service pack for Office 2007 has been leaked. On various file sharing / BitTorrent sites you’ll find today an ‘Office 2007 Service Pack 2’ download. It appears to be a late beta or even release candidate before the
The dribble of news and rumors about the next version of Office continues. The dribble of news and rumors about the next version of Office continues. On the fact side we have the welcome news that Office 14 will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Since more people have and
You have to hand it to Microsoft marketing – they can ‘announce’ something that’s been in place for years and get a pile of free publicity. Microsoft is heavily promoting a deal they’ve had for a long time. You have to hand it to Microsoft marketing – they can ‘announce’
Earn money recommending Office 2007 to students. It’s possible to earn money by recommending Office 2007 to students. As part of Microsoft’s effort to push Office 2007 into the hands of students they are now offering an ‘affiliate’ program with their student ‘Ultimate Steal’ offer. Under the affiliate arrangement, approved
How to ensure you have the necessary ‘Conficker’ protection installed on a Windows Vista or XP computer. Chances are good you already have it installed. There has been a lot of talk about the Conficker virus that is due to trigger on 1 April. In our view the hype about
See what people are saying right now about your favorite Office software. It can be fascinating to see what people say about software as they work – many questions, some answers and plenty of anguish and outright anger. We’ve setup some pages that make it easy to see the very
The Feb 09 update for Outlook 2007 disables an add-in that you don’t have. If you install the February 2009 Cumulative Update for Outlook 2007 then dig around the list of add-ins you may see an entry you don’t expect. Go to Tools | Trust Center | Add-ins | Manage
There’s always another joke at the expense of Word’s spell checker. Last year we had the politically charged question of Obama and Osama then later the omission of Michael Palin (or was it Sarah Palin?) from the Word dictionary. We’ve noticed another one that will offend Democrats and Star Trek
As if the Military Appreciation Edition wasn’t cheap enough, Microsoft has cut the price yet again. The Office 2007 Military Appreciation Edition (MAE) is down to US$49.99 -from $79.95. That’s a fantastic deal for what is really a three installation licence for Office 2007 Standard (Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint
There’s a free add-on that returns classic Office 2003 menus and toolbars to Office 2007. UBitMenu is a simple and free way to bring classic Office 2003 menus and toolbars to Office 2007 programs. Under a new ‘Menu’ tab you get all the traditional pull-down menus plus two long rows
An Outlook 2007 update can make your startup take over an hour. A Cumulative Update for Outlook 2007 has some unexpected concerns and the usual set of mixed messages from Microsoft. The February 2009 Cumulative Update for Outlook 2007 is a collection of fixes, Microsoft releases these ‘CU’ bundles from
A clever option to print a foldable booklet that won’t cost you anything. One of the eternal requests for Microsoft Office is the ability to make a booklet. That is a set of two pages on one side of paper but double-sided and ordered so you can fold the lot
How to print a document when the paper sizes are different. On our new Twitter account we saw this question: “When I send an Excel file to someone, should I have to set it up so they can print? I don’t know the printer/size they use.” Part of that answer
Pricing hint, versions of Windows, Office on the web and other Office 14 news. From no less a mouth than Steve Ballmer comes word that the next version of Office won’t grace our desktops until 2010. That’s no real surprise, Microsoft seems to be focusing on the next Windows –
An UNpatched Excel security flaw is being exploited publicly. According to Symantec, there’s an unfixed Excel security hole which makes vulnerable Excel 2007 (with or without Service Pack 1) and maybe other versions of Excel. The Trojan is a variation on Mdropper which takes advantage of a ‘Remote code Execution’
About 32-bit & 64-bit editions of Microsoft Office in Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010. Gradually, oh so gradually, we’re changing from a world of 32-bit computers to 64 bit computers. What does this mean for Microsoft Office? Microsoft Office and 64-bit Microsoft Office 2007 only has one version
More Q & A about the program that gives employees Office for a few bucks. Questions and problems with the Home Use Program continue to reach Office-Watch.com The Home Use Program (HUP) is part of the corporate licensing of Microsoft Office which gives employees a home use copy of Office
A new wave of fake job applications and responses isn’t caught by Outlook. Spammers aren’t completely stupid, they release a new type of infected email that isn’t caught by the Outlook Junk Email filter even when it’s set to ‘High’ ( Actions | Junk E-mail | Junk E-mail Options |
The jokes about upcoming ‘Microsoft Stores’ especially when compared to the smart and popular Apple Stores. The jokes about upcoming ‘Microsoft Stores’ especially when compared to the smart and popular Apple Stores. Stephen Fry (long time Apple lover) suggests that an MS Store will be hard to find, grey, ugly,
How to remove single entries from the most recently used list. In Office for Mere Mortals we recently covered the basics of the most recently used (MRU) list in Office. Removing individual entries It is possible to an individual ‘recently used document’ but it’s not obvious and a far cry
