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.
More adventures with Office VBA and AI
Get ChatGPT or Copilot to show working Office VBA code to select and open a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document. It’s an example of how to work with ChatGPT to get the code you need and its limitations. In episode 1 of this saga, Office Watch showed how to use ChatGPT to make sample Office […]
Excel – how to make and use a checkbox
To make data entry simpler in Excel, form controls such as checkboxes can be added. A checkbox can be used to select or deselect an option. Checkboxes are useful for forms that have multiple options. The trick is using Excel’s Developer tab which holds the checkbox control. See How to get the Developer Tab in Office apps Insert a Checkbox in […]
Sigma upper Σ or lower σ case symbols in Word and Office
How to insert the Sigma upper case Σ and Sigma lower case σ symbols in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Sigma (uppercase Σ / lowercase σ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In mathematics, the uppercase sigma symbol is used as an operator for summation, […]
Make a Word text box with rounded corners
A Microsoft Word text box can have rounded corners instead of the default square corners. It’s remarkably easy once you know the simple trick. Word Text Boxes always start with square corners, no matter which default you choose from the gallery. But once it’s inserted, a Word text box can be transformed many different shapes […]
Double Dagger ‡ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Double Dagger ‡ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Double Dagger ‡ symbol is used to mark a third footnote after the asterisk and dagger in a Word document. How Double Dagger ‡ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Double Dagger […]
Read Aloud a doc in Word for iPhone or iPad
Word 365 Mobile for iPhone and iPad have Read Aloud or Speak options to make a voice read the document to you. The Microsoft Office options are almost the same for both devices. Read Aloud in iOS is similar to the feature in Word for Windows with the same little control panel and options. It […]
Choices for formatting fields in Word Mail Merge
How to change the look of Word mail merge data like dates and dollar amounts to exactly what you want to see in the documents. Nancy M asks: “I try to merge data (such as amount, PO#, to whom, as well as the date) from an Excel database. In the Excel database the amount cells […]
Percentages that look right in a Word Mail Merge
How can you put percentages into a Word mail merge? There are several methods including the one we like because it’s reliable and simple. Following our article on importing Excel data into a Word mail merge, here are the options for using percentages. Excel might show a percentage but the number stored is a fraction. […]
The Microsoft Office 365 offline grace period explained
Here’s how to check how many days are left before Microsoft 365 needs an online ‘license check’ to confirm your license. Microsoft calls this a ‘grace period’. Also what’s the maximum possible offline access period. See Restart or renew Microsoft 365 licence before going offline Microsoft 365 software and apps check the validity of the linked […]
Faster SumIFS in Excel 365 for Windows
Microsoft has made some ‘under the hood’ improvements to the combo ‘IF’ and ‘IFS’ functions like SumIFS(), SumIF(), CountIF() to make them faster than before. Just don’t believe Microsoft’s excessive boasts. The functions themselves behave the same but they now have a cached index for the range. That index is retained for any later combinations […]
SUMIFS Excel SUM with filters galore
Consider switching to SumIFS, it’s much the same as the older Excel function, SumIf() but easier to expand as your needs change. It can add up values according to more than criteria like a name and date range. We’ve talked about SUMIF and how its parameter order is a little strange. SumIF has filter/criteria first […]
Easily learn and make Office VBA with AI
ChatGPT or Copilot can be used to learn the basics of Microsoft Office VBA coding with examples made to order. Here’s some VBA made by ChatGPT for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and some of its mistakes. ChatGPT or Copilot will take a simple request and returns some text. People have used it to write […]
Hide any footnotes and endnotes in a Word doc
Hiding Footnotes or Endnotes in a Microsoft Word document is possible but needs a little trickery. Maybe you want a ‘clean’ version of the document without the clutter of notes. Or maybe the footnotes/endnotes are your own references for sources of information not intended for others to see. Ideally there should be options to print […]
Biohazard symbol for Word, PowerPoint and more
There are official and unofficial biohazard symbols available for Word docs, PowerPoint slides or any other place you need them. We have download links to better graphics you can use with variations to make them stand out The official biohazard symbol was developed in 1966 and there are many variations available. The widely used symbol […]
Type Infinity ∞ symbols in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type Infinity ∞ and similar symbols into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. In Office for Windows and Office for Mac you can enter Infinity, Incomplete Infinity, Tie over Infinity and Infinity negated. Infinity ∞ symbol is used for anything that has no end or boundless. Of course, it’s in mathematics where Infinity was first […]
Side to Side – a touchy way to view Word documents
Side to Side is a different way to view a Word document. Flip through the pages with touches on the screen, like a book. If you’re sick of endless scrolling, Side to Side Page Movement is available for Word 365, Word 2021/2019 and Word 2016. Using Side to Side View The side to side command […]
