All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Inside Project Moca – Bucket, Notes, File and many more
Inside Project Moca is a collection of many items starting with Bucket then Notes, File, Tasks, Goal, Weather, Location, Person, Email or Calendar items. Here’s how all of them work and their options. Bucket Bucket is a container or ‘drawer organizer’ for one or more items. It lets you group together multiple items (like Notes, Task, […]
Why people prefer Google over Microsoft’s Bing
Just one example of why people use Google’s tools over Microsoft’s Bing. It’s a little thing but an example of Microsoft’s wider problem with Bing. While exploring Project Moca, we tested the Location object that uses Bing Maps. Stupidly we typed ‘London’ thinking Bing would show one of the world’s major and most famous cities […]
Easy and Quick Polls in Outlook
Outlook for Windows is getting a different way to ask questions of people via email – a quick poll. Quick Polls use Microsoft Forms, the online quiz or polling system. Start in any new message, Insert | Include | Poll. It’s more likely you’ll just see a small bar graph icon in a compress ribbon. […]
Everyone can make an Outlook Quick Poll now
Everyone with Microsoft 365 can get a ‘quick poll’ now with any email account or software. No need to wait for the Outlook Quick Poll option, now in preview for Microsoft 365 customers with Outlook for Windows. As we’ve already explained, Quick Poll is a simple and very limited way to add a Microsoft Forms […]
Did Dictate disappear in Word?
Click on Dictate in Word Online (in a web browser) and it looks like nothing happens. Don’t worry, you can still speak to Word and it’ll type but the interface has been minimized. Instead of opening a Dictate pull-down list, it’s now a trio of icons at the bottom of the document. You’re fully forgiven […]
Left Right arrow ↔ in Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word
Type the Left Right arrow ↔ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. How Left Right arrow ↔ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Left Right arrow ↔ looks in common Office fonts. Left Right arrow ↔ codes These are the important code […]
Double Key encryption coming to Microsoft 365
Microsoft is making an important step towards cloud storage security with the public preview of Double Key Encryption. That means, for the first time, Microsoft customers can secure their data from access, even by Microsoft itself. All the ‘secure’ cloud storage from Microsoft can be accessed by Microsoft. For all their talk about security, the […]
Excel Subscriptions Manager
With all the subscription offerings available (Netflix, HBO, Disney, CBS, Apple, Google, Amazon, Office 365 etc), here’s a way to manage them all from Excel. Along the way we’ll show you some interesting Excel features. We were inspired by Brian X Chen in The New York Times, writing about how easy is it to sign […]
Subscriptions Manager for Excel 2007-2016
We’re happy to release a new version of our Subscriptions Manager that’s compatible with Excel 2007-2016. Subscriptions Manager is a way to list and manage the many online plans we sign up for; HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify and so many more. You can track who pays (in a family) and payment method (card, direct debit […]
Get 11 Indian languages translated by Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Translator now has the language Odia (or Oriya), taking the list of Indian languages supported to 11. in Odia, according to Microsoft …. Microsoft 365 ଅନୁବାଦକ ବର୍ତ୍ତମାନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା (କିମ୍ବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ) ଅଛି, ଯାହା ଦ୍ୱାରା 11ଟି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ତାଲିକା ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଇଛି । Microsoft Translator is a cloud-service so Odia is now on the list […]
Alumni and Student discount for Microsoft Office
Microsoft has a Microsoft 365 offer for students and recent graduates that’s worth a look but watch out for the fine print. The offer is Microsoft 365 Personal for $12 instead of $69.99 which is a good deal if you qualify. It’s available to students and recent graduates of colleges/universities that have a Microsoft 365 […]
Get money back after billing bugs with Microsoft 365
There are strange and worrying reports of double billing, disconnection of service and other anomalies that leave some Microsoft 365/Office 365 paying more or getting less than what they paid for. Here’s what to do if your Microsoft 365 account and billing has gone wrong, Just some of the troubles being reported: Double charging. The […]
Gene names changed to stop confusing Excel
The names of genes are being changed just to stop Excel confusing them with dates during the import process. We’ll explain two ways Excel already works to avoid the geneticist’s problem. Genes named like MARCH1 and SEPT1 which Excel converts into dates when imported the wrong way, usually directly via a CSV text file. Office […]
Excel’s General problem that messes up what you type
Why does Excel change what people type or import, sometimes in ways they don’t want? It’s the General cell format that messes with what you type or import. It’s the default cell format ‘General’. It’s top of the Formats list and most of us haven’t given it a second thought. Microsoft short explanation is ‘No […]
Find your Microsoft 365 plan, expiry date and when Microsoft charges for renewal
It’s easy for forget when your Microsoft 365 (Office 365) plan is up for renewal or even which plan you’ve purchased. These are vital points if you want to avoid being overcharged for Microsoft 365 renewals, which is what Microsoft will do if you’re not careful. Go to https://office.com and login using your Microsoft 365 […]
Important Windows 10 patch fixes Office bugs
A new Windows 10 update includes fixes for some Office related bugs for Word, Excel and Outlook. The patch is called KB4568831 released July 31, 2020 . It’s for the latest Windows 10 May 2020 release (aka ‘2004’ or ‘Build 19041.423’). It’s a large update which fixes many different Windows 10 bugs. During the lockdown, […]
