Microsoft 365 – the subscription / annual fee plan for Microsoft Office on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android.
Includes Word 365, Excel 365, PowerPoint 365, Outlook 365 and many other ‘365’ programs, apps and services.
Three more Word date and time options
Aside from inserting the current date or time, Microsoft Word has some other useful choices for inserting dates automatically. The date/time the document was created, last saved or last printed. Header / Footer In a Word document header or footer, the same Insert Date options and shortcuts apply as in the main document. There’s an […]
Many ways to insert the current date and time in Word
Here’s all the different ways you can quickly insert the current date or time into a Microsoft Word document. There’s the ‘official’ shortcut and the ‘secret’ shortcut with better options than the usual tip. As usual with Word and Office, there’s the simple but incomplete answer that’s commonly given but more useful info when Office-Watch.com […]
White Right backhand pointer 👉 in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the White Right backhand pointer 👉 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. It’s officially called “White Right Pointing Backhand Index”. White Right Pointing Backhand Index 👉 symbol is great for signs, simple hand graphics in slides or an alternative bullet in lists. There’s also […]
Microsoft 365 “Subscription” vs Rental
Why call Microsoft 365 a software ‘subscription’ when it’s really renting? A few readers have asked us why Office-Watch.com calls Microsoft 365 renting when it’s called ‘subscription’ by Microsoft. Microsoft relentlessly uses the word ‘subscription’ to describe their preferred way to pay for Office but that doesn’t mean their use of the word is accurate. […]
Excel Paste Special with math operations
Excel’s Paste Special feature can be used to modify multiple numbers at once. Paste Special is more commonly used to paste only values or formatting, it has other tricks to offer. We’ll show you firstly how to multiply numbers in Excel by using Paste Special then add, subtract and division. Addition and Multiplication are easy […]
Changing Word’s Text Box Gallery to suit you
The Word Text Box Gallery gives you a head start on nice document effects. Under the Insert tab in Word is the Text Box gallery, a selection of pre-set options to jazz up your document. It’s the easy way to put in fancy design elements you see in books and magazines like side-bars or ‘pull […]
Inside OneNote Pages, what to add and search
OneNote Pages can contain all manner of things; text, files, documents, PDF, drawing, images, tables, web clippings, lists, audio and video files. Pictures and recordings in OneNote have some nifty tricks and you can search everything you’ve added to OneNote. Text is very simple just ‘click on the page and type’. A container is automatically […]
Speaking a search now in Word
Word 365 is getting another improvement to the Search feature, now you can speak your question or search. Look at the Search box on the title bar, now or soon there’ll be a microphone button at right. Click on the microphone icon and speak your search terms. Assuming your microphone setup is OK, Microsoft’s cloud […]
Word Style inheritance made clear and simple
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 […]
Why choose Body Text vs Normal style in Word
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, […]
Quick Teams links added to Outlook 365
Outlook 365 for Windows is getting more Teams features that link received emails with Teams, start chats or schedule a meeting. Above the email, beside the Reply, Reply All and Forward buttons is now a Teams pull-down menu. Only in Microsoft 365 hosted mailboxes, including Outlook.com Share to Teams This opens a new Teams message […]
New look file browsing in Office for iPhone and iPad
There’s a new “File Card” look coming to the Office ‘all in one’ app for iPhone and iPad which shows document thumbnails and other information. File Cards use the document thumbnails that are in most, but not all Office documents plus PDF files that are stored on OneDrive. Microsoft says there’ll be support for locally […]
Make thumbnails for Office documents with extra tricks
Adding thumbnail or preview image for Word, Excel or PowerPoint Office documents is easy, though you won’t find the choice anywhere obvious. We’ll dig into how thumbnails work for some nerdy extra detail. Thumbnails are the small images that appear in File Explorer and elsewhere instead of the standard icons for Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. […]
Ordinal Numbers in Excel, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.
You can show ordinal numbers in Excel; 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Sadly, it’s not as simple as you’d think. The ‘Ordinal Rank’ column, 1st, 2nd etc you’d expect to be provided by Microsoft, but it’s not. There’s no in-built function nor a number format. After all, Excel has many different number formats already, so ordinal numbers […]
How to avoid the Gill Sans font controversy in Windows and Office
The work of Eric Gill is controversial these days, for good reason. Microsoft Windows and Office have fonts based on Gill’s work so users might need to think twice about using Gill Sans and similar fonts. Gill Sans MT and Gill Sans Nova are supplied with Windows and Office but are becoming stigmatized. Those fonts […]
Why Office for Mac will never match Office for Windows.
Office for Mac users yearn for the day when their software matches ‘feature parity’ with Office for Windows. “Two platforms, One Office” is the dream. But is it possible or even likely? We’re inspired by this tweet from José Rodríguez-Suárez. If Microsoft responds, we can predict what they’ll say, because its the same line they’ve […]
