Here’s how to make a custom ribbon tab in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook and how Microsoft has left customers shortchanged for the last decade. We’ve already talked about customizing the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for certain documents. You can make the QAT adapt according to the document you’ve opened. Alas, that’s not possible […]
Not all Word documents need the same tools. Some special documents are easier to make with tools added to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) just for the occasion. Changing the Quick Access Toolbar has been around since Office 2007 but it’s less well-known that you can change it for certain types of documents. The QAT […]
When you first go into Teams it’s a confusing jungle of terms and options. As usual, Microsoft assumes we’ve all been born knowing how their software is arranged. It’s not as difficult as it looks … once you get the structure or logic of Microsoft Teams. Wrap your head around Microsoft Teams with this article […]
Office 2011 for Mac is just one of many programs that won’t work at all on the upcoming MacOS release ‘Mojave’. That’s not a surprise for anyone who follows Apple’s policy announcements. Many years ago, Apple warned that they’d eventually stop supporting 32-bit programs with 64-bit applications becoming the required standard. Among the programs that […]
It seems every other business is using the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as an excuse to sell something, so Office Watch has joined the bandwagon … with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Our book Keep Calm with Microsoft Office has sample Word documents and PowerPoint slides which have the original ‘Keep […]
You’ve been getting a lot of special emails from companies about the data and emails they send you. That’s all because of GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation that comes into force on 25 May 2018. We’ll explain a little about GDPR below but first we’ll explain what will change at Office Watch. No change, […]
The right-click menu is a powerful part of modern computers. It lets you quickly access options in Windows, Mac and Microsoft Office. Right-click is such a basic part of personal computing that it works even on devices without a mouse! We love ‘stupid’ questions because they’re rarely stupid at all. Yesterday Peter was asked a […]
Will Dormann in exposing the half-measure Outlook patch also shows that more complex passwords with mixed-case letters plus digits and symbols is better than a simple long password. The highest length of time to crack an 8 character password from NTLMv2 hash with a mere single mid-range GPU. Longer passwords are better but you don’t need […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
With all the news about data leaks from Facebook and others, we thought it was time to restate our privacy policy. Office-Watch.com deliberately keeps as little information as possible about our readers and customers. That costs us dearly as a business but we feel it’s the right thing to do. Newsletters For our newsletters, all we […]
You might be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft Office isn’t so much software as a ‘trojan horse’ allowing hackers the opportunity to destroy, copy or ransom your valuable information. That’s overkill, of course, but each week there’s yet another new attack on millions of computers relying on Microsoft Office. If it’s not a newly found […]
Word numbered lists can do a lot more than simple 1, 2, 3 so here we’ll show you some better (1st, 2nd) and maybe unusual options (First Level, Second Place etc). All these and more are possible with Microsoft Word’s numbering plus a little knowledge and cunning. Numbering controls are spread across several different dialog […]
It’s vexing that the numbering features in Word aren’t all in the one place. Instead they’re spread across three different dialog boxes including “Adjust List Indents … ” and “Set Numbering Value…”. Those two bland names hide some useful Word tricks. Numbering can also be set as a style. The main Numbering Gallery lets you […]
Word has various in-built numbering for common uses in documents. We’ve told you about Word Numbered List tricks and Hidden Numbering options in Word plus Faster Numbered and Multi-Level Level changes Headings have numbering options at each level which can include chapter numbering. Page Numbers are available in headers/footers. Captions to pictures have their own numbering, right-click […]
How can you filter the Outlook contacts list to show just the Contact Groups or not? You can’t … amazingly there’s no direct or easy way to separate out the two types of contacts: individual or groups. Look along the Search tab for Contacts and there’s many options but not all. The ‘More’ pull down […]
Make smarter decisions with Excel’s tables and lists. Excel is a great place for comparison shopping or deciding which product to buy. Unlike Word or OneNote, Excel has tools to sort, filter and do calculations to help you narrow down many choices to just a few or one. In this article we’ll show you a […]
Office Watch has a presence on Facebook, finally, https://www.facebook.com/OfficeWatch/ Our new Facebook page has the very latest Office related news posted to it as soon as we publish. Go to https://www.facebook.com/OfficeWatch/ and click Follow to see our posts in your timeline. Admittedly, we’ve been slow to adopt social media. We’ve focused on quality Office journalism, […]
Office-Watch.com has joined Instagram — the photo sharing site. The Instagram posts act as another way to get the latest Office news to you immediately. We’re @officewatch or https://www.instagram.com/officewatch/ A few readers have asked us to do this and we’re happy to oblige. We’re not entirely sure that Microsoft Office news is suitable to Instagram. Let’s face […]
The Dubai font inspired us to look at the currency symbol for the United Arab Emirates – the Dirham. A quick guide for those of us who don’t know any Arabic! There’s no direct symbol for the Dirham – unlike the dollar, Euro or Yen/Yuan. The usual prefix is DH or Dhs , just plain […]
If you send an email to an invalid email address, that address will ‘stick’ in Outlook via the AutoComplete list. Here’s how to fix that. Let’s say you send an email to fence@fred.daggcom (misplaced period/fullstop). The email will ‘bounce’ with an error message. Despite that, the wrong email address still appears in the AutoComplete list. […]
Facebook Messenger is the instant messaging part of anyone’s Facebook account but it’s not something that everyone likes … far from it. We all have many forms of communication clamoring for our attention – phone calls, SMS/texts, email to various accounts and instant messaging. Checking each of these can be a pain in the (you […]
Windows Movie Maker is a simple and free video editor from Microsoft. Officially it’s no longer available but it’s still available if you know the magic spell. Earlier this month we explained how to get the much-loved Office Picture Manager even though it’s been officially removed from Office. Movie Maker was part of Windows Essentials, […]
You’ve chosen an image, now you have to get it into your Office document. You’d hope there was a single way to do that but, as usual, there’s plenty of options. Outlook has its own special needs, different from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. There’s also privacy and image size issues to consider. The simple way […]
WhatsApp, the popular messaging system, has added a new security feature that’s being called ‘Two Factor Authentication’ but it’s NOT. Really the new option is more annoying than helpful. We’re not the only ones critical of WhatsApp and it’s lip-service attitude to security. The company adds security features but too often they don’t meet the […]
In How to share a single Excel worksheet or tab we explained how to send or share a single Excel worksheet or tab from a larger workbook. That’s OK as a one-off measure to send out a sheet but how can you do it easily as a share or ongoing collaboration? The answer is a little […]
Is it possible to share or send a single Excel tab or worksheet from an entire spreadsheet? Sharing a single worksheet or tab isn’t possible. Excel’s sharing features work on the workbook or entire document level. But it is possible to send out or share a single worksheet/tab with a little workaround. Definitions These terms […]
Styles can be saved in the document but are most effective when saved in a template. Changing the style in a template will affect any document that uses the same template. At the bottom of the Modify Style dialog are two choices for where to save the style. Microsoft has reworded the choices to make […]
Word lets us down when it comes to viewing a documents styles and how they link together. The only way to see a detailed list of styles is to Print them! In the print pane, choose the print what list and you’ll see the little known ‘Styles’ option. (Tip: Use Print to PDF to save […]
Styles in Microsoft Word would be very cumbersome if you had to set up each one individually. To make it easier, styles have inheritance. A new style is usually a copy, linked to an existing style with just some changes to selected items. Here’s an example of inheritance in a simple Word document. This is […]
Originally, Word only had paragraph styles. Styles could only be applied to an entire paragraph. Any changes to an individual word or phrase had to be done individually. Character Styles More recently, we got Character Styles. Now you can have a style that can apply to any group of letters or words in a paragraph. […]
A style is a collection of formatting choices combined under a single name. Any word or even a single letter has a collection of formatting settings as well. Font: size, color, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough/subscript/superscript, highlighting and more. Position: Left, Center, Right, Justified. List: bullet, numbering. Line Spacing, Borders, Background color and a lot more details. Instead of […]
We’ll start 2017 with a look at some commonly used characters used in Office but are missing from the standard keyboard. How to insert symbols on a ‘one-off’ basis or insert quickly for more commonly used characters. Degree mark for temperature. Has no special shortcut but you can make one (see below). Currency symbols. We […]
Sometimes Outlook ‘forgets’ that it’s the place for all email work. You click on an email address and should get an Outlook new message window. Windows 8 users get the (almost) useless Mail app filling their screen. The problem isn’t Outlook, its Windows and something that’s changed the Windows default action for making a new […]
Entering blocks of text in Excel is quite easy. What’s not obvious are all the options to make the text easier to enter and look better. Just typing in a cell will enter text. By default it will extend into any unfilled cells. If there’s something ‘in the way’ the text will just stop. Wrapping […]
In Outlook 2013 you may have noticed the ‘Link Contacts …’ item on each contact card. We’ll explain why it’s there and what it can do for you. Link Contacts is different from ‘Contact Linking’ that’s been available in many versions of Outlook. Contact Linking lets you connect a contact with a specific appointment, task […]
You can select almost anything in Windows to paste into OneNote or paste a link to the original content. Clipper You can select web page content, copy then paste it into OneNote. If you do that, OneNote will automatically add a link to the original page. Or install the OneNote Clipper. This is a browser […]
OneNote has been around since 2003 and is available to many Office users as part of their Office suite or subscription. Why not try OneNote, it’s worth a look since it can be very useful. What is OneNote We’ll skip past the Microsoft hype and tell you that OneNote is a place for notes of […]
