Halloween emoji, fast find and copy
Need a Halloween emoji or symbol? Here’s a quick and searchable list of more than 30 spooky, scary emoji for documents, sheets, slides, emails or messages that you can use or copy. In Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and Office 2019 there are also Halloween icons and symbols for Word, Powerpoint and more or see all […]
Add Skeleton and Skull to Word, PowerPoint and Office
Office has various options for graphics or images of skeletons or skulls – perfect for Halloween or other gory, scary uses in Word docs, PowerPoint slides or Outlook emails. We can’t offer a 12-foot skeleton, complete with creepy glowing eyes. For this 3.56 meter monster you have to hunt through Home Depot stores in the […]
PowerQuery mystery solved – how to Remove Duplicates, keeping most recent record
Excel 365’s PowerQuery has many wonderful features but occasionally there are common needs that it can’t easily handle. One of those surprising complexities is removing older duplicates but retaining most recent row for each. We’ll explain the simplest solution then why it works. Here’s some sample data on the left and the most recent purchase […]
Xlookup is truly a great Excel function
One of the most commonly used and confusing Excel functions is much better in Excel 365 and Excel 2021. Vlookup() has a new, better and easier replacement Xlookup(). It’s a truly good and useful addition to Excel, some might call it a godsend. Xlookup is available in Excel 365 for Windows/Mac/Apple/Android plus Excel 2021 for […]
Anesthetists discover how NOT to use Excel
A British medical office has made a right mess of selecting trainee anesthetists by the misuse of Excel. Let’s look at what happened and some ways you can avoid similar mistakes. As told in The Register, the UK Anesthetic National Recruitment Office (ANRO) had the job of selecting candidates from across seven regions to get […]
All about Safe mode in Microsoft Office
Safe Mode is a special way for Office apps to run when things aren’t working properly. Here’s how to use Safe Mode, if Office doesn’t offer it automatically, and what Safe Mode does differently. Safe Mode is useful in situations where you cannot open files in normal mode because the app is crashing, or you […]
It’s about time – easy checkboxes coming to Excel
Excel 365 is getting a simple way to add checkboxes into cells to easily set True/False, Yes/No, On/Off binary settings. You can hear the cries of “About bloody time” across the Excel world <g>. It’s long been possible to add a checkbox into an Excel worksheet but it’s a clumsy setup, to put it mildly. […]
How Excel’s hidden CalcChain can catch data cheats
There’s a hidden part of Excel which can be used to catch ‘data cheats’ or people who tweak workbooks to get the results they want. There’s a news story about research into honesty, the academic is being accused, ironically, of dishonesty in their findings. The Professor is suspected of tampering with source data to change […]
Microsoft get pushy selling Office Add-ins
Microsoft Office Add-ins are about to get a bit more ‘pushy’ with the addition of a fixed ‘Get Add-ins’ item to the File menu. Part of Microsoft’s continuing and somewhat desperate effort to get commissions from third-party software makers. Microsoft has been pushing Office add-ins for years, hoping to get commissions from selling Office third-party […]
Use a Hidden Registry Hack to Improve Your Privacy with Microsoft Office
Use a hidden registry hack to protect your privacy by reducing the amount of private info Microsoft Office apps send to Microsoft. Dr Aleksandar Milenkoski, working for the German Federal Office for Information Security, has produced a report on what information Microsoft Office software sends back to the company. That’s information about when and how Office […]
Stethoscope 🩺 emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
How to insert the Stethoscope 🩺 symbol/emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Trivia: the stethoscope was invented by a Frenchman who was embarrassed putting his ear upon a lady’s chest to hear her heartbeats. His original was a simple tube, not the dual-ear device we […]
Microsoft’s font substitution for Aptos really sucks
Microsoft’s alternatives for the new Aptos fonts range are very poor. In some cases, the substitutions make no sense at all. We’ve looked at what happens if a document with Aptos fonts is opened Office 2016 and earlier versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Aptos fonts are the new default for Microsoft 365 and […]
Two Important Differences to Know about the Python Excel Trial Release
The trial release of Python in Excel is very interesting but it’s not the usual “Insiders” feature release with two important differences that will cost you later. “Insiders” is Microsoft’s name for their beta testing option to try upcoming features to the public Office apps. Excel gets Python – who, when and why Usually features […]
Discover Office Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 11 and 10
There are some keyboard shortcuts to open or switch to Office apps in Windows 11 and Windows 10, if you have enough fingers! They are all based around the Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Win combo plus a letter. That might seem like a keyboard shortcut for an octopus but it makes a little […]
Python Editor for Excel is out and essential
The Python Editor for Excel is a welcome innovation of the Microsoft Garage project making editing and debugging Python code in Excel a lot easier. Python Editor add-on for Excel mirrors the functionalities of renowned integrated development environments (IDEs) using the code management system behind Visual Studio Code. Sample code from A new way to […]
Microsoft fixes a big hassle with Excel’s great Lambda()
Microsoft has fixed the big hassle that comes with the otherwise excellent Lambda() feature in Excel 365 with the new Advanced Formula Environment. Office Watch has sung praises over the power that Lambda brought to Excel. It’s the ability to write custom functions within Excel but without VBA macros. Proper IDE for Excel formulas But […]
