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.
Fantastic Earth image for your desktop or PowerPoint
The European Space Agency has released the first full Earth image from its new weather satellite and it’s a fantastic, high-resolution view of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Great for a desktop, screen saver or Powerpoint slide. Taken by the Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1), the image is available for download. Use it as […]
Beware, Microsoft is looking in password locked ZIP files
Microsoft is now looking at the contents of password protected ZIP files stored on OneDrive, Sharepoint and other cloud services. Maybe with honorable intentions but there are serious privacy concerns that haven’t been acknowledged. For a long time, Microsoft’s antivirus and safety systems have opened up compressed ZIP files to check the contents for nasty […]
Update your Outlook and Windows now
There’s another security bug in Windows, embarrassing for Microsoft because it was caused by their own March fix for another security bug in Outlook! That means anyone with Outlook for Windows or Windows should ensure they have the latest updates. This is another ‘zero-click’ Outlook bug that can infect your computer without any action by […]
Better Quick Note toolbars in OneNote
At long last, more features are in the Quick Note box in OneNote for Windows. New toolbars make text formatting, ink and screen clipping directly available. Once you bring up a Quick Note you’ll notice a toolbar at the top: It doesn’t look like much, in my view this toolbar is too short and hides […]
Check, tick and cross symbols galore
There are different check mark, tick or cross symbols available in Word, PowerPoint or other Office apps. Here’s an easy searchable list of all Unicode symbols plus in modern Office ✅✔️☑️ is called a ‘check mark‘ or ‘check‘ in some places and ‘tick‘ in others. Same symbol, different English names. ❌X╳ has many more symbols […]
Nine easy statistics in Excel
There are at least NINE simple statistics formulas and functions in Excel that can summarize a list of numbers into something easy to understand. Often Excel has lists of numbers or money that makes little sense until you add a summary like this: We have a table called CountbyState and want to know something about […]
Thumbs Up👍emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert Thumbs Up or Like👍symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Thumbs Up / Like👍emoji is typically used when you ‘like’ something or have approval/agreement. It’s commonly used as a quick response to a comment on Facebook, Twitter and it’s coming to Office Comments too. […]
Copy VBA Macros between Microsoft Word documents
VBA code or Macros can be copied between Microsoft Word documents and templates quite easily if you know where to look. We’ve seen people laboriously copying code between VBA editor windows, not realising there’s an easier way. It’s not entirely necessary but usually the two macro-enabled documents/templates are opened first. Open Macro Organizer Go to View […]
Find search secrets in Microsoft Word
Search for text and a lot more within a document using the Find side-pane feature in Microsoft Word. There are secrets making it more powerful than first appears. You might think it’s as simple as typing in a word and Office will find it but, as usual, there’s a lot more power hidden away. We’re […]
Find all Arrow or Hand pointing symbols and more
There are different arrow or hand pointing symbols available in Word, PowerPoint or other Office apps. Left, Right, Up, Down, North, South, East, West. Here’s an easy searchable list of all Unicode pointing symbols plus the arrow and point icons in modern Office See also Check ☑︎, tick ✔️ and cross ❌ symbols galore Point […]
AI images coming to PowerPoint plus more CoPilot news
CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI project, inches towards reality with news of a very limited preview plus hints that Dall-E like image creation will be possible from inside PowerPoint. OneNote, Outlook and Whiteboard will also get an AI makeover. Microsoft continues to make announcements about their AI product, CoPilot, as if it’s already available to the public. […]
Fast rotate and resizing in PowerPoint
With a few PowerPoint keystrokes you can move, rotate or resize an object in any direction in tiny amounts to get it where and how you want it. Positioning objects in PowerPoint applies to PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2021/2019 (Windows and Mac), PowerPoint 2016 and PowerPoint Online. Change size, and rotation with the arrow […]
Quicker and finer positioning or ‘nudge’ in PowerPoint
Placing graphics on a PowerPoint slide is simple but getting them positioned “just right” needs a ‘nudge’. Smart Guides and Gridlines Mostly positioning images and other objects is easily done with the Smart Guides (look for the faint red or gray lines as you move about an object) or use View | Gridlines to overlay […]
Windows 8.1 expired for Microsoft 365 users
In early January 2023, Microsoft 365 for Windows stopped supporting Windows 8 or 8.1. Here’s the details of what you’ll have to do and a possible workaround. Microsoft 365 for Windows is supported on Windows 11, Windows 10 and, until 2023, Windows 8.1/8. It’s been a little surprising that the older Windows is still supported […]
Make sense of an Outlook email header
A nice little tool that will make sense of any email header you receive in Outlook. An email header tells you a lot about the sender and the route the message took to reach you. Emails don’t go directly from your computer to the receiver, they pass through at least two other servers and probably […]
Star Wars movie opening and end credits in PowerPoint
Open and close your presentation with a look from a galaxy far, far away or at least a Star Wars movie near you. Here’s the fonts, colors, background and other details to emulate the opening and closing credits. See Star Wars in Office Star Wars in the Office dictionary Opening Credits A long time ago in […]
