Fancy gridlines to make Excel look great or at least different.
Gridlines are on every spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel workbooks. Did you know those grey lines can be colored to make them fancy, more obvious or more discreet? Let’s look at two ways you can make colored gridlines in Excel. Here’s what it looks like with the pink, black and red in comparison to the default […]
Free and secure conversion of .doc .xls or .ppt to the newer Office formats
Here’s how to convert an older .doc .xls or .ppt into a safer and smaller .docx .xlsx .pptx even if you don’t have Microsoft Office. Any smart computer user is wary of documents received in the old .doc .xls .ppt formats because they are regularly used to transmit viruses. The new document formats are much […]
Life Saving use for a collaborative spreadsheet
Spreadsheets aren’t just for numbers and money, they can also be used to save lives when saved online and collaborating with other people. Lismore is northern NSW, Australia has been struck with massive floods leaving many people stranded in their homes, some trapped against rising waters. The emergency services were overwhelmed so it was left […]
Flash Fill Magic in Excel
Flash Fill is a simple way to split and join text automatically in Excel for Windows or Mac. Flash Fill was added in Excel 2013 for Windows. It’s both useful and looks good in the demonstrations. In Excel there’s often need to join, separate or reformat strings of text. Flash Fill copies your actions at […]
More powerful Excel Autofill using Series
Microsoft Excel Series allows users to automatically insert a list or series of values. You probably know the easy ‘drag and drop’ method but there’s a lot more possible with linear, growth, dates and autofill. All possible with the fill handle or with more control via the Series dialog. Whatever the reason, some people may […]
Pound £ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Pound Sterling £ currency symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. £ symbol is easy on a UK keyboard but for other keyboards there’s no specific key for Pound. Pound is used for British Pounds Sterling and also other ‘pound’ currencies like the […]
Latest Samsung phones degrade Microsoft Office
Samsung phones have a hidden service which is slowing down Microsoft Office apps including the mobile apps for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and the Office ‘all in one’ app. Inside some of the new S22 Galaxy smartphones is a Games Optimization Service, or GOS. Cynical techies know to be wary about anything labelled ‘Optimization’ because […]
Check Accessibility problems as you work in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Now you can see on the status bar if there’s accessibility problems as you work with your Word, Excel or Powerpoint documents. Tucked away on the Accessibility Pane is a option to run the accessibility checker as you work, instead of only on request. Keep accessibility checker running while I work Turning this on doesn’t […]
Redacting Excel worksheet
Here’s a simple way to redact cells in an Excel worksheet. There’s no direct redaction tool for Excel to match the Microsoft derived Word Redaction Tool. What are the alternatives? Editing the worksheet Copy the worksheet then carefully edit it to remove the private content. Make sure you remove data, not just obscure it. Select […]
Ukraine flag & colors in Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Find and add the Ukraine flag or national colors into Office documents, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, then use some Office picture tools to enhance the image. Ukraine Flag Image There are many, many copies of the Ukraine flag available. We’ve opted for the Wikipedia site because it has an SVG scalable version (preferred) and PNG versions for older […]
What is Excel Argument Assistance?
Excel is getting even more help to write formulas, look out for Argument Assistance coming to Excel on the web and hopefully beyond that. Argument Assistance won’t solve loud disputes with your partner, boss or that annoying guy on the bus. It’s a larger panel to guide people through completing a function. At the moment […]
How to use Excel’s Accessibility Ribbon
Excel has an Accessibility Ribbon to help you make changes to ensure that worksheets are easier for people with disabilities to read and edit. For some time, there’s been a Check Accessibility feature on the Excel Review tab. That opens a side-pane with suggestions for improving the worksheet. Go to Review | Accessibility | Check […]
Black Chess King ♚ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Black Chess King ♚ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Black Chess King ♚symbol is useful for users that want to represent the chess piece as a symbol, rather than an image. Or perhaps as general symbol of royalty? See also Black Chess […]
Styles in Excel; quick, table, new, modify
You can combine Excel cell formatting into a style, but not like in Word. Excel has Styles … truly it does. Word has a way to combine formatting attributes of a letter, word or paragraph into a single block with a name like ‘Heading 1’. Excel has a feature also called Styles but it’s a […]
Get best quality images in a PDF made from Word
Get the best quality images in a PDF file made from Microsoft Word for Windows by changing some simple settings. There are also options in Word for Mac, Excel and PowerPoint. Better quality images in the PDF file are possible, starting with Word’s settings for saving images within the document. Then changing the image quality […]
Fixing common Office document accessibility problems
Accessibility Checker serves as a free tool that helps ensure that Office files are easy to understand by everyone. Use it to quickly fix common Office doc problems that can make your documents, sheets and slides harder to comprehend. It’s available for Microsoft 365, Office 2021/LTSC and Office 2019. Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and PowerPoint […]
