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.
Excel for Mac Finally Learns to Multitask (Sort of)
Good news for Excel on Mac users who like to “live dangerously” with more than one worksheet at a time. Excel for Mac is finally catching up with Windows to view multiple worksheets from the same workbook side-by-side. No more tabbing back and forth like you’re playing Whack-A-Mole with your data. Historically, Excel for Mac […]
PowerPoint’s Newest Trick: Comments That Stick Like Glue
Ever felt like your PowerPoint comments had a mind of their own, wandering off when you moved content around? At long last, PowerPoint has learned a new trick: keeping comments ‘sticky’ attached to their content, no matter where you paste it. Previously, moving content in PowerPoint was like playing a game of hide-and-seek with your […]
Excel data galore for the Australian election
Data nerds can have a lot of fun with the Australian election which has a lot of Excel compatible data for the 2025 and past elections. Daily updated stats as 2025 vote counting continues. Australian federal elections are run by an independent body, the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC manages voting not just across Australia […]
Use Skype Dial Pad to make calls to phone numbers
Skype is rolling out a snazzy new Dial Pad feature as the way to make calls to phone numbers, if you’re a savvy customer with Microsoft 365 plan, an active calling subscription or Skype Credit. Microsoft promo hides some important details. Skype is closing down and its ‘computer to computer’ calling service is on its […]
Extended Free Skype Calling Time for Microsoft 365 Users
Microsoft 365 users free Skype phone call benefit now lasts until March 2026 but, as usual, there’s a catch. Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans include 60 minutes of calls to many global phone numbers. That’s been a subscription benefit for many years. That benefit continues until 3 March 2026 even though most of Skype is ending […]
Excel Best Practices for safely importing CSV and text
Importing text files into Excel can sometimes lead to unexpected data conversions—like turning product codes into dates or trimming leading zeros from IDs. To avoid these issues, Excel’s Get & Transform feature (also known as Power Query) offers a more reliable method for importing text data. You can ensure your data remains accurate and intact […]
Avoid Date and Number Mistakes with better data conversion in Excel 365/2024
Excel 365 and Excel 2024 let you control automatic text data conversions with stop mistakes creeping into your sheets. Whether you’re opening a CSV file or pasting from the web, you can now decide how Excel handles your text, numbers, and dates—finally putting you in charge of your own data. Opening .csv files directly in […]
What’s the difference? Microsoft 365 Copilot app or the Copilot app.
Microsoft has two mobile apps with the “Copilot” AI name. “Microsoft 365 Copilot” and “Copilot” apps for iPhone, iPad or Android. What’s the difference and which is best for you? Microsoft’s Copilot hype “Your AI companion for everyday life” (see below) always reminds me of “Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with” with Marvin […]
What the best choice to make and fix Office VBA code with AI?
AI systems have got a lot better at making and fixing Microsoft Office VBA code. We compare Copilot and ChatGPT to see which is best choice for coping with the complexities of Office VBA. Early in 2024 we tried asking ChatGPT for Office VBA code in some simple examples, the results weren’t great. A lot […]
Free Google Fonts in Office: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide
Google offers a great variety of free open-source fonts that can be used in Microsoft Office, Windows or Mac. You just need to know the right trick to access them for Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Over 1,800 Google Font families There are 877 1,816 Google Font families currently available at https://fonts.google.com Google Fonts are intended […]
Better Than Comic Sans: Upgrade Your Fonts for a Stronger Impression
Tired of Comic Sans but still want a casual, friendly font? Microsoft Office has better built-in alternatives or there’s many other fonts that keeps the charm without the cringe. Here’s a quick guide to upgrading your documents. The Wall Street Journal has a history of Comic Sans, the font that people love to hate, complete […]
Score with Solid and Hollow Emoji in Excel
Display scores or ratings visually in Excel using solid and hollow emojis or symbols, you can use a combination of simple formulas and conditional formatting. This approach is useful for representing ratings, progress, or performance in an intuitive and engaging way. With a little Excel trickery, you can show multi-colored symbols with alternates for the […]
Copilot Word 365 Document summary gets better, for some
Microsoft 365 Copilot is improving their document summary feature in Word across Windows, Mac, and the web for some customers. Still no mention of the feature that Word Copilot users really want! Copilot Summary appears at the top of Word documents, whether you like it or not. It can be a useful way to get […]
Add new PowerPoint slide with Copilot
PowerPoint is getting a useful addition to its Copilot AI options, make a new slide with Copilot. The Home tab of PowerPoint 365 will have ‘New Slide with Copilot’. A Copilot enabled Microsoft 365 plan is necessary, obviously. Or there’s “Add a slide” on the Copilot icon top-left of a slide. This is a welcome […]
Make Word start faster with Office Startup Boost
Startup Boost is a new way to make Microsoft Word 365 start faster. Here’s how it works and how to disable it. Startup Boost is a little tech trickery. Word 365 isn’t really getting faster, instead it’s being started in the background (aka preload) where it’ll lurk until needed. In other words, Word is being […]
Fix F9 Fn Keys don’t work in Word, Office or Windows
Office Watch reader Steve G is having a problem in Word. The F9 key isn’t updating fields in a Word document. He suspects a buggy patch of Windows or Office. Here’s how to find the source of the Function key or any keypress problem and fix it. Hint – it’s probably not a bug or […]
