Excel’s case of the disappearing feature – Show Changes
For a short time, Microsoft hinted at an important improvement to Excel. But this promise was quickly removed, leaving Excel customers hanging. The feature is/was ‘Show Changes’ and would let you see a history of changes in an individual cell. Show past values or formula in that cell. “Excel can now show you the changes […]
Meet the man behind Excel’s Flash Fill
Excel users owe thanks to Sumit Gulwani . He’s the guy who turned the Flash Fill feature from a vague dream into something that makes life easier for Excel and other Microsoft customers. Flash Fill is a way to join, split or reformat text in Excel without coding. You type in examples and Flash Fill […]
Text and formatting tricks for Excel
Entering blocks of text in Excel is quite easy. What’s not obvious are all the options to make the text easier to enter and look better. Just typing in a cell will enter text. By default it will extend into any unfilled cells. If there’s something ‘in the way’ the text will just stop. Wrapping […]
Make Microsoft Office a Progressive Web App or PWA
Microsoft Office (plus Word, Excel and PowerPoint) can be installed as a standalone web apps or PWA. We’ll explain how and the current limitations. This looks like the Office.com web page but it’s not, it’s Office as a standalone Progressive Web App (PWA). It’s available now in Windows 10 with the Edge (Chromium) browser. To […]
What Office users need to know about the new Windows 10X
Windows 10X is coming and you’ll hear a lot about it in the coming months. Let’s see what Windows 10X is, how it will run Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook) and why most people won’t need to worry about Windows 10X. What is Windows 10X? Windows 10X is a very scaled-down or lightweight […]
Arrived! The first Office bug fixes for 2021
Microsoft announced 83 security bug fixes for January 2021, the count is really 96 once you add the Edge browser patches from last week. At first look, it seems there’s only five Office related patches including two each for Word and Excel. It’s important to keep both Office and the underlying operating system patched. The […]
Using Benford’s Law magic with Excel
Benford’s Law is an amazing tool that is simple to use in Excel. Benford’s Law is one of those mathematical laws that seems to defy common sense but works for most naturally occurring number sets. It says that in most groups of naturally occurring numbers, the leading digit 1 will occur more than 2 as […]
Excel’s CONVERT function for metric and more
How to convert metric to imperial and other measure conversions in Excel. Converting measurements from one system to another can be done by Excel using the CONVERT function … here’s how it works and then we’ll tell you what CONVERT can’t do or should do better. As usual, we decided to write about an Office […]
Nice variations for Stop shape in Word, Excel & PowerPoint
There’s plenty of scope for variations on the basic Not Allowed symbol (red circle with diagonal) using the tools in Microsoft Office. See Make a ‘Stop’ circle / diagonal symbol in Word, Excel & PowerPoint for how to insert the basic ‘Not Allowed’ shape and change to suit your needs. Line Direction The line across […]
Pantone 2021 colors in your Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Pantone has announced not one but TWO ‘colors of the year’ for 2021 and, as usual, we’ll explain how to use those exact colors in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The colors of 2021 are … Illuminating and Ultimate Grey As usual what’s more amazing than the color is the description that goes with the choice. […]
New look in Microsoft 365 for Mac coming in early 2021
Microsoft 365 for Mac is getting a revamped look for the Home or Start menu in early 2021. Here’s all the new and old features in the Home pane or as Microsoft calls it “Office Start experience” (no kidding) The Home panel changes to be more consistent with what’s visible in Microsoft 365 for Windows […]
Microsoft Forms are now for everyone
Microsoft Forms is now available for everyone, not just businesses. It’s available to collect information or opinions for any reason. One example is party planning, virtual party at the moment. Ask people for their preferred date, number of people, diet requests etc. All the info is collected and comes to you in a list or […]
Here’s how Gmail can now edit Office docs directly
Google’s Gmail can now directly edit Microsoft Office documents arriving in email attachments. It’s available to all Gmail users, free and paid accounts. It removes a lot of the hassles of exchanging Office documents with Gmail and Google Docs/Sheets/Slides users. No more document conversion hassles … at long last! Email Attachments edited directly Any incoming […]
Office 2010 patches! A nice December 2020 surprise from Microsoft
The usual security fixes for Microsoft Office this month include some unexpected patches for Office 2010 which is a pleasant surprise. Office 2010 is now officially out of support (since 13 October 2020) but still works fine. That’s supposed to mean there’s no more patches. Microsoft hasn’t explained their reason for these unexpected fixes but […]
Special offer for Microsoft 365 Business Premium or an even cheaper option
If you’re thinking about getting Microsoft 365 email hosting with full Teams and SharePoint, Microsoft has a limited time offer this week only. However, before you jump into their deal, there’s another very similar option that’s even cheaper. Until 30 November 2020, Microsoft is offering 25% discount on their Business Premium service for small businesses. […]
The latest Office ‘Insiders’ names changes
Microsoft can’t help themselves when it comes to naming their ‘Insiders’, ‘Preview’ or beta test versions. The names change for no good reason and timing is different for each platform rather than all Office apps changing at the same time. The latest changes are for MacOS, iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices. They’ve happened months after […]
