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.
Discover inside Microsoft To Do
Tasks in Outlook have been given a major update with the development of Microsoft To Do. To Do is way better than the old Tasks with more options, its own app and web page options. It’s available for everyone but works best with a Microsoft hosted mailbox (Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 with mail hosting). To Do […]
Faster updates for Microsoft Office with Update under Lock
Microsoft has improved the updating of Office 365 for Windows to make it more seamless and hidden from view. ‘Update under lock’ means Office will be kept up-to-date in ways not previously possible. Until now, Microsoft Office was updated to the latest version when all the Office apps were shut down, for example when the […]
Discover more in Microsoft Word’s Page Border feature
The in-built page border option in Microsoft Word has a lot more available than first appears. A little digging will discover a lot more possibilities for interesting edges to pages. We’ve already explained how to make a more flexible page border in Word that you can change to exactly fit your needs. In this article […]
Questioned Equal To ≟ in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
What is the Questioned Equal To ≟ symbol and how to type in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. ≟ is a question mark above an equals sign. It isn’t properly used in equations but can be useful to show an equation to be solved or […]
Three Microsoft Office function key alternatives
Function keys can be a hassle, specially on smaller laptop keyboards without a dedicated F key row. Happily there are two alternatives for Microsoft Office user plus another for both Windows or Mac generally. Many laptop users avoid the Function keys because they aren’t directly available on the keyboard. Instead you need to press the Fn […]
Show a Word style marked ‘Hide until used’.
Many inbuilt Word styles are hidden until they are used but there’s a way to force hidden styles to appear right away. The most obvious example of ‘Hide until used’ styles are the Heading styles. Word initially shows only the first three headings ‘Heading 1’, ‘Heading 2’ and (drumroll) ‘Heading 3’. Hidden away are Heading […]
Hiding Cell Contents or Formulas in Excel
There are two ways to hide Excel cell contents that you don’t want visible, but still available able to use in calculations. It’s another case of Office having an official and unofficial hiding option. Here we’re talking about hiding individual cells or ranges. There are separate options for hiding row, columns or entire worksheets (aka […]
Two ways to Find & Remove Hidden Text in Word
If you want to find then change or remove hidden text from your Word document, there are two ways to do it. Either reveal or find the hidden text OR use Word’s in-built Document Inspector. For a shorter document, you can use the Show/Hide button to see what’s hidden and delete it manually, but that […]
What’s really new in the latest Office Insiders
Microsoft has released the latest Office 365 for Windows software for Insiders. There’s only one truly new feature. Two other ‘features’ are really bug fixes! The Office Insider twitter feed promotes the latest Insiders release like this: It’s overstating things more than a bit as Microsoft’s own listing of changes confirms. ‘New’ Office toolbar There’s […]
LET() assigns names to calculations in Excel
Let() is a new function in Windows and Mac versions of Excel 365 and Excel 2021 (plus Excel Online) which is popular with makers of long, complicated functions. The function lets you name a temporary variable to use within a formula. That might seem a strange thing to do but it’s a godsend for advanced […]
Bring back the 90’s with online WordArt
Make an image using the original Microsoft Office WordArt designs, courtesy of some clever web work by Mike McMillan. Or use the better WordArt that’s still available in modern Microsoft Word. Does anyone miss the original WordArt from the 1990’s? Now you can get it back https://makewordart.com/ recreates, with scary detail, the look of early […]
The best way to make a Word page with black border
Microsoft Word has some simple but frankly inadequate options to make a sign or page with a thick black border. Office Watch shows you the best, most flexible option which is better than the official, direct features. Following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I was asked to make an appropriate sign for […]
Drop PowerPoint slides into Word documents
There are two ways to drop a PowerPoint slide into a Word document. A simple, one-time method or a slightly advanced but dynamic trick which lets the Word document slide change if the original slide is updated. A few months ago we showed how to add Excel worksheets into a Word document. This time we’ll […]
What are email Plus addresses and how to use them
‘Plus’ email addressing (aka sub-address or disposable email) is a really useful option for managing your incoming messages, if your mail host allow them. The + trick lets you change the email address given out while still letting the messages to a single mailbox. A ‘plus’ email address looks like this fred+sheep@fredagg.com – the real […]
Discover the mailbox connection details in Outlook
Here’s how to discover what type of connection Outlook for Windows is making to each mailbox. That’s occasionally important information but it’s hidden in an unexpected place. Connection Status has vital details to know if support asks what type of mailbox connection Outlook is using. At the moment, Microsoft is shutting down access to older […]
Opening the Outlook Connection Status box
How to open the Outlook Connection Status box to see what type of connection Outlook for Windows is making to each mailbox. It’s hiding on an Outlook menu most people don’t even know about. Microsoft’s instructions aren’t complete, try this: Outlook for Windows must be running Open the notification pane on the bottom right of […]
