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.
Fixed: Microsoft 365 Crashes on Windows Server Systems
Microsoft has fixed an embarrassing bug that caused Microsoft 365 applications and Outlook (classic) to crash on Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 systems. The problem stemmed from a recent Office update that integrated the React Native framework to support certain Microsoft 365 apps’ features. The impact was limited to Microsoft 365 users who […]
Microsoft 365 price increases around the world
See how the price of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family has risen in USA, Canada, UK, Europe and many other countries. The new prices for Microsoft 365 consumer plans include Copilot with many limits and a high price. In some countries, it’s the first price rise in many years, despite inflation and many more features […]
HUGE changes to Microsoft 365 happening now
Microsoft 365 customers around the world are waking up to a new look in their Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook apps. It’s part of Microsoft’s huge changes to Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans which include a very limited Copilot AI service and a big price rise. Microsoft 365 users might first notice these changes […]
Two ways to make a running total in Excel
Here’s two ways to make a running total column in Excel. The way you were probably taught and a much better and more flexible choice. Running or Accumulative Totals are a very common thing in spreadsheets. Here’s a really simple example in columns C and E. Here’s two ways to make those totals, using Sum() […]
How to stop migration to new Outlook
How to prevent Microsoft from pushing a change from classic Outlook for Windows to their new and incomplete Outlook (new). Microsoft is pushing customers to use Outlook (new) even though the software doesn’t have basic features like proper offline support or interactions between mailboxes. New Outlook also has a serious privacy breach for anyone using […]
Copilot comes to Microsoft 365 with many limits and a high price
Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans are getting Copilot AI integration into their Office apps but it comes with a big price increase and many limits to what people get for the extra cost. Customers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand have seen massive prices rises in Microsoft 365 Family and Personal […]
Add pictures to Copilot questions
You can now add images to your Copilot prompts / questions in Word and PowerPoint. Why bother with images? Well, they can save you time, help Copilot understand your requests better, and improve the accuracy of its responses. Whether you’re asking about a specific object or scene, images can clarify details that might be ambiguous […]
Too Many Microsoft Outlooks? Clear Up the Confusion in Simple Terms
If you’ve ever been baffled by all the different things Microsoft calls Outlook, you’re not alone. Microsoft uses the “Outlook” name for multiple apps, web services, mobile clients and desktop programs. From Outlook (classic) for Windows to Outlook.com and the Outlook mobile app, making it hard to know which version you’re actually using or talking […]
Word field codes for everyone
Word field codes let you add automation or automatic content into documents. A simple example is the { DATE } field, which inserts the current date into a letter but there’s a lot more possible. Chances are good that you’ve already used field codes and not realised it. Date, PrintDate, Page numbering (current and total […]
Why Word doesn’t always show US and UK spelling correctly?
Microsoft Word’s English dictionaries can be confusing because they don’t always mark incorrect spelling differences between US and UK English (like color/colour). We did some tests with surprising results. English spellings can get screwy as you move between countries and there’s a lot more overlap than many people realize or realise 😁. There are many […]
Excel has ‘real’ Regular Expression functions
Microsoft Excel 365 has built-in support for regular expressions (regex). The functions REGEXTEST, REGEXEXTRACT and REGEXREPLACE have powerful pattern matching, text extraction and replacement directly into spreadsheet formulas, eliminating the need for VBA, add-ins or convoluted workarounds. Even better, the functions use a widely understood form of Regex for text-manipulation capabilities, data cleaning, validation and […]
How to remove words from the Word dictionary
How and why to remove words from the main Microsoft Word dictionary. The Office Exclusion List ensures a red squiggly underline appears to warn you about an unwanted word. Sometimes the supplied Office dictionary has words you don’t want or you’d like a warning about. Here’s how to put the red squiggly line under words […]
New Outlook’s blocked images problem
The new Outlook for Windows has a safety setting that might stop you seeing images in emails and is another privacy breach by Microsoft to snoop at customers data. It’s buried deep in the software and turned on automatically. Deep in the Settings for Outlook (new) is a way to block images in messages when […]
All the Outlook solutions to ‘Spy Pixels’ in emails
The many different Microsoft Outlook versions have a way to block images linked to emails, that includes the so-called ‘spy pixels’ used by many companies. See ‘Spy Pixels’ email epidemic, the good and the bad You can choose to view pictures in an Outlook email by clicking a button at the top of each message. […]
2025 calculations in Excel
2025 is a special number, as various social media posts have pointed out. It can be calculated in some interesting ways like (20 + 25)2 = 2025. Naturally we had to convert these into Excel formulas. 2025 is 45 squared, in other words, a ”perfect square”. This last happened in the year1936 (442) and the […]
Important Microsoft 365 and Office events to watch in 2025
2025 promises to be ‘interesting’ for Microsoft 365 and Office users, not always in a good way. Here’s some of the predictable events. What I can guarantee in 2025 is more Copilot and Outlook (new) hype – some justified and some stretching credibility. Happy New Year! Office 2016 and Office 2019 end All Office 2016 […]
