All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Watch your data being saved underwater, live
Microsoft’s Project Natick now has two live camera feeds showing fish around their underwater data centers. One of the big problems for server farms is heat. All those computers generate a lot of heat that must be dissipated somehow. Microsoft’s servers store your OneDrive files, Azure data, run Office cloud features and a lot more. […]
Microsoft reroutes its roadmap for Office and Windows
Microsoft is rearranging, rerouting, it’s ‘Roadmap’ for the future of Office into a merged ‘Roadmap’ for Microsoft products including Windows and Office. The Office 365 Roadmap is joining with Windows, Azure and other products to become the Microsoft 365 Roadmap (more like a multi-lane superhighway with complex interchanges) Artists impression of Microsoft 365 ‘roadmap’ Normally […]
Microsoft Whiteboard in depth, so you won’t have to
Microsoft has released their Whiteboard app for Windows 10. While it’s better than last year’s preview app it has a lot of problems and a fatal flaw which makes it impossible for anyone except those with a childlike trust in Microsoft. We were harsh about the preview version, it was buggy, ill-considered and lacked documentation […]
Why is Microsoft Office product activation so difficult?
If you get an error message when trying to activate Microsoft Office, settle in for a difficult time. Microsoft doesn’t make activation easy to understand, let alone fix activation problems. Office activation is where newly installed Office software is authorized by Microsoft’s servers. Without activation the software only has very limited features. For Office 365 […]
What are you buying with Microsoft Office?
When you buy Microsoft Office there’s no CD or DVD with the software to install. The vital thing you’re getting is the Product Key. The Product Key is that the 25 character code which unlocks or activates the software. This applies to both Office 365 ‘subscriptions’ or single-purchase Microsoft Office packages. The Product Key provides: Access […]
New features coming to Outlook, Access, Project and Visio
The latest Office 2016 Insiders release version 1808, Build 10730.20030 shows off some upcoming additions to Outlook, Access, Project and Visio Outlook – block forwarding in meeting invitations When making a meeting invitation in Outlook, go to Response Options and deselect ‘Allow Forwarding’ to stop that invitation being forwarded to others. ‘Allow Forwarding’ defaults on. […]
What to do if you buy illegal software
After the report of buying illegal Microsoft Office via Amazon (and Amazon’s initially poor response) here’s what to do if you’ve bought an illegal, pirated or at least non-working Office Product Key. Credit Card as separate transaction Whenever possible, pay by credit card. The MS Office purchase should be a separate purchase not bundled with […]
August 2018 security fixes for Office and Windows
“More of the same” in August 2018’s round of security fixes for Microsoft products including Windows, Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Overall there a sixty security flaws fixed this month alone, including two ‘zero-day’ bugs not previously known to the public. We’ve all become accustomed to this never-ending stream of security fixes for known exploits. […]
Maybe you can’t even trust Amazon when buying Microsoft Office
Here’s the sad tale of a Californian woman who bought a pirated copy of Microsoft Office from an Amazon retailer and the hassle she had getting Amazon to do the right thing. There’s a happy ending but only because a local TV station intervened. That’s not an option for all Amazon customers. Cynthia Brizard, a […]
Big Word 2016 update in the August 2018 updates for Office
There are a dozen bug fixes for the Windows versions of Word 2016 buried among the non-security updates for Microsoft Office this month. And an extra feature for PowerPoint 2016 and 2013 for Windows. We’ll look at this important Word 2016 update first before listing the other bug fixes for Office 2016 and Office 2013 […]
New name for ‘Office 2016’ for Windows and maybe Mac too
Microsoft seems to be moving towards a name change for ‘Office 2016’. They haven’t announced anything directly, but their documentation is changing for Windows and perhaps Office for Mac as well. If you’re confused, don’t feel bad because Redmond isn’t making it easy. They are moving gradually towards naming Microsoft Office as a service instead […]
Office 2019 price increase, less bang for your buck
Microsoft has announced a 10% price increase for the Office 2019 commercial / volume licences. Sorry, it’s not an increase it’s a ‘price adjustment’ <sigh>. Office 2019 client, Enterprise CAL, Core CAL, and Office 2019 server products are all up 10% from 1 October 2018. These are all single-payment / perpetual licence products instead of […]
The Dark Truth behind Outlook’s Dark Mode
You’ve probably seen the headlines about the new ‘Outlook’ Dark Mode but there’s much less to this feature than all the hype suggests. It only applies to one of the many ” Outlook’s ” out there. We’ll explain what Dark Mode is, which Outlook it applies to and how to get a similar effect in […]
Make a custom ribbon tab for Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook
Here’s how to make a custom ribbon tab in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook and how Microsoft has left customers shortchanged for the last decade. We’ve already talked about customizing the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for certain documents. You can make the QAT adapt according to the document you’ve opened. Alas, that’s not possible […]
Microsoft continues to grow Office 365 commercial and Azure
Microsoft’s second quarter 2018 results came out with some pleasant surprises for the financial analysts. Both earnings per share and overall revenue beat market predictions. No wonder MSFT stock price went up 4 percent after the results went public. Office commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 10% mostly driven by Office 365 commercial revenue […]
Faulty Microsoft patch makes Windows LESS secure
A faulty Microsoft Windows security update not only didn’t fix the bug in VBScript, it opened another way for hackers to access a computer. Patching software is a complex thing, but this blunder is unforgivably bad and the delays make it even worse. It undermines confidence in Microsoft security testing and their willingness to fully […]
