All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Office reaches ‘subscription’ milestone
The latest Microsoft financial results mark an important milestone in the way we pay them for Office software. “For the first time, Office 365 Commercial revenue surpassed revenue from our traditional licensing business.” – Amy Hood, Microsoft CFO. More cloud money MSFT got more money from Office ‘subscriptions’ than from one-time ‘perpetual’ and other traditional […]
Get the hidden Office Mobile apps for Windows 10
The Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for Windows 10 computers are hiding from the Microsoft Store. Here’s how to get them. Word, Excel and PowerPoint have ‘mobile’ versions that run on Windows 10 devices for full PC’s, tablets and Windows phones. Here are the links you need, since Microsoft has hidden them. Word Excel PowerPoint […]
Get your free Office ebooks from Microsoft
Microsoft’s annual giveaway of ebooks is on again. Thousands of free downloads, including Office related ebooks. The full list is on the Microsoft blog. We’ve copied the Microsoft Office related titles into a easily searchable list below. Most are in PDF format with a few in MOBI (Kindle), EPUB or XPS format. Modesty (almost) […]
Microsoft Office 365 buy or renew cheaper or free
There are many ways to save money on buying or renting Microsoft Office / Office 365 here’s just some. Don’t auto-renew, Home Use program, Military discount, University, School / Education and never, ever buy from Microsoft directly. You don’t have to be a special person to get a discount. Having a pulse and making a […]
Translate your PowerPoint speech live to multiple languages
Microsoft’s test area ‘Garage’ has released a PowerPoint tool which promises to translate into multiple languages your speech to accompany a presentation. Presentation Translator translates your spoken remarks and posts them as subtitles on the slide deck. Source: Microsoft Source: Microsoft It does more than show subtitles on the big screen. Audience members can use […]
Excel security patches for July 2017
Excel is main focus of this month’s security patches from Microsoft. It’s a familiar story, so Microsoft recycles their stock phrases from similar security lapses in the past. A ‘specially crafted’ document can cause a ‘memory corruption’ in Office. The July 2017 patches fix not one, but two separate design errors in Office. All supported […]
Word, Calibri font and the possible downfall of a government
A political corruption row is brewing in Pakistan with questions about Word and the Calibri font. We dug into the Office Watch archives for more info than simply checking Wikipedia. A report into possible corruption by the Prime Ministers daughter, suggests that some documents were faked. The documents are dated in 2006 but use the […]
Office ‘Alt Text’ accessibility problems
Microsoft proudly added accessibility features to Office 2016 for Windows, in particular ‘Alt Text’. Pity it’s not been refined and fixed once the hype died down. Earlier this year, Microsoft added an ‘Alt Text’ feature to Office which tries to automatically suggest alternative text for visually impaired readers. Right click on an image and choose […]
New Privacy leakage in Office 2016 for Windows
Images inserted into your Word documents are being automatically uploaded to Microsoft for the accessibility ‘Alt Text’ feature. Even if the image and document are saved on your computer, not cloud storage. It’s a hidden ‘feature’ in Office 2016 for Windows desktop (Office 365 subscribers). Earlier this year, Microsoft added an ‘Alt Text’ feature to […]
Office is the most profitable part of Microsoft
In 2016, Office was a lot more profitable than Windows. An analysis by The Motely Fool shows how important Microsoft Office is to their bottom line. A. Lot. Office is the cash cow What stands out is how profitable Microsoft Office has become. The push to ‘subscriptions’ (effectively software rental) has been a very smart […]
What you must do about Petya ransomware (if anything)
We won’t bore you with yet another article about today’s Petya ransomware attack We do have some notes and reassurance that arise. Security Patches Microsoft have this one covered. Back in April 2017 they released relevant patches for Windows Vista and Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows 10 plus server editions Also important patches for Office […]
Microsoft security boast lasts just three hours thanks to Office exploits
It was incredibly stupid of Microsoft to boast about the supposed security of their new Windows 10S. That boast inspired hackers to prove them wrong but no-one expected a quick downfall with Office providing the ‘backdoor’ into Windows. Microsoft started it all by claiming that: ” No known ransomware works against Windows 10S – our latest and […]
How does Office handle the last word?
The Oxford English Dictionary has new last entry on the final page of the ‘Z’ chapter. As Office nerds, we immediately went to see how Microsoft Office handles this obscure word and its predecessor. Turns out Office handles the ‘last word’ very well. The new last entry is Zyzzyva (“zih-zih-vah”) which replaced the previous finalist. […]
Microsoft Office for free, yes it’s possible
Get Microsoft Office for no money, nil, ziltch, nada, bugger all. It’s legal, easy and this article explains the many options available. We’ve not talking about ‘Office wannabes’ but Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote from Microsoft itself. They won’t have all the features of Office 2016 for Windows desktop. There’s usually enough for most purposes […]
Just hovering over a PowerPoint link can infect your computer!
A new way to infect your computer, via PowerPoint and simply hovering your mouse over a web link. It’s a malicious PowerShell script inside a PowerPoint file. Either a .PPSX (Microsoft PowerPoint Open XML Slide Show) or .PPS (PowerPoint Show ) file. When the PPSX/PPS file is opened, Office will switch to Protected View to protect […]
Office 2011 for Mac – time is running out
Support and patches for Office 2011 for Mac have only a few months left to run Mainstream supports ends on 10 October 2017 That date is based on the release of Service Pack 3 on 29 January 2013 plus a special extension by Microsoft. According to Microsoft the 21 month extension was “… to provide […]
