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.
The trick to add background image to Word table
When it comes to inserting a background image into the Microsoft Word table, it’s possible with a little trickery. It’s not ideal but quite easy. We’ll show you how to insert a picture background into a Word table. You’ll need to be aware that it can likely go wrong when the document formatting changes, unfortunately […]
Teams goes out and a lot more Microsoft online services
It started as just a little outage of Microsoft Teams but things soon got a lot worse for customers relying on Microsoft’s online services during a widespread outage on Thursday 21st July 2022. According to Microsoft, the trouble started with a “broken connection to an internal storage service”. It initially appeared that troubles were limited […]
About Excel Live worksheets in Microsoft Teams
Excel Live is a new way to fully cooperate on a worksheet while in a Teams meeting. It’s always been possible to show an Excel worksheet in a group video meeting by one person sharing their screen which has Excel open. Excel Live lets you open a worksheet in a separate window that can be […]
What happens if you miss your Microsoft 365 payment?
Ever wondered what happens if you miss your Microsoft 365 payment deadline? Office Watch deliberately skipped the due dates to find out. Microsoft 365 works off what Microsoft calls a ‘subscription’ model of (usually) annual payments. That applies to all Microsoft 365 products, Family or Personal software plans plus the Business plans which include mailbox […]
Is my Microsoft Office .MSI or Click to Run
Office for Windows comes in two flavors called Click to Run (CtR) or MSI here’s how to tell which one you have and why it, sometimes, matters. We’ll also explain the two terms. Which Office install you have (Click-to-Run or MSI) should not matter but occasionally a support page or person might ask you. Here’s […]
Inside Word’s Language tools
Microsoft Word’s language tools are more than just red or blue squiggly lines. There’s help to choose alternative words, alternate languages, check and improve grammar, hyphenate documents and even test the document for readability. You may think you know all about the language tools, but Word always has a few extras tucked away to surprise […]
Set Picture as Background in OneNote
Set Picture as Background in OneNote feature is a handy feature for those looking to fill in forms or wish to draw and highlight on top of images pasted into their OneNote page. It’s now available in the Web version of OneNote as well as OneNote for Windows/Mac. How to set image as background First, […]
Smiling Face with Open Mouth and Cold Sweat 😅 emoji in Office
Add the Smiling (grinning) Face with Open Mouth and Cold Sweat 😅 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Smiling (or grinning) Face with Open Mouth and Cold Sweat 😅 emoji is normally used to express a close call, or nerves / discomfort. It’s just one […]
Notifications pane in Outlook for Windows
Outlook 365 for Windows is getting a Notifications pane which lets you know about @mentions of you in emails or documents plus some other timely alerts. It’s already in the browser based Outlook. Notifications are mainly aimed at letting you know when you’re @mentioned in emails or documents within your organization. Notifications aren’t new, they […]
Better text conversion options coming to Excel
Microsoft was addressing the long-standing problems with Excel 365 importing text files (.CSV) by adding some options to prevent common conversion problems. The ‘Automatic Data Conversion’ choices are welcome, but you’re still better using other, safer, Excel import options. NOTE: this feature has been quietly dropped by Microsoft. The Automatic Data Conversion options do not […]
Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes 😁 emoji in Word, Outlook and Office
Insert the Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes 😁 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes 😁 emoji is used to express joyfulness, excitement, or happiness. It’s similar to Grinning Face 😀 but with different eyes that are meant to be ‘smiling’. It’s just […]
Microsoft reverses Office macro blocks without telling customers
Without any warning, Microsoft stopped their new macro blocking system (called MOTW or Mark of the Web). Now Office for Windows is less secure without customers getting any warning. UPDATE: the whole ‘on again, off again’ saga continues. On 20 July 2022, Microsoft resumed rollout of the MOTW and Office macro blocking. Back in February, […]
Microsoft Word’s problem with Resume or Resumé
How to type the words Resumé or Resume in Microsoft Word or Outlook plus some problems and software anomalies that arise. This article is an example of what happens at Office-Watch.com. A seemingly simple question like “How to type Resumé instead of Resume “ uncovers various strange things in Microsoft Office such as typing contextual […]
Show markup and comments in PDF made from Word
How to make document comments and markup appear in a PDF version of a Word document plus some options available to control what appears in the PDF copy. Modern Word documents can contain a history of the changes made, especially in a shared/collaborative document. There’s also comments made by people alongside the text. Here’s a […]
New Outlook now available to all
The newest Microsoft Outlook, formerly called ‘One Outlook’ or ‘Project Monarch’, is now available via the Microsoft Store. Microsoft insists on calling this software merely “Outlook for Windows” which is silly and deliberately confusing. We’ll call it “One Outlook” which was Microsoft’s naming until recently. That will distinguish it from all the other Outlooks including […]
Two ways to add Gradient or Rainbow text or background effects in Word
Add a bit of zing to your document, Word has a fun little feature that allows you to add color gradients or rainbow effects to your text, the background of a text box or inside an Office shape. The rainbow effect is a bit gaudy but demonstrates the possibilities of more subtle gradients. The rainbow […]
