Google has a wonderful collection of free open-source fonts available and, if you know the magic spell, they can be used in Microsoft Office, Windows or Mac. There are 877 Google Font families currently available at https://fonts.google.com Google Fonts are intended for use with web sites. The company has a open source for the font […]
In the UK there’s been a lot of laughs and some red faces about a money raising letter ‘signed’ by the Conservative Prime Minister to a ” Mr Youmustbe F*ckingjoking ” and sent to a pensioner. It’s easy to laugh but anyone who has done large mailings knows that it’s a case of “There but […]
Here’s how to use the font kerning settings in Microsoft Office, Word and PowerPoint. See our short guide to kerning to understand the settings and artistry behind kerning. Kerning letters makes a difference as the letters get larger so the setting is more important for headings and titles in Word and PowerPoint. Windows and Mac […]
Last week we looked at design and typography in 2001: A Space Odyssey and how to use the ‘2001’ look in Microsoft Office. Two readers asked about some curious kerning in our version of the title font. Maybe you’re not interested in the fine detail of the text in a fifty year old film? Fair […]
Will R. an Office-Watch.com reminded us of a trap when dealing with .doc and .docx files. “I opened a command prompt and did a del *.doc. Imagine my surprise when it deleted both .doc and .docx files (I have backups). ” Firstly, a teacher’s gold star plus wise owl stamp to Will for having backups! Yes, it’s […]
Last Friday, Office 365 customers in Europe and especially the UK had to stop working as the Microsoft hosting servers stopped working. When trying to use email online, users only saw an ‘AADSTS90033’ error, and the message: “Service is temporarily unavailable. Please retry later.” As usual, Microsoft’s communications were mixed. The company doesn’t want to […]
How to use our ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ examples as inspiration or a starting point for your own look in Word or PowerPoint. PowerPoint slides Moving from film stills to PowerPoint slides is fairly straightforward. You could open a presentation with a slide that evokes the opening of ‘2001’ then slides for the start of […]
It’s the 50th anniversary of Kubrick and Clarke’s amazing 2001: A Space Odyssey. As long time space and SF nerds we can’t resist putting the look of 2001 into Word documents and PowerPoint slides. We’ll show you how to make a ‘close match’ using just the fonts and features in Microsoft Office. We’ll also explain […]
Should you even bother bulk converting old documents (.doc .xls .ppt) into the newer Office formats (.docx .xlsx .pptx etc.)? It’s tempting to look at your older documents (doc etc) and think about converting them into the newer Office formats. There’s some advantages to conversion but it’s more difficult than you might expect and probably […]
How to bulk convert old documents (.doc .xls .ppt) into the newer Office formats (.docx .xlsx .pptx etc.). Microsoft has never produced a simple bulk conversion tool for the masses, much to the annoyance of users and network administrators. Redmond probably made that choice for their own self-interest but some of the reasons also serve […]
After last week’s article, it’s clear some folks haven’t changed or still accept the older .doc .xls or .ppt files as email attachments. That’s a risky thing to do, especially when there’s a common and better alternative. Mostly it’s because of misunderstandings about the many advantages of the ‘new’ Office document formats .docx .xlsx or […]
We’ve received some questions from readers in the last few days showing that, even after a decade, there’s still misinformation about the ‘new’ Office document formats .docx .xlsx etc. We’ll explain these myths and how you can easily disprove them yourself. Most of these myths surround the use of ZIP compression to make the document […]
Here’s how to convert an older .doc .xls or .ppt into a safer and smaller .docx .xlsx .pptx even if you don’t have Microsoft Office. Any smart computer user is wary of documents received in the old .doc .xls .ppt formats because they are regularly used to transmit viruses. The new document formats are much […]
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times … ignore or delete any .DOC .XLS .PPT files you get via email or shared. The main carrier of virus infection is Microsoft Office documents, a fact that Microsoft doesn’t like to talk about. What Microsoft doesn’t say is that the major source of […]
What should you do when Microsoft asks to see one of your documents? Submit the files or not? There’s no easy answer when Microsoft asks to see a file from your computer for their anti-virus system, Windows Defender. Do you send the files or not? This can happen with Defender hits a file that seems […]
A recent New York Times article about Microsoft Word has good information but the headline is quite wrong. The article is called “How to Format Documents While Barely Lifting a Finger” so we expected a piece about how to reformat a document using themes or styles. Instead it’s about dictation in Google Docs, Windows, Office […]
It’s been a busy few weeks for Richard Appiah Akoto the Ghanaian teacher who taught Microsoft Word with only a blackboard. Mr Akoto was flown to Singapore for a Microsoft Education conference where he received a standing ovation. Quite something for his first trip outside Ghana. “I wanted to teach them how to launch Microsoft […]
You’ve all heard about “The Cloud” as if everyone knows what it is. It’s clear from recent reader messages that not everyone knows about The Cloud. Or they think they know. Or they don’t realize how much the cloud can and will do. Office-Watch.com explains the cloud and how it applies to Microsoft Office. What […]
Soon you’ll be hearing about Timeline, a new feature in the next version of Windows 10. It’s a way to see which documents and files you’ve opened across all your devices. What you won’t hear is that Office already has a similar feature. The Office team has already synchronized the Open / Recent Documents lists […]
Here’s some better VBA code for converting a private document (contract etc) into one with anonymous words. A useful trick if you’re trying to fix a Word formatting problem but can’t share the document. Legal numbering problems is a common issue that this macro can help with. Office-Watch.com has already done a macro which replaces […]
Microsoft Word can make Yearly and Monthly calendars quite easily and they have better configuration options than you might expect. We’ve already looked at the Outlook printing options , customizing them including blank Weekly and Monthly calendars. Outlook doesn’t have a yearly calendar option, so we’re turning to Word. We’ll look at just one option available […]
A rare factual error in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that, amazingly, is related to Microsoft Word. In an item about The White House Calligrapher, Oliver said the job was easy because there’s already a font with the job title in Microsoft Word. And he shows a Word for Mac font list with a […]
Last week we got a peek at the current White House notepaper and could not resist trying to make our own in Microsoft Word. White House notepaper in the President’s hands – 21 Feb 2018 It’s a simple, classic look that anyone can use and adapt to their needs. We’re not trying to make any […]
Here’s a manual method of replacing text with filler or anonymous words in Microsoft Word Use this when you need help with a Word document formatting problem but can’t share the troublesome .docx because it contains confidential information. Our head honcho, Peter Deegan, had this problem himself. A friend asked for help with a Word […]
Here’s the complete step-by-step manual method of replacing text with filler or anonymous words in Microsoft Word This is quite easy, the main thing is to be careful with the Find and Replace expressions. It will work with any version of Word that has the ‘wildcards’ / Regex option which means Word 2003 or later […]
A follow up on the story of the Ghanian teacher who has to draw Microsoft Word on his blackboard to teach the program. He’s Richard Appiah Akoto a 33 year old teacher at Betenase M/A Junior High School in the town of Sekyedomase in central Ghana. A place so obscure, by modern standards, that it […]
Here’s how to replace private or confidential text with ‘filler’ nonsense or anonymous text. Handy for getting help with Word formatting or numbering problems where you can’t share the real document to an outsider. This is often a problem for legal workers or others with privacy considerations. It’s hard to ask for outside help with […]
Think learning Office is hard? Spare a thought for this teacher in Ghana who teaches Word without a computer. He draws Word on a blackboard to teach the program. Source: Ghafla.com It’s an amazing piece of work. Yes, it’s pre-ribbon Microsoft Office, Office 2003 or before. The whole story would be interesting to hear, we […]
A new report confirms what most Microsoft Office customers know; there’s more security patches in Microsoft products, despite years of promises. Not just the latest Word, Excel and Powerpoint but even new products like the Edge browser are increasingly vulnerable. An Avecto report shows 87 vulnerabilities in 2017 – a record high. A dozen of […]
Here’s how to share Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel or PowerPoint) for viewing or editing via Dropbox. Document collaboration works a little differently in Dropbox compared to OneDrive. There are different methods and limitation for sharing on Dropbox. We’ve already shown how to install Dropbox, enabled the Microsoft Office Online features and use the Dropbox […]
Dropbox Badge is their document collaboration option that provides Dropbox specific features inside Microsoft Office programs, It works with a refreshingly wide range of Office version. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Windows and Macintosh. Office 2007 to 2016 for Windows. Office 2011 and 2016 for Mac. It only works with ‘modern’ Office document formats […]
If Word doesn’t recognize personal words such as your name, the name of your hometown or the name of your favorite actor, it flags it as a mistake with the familiar red squiggly line. Here’s how to fix that. You can choose to add your words to the app’s custom dictionary. This is one of […]
Deep inside Word 2016’s grammar checks are some detailed settings like one to look for contractions such as: I’m, you’re, shouldn’t, couldn’t and haven’t. These contractions are normal and accepted by Word 2016 Windows/Mac in it’s standard settings but you can change that. Formal Language, Consider avoiding contractions You’ll see a warning ‘Formal Language’ and […]
There’s joy and celebrations in the streets of Maine as their Oxford Comma dispute is settled. Even Microsoft Word approves the new law! The missing comma only cost $5 million plus legal fees. A quick follow up to our 2017 story about a legal dispute around the lack of an Oxford Comma. Oxford Comma in […]
BitGlass and Cylance have found some new ransomware called Shurl0cker that managed to fool both Google and Microsoft’s scans to arrive on their customers cloud storage. According to the researchers: “Two well-known cloud platforms with built-in malware protection, Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365, failed to identify the ransomware. In addition, Bitglass tested VirusTotal, a […]
Dropbox stores not just your current documents but past versions too. Let’s drill down and see how to dump your files in the Dropbox and what does Dropbox do to make life easy? I have created a folder in my Dropbox named “Projects”. It contains some of my work assignments that I have been working […]
If you’re browsing your Dropbox account at their web site, select a document then look at the Open menu for options. Copy to Paper – Paper is Dropbox’s own online collaboration tool. Open in Word 2016 – the Dropbox site has detected the presence of Office 2016 on the computer. Microsoft Word Online – opens […]
Adding Dropbox to your Word Online, Excel Online or PowerPoint Online place list saves some extra steps. Then you can quickly open, create, modify and saves files to your Dropbox. To add Dropbox to Office Online: Go to OfficeOnline.com (https://www.office.com/), open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Online. Click Add a place, under ‘Open from OneDrive’. Select Dropbox. You will […]
Dropbox has integration direct into Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows It’s best to install the Dropbox app (https://www.dropbox.com/install) on your devices. Of course, you can always access the Dropbox website https://www.dropbox.com from any laptop, computer or smartphones and tablets. Once Dropbox is installed on your desktop, you’ll notice a new Dropbox folder on your hard […]
The latest Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneDrive apps for iPhone and iPad have some genuinely good and useful changes. iPad users are the main beneficiaries of the changes. If you push past the usual Redmond buzzwords ‘collaboration’, ‘co-authoring’, ‘create’, ‘experience’, ‘delight’, ‘productivity’, ‘from the ground up’ and the ever present ‘excited’ there are some changes […]
