Four X cross ✗ choices in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type one of the four diagonal cross Mark ✗, multiplication or ballot symbols into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The X or Cross Mark ✗ symbol is used for bullet or check lists and other indicators. It’s the opposite of the tick or Checkmark. There […]
The full story on Dictate with Office 2013 & Office 2016
Microsoft released an interesting new tool for Office 2013/2016 which promised to be a major improvement on current ‘speech to text’ options. Most media have just reported Microsoft’s hype, we actually tested Dictate and here’s what we’ve found. What made Dictate different is the use of Cortana voice recognition technology. It uses the same cloud […]
Save Office images or slides to SVG format
Microsoft Office 365 and Office 2021 let you save images to SVG format from either images/graphics, charts or whole slides from PowerPoint. Originally ‘Save As SVG’ was only in PowerPoint 365 Windows but it’s quietly spread to Word 365, Excel 365 and Outlook 365 as well as the Office 2021 apps. SVG is a scalable […]
How to login to Gmail with Outlook 2013 and earlier
It IS possible for Outlook 2013 (and earlier Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007) to connect with Google Gmail accounts, despite what you may have heard. We’ll explain what’s happened, why and how login is still available for older Microsoft Outlook’s. There’s a lot of misinformation about changes in Gmail’s login requirements and Outlook 2013 (and […]
Ellipsis … symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the three different types of Ellipsis … marks in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Ellipsis … symbol is used for a gap or break in some text, usually to drop out some irrelevant text or speech. The same applies in maths e.g. 1,1,2,3 …. […]
Comma Ellipsis ,,, in Word and Office
Like it or loath it but the comma ellipsis has arrived ,,, as an alternative to the more common ellipsis with dots. Here’s how to use it in Word and Office. The comma ellipsis is a modern, more casual version. It’s used as a more dramatic, even annoyed trailing off of a thought, compared to […]
Microsoft Office and Oreos combine with Clippy – no joke
If you thought the modern world could not get any stranger, we’ve got bad news. Microsoft Office and Oreos (the chocolate cookie) have combined for a marketing stunt with online events (sorry “snack breaks”), special packs, tchotchke and emoji. Poor old Clippy has been dragged in as well. On the practical side, we’ll show how […]
Yen ¥ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Yen ¥ currency symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Yen is used for Japanese currency and the Chinese Renminbi / Yuan. Microsoft Excel also offers the Yen symbol for Mongolia even though the tögrög currency uses another symbol. ¥ symbol is easy […]
Yes, you can add an online calendar to Outlook for Mac
There is a way to add an online calendar (aka webcal) to Outlook for Mac, even though it’s not directly possible. It’ll also add the subscribed calendar to iPhone and iPad. Subscribed calendars are really useful for adding in events like sports and club meetings. There are webcal:// links available on many web sites. Unlike […]
Link unfurling in Outlook
What is ‘link unfurling’, an upcoming feature in Microsoft Outlook An unfurled link appears in an email as an interactive preview card – not just a preview but something the receiver can update. Link unfurling is already in Teams, now it’s coming to Outlook 365 for Windows. Here’s Microsoft’s example where a link has been […]
Three ways to view multiple Outlook calendars
Outlook can handle more than one calendar and has three options for easily viewing them, either individually or combined. Calendars can be displayed side-by-side or the more useful Overlay option. There’s also the ‘New Window’ option. Choosing the Outlook calendars to view In Outlook calendar view, use the check boxes in the calendar list to […]
Add an Internet shared calendar to Outlook
Outlook can link to external, shared, calendars and copy any updates to that calendar using either a .ics tile or a webcal link. An Internet calendar can be for public events, holidays, sporting fixtures etc. They can be a one-time copy of event details or you can setup Outlook to check for updates to […]
How to ‘ignore’ emails in Outlook
Occasionally you’ll get someone who sends lots of messages you don’t want to see. Outlook has a few options for refusing or politely ignoring messages from certain email senders – either individually or automatically. Most commonly these are enthusiastic zealots on some subject and are trying to ‘spread the word’ on their pet subject. They […]
Formatting email Invitations in Outlook
Meeting or party invitations don’t have to be plain, old white background emails, go for something a little more fancy or useful. Officially, Microsoft suggests using their Stationery themes to change the look of an email. But that’s not available for invitation emails. There are some formatting choices also missing from invitation emails. Whenever formatting […]
Outlook checks for incoming attachments like .doc .xls .ppt
We’ve warned against incoming ‘old’ Office documents (.doc .xls etc) because of the virus risk, so how can you setup Outlook to warn you about emails with those attachments? Sadly, it’s not easy. Outlook has automatic Rules to check incoming messages, but none of those rules can test for the file extensions on email attachments. […]
Beware .doc files in emails
Many of the dangerous emails arriving in your Inbox have one thing in common — they use the old (and risky) Word .DOC format. .DOC .XLS or .PPT are exactly the sort of email attachments you should avoid. The main ‘red flag’ is the email attachment of a .DOC file (or .XLS or PPT). These […]
