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.
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 […]
Excel cells are white or disappearing bug – how to fix
Excel 365 for Windows users might have received a nasty shock in the last few days with their cells disappearing behind white or grey. Here’s what happened, how to fix it plus wondering why it took Microsoft over a week to push out the fix. Here’s an example of the Excel bug in action Whole […]
If Microsoft calls you, hang up!
If you get an unexpected phone call from Microsoft, hang up on them. It’ll be a scam where you could lose thousands and precious personal data from your computer. We’ve mentioned this before but reminded by this Australian article warning that just in ‘Oz’ people have lost an estimated AUD$2 billion (US$1.3billion) to criminals in […]
Inside Listnum field tricks in Word
Use the ListNum field in Word to insert sequential numbers, letters or legal numbering anywhere in a document. ListNum is the way to number or order items in ways not possible with the standard numbered or multi-level listing features. Just for starters, use ListNum to number things within a paragraph, instead of separate lines. Or […]
Make a gauge, dial or speedometer chart in Excel
Officially a Gauge, dial or speedometer chart isn’t available in Excel. It’s a glaring omission from the in-built Excel charts but happily, it’s still possible with a little Excel trickery explained in this article. A “speedo” (Aussie slang), dial or gauge chart is made with a combination of Excel’s Doughnut chart and a Pie Chart […]
Grinning Face with Big eyes / Smiling Face with Open Mouth 😃 emoji in Office
Add the Grinning Face with Big eyes aka Smiling Face with Open Mouth 😃 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. “Smiling Face with Open Mouth” is the official Unicode name for the 😃 emoji. It’s commonly labelled Grinning Face with Big eyes and is used […]
Undo send now in Outlook for Mac
Undo Send, a feature in Outlook for Windows for as long as we can remember, has finally made it to Outlook 365 for Mac in a unnecessarily limited way. For as long as people have had email, they’ve wanted a way to take back a message they’ve sent. There are two types of going back […]
Fancy Cameo videos now in PowerPoint Recording Studio
PowerPoint 365’s Recording Studio can now work with the live video Cameo features, meaning you can record a presentation including video inserted from your webcam. The new feature is the combination of two recent PowerPoint 365 updates: Recording Studio lets you make a video of your presentation including hearing the accompanying speech and seeing the […]
Get the latest Aussie census data in Excel
Australian data nerds rejoice! The first load of data from the 2021 Census has been released in a format ready for Excel. Here’s how to get it and look at the detailed statistics for yourself. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has just released the first block of data from the 2021 count with more to […]
Follina patch now available but questions remain
Microsoft has released a fix for the ‘Follina’ security hole in Windows which was being exploited via hacked Office documents. We explained the Follina hack and long delay before Microsoft finally acknowledged the problem. The security hole is in Windows or specifically the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (msdt) but it’s generally spread via a hacked […]
