All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Replace Word document with anonymous text – complete Step by Step
Here’s the complete step-by-step manual method of replacing text with filler or anonymous words in Microsoft Word. This is quite easy, the main thing is to be careful with the Find and Replace expressions. It will work with any version of Word that has the ‘wildcards’ / Regex option which means Word 2003 or later […]
How a file name can reveal your secrets
A US government department has accidentally revealed a secret by overlooking the obvious in Office document security, the file name. Microsoft Office helps you scrub documents of private or secret information before sending. It’s easy to overlook the obvious data leaks that ‘Inspect Document’ doesn’t cover. ‘Inspect Document’ checks for hidden information in the document […]
Paris 2024 Olympics complete calendar in Outlook
Add to your Outlook a special Paris 2024 Olympics calendar shows all the events plus opening/closing ceremonies with times in your location and search for favorite events. A special Olympics calendar shows all the events plus opening/closing ceremonies with times in your location. This calendar shows the Olympic calendar in US Central time with the […]
Get a Paris 2024 Olympics event times into Outlook calendar
Here’s how to quickly add events from the Paris 2024 Olympics into your Outlook calendars, showing times in your location. The Paris Olympic organizers have provided an online calendar with .ics calendar files for individual events from their website. Those calendar files can be imported into Outlook for Windows or Mac. They’ve been well made […]
Does Microsoft Word know how to say “Kamala” properly?
Pronouncing the name “Kamala” is a source of confusion even to Microsoft Office’s Read Aloud feature which needs a little tweaking. How does Word’s grammar check handle the possessive, it is Harris’s or Harris’? Kamala Harris has a Sanskrit based name which is simple to pronounce once you know the correct way. We checked the […]
Why Crowdstrike might still strike you
There are two ways the fallout from the Crowdstrike troubles might affect people even if their computers didn’t ‘die’. First, some organizations are still recovering or are dependent on businesses that are recovering. Keep that in mind if there are problems with a company. (On the other hand, some organizations might use Crowdstrike as an […]
Nice new features in Excel on the web
Excel on the web has a new look and some nifty extra features like better ways to arrange rows/columns – move, resize, insert. A clever Freeze Pane option too. Some of these we’d love to see in desktop Excel. Overall, the web version of the Office apps now look more like the modern desktop apps […]
Microsoft Designer has discovered landscape images
Microsoft Designer’s Image Creator can now make landscape (wide) images as well as square and portrait orientations. Unlike Copilot which gives no orientation choice. Go to Image Creator and click on Size to see three options. Square (1024 x 1024) Portrait (1024 x 1792) Wide (1792 x 1024) Designers ‘Wide’ is almost the common 16:9 […]
WebP support available in Microsoft Office
Microsoft added support for WebP images in Microsoft 365, allowing users to insert WebP pictures into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications. WebP images offer high quality with smaller file sizes compared to traditional formats like JPEG and PNG. WebP is an image format unknown to many people but is increasingly used by web sites. […]
Two better ways to Remove Background from images
Microsoft Office has a Remove Background tool for images but there are two better, faster and free ways to do the same job. Background removal lets you get an image with a transparent surround which can be merged/overlaid into any other slide or document more seamlessly (left) than a separate box with non-matching background (right). […]
Two faster ways to insert an image from the web into Microsoft Office
There are two quicker ways to insert an image or graphic from the Internet or web page into a Word document, Excel sheet, PowerPoint slide or Outlook email. The method most people are taught is to save an image to their computer then Insert | Picture | from this device to select that file. That […]
How the Background Removal Tool in Office really works.
The Background Removal Tool in Microsoft Office lets you neatly delete the background of images with just one click. It makes the photo subject stand alone with a transparent background. We’ll explain how remove background really works, it’s not quite as simple as Microsoft’s demonstrations make out. Windows 11 Paint is getting a ‘Remove Background’ […]
Insert the Spanish flag into Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Add Spain’s national flag into Office documents, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, then use some Office picture tools to enhance the image. Get the Spain Flag Image There are many, many copies of the Spanish flag available. We’ve opted for the Wikipedia site because it has an SVG scalable version (preferred) and PNG versions for older […]
More free Copilot tricks for Microsoft Office users
You don’t need to pay for Microsoft’s AI service, Copilot, to get some of its benefits in Microsoft Office, especially Word, Outlook and Excel. Try converting text to a table or vice versa. The trick to grabbing text from an image. Along the way you’ll also discover some of the limits and problems with the […]
Change a picture to a custom color in Office
Don’t miss this often overlooked Office trick, changing the color of an image or graphic in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. We did this in our article about inserting Prince’s ‘Love Symbol Number 2’ in Office documents. The image is available in various formats but always black, not purple. As usual, there’s more to color […]
Excel’s data from picture!
The nifty Excel ‘Data from Picture’ feature is in all Excel 365. It’ll convert a picture of text & numbers into a worksheet … almost. And there’s alternatives if you don’t have Microsoft 365. Data from Picture is already all versions of Excel 365 for Windows and Mac and Excel Mobile apps for iPhone, iPad […]
