All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Sorry John Oliver, there’s no Calligrapher font in Word
A rare factual error in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that, amazingly, is related to Microsoft Word. In an item about The White House Calligrapher, Oliver said the job was easy because there’s already a font with the job title in Microsoft Word. And he shows a Word for Mac font list with a […]
Make your own White House notepaper with Microsoft Word
Last week we got a peek at the current White House notepaper and could not resist trying to make our own in Microsoft Word. White House notepaper in the President’s hands – 21 Feb 2018 It’s a simple, classic look that anyone can use and adapt to their needs. We’re not trying to make any […]
Replace text with filler – a manual approach
Here’s a manual method of replacing text with filler or anonymous words in Microsoft Word Use this when you need help with a Word document formatting problem but can’t share the troublesome .docx because it contains confidential information. Our head honcho, Peter Deegan, had this problem himself. A friend asked for help with a Word […]
The truth behind the blackboard computer teacher
A follow up on the story of the Ghanian teacher who has to draw Microsoft Word on his blackboard to teach the program. He’s Richard Appiah Akoto a 33 year old teacher at Betenase M/A Junior High School in the town of Sekyedomase in central Ghana. A place so obscure, by modern standards, that it […]
How Microsoft is nudging us towards Office 365
Microsoft has an unstated policy of degrading perpetual licence Office in favor of the annual payments for Office 365. This is happening in lots of little steps. Nothing major to alienate customers but enough incremental changes to shift the balance in favor of annual Office 365 payments. It’s a form of nudge theory applied to […]
Learn Word from a blackboard drawing!
Think learning Office is hard? Spare a thought for this teacher in Ghana who teaches Word without a computer. He draws Word on a blackboard to teach the program. Source: Ghafla.com It’s an amazing piece of work. Yes, it’s pre-ribbon Microsoft Office, Office 2003 or before. The whole story would be interesting to hear, we […]
Microsoft’s dirty little secret and dilemma with Office 2019
Many of the Office 2019 assumptions and rumors don’t account for the changed business model at Microsoft. Redmond’s dirty little secret is they’d prefer not selling Office 2019 at all. Office 2019 is the ‘perpetual licence’, single payment, fixed feature version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft will release it later this year but the date hasn’t […]
Microsoft security holes at record high even in the latest Word, Excel and PowerPoint
A new report confirms what most Microsoft Office customers know; there’s more security patches in Microsoft products, despite years of promises. Not just the latest Word, Excel and Powerpoint but even new products like the Edge browser are increasingly vulnerable. An Avecto report shows 87 vulnerabilities in 2017 – a record high. A dozen of […]
Can the Microsoft Office Ribbon be used by other developers?
The Corel patent dispute raises the interesting question, can other developers use the Ribbon interface in their own products? The answer isn’t clear. There was a clear path to follow but Microsoft has managed to confuse the issue. The Ribbon with it’s tabs, buttons, galleries, collapsing view as the window narrows etc was developed by […]
Dropbox document sharing with Microsoft Office
Here’s how to share Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel or PowerPoint) for viewing or editing via Dropbox. Document collaboration works a little differently in Dropbox compared to OneDrive. There are different methods and limitation for sharing on Dropbox. We’ve already shown how to install Dropbox, enabled the Microsoft Office Online features and use the Dropbox […]
Dropbox Badge, a collaborative tool in Microsoft Office Windows and Mac
Dropbox Badge is their document collaboration option that provides Dropbox specific features inside Microsoft Office programs, It works with a refreshingly wide range of Office version. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Windows and Macintosh. Office 2007 to 2016 for Windows. Office 2011 and 2016 for Mac. It only works with ‘modern’ Office document formats […]
Another month, another load of Office security patches
Just in time for Valentine’s Day <g>, Microsoft has released yet another set of patches for security holes in their products. There’s about 55 patches including a particularly nasty Outlook bug and problems with Microsoft new ‘safer’ Edge browser. Microsoft has or will push these fixes out through Windows/Microsoft update. Our test machines where already […]
Buy Office 2016 later this year and get two licenses?
Based on past experience, Microsoft may offer a ‘free upgrade’ from Office 2016 to Office 2019. Here’s how you might be able to take advantage and get two Office licenses for two computers. An interesting idea from Office Watch regular ‘Ron S.’. All this makes some assumptions, so it’s NOT confirmed, just something to think about. […]
Thinking of Office 2019? Try this money saving trick
If you’re thinking of buying the upcoming Office 2019, here’s a possible money saving trick to consider. Another interesting idea from Office Watch regular ‘Ron S.’. Office 2019 is the next ‘perpetual licence’ fixed feature version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft will release it later this year. If you’re not interested in the annual payments, Office 365, […]
Microsoft wins Office patent battle with Corel
A jury has found Corel guilty of six patent violations in it’s WordPerfect and QuattroPro products which have breached Microsoft Office related patents. Yes, WordPerfect and QuattroPro are still out there! We were surprised too. The patents relate to the Office interface like the ribbon. In WordPerfect, Corel even goes so far as to say […]
ShurL0ckr ransomware gets past Microsoft and Google to infect cloud
BitGlass and Cylance have found some new ransomware called Shurl0cker that managed to fool both Google and Microsoft’s scans to arrive on their customers cloud storage. According to the researchers: “Two well-known cloud platforms with built-in malware protection, Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365, failed to identify the ransomware. In addition, Bitglass tested VirusTotal, a […]
