Fix F9 Fn Keys don’t work in Word, Office or Windows
Office Watch reader Steve G is having a problem in Word. The F9 key isn’t updating fields in a Word document. He suspects a buggy patch of Windows or Office. Here’s how to find the source of the Function key or any keypress problem and fix it. Hint – it’s probably not a bug or […]
Copilot in Office – grumbles and ‘modest proposals’
Copilot could become a ‘toxic brand‘ because of pushy way Microsoft is adding it to Microsoft Office. We have some ‘modest proposals’ for how Microsoft can improve their AI offering and keep paying customers onside. Or, put another way, some grumbles about the way Microsoft is force-feeding Copilot to its Microsoft 365/Office customers. Why ‘Copilot’ […]
Office help on the right-click menu ‘Search the menus’
There’s a little undocumented surprise on the right-click menu. Tucked away at the top is ‘Search the menus’ help. Sadly the underlying help system is still woefully inadequate. Right-click in a document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook) and the top item isn’t ‘Cut’ but a “Search the menus” box. This is different from the main […]
Upload a phone image to Copilot chat
Microsoft has introduced a new feature allowing users to upload images directly from their mobile devices to Microsoft 365 Copilot. A nice trick but there are other ways to do the same thing, including two from Microsoft itself! The idea is to streamline tasks such as transcribing handwritten notes, summarizing charts, and digitizing receipts. Copilot […]
Excel Value Tokens – what are they good for?
Excel is getting Value Tokens but what are they good for? Do they add any ‘value’ or are they just a ‘token’ extra? The ‘Value Token’ appears in the formula bar when you select a data linked cell e.g. Stocks, Currencies, Geography or custom data types. According to Microsoft “This enhancement provides a clear visual […]
Create A Variance Chart in Excel
There are better ways to chart differences between matching values like budget vs actual than the simplistic one offered by Excel. A variance chart in Excel shows differences and trends at a glance and is easy to make. In Excel, a variance chart visually compares data sets, such as actual performance versus budget, last year […]
OneDrive messages pushed into Microsoft 365 apps.
Microsoft is adding yet another push for customers to save all their documents to OneDrive. This time inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. OneDrive is Microsoft’s preferred place to save files and they cite various benefits to cloud storage. The company ignores the downsides to OneDrive and the right of customers to choose where to […]
Group and Ungroup objects in Word, PowerPoint and Office
Shapes, images, and other items can be grouped together and often should be in Word, PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office apps. When you group shapes or objects, you can move, resize, rotate, flip them all at once, as if they were a single object. If you’ve ever had trouble moving something in Office but found […]
Image privacy breach still in Microsoft Office
Back in 2015 we were amazed and dismayed to discover a privacy gap in Microsoft Office. Seven years later Microsoft has done nothing to fix or warn customers about. The problem is with images inserted into Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The image ‘meta-data’ including GPS coordinates are retained with the inserted image. Anyone getting […]
“Free” Office for Windows is being trialed
Microsoft is testing a free version of Office for Windows with limited features, an important requirement and ads to ‘pay’ for the software. It’s three Microsoft 365 for Windows apps but with restrictions on what it can do and where documents are saved. If you download from this page at Microsoft.com and install using a […]
Pinned documents are now Favorites in Office – why?
Microsoft 365 apps are changing the ‘Pinned’ document list to ‘Favorites’ but why is Microsoft bothering at all? For many versions of Office/Microsoft 365 you’ve been able to keep regularly used files in a ‘Pinned’ list for faster access. The Pin icon lets you add a file to that list with a single click. Insiders […]
Stop Copilot appearing in Microsoft 365
Here’s how to stop Copilot prompts appearing in your documents, sheets and slides. Microsoft 365 customers are now seeing “Copilot Clutter” appearing in their Microsoft 365 apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. There is now a way to Disable Copilot available to some Microsoft 365 customers A Microsoft executive expressed surprise that customers didn’t want Copilot […]
Keep safe after this change to Microsoft account logins
There’s important change in the way Microsoft handles browser logins to Microsoft accounts. If you’re using someone else’s computer or a public terminal, you need to know about this new security hole. Whenever you’ve signed into a Microsoft account for a web site, you’ve almost certainly seen this box. Stay signed in ?Stay signed in […]
Smart Percentage Change in Excel
Calculating a simple percentage increase in Excel seems simple but, as usual, there’s a traps for the unwary. Here’s a smarter and more consistent way to figure out % change. First we’ll go over some basics which you’re welcome to skip … The formula for calculating a percentage change is simple: In other words, find […]
Excel’s order of calculation is not BODMAS
Excel has a slightly different order of calculation to the BODMAS rule taught to us at school. Those variations are important and can give a result you didn’t expect. Ray E from Iowa asked about one of those tricky algebra questions that appear on social media and generate heated arguments -10^2 . Ray wondered how […]
How to Disable Copilot in Microsoft 365
Microsoft is slowly adding an option to disable Copilot AI from their Microsoft 365 apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Here’s what you’re supposed to see on your computer, but won’t necessarily. An option to disable Copilot is being rolled out to Microsoft 365 for Windows and Mac. First in Word 365 for Windows and later […]
