The current Home Use Program with Office 2019 sold for a mere $15 is about to end. If you want the perpetual licence Office 2019 for Windows or Mac, you’d better hurry. The full impact of the changed Office Home Use Program (HUP) is becoming clear. We’ve already noted that Office 365 subscriptions are becoming […]
2019 is the 150th anniversary for the Periodic Table of Elements. There are some great Periodic Tables available in Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides. There are many Periodic Table ‘documents’ on the net but most are PDF’s or images. We’re looking for editable documents that you can adapt, recolor or redesign to suit […]
The latest Microsoft Office promotion is a rare example of an ad which shows how a product was deliberately crippled with less features. The ‘Twins Challenge’ is a series of very selective videos that are supposed to highlight differences between Office 2019 (single purchase, less profitable for Microsoft) and Office 365 (annual payment, highly profitable). […]
There are three different ways to change an Office icon or SVG graphic. The two official methods with their in-built limitations or some choices before inserting into Office. Within Office Limited SVG/Icon changes are available from the Graphics Tools | Format tab. In this article we’re using an SVG from Wikipedia which has the features […]
Some simple changes to SVG graphics can bypass some of the more annoying limits of SVG support in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Office 2019/365. Here’s a simple SVG with three parts: the circle <circle> the rectangle <path id=”bar” …> letters are defined in other <path … > and <use …> statements. In this article […]
There are a lot more Office Icon or SVG graphics available than the ones in Office. Office 365 and 2019 has Icons which is Microsoft’s name for SVG graphics. You can find Microsoft’s gallery of SVG graphics at Insert | Icons. That’s just a fraction of what’s available. There are a lot more SVG’s available […]
There’s now a proper digital font version of the typeface used on US National Park signs. It’ll work with Office for Windows or Mac. The original signs were hand-carved with a router bit. At https://nationalparktypeface.com/ there are four options available: Light, Regular, Heavy and Outline. They are available as a free download under a SIL […]
Many new emoji are now in the official Unicode list but we’ll have to wait for them to appear in Word or Outlook emails. After the Unicode Consortium ratifies additions to the vast character list, it takes some time for Microsoft, Apple and others to add the emoji to their fonts. The 2019 Emoji list […]
Office 365 is getting yet another way to save a document and it’s not as bad as the advance publicity suggested. We’ve now had a chance to use the new Save dialog ourselves and it’s not another attempt to force customers to OneDrive. The change is now available for Office Fast Insiders and eventually all […]
Here’s a quick and easy way to totally erase file, folders or free disk space so there’s no trace of the original data. Also erasing an entire drive before handing over or selling. As you may know, deleting a file doesn’t really remove it from your computer. Even after deleting from the Recycle Bin, the […]
It’s the Chinese Year of the Pig and there are some symbols in Word, Excel and PowerPoint to mark the occasion in Office for Windows or Mac. The Unicode standard has three Pig related emoji, Pig, Pig Face and Pig Nose. Once you know the names or hex value, they can be found with the […]
Type or enter the ° Degree symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Windows programs generally. Degree ° is a common symbol and should be available in most fonts. If not, try another font or one of the fonts with a very wide range of characters like Arial Unicode MS or Ludica Sans Unicode. Typing […]
If the Translation options in Microsoft Office don’t do it for you, try the Google Translate full document translation option instead. For a long time, Google has a word and text translation between languages. The app is a godsend to travelers around the world, and the locals dealing with them! Entire Office documents can also […]
Bitlocker is an important part of Microsoft Windows so why isn’t it in the Microsoft Word dictionary? Bitlocker is the drive encryption feature in modern Windows. It secures your drive if stolen or lost because the entire drive is unreadable without the password. Our books for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 have chapters devoted to […]
There’s a simple Microsoft Word trick that lets you shrink the vertical space between lines. Reducing below single line spacing. To set less than 1 line space go to Paragraph | Line Spacing and choose ‘Multiple’ – yes ‘Multiple’. Sounds screwy but it works. Set the Multiple line spacing value to less than one eg 0.7 […]
A Canadian man has been caught trying to hide assets from bankruptcy because the wrong fonts were used in documents. Gerald McGoey, the former CEO of Look Communications filed for bankruptcy over a year ago. He presented trust documents that appeared to shield two properties from his creditors. But there was a problem with both […]
Many Word users are reporting Booklet printing options after the January 2019 updates to Office. No word from Microsoft but we have some suggested workarounds. All sorts of problems are being reported, mostly missing or blank pages in a booklet. The best workaround is using Adobe Reader which also has a Booklet printing feature with […]
Microsoft Word has a booklet printing option but there’s a simple alternative if it’s not working. Word’s Booklet Printing is done in the document (Layout | Paragraph | Page Setup | Multiple Pages | Book Fold. But that method might not suit you or Word isn’t booklet printing properly (as happened with the January 2019 […]
An astonishingly simple security breach in Microsoft Office has finally been patched two months after Microsoft confirmed the problem. The unanswered question, why did it take so long to discover it? Mimecast.com discovered the ActiveX memory leak back in November 2018 and told Microsoft. Two months later Microsoft fixed the problem in their January 2019 […]
Managing Styles and priority settings in Word for Mac is harder but possible if you’re willing to dig in document or template settings. Word for Mac has two style lists available, just like Word for Windows. The Quick Style Gallery across the ribbon Home tab (called Style Gallery in WinWord) and the Styles pane that […]
Changing the order of styles in Word’s Style Gallery is possible but buried way down inside the message boxes. A standard Word Style Gallery looks like this. Right-clicking on a style gives some options, including Remove from Style Gallery. Moving the styles into another order is more complicated. You’d think modern Word would let you […]
Font Embedding is an important part of document portability. It’s available in Microsoft Word for Windows and has (finally) been added Font Embedding to Word for Mac. When you share a document or even move to another computer, it does NOT include the necessary fonts. Word assumes that all the needed fonts will be installed […]
The British Army has new recruitment posters for Millennials or ‘Snow Flakes’. Make your own versions in Microsoft Office with either Word or PowerPoint. The campaign targets “snowflakes”, “millennials” and “selfie addicts” with a call-back to the famous Lord Kitchener “Your Country needs YOU” poster. Here’s our re-creation in Microsoft Word as it might appear […]
Reducing the line spacing or vertical gap between lines in Word paragraphs can be done in six different ways depending on the situation Adjusting line spacing to put lines very close isn’t usually necessary for regular text. It becomes useful when trying some design tricks for headings, for example the title in our Millennium poster. […]
Deep in Microsoft Word is the choice “Automatically Update Document Styles”. What does that do and which documents are affected? There are several similarly worded options to do with ‘Style’ and ‘Automatic’ so let’s be clear … we’re talking about File | Options | Add-ins | Manage | Templates | Go | Templates and Add-ins […]
Every Word Style has an option to ‘Automatically Update’ which sounds great, but it usually leads to more confusion. Here’s what ‘Automatically Update’ really means and why you might turn it off. There’s a whole mess of style ‘Automatic’ options in Word that are spread all over the place. Here we’re talking about Modify Style […]
Happily, there’s a quick way to update a style within a Word document. It works only when you ask it and you can apply a series of changes before updating the style. Update Style to Match Selection We’ve made a series of changes to a paragraph; font size, color and indent. Then right-click on the […]
Gordon G asks “Just read Convert Normal style into Body Text style in Word why didn’t you use Select All from the Styles list then apply a different style?” In Word there’s sometimes more than one way to reach the same result. In Office for Mere Mortals we usually go for the method that easiest […]
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. File | Options | Advanced […]
Microsoft is replacing the current ‘My Office’ gateway app with a new ‘Office’ app for Windows 10. The Office app is a gateway to your Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents plus Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint. Source: Microsoft The official Microsoft blurb: ” Quickly switch between apps. See all your Office apps in one place and switch […]
An Arizona man practiced as a dental anaesthesiologist using a Microsoft Word template as part of his application. It wasn’t hard for Office-Watch.com to find the template he used and you can too! ABC15 (Arizona’s News Leader) has the story of Dr. Pankaj Goyal who applied for a General Anaesthesia Permit. That’s the highest level […]
As a quick example of what’s possible, here’s a quick look at some photo editing options in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook emails. Since it’s Christmas, we’ll use one of the famous Apollo 8 Earthrise images. We’ve already talked about how Apollo 8’s Earthrise, as we know it, is a cropped, rotated and […]
Word has four 2019 calendars in the File | New templates supplied by Microsoft. Search for ‘2019 calendar’ in the File | New pane. There are two 2019 calendar designs: Yearly calendar on a single page Monthly calendar (one page per month). Each has two variants, depending on which day you consider the start of […]
Today’s story from the UK Parliament raised the interesting fact that there’s a difference between Lipreaders and Lipspeakers. Being Office nerds we wondered if Microsoft Word’s dictionary knew about the two words. Let’s start with the basics … The difference between a lipreader and a lipspeaker A lipreader is deaf or hard of hearing who […]
It’s taken over a decade, but Office for Mac has taken a huge step towards true document compatibility. Font embedding was not possible until now and it’s been too long coming. This is HUGE Office for Mac news but it’s got almost no mention, with attention focused on the superficial ‘Dark Mode‘ instead. Font embedding […]
Switching paragraphs from Normal style to Body Text styles in Microsoft Word is a clever use of the Replace feature. We’ve talked about how savvy Word users have their main text paragraphs in the Body Text style instead of the standard Normal style. See also Modifying Body Text style in Microsoft Word That’s great for a […]
The default ‘Body Text’ style in Word needs some changes to suit your needs. Here’s some suggestions for things to alter or check to make sure they suit your, er, style. Can’t see a Body Text style? See Make Body Text style appear in Microsoft Word Body Text style can be different The default Body Text […]
By default, Body Text style in Microsoft Word is ‘hidden until used’. That seems like a Catch-22, its not visible until it’s used but you can’t use the style if it’s not on the style list! There are two ways to reveal or un-hide a hidden style. There’s the long-winded Microsoft approved method and the […]
There are good reasons to avoid the Normal style for the main text in a Word document and use the hidden ‘Body Text’ style instead. The standard Microsoft Word document structure has Headings (Heading 1, Heading 2) … with paragraphs of text in the Normal style. It sounds good but, as usual with Microsoft Office, […]
Pantone has announced its Color of the Year for 2019 but before you run off to grab color swatches, here’s how to get it in Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. The color of 2019 is <drum roll> ….. Living Coral … As usual what’s more amazing than the color is the description from […]
