Email Read Receipts and why they don’t always work
Email Read Receipts sound great but don’t often work these days. Articles like “How to tell if someone opened and read your email” aren’t telling the whole story. Here’s the reality behind the Outlook ‘Read Receipt’ feature and how it works across the Internet. The idea is to send an email with a ‘Read Receipt’ and […]
Three ways to add EPS graphics into Microsoft Office
Three ways to insert or import an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) graphic into Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. There are two a ‘quick and dirty’ options and a way that allows some editing. Microsoft Office did support EPS files for many years but dropped them in 2017/2018 because the EPS format is a security risk. EPS […]
Four SVG editing choices for Office 365/2019/2021
There are four different ways to change an Office icon or SVG graphic in Microsoft 365, Office 2019 or Office 2021. The two official SVG edit methods in Microsoft Office with their in-built limitations or some choices before inserting into Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Within Office Limited SVG/Icon changes are available from the Graphics Tools […]
How to copy a picture from an Outlook email
Like an image in an Microsoft Outlook email? Here’s how to save it to a separate picture file. Sometimes you get an email with a nice picture displayed in the message (as opposed to an attachment). You can ‘grab’ any image and save it to your computer. On most web pages you can simply right-mouse […]
Identical To ≡ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Identical To ≡ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Identical To ≡ symbol, also known as the triple bar, is a mathematical symbol. The three lined symbol means that something is identical or like another value, but this does not mean that is […]
Converting SVG code into a graphic for Office
How to convert the code which makes an SVG illustration into something that will work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint and also change the SVG code to alter the colors and background settings. Usually, SVG format graphics are supplied as a separate file but sometimes they come as a long text string like this: <svg viewBox=’0 […]
How does Microsoft Word handle non-binary grammar like they?
Microsoft Word has a powerful grammar checking system but how does it handle changes in English usage like the rise of non-binary or non-specific pronouns like ‘they’ and ‘them’? We took put sample words and sentences in Word to see how ‘woke’ it is. As a bonus, we’ll explain Pibling and Nibling that are already […]
White Right backhand pointer 👉 in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the White Right backhand pointer 👉 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. It’s officially called “White Right Pointing Backhand Index”. White Right Pointing Backhand Index 👉 symbol is great for signs, simple hand graphics in slides or an alternative bullet in lists. There’s also […]
Quick Teams links added to Outlook 365
Outlook 365 for Windows is getting more Teams features that link received emails with Teams, start chats or schedule a meeting. Above the email, beside the Reply, Reply All and Forward buttons is now a Teams pull-down menu. Only in Microsoft 365 hosted mailboxes, including Outlook.com Share to Teams This opens a new Teams message […]
How to avoid the Gill Sans font controversy in Windows and Office
The work of Eric Gill is controversial these days, for good reason. Microsoft Windows and Office have fonts based on Gill’s work so users might need to think twice about using Gill Sans and similar fonts. Gill Sans MT and Gill Sans Nova are supplied with Windows and Office but are becoming stigmatized. Those fonts […]
Why Office for Mac will never match Office for Windows.
Office for Mac users yearn for the day when their software matches ‘feature parity’ with Office for Windows. “Two platforms, One Office” is the dream. But is it possible or even likely? We’re inspired by this tweet from José Rodríguez-Suárez. If Microsoft responds, we can predict what they’ll say, because its the same line they’ve […]
Black Right Pointing Backhand Index 🖝 symbol in Office
insert the Black Right Pointing Backhand Index 🖝 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Black Right Pointing Backhand Index 🖝 symbol can be used as a creative bullet symbol in lists or to point a direction on a sign. It’s the lesser known complement to […]
Almost Equal ≈ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Almost Equal sign ≈ can be typed into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The Almost Equal symbol ≈ is commonly used within Mathematics to indicate two values are roughly equal, but not exactly equal. Or use it whenever you need horizontal wavy lines! How Almost […]
NSFW or ‘naughty’ words aren’t in Microsoft Word – why?
There’s a strange, almost prudish, feature in the Microsoft Word spell checker aka Microsoft Editor that’s used in many of the company’s products. We’ll explain Microsoft seeming avoidance of ‘Naughty Bits’ and why it’s happening. Warning! This article is unusually explicit (NSFW) for Office Watch. If sexually explicit but standard words (not slang) might offend, […]
Up Down Arrow with Base ↨ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type Up Down Arrow with Base or underline ↨ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. How Up Down Arrow with Base ↨ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Up Down Arrow with Base / Underline ↨ looks in common Office fonts. Up […]
Replying to emails with colored backgrounds
Outlook replies can be a problem of invisible or hard to read text when the incoming email has a color background. We’ll explain the problem and how to fix your reply email. Messages with colored backgrounds might look OK to the sender but are a pain when you try to reply or forward. Most of […]
