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.
Beware using the new iPhone and iPad emoji
The new iOS 14.5 has hundreds of new emoji but beware using them in emails and documents because they can look very different on other computers. We have examples of how a simple emoji can look very different in Word or Outlook. The new version of iOS for iPhone and iPad includes even more emoji. […]
Great deal on Microsoft 365 in Canada
Thanks to Office-Watch.com reader, Pierre B. we can tell about a good deal on Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, now available from Amazon in Canada. Microsoft 365 Personal cheaper The usual price for Microsoft 365 Personal (12 month, one user) is CDN$79.99, but Amazon.ca has it for CDN$48.99. Here’s the product link. (note, we don’t […]
What’s in the new Microsoft Services Agreement?
Microsoft is updating their Services Agreement, the rules we call agree to live with when using Microsoft’s many services. We found a few interesting things in the changes. The Summary of Changes to the Microsoft Services Agreement is mercifully short. Compared to full agreement of over 15,000 words which is just one part of a […]
Excel 365’s data sources now include dynamic arrays
Excel 365 for Windows is getting another option for importing data into PowerQuery, from a dynamic array. In many cases the original data source could be imported, sorted and filtered in many different ways. Importing a existing dynamic array is a useful extra trick for us Excel nerds. We can think of three uses right […]
Live Sorting & Filtering in Excel: How to Use FILTER() + SORT() for Dynamic Lists
Learn how to create live, dynamic sorted lists in Excel using the powerful combination of Sort()/SortBy() and Filter() functions. In Excel 365 and Office 2021+ dynamic array formulas like FILTER() let you extract a subset of data — and by wrapping that result inside SORT(), you can instantly sort the filtered list in whatever order […]
Suggested Replies secrets in Outlook for Windows
Suggested Replies are coming to Outlook 365 for Windows. As usual, there are details that Microsoft has ‘forgotten’ to mention but we at Office Watch aren’t so forgetful! In the Outlook reading / preview pane, possible replies can be displayed. Or Microsoft’s cloud systems have scanned the message and offered suggested replies. As we’ve seen […]
Choose the text to spell check & proof in Word 365 Editor
The new spelling, grammar and other suggestion Editor can now be used with selected text, not just the whole Word 365 document. It’s a little change but an important and useful one. Select a block of text, right-click and choose ‘Review selection in Editor’. Selecting text for the Editor is available in the Insiders Word […]
Why do the newest Microsoft Office features disappear?
Sometimes Microsoft announces new features for the Insiders early testers that aren’t even available yet. It seems Redmond’s promotional hype gets ahead of the software reality. The new Accessibility ribbon is just the latest example. According to a blog post from 29 March, there is a new Accessibility ribbon in Excel 365. There’s even a […]
Easy and better lists with Excel 365’s Filter()
Filter is another Excel 365 dynamic array formula that’s really useful and far better than similar options in earlier versions of Excel. Just like SORT() and SORTBY(), FILTER() refreshes automatically whenever the source values change. The older pull-down filter and sort choices don’t update properly. Dynamic Arrays also give you the choice to show the […]
About Unicode, fonts and symbol codes
Confused about Unicode, code-points and other techie details about inserting symbols? Here’s how it works and can work for you in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps. Like many things in modern computing, you mostly don’t have to know the details of how things work. But occasionally things don’t work the right way and then […]
April 2021 updates for Office 365, 2019 and 2016 – Windows
Details and warnings about the April 2021 security and non-security updates for Office 365, Office 2019 and Office 2016 for Windows. There are some side-effects to watch out for. All these update will, or have been, pushed to your computer already. We’ve included a tip on how to force an update to the latest release. […]
Comments have changed for the better in Excel 365
Microsoft has been changing the way comments work in Office 365 and now it’s the turn of Excel 365 to get the new-style conversational comments. If you’ve opened up Excel 365 recently you might have seen a notice like this: “ Comments can now be used for discussions. When you put one in, you’ll see […]
Better live sorting in Excel 365
In late 2018, Excel 365 got an important new feature, Dynamic Arrays . Here’s a simple way to use the feature to make your workbooks sort better and automatically. It also fixes a long-standing problem in Excel. We’re going to focus on a very simple and useful part of dynamic array that anyone can use; […]
Cross of Lorraine ☨ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Cross of Lorraine ☨ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Cross of Lorraine ☨ symbol was originally a heraldic cross. In more recent times it was used in the global distribution systems, Sabre, Apollo, and Wordspan, as a delimiter in a variety of input […]
Can’t send Outlook email? The fix has arrived, at last
Microsoft has finally released a fix for what can only be described as an ‘unforced error’ or bug in Outlook that stopped some messages going out. They’ve left an unanswered mystery. The problem started after an early 2021 public update to Outlook 365 for Windows. Some messages refused to be sent out with only this […]
Get your presentation directly into a Teams call or meeting
PowerPoint for Windows is getting a ‘Present in Teams’ button to drop your presentation into a Teams call or meeting. PowerPoint Live in Teams sounds great, but there are very specific requirements to make it work. Fire up the Teams desktop app and make sure it’s up to date. Open the presentation in PowerPoint 365 […]
