All about Microsoft Office for Apple Mac. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook on macOS, Microsoft 365 for Mac, Office 2021 for Mac and earlier versions.
Gradient and Rainbow Picture Borders in Word and PowerPoint
Word and PowerPoint allow you to not only put a colored border around a picture, instead try a pretty gradient effect for single color or multi-colored rainbow effects. Like most of the fancier border effects, you can access gradient border settings in the Format Picture pane, by going to Picture Format | Picture Border | […]
Free sign to keep in touch with customers while in lockdown
Many café, restaurants and other businesses are closed due to the pandemic but still missing an opportunity to keep in touch with customers. Here’s a sign and tips to help recover when restrictions are lifted. There’s a lovely café near us which has closed for the duration. It would be nice to know when it […]
Excel’s WORKDAY() counts by working days
Excel’s Workday() function counts working days before or after the starting date. The counted workdays automatically excludes weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and can account for holidays. We previously explored the NetworkDays.Intl() function in Microsoft Excel to calculate the number of working days between two dates. Workday() is similar but returns the date (past or future) after the number of workdays. It is useful for many purposes. You can […]
Making AutoText or AutoCorrect entries in Word
If you have words or longer sections of text that you type frequently and don’t want to have to type in full each time, Word allows you to set your own shortcuts to automatically enter this text in a few keystrokes either AutoCorrect or AutoText. There are two ways to do this. For shorter pieces […]
Beating Bots, Spies & Cock-ups – easy and secure sending of files
We’re delighted to announce a timely update to Beating Bots, Spies & Cock-ups All about safely and securely sending files and documents. Keeping your personal and business information private on the Internet. suits Windows and Mac, Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2016 and earlier New! April 2020 The April 2020 updated book has a timely […]
Unpacking a big day for Office 365 / Microsoft 365
Microsoft has dumped a lot of news in a single day. As a result there’s a lot of misunderstanding and, sorry to say, misreporting. Journos not accustomed to Microsoft’s PR tricks have fallen for them. We’ll try to ‘unpack’ what’s been announced into what’s happening now, in the known future or just sometime in the […]
Goodbye Office 365, Welcome Microsoft 365
Microsoft is dropping the Office 365 branding and switching to Microsoft 365 plans for annual ‘subscriptions’ to the Office programs and related services. These changes happen on 21 April 2020 but don’t mean any major change for customers. As we’ll see the new plans are almost the same as the current Office 365 plans, with […]
Excel’s EOMONTH() to find the last day of the month
The Excel function EOMONTH() returns the date of last day in a month. With a little extra, it’ll tell you the number of days in any month. EOMONTH() is the Excel equivalent of the little rhyme ‘30 Days has September, April, June and November …’ plus it handles leap years with 29th February. Applies To Excel for […]
Protecting yourself and others on Zoom
Zoom is a good online meeting & conferencing tool but with any collaboration tool comes risks for the unwary. There are options to protect yourself and others from people misusing Zoom. ‘Zoombombing’ is now a thing with people jumping into online meetings/classes then sending porn and other images to all in a call. Or perhaps […]
Using a GoPro, Camcorder or DSLR as a webcam
Some GoPro, camcorder, digital camera or DSLR cameras can be used as a webcam connected to your computer, with a little trickery and the right cables. Many camcorders and digital cameras have a video/audio output option. Look on the camera for a small HDMI socket or other output option. Those options are often intended for […]
One readers experience with WhatsApp, Skype and Viber
For a different perspective on calling apps, we were delighted to receive this long and detailed message from Michael Joyce who has both the technical experience but regular use of calling apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Viber. Michael is just one reader who has a better experience with WhatsApp than we’ve ever had. It underlines […]
Get ready to Viber
If someone asks you to Viber with them, here’s how to get ready for Viber and some settings you might like to change from defaults. Viber is a messaging, voice/video calling service similar to WhatsApp and Signal. Screen sharing and file transfers are also possible. Source: Viber We’ve seen Viber commonly used in South America […]
Online call services ranked
Choose the best online call and conference service to keep in touch with the people in your life. We’ve looked at all the major online voice and video calling/conferencing options and ranked according to ease of use, access to all-comers and reliability across slow Internet connections. Leaving aside privacy considerations, our preference for online calls […]
Get an emergency, backup email account
Be prepared for the possibility that one mailhost/email address might not work. That’s a risk at any time, not just now. Setup an emergency, backup email account. One way to prepare is having TWO email addresses with different mail hosts. If one stops, you can keep sending messages with another, already setup. Setup the alternate […]
Is my email slowing down? and what to do about it
A few readers have asked if email services are slowing down. Maybe, but not significantly and not to worry about. There are some things to prepare your email for the worst. We’ve noticed that emails aren’t arriving as quickly as they usually do. An order confirmation email that would normally pop-up in seconds now takes […]
Five simple clues that an email is dangerous
Four simple clues that an email should be deleted. Among the bogus coronavirus emails was something new to us and apparently the anti-spam filters that should have detected it. We’ll use the dangerous email as an example of what to look for in a scam or virus-infected email. The email is supposed to be an […]
