Blocking Office VBA macros resumes but why?
Microsoft has resumed rollout of their new Office macro blocking system after the feature was mysteriously suspended a few weeks ago. But why? Microsoft hasn’t explained why they stopped the new macro blocks and their reason for restoring the feature is both incomplete and nonsensical. The new system totally blocks Office documents with macros and […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Why does a document look different on other devices
Reasons why a Word document or email can look different on one computer than another device and what you can do get ‘fidelity’ or the same look across many machines. In short – you can’t assume that what you see is the same as someone else. You get a document sent to you or maybe […]
Highlight tricks for Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook
Here’s another example of a seemingly simple Office feature that has hidden depths – Highlighting. For a long time, there’s been a highlight option in Office: Word, Excel, Outlook and even PowerPoint (albeit in a different form). They vary a little in each program so this article will go through them all, mentioning alternatives and […]
Dark Mode has gradual progress in Microsoft Office
Let’s take a moment to see where customers stand with Dark Mode options in Microsoft Office in Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and web. It’s easy to get confused about Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 dark mode or theme options. Microsoft has announced ‘dark’ developments so many times it’s hard to keep up with what’s […]
Cent ¢ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook
How to type the Cent symbol ¢ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook plus any Windows program. Cent ¢ shortcut Word and Outlook The Cent ¢ symbol has an inbuilt shortcut in Word and Outlook: Ctrl + /, C Hold down the Ctrl key while pressing / then type C (upper or lower case). […]
Get the most persuasive font in Microsoft Office
Baskerville has been decreed the most persuasive font after an experiment by Errol Morris and the New York Times. Happily, a very similar font is available to all Microsoft Office for Windows users. In an interview in Fast Company, Errol Morris talks about the experiment where people were asked to rate the same text, but […]
Getting into PowerBI with the free desktop app
Get started and understand Microsoft’s Power BI using the free desktop app. Here’s how to setup Power BI and some of its nifty tricks to delve into and make sense of data. All without the hassle of a ‘free’ trial. With plenty of buzzwords such as data-driven culture, business intelligence, analytics, metrics, KPI and our […]
The big weakness in Excel’s Data from Picture
Excel Mobile’s Data from Picture has one big problem, it can’t figure out what’s intended to be in one cell and puts text in many cells. Cell discernment is Data from Picture’s biggest weakness and the Review process makes it hard to fix those problems. For example, text using Excel’s own Accounting format which puts […]
