All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
Patch Tuesday – Two November 2023 highlights
Here’s just a few of the security breaches that caught our eye from a total of 63 security flaws patched in this months dump of fixes from Microsoft. Including five ‘zero-day’ bugs plus another 20 Edge browser security bugs fixed earlier in November. We’ve included links to more detail and specific patches for each version […]
More real Microsoft Word history
An Office Watch reader has added his own suggestions for important parts of Microsoft Word history (and Office) that Microsoft has forgotten and would like paying customers to ignore in their revisionist history of Word. All these remarks result from Microsoft’s increasing demands for more money from customers. Lot’s of little changes all focused on […]
Which Microsoft Office did you buy? OEM or retail FPP?
There are two different types of Microsoft Office you can buy retail and that difference makes hundreds of dollars difference you buying Office 2021 back to at least Office 2007. It can be hard to know which type of Microsoft Office you purchased – and it really matters to what you pay and what you […]
Does Microsoft Word grok, Grok?
The word ‘grok’ is back in the news, thanks to Elon Musk. As long time Word users and classic science-fiction readers, we naturally wanted to see if Word’s spell check recognized the word. In other words, does Microsoft Word grok the word Grok? Grok is a word made up by Robert Heinlein for his classic […]
Eiffel Tower 🗼 emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Tower 🗼 (Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower) emoji, symbol or stock photo into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The emoji is commonly called ‘Eiffel Tower’ in the west but it was originally intended to show the Tokyo Tower. That’s why some emoji are colored […]
Add comments/help to your Office VBA code
ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can enhance your Office VBA code with comments and help. It or Copilot can analyze your code and generate explanations, tips, and examples to make it easier to read and debug One of the modern AI tricks is to help write and understand programming code. We’ve already looked at […]
Delay sending a message the easy way in Outlook
Do you ever wish you could take back an email that you sent too soon or with a mistake? You’re in luck because Outlook lets you delay sending messages for a certain amount of time after you hit Send. It’s like having a second chance to prevent a mistake. We’ll show how it’s done with […]
What is Pin in Outlook and who gets it?
Microsoft has been boasting about a ‘Pin’ feature in ‘Outlook’ to highlight important messages that you don’t want to forget when it disappears down a long list of emails. This is how Pin works and which Outlooks have it. Pin moves the message to the top of the Inbox (Focused or Other if you have […]
Trademark ™ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Trademark ™ TM symbol as text and icon into Microsoft Word Excel PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Trademark ™ TM symbol is, strictly speaking, called the Unregistered Trademark symbol. Its counterpart is the Registered Trademark ® Trademark in Word and Outlook The Trademark ™ sign has an […]
Registered Trade Mark ® symbol in Word and Office
How to insert the Registered Trade Mark ® symbol as text or icon into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Registered Trade Mark ® not to be confused with the Unregistered Trade Mark ™ symbol. Registered Trade Mark ® in Word and Outlook The Registered Trade Mark […]
Care of ℅ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
The Care of ℅ symbol can be typed into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Care of ℅ symbol is one of those useful symbols you’ll never see on a keyboard and have to go hunting for. ℅ is used on envelopes and addresses, it refers to […]
Microsoft Office photo editing with Apollo 8’s Earthrise
As a quick example of what’s possible, here’s a quick look at some photo editing options in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook emails. Since it’s Christmas, we’ll use one of the famous Apollo 8 Earthrise images. We’ve already talked about how Apollo 8’s Earthrise, as we know it, is a cropped, rotated and […]
The Joys of being a late Office adopter
Better to stick with a stable, known Microsoft Office instead of monthly updates with new and changed features. That rational customer approach isn’t understood at Microsoft who push the regular Microsoft Office 365 changes on the assumption that it’s a universal good which suits all customers. Brian X Chen in The New York Times has […]
Why updating Office is like Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru
Updating Office or Windows isn’t an easy choice, you’re taking a risk no matter what you choose. Star Trek fans know about these ‘no win scenarios’ aka ‘Kobayashi Maru’ At Office-Watch.com we’re often asked what to do about updating and, frankly, it’s hard for us to give a simple answer. Like any trainee Starfleet officer, […]
Patch Tuesday’s revisionist history from Microsoft
Microsoft has published an almost laughably revisionist version of how Patch Tuesday started and changed over 20 years. Called Reflecting on 20 years of Windows Patch Tuesday, it’s a highly selective and self-serving version of events to put it mildly. Speaking of ‘reflecting‘, you can insert your own ‘cracked‘ or ‘warped‘ mirror 🪞 reference 😁. […]
Fixing and increasing Outlook PST/OST size limits
Outlook for Windows data files (PST or OST) start with a maximum size of 50GB but they can be much, much larger if necessary. Here’s how to do it as we make sense of Microsoft’s out-of-date advice. Outlook for Windows use PST and OST files to save email, calendar, contacts and a lot more. These […]
