All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
The new Office 365 licence system starts today
From today, 1 October 2018, Office 365 licencing rules change in a way Microsoft has never done before. Redmond announced the change a few weeks ago but now we can see the new Office 365 licence rules working, with a few unanswered questions. The change won’t affect your current Office software. There’s no noticeable difference […]
Office 2019 starts public release
Office 2019, the new non-cloud version of Office for Windows and Mac, is now available to volume licence and commercial customers. This is the ‘cloud free’ or, as Microsoft call it the ‘on-premises’ version of Office desktop. It has no cloud related features and is ‘feature fixed’ with no future enhancements. There’ll be security and […]
Brand logo font with color, at least in theory
A fun new font using famous logos for letters also demonstrates where Windows 10 and Windows 11 color font features become useful with Microsoft Word. Brand New Roman is a fun mashup font made up of famous logos. It looks best in color so it’s handy that Windows 11/10 supports color fonts. Try out Brand […]
Times Newer Roman puts less text on more pages
Ever wanted to stretch out your essay or report so it fit on more pages? Times Newer Roman is a font that will help you do just that. Any student knows the standard tricks for making an essay seem longer. Adjust the margins, stretch the Font | Advanced | Spacing, slightly larger line spacing, bigger […]
Improvements to Office malware protection
Microsoft has finally added their Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) into the Office 365 programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This technology is designed to check VBA and other programming code when it’s opened and before running. It’s a runtime check separate from any document scanning done by Windows Defender. Source: Microsoft AMSI was first released […]
Office 365 ProPlus gets longer Windows 8.1 and Server 2016 support
Office 365 ProPlus customers can keep running older versions of Windows longer after a change of heart by Microsoft. Windows 8.1 will be supported for Office 365 ProPlus through January 2023. That means both Windows 8.1 and Office 365 ProPlus now have the same end of support date for Windows 8.1. Office 365 ProPlus will […]
Exploring the Office clipboard
The Windows clipboard is quite limited but there’s a better one hiding inside Microsoft Office for Windows. It can collect more items, paste in any order and be cleared when you like. We’ll also show how to keep the sometimes annoying pane out of the way. You’re about to hear more about the clipboard because […]
Office hacks come faster than ever before
A new report from Sophos shows how hacking via Office documents has changed of lot in 2018 with new attacks coming much faster than in the past. Microsoft’s assurances that a security bug (sorry ‘exploit’) hasn’t been used ‘in the wild’ doesn’t mean a lot. Office document hacks made in bulk The people who find […]
Office now really is a service – not software
The upcoming license changes to Office 365 Home, Personal and University is another step in Microsoft’s move to selling services not software. From 1 October, Office 365 Home, Personal and University users can install Office software on unlimited machines. For full use of the software you’ll have to sign-in to your Microsoft account (linked to […]
Office 2016, 2013 and 2010 updates for September 2018
A small collection of non-security patches for Microsoft Office in September 2018. As usual, all these updates should come to you automatically. Non-subscriber / perpetual licence users can download individual patches if necessary but auto-update should handle it for you. Outlook 2016 The update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 introduces the following improvements: Fixes a crash […]
Can you work offline with the new Office 365 licence system?
The new Office 365 licence system makes you sign-in to Office software from each device. How can that work if your computer is offline and can’t connect to the Internet? See Significant improvements in Office 365 Home, Personal and University and Office 365 now counts your sign-ins not installs Several Office Watch subscribers have asked if they can […]
Office 365 Personal gets a big boost
The upcoming changes to Office 365 mean a big boost for Office 365 Personal customers. They’ll get a lot more for their annual fee to Microsoft. At the moment, Office 365 Personal allows a single user to install Office on (quoting Microsoft). “1 PC or Mac, 1 tablet and 1 phone (including Windows, Apple®, and […]
The downside of the new Office 365 Home/Personal changes
Lots of praise for Microsoft’s changes to Office 365 Home, Personal and University allowing anyone to use up to five Office instances at any one time. As usual, there’s a downside that’s lost in all the hype. These changes are another example of why Microsoft is pushing annual rental for Office (they call it ‘subscription’ […]
The new Office 365 install rule is fantastic news for virtual machines
The Office 365 licensing change should let virtual machine users try out more test versions of Office than in the past. From 1 October 2018, Office 365 customers can install Office on as many computers/devices as they like. The licence limit switches to the number of Microsoft account logins from Office rather than the installs. […]
When can Office 365 customers get Office 2019 for Windows or Mac
The upcoming release of Office 2019 for Windows or Mac has some Office 365 customers wondering when they’ll be able to get Office 2019. That’s easy: Office 365 customers already have Office 2019 and a lot more! Office 2019 for Windows or Mac is a separate version of Office from what’s available for Office 365 […]
Significant improvements in Office 365 Home, Personal and University
Microsoft has announced some truly important improvements in what you get with Office 365 Home, Personal and University plans. The Home plan will be available for six family members instead of five. How Microsoft calculates use of Office software is changing and for the better. All these changes apply from 1 October 2018 onwards for […]
