Faulty patch kills Excel 2010
One of the latest Excel patches causes more trouble than it’s supposed to solve. Patch ‘KB3178690‘ is supposed to fix some non-security bugs in Excel 2010, ironically bugs that cause Excel to crash in certain situations. Guess what the patch does to Excel 2010? That’s right – Excel 2010 crashes. Microsoft explains that Excel 2010 […]
Google Docs can default to Microsoft Office formats
The Google Docs apps have a useful option for making new documents, worksheets and presentations that are Microsoft Office compatible. JR Raphael at ComputerWorld pointed out the option in the Google Docs app for Android, we poked around to find the equivlalents in Google Sheets and Google Slides Under Settings there’s the choice to make Word […]
Getting an image into Office – not as simple as you’d expect
You’ve chosen an image, now you have to get it into your Office document. You’d hope there was a single way to do that but, as usual, there’s plenty of options. Outlook has its own special needs, different from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. There’s also privacy and image size issues to consider. The simple way […]
Highlights of Feb 2017 updates for Office 2016 and Office 2013
Here’s the complete list of non-security updates for Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2013 plus our notes on some bug fixes that caught our eye. As usual, these updates will be pushed to most Office computers automatically. No action is necessary. Unexpected Issues Microsoft is always using different words to avoid saying ‘bug’. This […]
Office Touch Bar support is happening soon – 3 months late.
Microsoft announced Touch Bar support with much fanfare back in October 2016. Over 3 months later and paying customers are still waiting. There’s been lot of talk about this feature including web sites with ‘tips’ on using Office with the Touch Bar without noting that it’s not got into ‘insider’ beta testing yet. New Macbook […]
Link an Excel worksheet into a shared workbook
In How to share a single Excel worksheet or tab we explained how to send or share a single Excel worksheet or tab from a larger workbook. That’s OK as a one-off measure to send out a sheet but how can you do it easily as a share or ongoing collaboration? The answer is a little […]
Office updates for Apple devices
The latest updates to Word, Excel and PowerPoint is the usual mix of good news and a mystery. The good news is for Excel and PowerPoint. You can now format multiple objects at once. Move, resize, or format them by taping and holding, then tap another object. It’s the equivalent of holding Ctrl or Shift […]
Excel 2016 Compatibility issues
David Ringstrom writing at Accountingweb.com makes some good points about how the shifting versions of Office 2016 can cause trouble. The problem is most acute in Excel 2016 but can happen in Word and PowerPoint too. When you share a workbook or document, the receivers Office has to be compatible with all the features used […]
New Office 2016/Win features near release
Microsoft has released a new version of Office 2016 for Windows to the ‘Slow’ insiders. This means Office 365 customers have more goodies to look forward to in coming months. You’ll need Office 2016 Version 1612 (Build 7628.2048) or above. The new features, as described by Microsoft are: View and restore changes in shared files: […]
Real-Time Excel gets Bitcoin and more
Office-Watch.com ebooks give great value to our readers. The low price is just the start. There’s also free updates to the book available to past and new customers. Real-Time Excel has just been updated to include more chapters and example documents. The update is available now to past purchasers who login to their ebook account […]
What is a Style in Word, Excel or Outlook?
A style is a collection of formatting choices combined under a single name. Any word or even a single letter has a collection of formatting settings as well. Font: size, color, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough/subscript/superscript, highlighting and more. Position: Left, Center, Right, Justified. List: bullet, numbering. Line Spacing, Borders, Background color and a lot more details. Instead of […]
Degrees, Money and other symbols in Office
a look at some commonly used characters used in Office but are missing from the standard keyboard. How to insert symbols on a ‘one-off’ basis or insert quickly for more commonly used characters. Degree mark for temperature. Has no special shortcut but you can make one (see below). Currency symbols. We have a quick way […]
US Election results in Excel
If you’re interested in the hard numbers about the 2016 US election, David Wasserman @redistrict has done the work for you. Channel your inner ‘Nate Silver’ <g>. Go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19 to see a ‘read only’ Google Docs worksheet showing the state-by-state results. Not visible above are columns with the total number of votes cast in […]
SVG graphics coming to Office … at long last!
Office 2016 for Windows will soon support scalable vector graphics (SVGs). Preview/Insiders can try them now and it’ll be available to all Office 365 subscribers in 2017. That means you’ll be able to make your documents look even better with vector-based SVG files that won’t pixelate when increased in size. SVG support has been a […]
Excel: easily get the latest currency exchange rates
Here’s a ‘no fuss, no muss’ way to grab the latest exchange rates and use them in Excel. No need to lookup a rate and type it in, let Excel do all that work for you. You might expect Excel to do this out of the box. After all, Microsoft has been banging on about […]
Ink innovations coming to Office
Microsoft is gradually adding to Office some interesting new Ink related features; Replay and Math. Rewind and Replay Until now drawings or ‘ink’ in Office documents has been static and fixed, much like real ink. OneNote Mobile for Windows 10 is the first Office app to make ink additions animated. Office remembers how you’ve drawn […]
