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.
Pilcrow Sign ¶ emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Pilcrow Sign ¶ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Pilcrow Sign ¶ is a typographical symbol sometimes called a paraph, or blind P In typography ¶ marks the start of a paragraph but in Microsoft Word the Pilcrow Sign ¶ marks the END of a paragraph. […]
Better Excel formula converts days into Years, Months, Days
Here’s a better Excel formula for converting a number of days into text for year, months and days. This formula leaves out zero values and proper singular/plural (e.g. not “1 Year 0 Months 27 Days” but “1 Year 27 Days”). And we’ll show an even better way to write the formula in Excel 365, 2021/LTSC […]
Handwriting fonts for literacy skills
Suggested fonts including “handwriting fonts” to help teach writing recognition and improve literacy. Office Watch reader Wim V saw our article on Avoiding Comic Sans and wrote to us about a use for Comic Sans and other fonts used in teaching literacy. Some fonts can be used to teach people how to recognize and write different […]
Two ways to view a Visio file free
Anyone can view a Microsoft Visio file, once you know at least one of two tricks available. One is free software, the other is a workaround via OneDrive. “I’ve been sent a .vsdx file to view and I’ve figured out it’s a Visio file – but how can I view it without paying for Visio?” […]
How a deleted Word document caught a serial killer
A Word document and a floppy disk caught a serial killer back in 2010. There are still lessons for anyone wanting to keep their personal or business data confidential. Known as the ‘BTK killer’, he murdered 10 people in Kansas between 1974 and 1991. The murderer was finally caught in 2004. He liked sending notes […]
Protect yourself buying Microsoft Office from Amazon or Ebay
After the report of pirated / illegal Microsoft Office from an Amazon retailer (and Amazon’s initial refusal to act) how can you protect yourself from a similar problem on Amazon or other sites? Your entitlement to a refund or redress for a illegal product is different depending on whether you buy from Amazon itself or […]
How to ‘ignore’ emails in Outlook
Occasionally you’ll get someone who sends lots of messages you don’t want to see. Outlook has a few options for refusing or politely ignoring messages from certain email senders – either individually or automatically. Most commonly these are enthusiastic zealots on some subject and are trying to ‘spread the word’ on their pet subject. They […]
What are .tmp files in MS Office document folders?
If you look in folders that contain Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) you might see the occasional .tmp file. What are they? Could they be useful? How to look inside. Can they be safely deleted? The quick answers are: probably Word or Office document remnants, could be handy to recover a lost document but otherwise […]
Formatting email Invitations in Outlook
Meeting or party invitations don’t have to be plain, old white background emails, go for something a little more fancy or useful. Officially, Microsoft suggests using their Stationery themes to change the look of an email. But that’s not available for invitation emails. There are some formatting choices also missing from invitation emails. Whenever formatting […]
Outlook checks for incoming attachments like .doc .xls .ppt
We’ve warned against incoming ‘old’ Office documents (.doc .xls etc) because of the virus risk, so how can you setup Outlook to warn you about emails with those attachments? Sadly, it’s not easy. Outlook has automatic Rules to check incoming messages, but none of those rules can test for the file extensions on email attachments. […]
Beware .doc files in emails
Many of the dangerous emails arriving in your Inbox have one thing in common — they use the old (and risky) Word .DOC format. .DOC .XLS or .PPT are exactly the sort of email attachments you should avoid. The main ‘red flag’ is the email attachment of a .DOC file (or .XLS or PPT). These […]
Fix the default mail link back to Outlook
How to make mail links on web pages or emails open in Outlook for Windows instead of some other mail app. Fix this in Windows 11, Windows 10 and earlier Windows. Sometimes Outlook ‘forgets’ that it’s the place for all email work. You click on an email address and get some other app or nothing […]
What’s in and out of the new Outlook
Microsoft’s proposed “Outlook for Windows” replacement has some additional features but still lacks features that most people would think are essential for any mail program. This “New Outlook” can’t do things that the Outlook apps for Windows, Mac, Apple and Android could do from the start. The “New Outlook” is a totally different type of […]
8 ways to make better Word Table Styles
Here’s eight better but simple table formatting options not available from Microsoft Word’s Table Style gallery. Word’s Table Style gallery is a tempting selection of table formats but it doesn’t show you all the options to make your table look good. Some of these variations are right there on the ribbon, others are buried a […]
Do you know all five style types in Microsoft Word?
There are five different types of style (collection of formatting settings) in Microsoft Word. There’s three styles for text plus Tables and List styles. Paragraph styles Originally, Word only had paragraph styles. Styles could only be applied to an entire paragraph. Any changes to an individual word or phrase had to be done individually. Get […]
Two ways to make Body Text style appear in Microsoft Word
There are two ways to reveal or un-hide a hidden style, most commonly “Body Text” style. There’s the long-winded Microsoft approved method and the faster way. By default, Body Text style in Microsoft Word is ‘hidden until used’. That seems like a Catch-22, its not visible until it’s used but you can’t use the style […]
