All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Use the world’s ugliest color in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Make an unpleasant point with the world’s ugliest color. A ‘drab dark green’ can be used in any Word document, Excel sheet or PowerPoint slide. And we’ll explain the recommended complement color and font. It’s not our opinion, but the market researched result of an effort to find the most unappealing color. A three-month study […]
What Microsoft Word does with “Drunkonyms”
The British have 546 ‘drunkonyms’ or words for drunkenness according to a new academic study. We could not resist seeing how the Microsoft Word handles them (after we’ve had a quick drink to get us going 😀) We compiled a list of 55 drunkonyms and ran them past the Word 365 spell checker using UK, […]
Copilot gets image background editing
Copilot now has some in-built editing of the background of an AI made image, some borrowed from similar features in Designer. Request an image from Copilot e.g. “Make an image of a koala in the desert”, select one of the thumbnail pictures to see the full size version. Click on the image to select an […]
How to check if your emails are sent with DKIM
Here’s a way to ensure your outgoing emails include DKIM and SPF details all setup correctly. DKIM email verification is becoming more important for deliverability of emails. This is mostly for anyone using Microsoft 365 email hosting, especially individual or small business users who have change their email verification setup. Once you’ve enabled DKIM for […]
What do fonts say to each other?
Ever wondered what fonts say to each other. How newcomer Aptos treats Calibri? How Dingbats dance and what Comic Sans wears? Elle Cordova answers these and other important typographical questions in two Instagram videos. Fonts Hanging Out part 1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C2cZBIAr24m/ Fonts Hanging Out part 2 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2sxcszyLnN/ Enjoy … Excel – switch away from Aptos fontsMicrosoft […]
Critical new flaw in Microsoft Outlook allows (too) easy access
All Outlook for Windows have a critical bug which makes it too easy for any hacker to gain access to a computer. It just needs a simple link clicked from an email to bypass Office Protected View protections, even from the Preview pane. So all Outlook’s should be updated asap. Microsoft rates the security bug […]
A good part of Designer has been Erased!
A good part of Designer has been deleted with no notice or explanation. Erase is missing with only a ‘dumb’ alternative. The feature is Erase it let you select and remove parts of an image and automatically fill the area with surrounding content. The entire ‘Erase’ option has disappeared for no reason that Microsoft cares […]
A Loop feature that should be in all Office apps
Microsoft Loop has a new feature that should be added to Word and PowerPoint, see what text has been written by Copilot AI instead of a human. Loop is adding a tag (‘floatie’) which shows who wrote some text and includes ‘Copilot’ as one of those authors. That’s a very useful piece of information especially […]
Last minute Heart icons for Valentine’s Day
Need a heart symbol or image for your Valentine’s Day message, email, slide or card? Microsoft Office Icons have many choices available including Icons. Many of the stock or supplied resources in Office have passionate ‘heart’ symbols. As you’ll see, there are some anatomically correct icons among the romantic ones, just ignore them <g>. Icons […]
Using AI tools for a personal touch to Valentine’s Day
The latest AI tools can help add a personal touch to Valentine’s Day images, graphics and text like a love poem. Add some details about your loved one (name, hobbies etc.) and AI can do its magic. Free AI tools like Copilot, Microsoft Designer, Dall-E or ChatGPT can make something that’s individual and unique. In […]
Copilot’s Legal Trap or what you’re giving to Microsoft
Just by using Copilot you’re giving Microsoft free access to anything you do or get from their AI system. It’s a legal trap that everyone needs to keep in mind. We found this buried in the Copilot Terms and Conditions (T&C’s) starting on the Bing web site https://www.bing.com/new/termsofuse (strange place for it to hide). Microsoft’s […]
Essential ways to strengthen your Microsoft account
Most readers of Office Watch will have a Microsoft account but is it as secure as it should be? Two-step authentication is becoming essential for the key Microsoft account. If you have Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Outlook.com, Windows 11/10/8.1/8, Windows Phone or (likely) Skype then you’ll have a Microsoft account. It’s the single login for all […]
How Office improves without customers even noticing
While a lot of Word, Excel and PowerPoint might appear to be the same for decades, there’s a lot of work happening ‘under the hood’ to keep Office working. Gilad Oren at Microsoft has written an interesting piece on how the whole real-time collaboration feature in Microsoft Office has been changed to make it faster […]
Make Images with Google Bard
For yet another way to make AI images, perhaps with a different look, you can now try Google Bard. Bard is Google’s AI helper, now available in ‘most countries’ (Google’s wording) but only in English for the moment. It does all the things we’ve come to expect from a broad AI service, similar to Copilot. […]
No Data? Excel’s Autofill is not the answer
Two economics professors have been caught using Excel’s Autofill feature to fill in the blanks to complete a published academic paper. A study on green innovations and patents in 27 countries by two professors has come under scrutiny by a student as reported, by Retraction Watch. The paper was said to use “balanced panel data” which is […]
Using Alt to get accent and other characters
Keyboard shortcuts for special characters that work outside Office and without special setup on any Windows computer. It’s possible to enter any character into a Windows program using the Alt key plus the number pad (usually on the right side of a larger keyboard). This is a handy shortcut to enter accent or other non-keyboard […]
