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’s warning about dates and centuries
There’s a useful but niche Excel warning about date with two digits for the century. That’s a useful precaution but sometimes the warning is wrong! Those of us around at the turn of the century will remember the Y2K problems and possible mistakes with a date that has only two digits. For example, “15 April […]
Write Excel formulas fast with free Copilot
Copilot AI makes writing Excel formulas a lot easier but you still need to check the results to make sure Copilot has understood want you want and gives the right answer. There’s a lot of hype and promises about how AI can help make work easier. That’s not as true as Microsoft and others are […]
Easter images and icons in Microsoft Office
Drop in some Easter flavor to your documents, slides or emails from right inside Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel. Either religious (Ascension, Crucifix etc) or secular (eggs, chocolate, bunnies) images and graphics are available. Modern Office, especially Microsoft 365 have stock images and icons from a large collection compiled by Microsoft. Stock Images, Icons and […]
Credit Card 💳 symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
There’s more than one Credit Card 💳 image available in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. How Credit Card 💳 looks in different fonts. Only two standard Windows fonts have the credit card symbol; Segoe UI Emoji and Segoe UI Symbol. The Apple device version is […]
Start Grouping in Excel for better looking sheets
Grouping in Excel lets you collapse or expand sections of a sheet so you can see the ‘big picture’ but still drill-down to how totals were made. Another use for grouping is hiding rows or columns from view. You can organize and manage data more effectively by grouping together rows or columns. This feature is […]
New Outlook does NOT block Exchange Server mailboxes
The new Outlook (in preview) did seem to be enforcing a Microsoft 365 software license in a way that other Outlook software has never done before. Happily that’s been fixed. Here’s what happened, to explain and debunk stories still going around. Outlook (new) is the preview web app that Microsoft is developing. It will eventually […]
How the change to new Outlook for Windows will work
Microsoft has announced some of their plan for the changeover to the newer, totally rebuilt, Outlook for Windows. The changeover plan will be in four stages; Opt-in, General Availability, Opt-out and finally Cutoff. There are no specific dates given, just a broad structure but the whole switch from ‘classic Outlook’ to ‘Outlook (new)’ will take […]
Copilot appears in Word whether you like it or not
The paid versions of Copilot AI in Microsoft Word often appear when it’s not wanted and Microsoft isn’t giving their paying customers any choice. Microsoft is assuming that anytime there’s a blank document or even paragraph that customers want Copilot to jump in. So they’ve put Copilot ‘front and center’ on the screen. This applies […]
Discover the Edit Points bug in Word
An interesting bug in Microsoft Word, thanks to an Office Watch reader. Changing the edit points around a rectangular image can hide some text that should be visible. It appears to be a bug in the code to wrap text around an object in some narrow circumstances. Here’s how to recreate the bug, start with […]
Spreadsheets are a warning about the future of AI
A respected author has a warning about the future of AI using the mixed history of spreadsheet mistakes as an example. Tim Harford is an excellent columnist and author known as “the Undercover Economist”. Check out his “More or Less” podcast for the BBC. In a recent article he argues that the spreadsheet is a […]
Five fast Clear options in Excel
Excel has some nice choices for clearing out cells quickly. You can remove the contents, the formatting only or both contents and formatting plus choices for deleting just notes, comments and cleaning up links. As you can see the drop-down menu Home | Editing | Clear offers options such as: Clear All, Clear Formats, Clear […]
PowerPoint – switch away from Aptos fonts
Here’s how to switch away from the new Aptos fonts in Microsoft PowerPoint and back to the old Calibri fonts or something else. Microsoft has forced a change to Aptos as the new default font in PowerPoint but that change doesn’t suit everyone. In particular, Aptos doesn’t make much (or any) visible difference for bold text. Both the paragraphs […]
Copilot in Office mobile apps for some
Copilot AI services for Word and PowerPoint are now in the Microsoft 365 mobile app for business or education users with the Copilot add-on. The integration is in the Word and PowerPoint parts of the ‘all in one’ Microsoft 365 mobile app, look for the Copilot logo in the bottom row of the app. All […]
Remove that big AutoSave from the Office toolbar
Get rid of the over large ‘AutoSave’ slider on the Word, Excel or PowerPoint status bar. The Autosave button (strictly a label plus slider) takes up a lot of room on the top row of modern Office apps. That space is quite crowded and you need it to fit as many ‘Quick Access Toolbar’ (QAT). […]
Print selection, sheets or tables in Excel
Excel has some useful options for printing less than an entire workbook. Printing a selection, active sheets or just a table. As Office-Watch.com has discovered before, there’s a lot more available in Office than a quick look suggests. See Print options are at File | Print then choose the menu that starts with Print Active […]
Use the world’s ugliest color in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Make an unpleasant point with the world’s ugliest color. A ‘drab dark green’ can be used in any Word document, Excel sheet or PowerPoint slide. And we’ll explain the recommended complement color and font. It’s not our opinion, but the market researched result of an effort to find the most unappealing color. A three-month study […]
