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.
New default styles in Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
The change of fonts in Microsoft 365 also means a change of default styles (normal and headings) are also changing. Here’s what the new styles look like and the exact settings Microsoft has chosen for Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. At the moment, these fonts and styles are in Microsoft 365 Insiders builds for Windows and […]
Excel can figure out how long to pay off a loan
Microsoft Excel has a handy function called NPER that can help you work out how long it’ll take to pay off a loan. It’ll show how adding even a little bit per payment can help clear a loan faster and some practical advice on using NPER in the real world. Say you have a personal […]
Two ways to change document defaults in Microsoft Word
How to change the ‘Blank Document’ defaults like font etc. in Microsoft Word. Either ‘Set Default’ choices or update Word’s core template. What to do when the usual tips don’t work. In other words, all about Normal.dotm in Microsoft Word. Microsoft 365 customers are getting new default fonts called Aptos, which means many people are […]
Another Microsoft Exchange failure
There’s been yet another failure of Microsoft’s Exchange Online service (aka Microsoft 365 hosted email) affecting customers around the world by stopping or delaying outgoing messages. Microsoft hid the extent of the problem by spreading the details across two separate bug reports. The first most people knew of the problem was sending messages that gave […]
Excel can figure out payments to clear credit card debt
Let Excel help you cut your credit card debt by calculating the monthly payments needed to pay off the card. The PMT function in Excel calculates of loan payments needed to clear the debt in a certain time. Suppose there is a remaining balance of $5,400 on a credit card with an annual interest rate […]
Predict the future value of your investments with Excel
Excel can calculate the future value of your investments, such as finding out a return you’ll get on a Certificate of Deposit (CD) or Term Deposit. There’s an inbuilt Excel function to make the task very simple. It’s just one way Excel can make your financial decisions a whole lot easier. Future Value of a […]
FIRST LOOK: Excel’s six new AI Copilot functions
Excel’s new AI functions, under the Copilot branding, have started to appear in some public releases. Here’s the full list with syntax of all six AI functions. The functions have started appearing in some Excel 365 for Windows, Insiders Beta (version 2308 build 16708.20004). Not all Insiders see the same functions because Microsoft sometimes does […]
Make better Excel Charts by adding graphics or pictures
Add some extra flair to your plain Excel charts by inserting pictures or graphics within the chart. It’s remarkably easy and enhances charts a lot. You can simply enhance your graph by inserting a business logo in the chart area. Or you might want to add images to replace the text labels. You may want to insert an image of money to represent dollars spent, or a car to represent […]
Check out the winner and other new fonts in Microsoft 365/Office 2021
Here are samples of the five new fonts available for Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 customers one of which has become the new default font, but under a different name – Aptos. Did we say five? … there are really 10 new sans-serif fonts. Each of the five newbies come in two versions, normal for […]
Word’s Find can’t find all Unicode symbols and emoji
Word has a way of finding Unicode symbols by their reference number, except it doesn’t work for many symbols and not at all for emoji! And the Find ^u option is inconsistent with the rest of Word and common practice. These bugs have been in Word for a few years now with no sign of […]
Make your own Worlde in Office and Word
Make your own Wordle grids in Microsoft Office, Word, PowerPoint or Excel. Choose the right font, colors (the exact green, yellow or grey) plus grid details including blank or unfilled boxes. Wordle was originally a standalone app, created by Josh Wardle . It’s now owned and run by The New York Times, though the look […]
Grinning Face 😀 emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
How to insert the Grinning Face 😀 emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Grinning Face 😀 emoji is usually depicted as a yellow face, with open eyes and a wide smile. Conveys good cheer or humor, often to make it clear that the sentence […]
Three Microsoft 365 features have disappeared
Some features have been dropped from Microsoft 365 Family, Personal and other plans. Wolfram data types in Excel and so-called ‘Partner Benefits‘. As usual the announcement was full of marketing euphemisms and didn’t tell the whole story because a third feature (Excel’s Money template) discontinued on the same date. Three Microsoft 365 features were dropped on […]
Beware unpatched Windows and Office security bug
Microsoft is warning about a security bug in Windows and Office that has no patch (yet) but is being publicly exploited. We’ll explain what to look out for and how to protect yourself. It appears to be (yet another) security hole in Windows which allows unauthorized code to run on a computer. It’s from a […]
Get the right Barbie color for Word, PowerPoint and Office
Barbie (the doll, not the Aussie BBQ) is everywhere at the moment so we’ll explain how to select Barbie Pink in your Word documents, Excel sheets and PowerPoint slides. There’s no one Barbie Pink but a selection to choose from. We looked around various official sources for the toys and movie trying to find the […]
How to find emoji in Microsoft Word and the bugs to avoid
Finding emoji or any high value Unicode symbol is difficult in Microsoft Word because of bugs in the software. We’ll explain the only reliable way to find emoji and the problems with the features that should work, but don’t. We’ll start with the best answer we can find. It’s not a perfect solution but it’s […]
