Outlook bug workaround for hang or slow startup
Microsoft is offering some workarounds for a bug in Outlook for Windows which leaves it hanging on the opening screen and very slowly opening properly. According to Microsoft the bug is in the Outlook software part of Microsoft 365 for Windows. We suspect a similar problem might also be in Outlook 2021 for Windows since […]
Three ways to prepare for a Microsoft 365 email outage
What can you do if there’s an outage or breakdown in Microsoft 365 email cloud services? If you’re prepared, you can continue working and communicating until Microsoft fixes the outage. Microsoft 365 breaks down occasionally, so do other online services. These outages have and will happen to even the best of cloud services. You can […]
Microsoft outages hurt lots of paying 365 customers
Microsoft Outlook and Teams had a horror Monday (and now into Tuesday) with cloud service outages affecting many paying and unhappy customers. The peak trouble was around 11am (US Eastern time) Monday 5th June. UPDATE: As we type this, there’s a new Exchange Online (Microsoft 365 hosting) outage. According to Microsoft “Users may be intermittently […]
Stop ‘Try the new Outlook’ button appearing
Hide that ‘Try the new Outlook’ option appearing in Outlook for Windows and why you should not click that button … not yet anyway. Microsoft has released the ‘new Outlook’ to some customers as an option because they want lots of unpaid ‘guinea pigs’. Each ‘new’ feature added to the software gets a blog post […]
Right arrow → symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Right arrow → into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The official Unicode name is ‘Rightward Arrow” → but it can be called ‘Right pointing’ ‘Right facing’ or just ‘Right Arrow’. Want more arrows or pointers? Check out all 200+ Arrow or Hand pointing […]
All the right pointing hand symbols in Word and Office
Word and Office have several right “pointing hand” symbols available in some fonts. Here’s the Unicode options, index, backhand, sideways in white or black, all explained and shown. Want more arrows or pointers? Check out all 200+ Arrow or Hand pointing symbols and more in a searchable list. Index, Backhand or Sideways? The Unicode system […]
Three ways to run an Office macro direct, from the ribbon or toolbar
There are three main ways to run a macro in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook). From the Macros list, from a button on a ribbon or from the Quick Access toolbar. We previously spoke about how to install an Office VBA macro, here’s how a macro can appear on the ribbon or Quick […]
Add Chess Piece symbols to Word, PowerPoint and Office
Insert any of the chess piece symbols available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office apps. King, Queen, Bishop, Knight. Rook and the lowly Pawn all with different looks, depending on the font plus three pieces available in Microsoft Office icons and the single chess piece emoji. Chess Pieces – the full list Here’s the […]
Changed link handling in Outlook for Windows
You may have noticed that opening a link in Outlook behaves differently and not in your chosen browser. That’s because Microsoft wants to push their Edge browser, though they have some excuses for the change. When you click on a link in Outlook for Windows, it might open in the Edge browser, even though you’ve […]
Easily install an Office VBA macro
Here’s how to easily install VBA code or macro in Microsoft Office. Adding some code you’ve seen on a web site or been given is simple once you know the little tricks. Often people are given some Office VBA code to use with Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook but without instructions for how to install […]
Update your Outlook and Windows now
There’s another security bug in Windows, embarrassing for Microsoft because it was caused by their own March fix for another security bug in Outlook! That means anyone with Outlook for Windows or Windows should ensure they have the latest updates. This is another ‘zero-click’ Outlook bug that can infect your computer without any action by […]
Check, tick and cross symbols galore
There are different check mark, tick or cross symbols available in Word, PowerPoint or other Office apps. Here’s an easy searchable list of all Unicode symbols plus in modern Office ✅✔️☑️ is called a ‘check mark‘ or ‘check‘ in some places and ‘tick‘ in others. Same symbol, different English names. ❌X╳ has many more symbols […]
Thumbs Up👍emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert Thumbs Up or Like👍symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Thumbs Up / Like👍emoji is typically used when you ‘like’ something or have approval/agreement. It’s commonly used as a quick response to a comment on Facebook, Twitter and it’s coming to Office Comments too. […]
Find all Arrow or Hand pointing symbols and more
There are different arrow or hand pointing symbols available in Word, PowerPoint or other Office apps. Left, Right, Up, Down, North, South, East, West. Here’s an easy searchable list of all Unicode pointing symbols plus the arrow and point icons in modern Office See also Check ☑︎, tick ✔️ and cross ❌ symbols galore Point […]
AI images coming to PowerPoint plus more CoPilot news
CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI project, inches towards reality with news of a very limited preview plus hints that Dall-E like image creation will be possible from inside PowerPoint. OneNote, Outlook and Whiteboard will also get an AI makeover. Microsoft continues to make announcements about their AI product, CoPilot, as if it’s already available to the public. […]
Make sense of an Outlook email header
A nice little tool that will make sense of any email header you receive in Outlook. An email header tells you a lot about the sender and the route the message took to reach you. Emails don’t go directly from your computer to the receiver, they pass through at least two other servers and probably […]
