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.
Useful shared calendar improvements in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is in the final stages of a major improvement in the ‘plumbing’ behind synchronizing calendars across an organization. Leaving aside a particularly outrageous Redmond boast, the changes are welcome enhancements. Outlook and Exchange Server can have difficulties coping with fast changing appointment and meeting arrangements. When several people are editing a shared event […]
Using Review mode in OneDrive, Sharepoint and Word
Review mode is a very useful sharing choice in OneDrive and Sharepoint for Microsoft Word documents only. It lets people look over and comment on a Word document without changing the text. Only Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education customers can get Review Mode. Look for it at the bottom of the shared Link Settings. What […]
Block download option for Microsoft 365 sharing
The Block Download option is worth considering when sharing an Office document, audio file or PDF that you’d like to limit distribution in OneDrive or SharePoint. Block Download is only available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education customers. Look for it at the bottom of the shared Link Settings. What does Block Download do? The […]
Sharing changes coming to OneDrive and Office 365
The options for sharing documents and files will be changing over the next twelve months for the Office 365 apps, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. Year of Sharing The whole suite of changes is what Microsoft is grandly calling the ‘Year of Sharing’. That’s overstating things because there’s little or no feature changes in what’s been […]
More strangeness with Excel Map Charts
Yet more examples of strangeness and inconsistencies with Excel Map Charts with some unexpected workarounds. When Bing ‘accidently’ dropped images of the Tiananmen Square ‘Tank Man’ (not the first time such politically convenient ‘bugs’ have creeped into Bing). It made us wonder how Excel Map Charts (a Bing cloud service) handles the diplomatically thorny issue […]
Excel meets esports in the Financial Modeling World Cup
Esports (online gaming) is getting serious. Tomorrow the Financial Modelling World Cup pits eight Excel experts against each other in an online tournament. Instead of fighting battles or virtual sports, this is a test of Excel skills. It’s being called the ‘888 Battle’ 8 Contestants from 8 Countries on 8th June. The contestants are from […]
Get more from Office 365’s Recommended Documents
Office for Windows can have an extra on the Home pane – Recommended Documents which tries to suggest documents you’re involved with. Here’s what’s possible with this feature including how to hide it away and leave more screen space for the things you want to see. Source: Microsoft Recent Documents has been in Office for […]
Get up to speed with Teams Demos
Microsoft has a series of demo pages that go ‘step by step’ through the main features in Teams. Teams Basics https://Teamsdemo.office.com is the demo to start with. It explains the main elements of Teams including channels, members, posts etc. All the demos are focused on Teams not Teams Free but is OK for free users. […]
Why can’t I see all the features in Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft regularly promotes new or updated features in Teams, but there’s no sign of them for many people – there’s two different reasons. Teams features might not be available because it’s a free account (‘Teams Free’) or the user has Guest access to a paid Teams channel. All Microsoft announcements are very carefully worded and […]
How to hide a column in Word
You can hide a table column in Word, all it takes is a little trickery and ignoring Microsoft’s advice! Sometimes you want to hide a table column in a Word document but according to Microsoft you can’t do it. Here’s how to do it anyway. It’s true that there’s no explicit ‘hide column’ option like […]
Make Google Maps work with Outlook appointments
Google Maps is invaluable for getting around, especially in an unknown city. Corporate rivalry means there’s no proper integration between Microsoft Outlook and Google Maps There’s not even a mapping button in the Outlook appointments view. Contacts have a ‘Map it’ button but not ‘Location’ in an appointment – for reasons passing understanding. Our workaround […]
Excel Map Charts are way overdue for fixes
A few annoying things in Excel 365 / 2019 / 2021 / LTSC Map charts that Microsoft should fix. We’ll explain the traps and some workarounds. Making our COVID-19 Vaccination workbook reminded us of some anomalies in Excel Map Charts. Always check the Map area options Whenever using the Map Chart feature, always go to […]
Easy face mask graphics for Word and PowerPoint
Join us in a hunt for face mask graphics and icons to use in Word documents and PowerPoint slides. Use fask mask icons in signs. See Social Distancing signs in Microsoft Word More ideas for social distancing signs Icons The obvious place for Office 365 customers to look is Microsoft’s Icon feature. This is a […]
Tips and help for COVID-19 Vaccination Stats download in Excel
Some of the features, tips tricks in our new COVID-19 vaccination statistics workbook for Excel 365. See Get COVID-19 vaccination stats and more from Excel for info on the workbook and what it does. We’ve made this workbook as a practical example of some important recent Excel features and how they can be used. Open […]
Get COVID-19 vaccination stats and more from Excel
We have a new COVID-19 statistics workbook with a new automatically updating Excel spreadsheet that shows the latest cases and vaccination rates by country and region. All our Office Watch readers can get the entire workbook today. We’ve made this workbook as a practical and timely example of some important recent Excel features and how […]
More great Word tricks with Find
We’ve all seen the standard Find/Replace in Microsoft Word, either the ‘new’ pane or the older dialog box. Like so much else in Word, there’s a lot more available than the obvious features. Here’s a look at some of tricks. Press Ctrl + F to start a Find. In recent versions of Word, the Navigation […]
