Six shortcuts for horizontal lines in Word and stopping them!
Word has six shortcuts to make horizontal lines, here’s how they work, change them, color the lines and how to stop lines when they get out of control. All six line shortcuts There are six horizontal line shortcuts. For each one type the same character three times at the start of a new line then […]
Three-day Aussie breakdown of Outlook.com
Over Easter there was a three day serious breakdown in Outlook.com for Australian users among many. The problems were first acknowledged by Microsoft about 1pm Sydney time on Saturday 11 April and continued for around three days! Mostly Aussies were affected with pockets of trouble in Europe and USA. A three-day outage is bad at […]
April 2020 updates for Office come with a warning
The April 2020 security fixes for Microsoft Office come with a warning that some VBA code will stop working. There are workarounds to let some references through. The KB4557055 security fix blocks VBA references that link to Internet or intranet sources or have been downloaded from the Internet. That will effect some Office/VBA code which […]
Add the Indian Flag into Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Find and add the Indian flag into Office documents, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, then use some Office picture tools to enhance the image. The same help applies for any other national flag, just look for a different source. Get the Indian Flag Image There are many, many copies of the Indian flag available. We’ve opted for the Wikipedia site because it […]
Microsoft 365 summary that’s readable!
Here’s a readable and searchable version of the Microsoft 365 summary table that came with Microsoft’s announcement of the rebranding from Office 365 to Microsoft 365. It shows the differences between ‘free’ Office (with a Microsoft account), Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365 Personal) and Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office 365 Home). Important limitations on […]
Online call services ranked
Choose the best online call and conference service to keep in touch with the people in your life. We’ve looked at all the major online voice and video calling/conferencing options and ranked according to ease of use, access to all-comers and reliability across slow Internet connections. Leaving aside privacy considerations, our preference for online calls […]
Try Grandma’s Trivia Quiz by email and online
A simple and cheap way to keep kids amused and give them something to talk to grandparents and others during online calls. Grandma/pa starts with some trivia questions for the kids to research, sent by email. Later in the day there’s an online call when grandma/grandpa can catch up on the day and discuss the […]
Zoom ‘1 to 1’ calls – making and answering
Here’s how to call someone using Zoom or answer a call, then some of things you can do in a call. Zoom makes a blurry distinction between a call (between two people) and a meeting (more than two). It’s even possible to start/accept a Zoom call while in a Zoom meeting or vice-versa. However, there’s […]
Get an emergency, backup email account
Be prepared for the possibility that one mailhost/email address might not work. That’s a risk at any time, not just now. Setup an emergency, backup email account. One way to prepare is having TWO email addresses with different mail hosts. If one stops, you can keep sending messages with another, already setup. Setup the alternate […]
Is my email slowing down? and what to do about it
A few readers have asked if email services are slowing down. Maybe, but not significantly and not to worry about. There are some things to prepare your email for the worst. We’ve noticed that emails aren’t arriving as quickly as they usually do. An order confirmation email that would normally pop-up in seconds now takes […]
Five simple clues that an email is dangerous
Four simple clues that an email should be deleted. Among the bogus coronavirus emails was something new to us and apparently the anti-spam filters that should have detected it. We’ll use the dangerous email as an example of what to look for in a scam or virus-infected email. The email is supposed to be an […]
Setup Contacts on Zoom
Linking to other people on Zoom is necessary before you call them. We’ll explain both sending contact requests and receiving them. A person has to be added to your Zoom contacts list before you can call them. Similarly, they have to add you to their contacts before they can call you. Zoom contacts are separate […]
New Word security bugs are more ‘interesting’ than usual
Microsoft has just fixed the latest security bugs discovered in Word. They caught our eye because it’s more widespread than usual which is ‘interesting’ in the way of the old proverb*. The bugs are called CVE-2020-0850, CVE-2020-0851 and CVE-2020-0852 Microsoft gives all the deliberately bland title “Remote Code Execution Vulnerability”. There have been many, many […]
Remote Access options to control a distant computer
There are several free options to access one computer from another. You can see the screen, type and mouse from a remote location, just as if you were in front of the real computer. Access work computer from home computer Use desktop computer from a laptop or tablet Interact with laptop machine from a desktop […]
Prepare your computer for isolation or quarantine
There are many free tools available to make work and life continue if your movements are limited. Things you should do to prepare for a possible ‘work from home’, ‘no school’ or at worst ‘quarantine’ or ‘social isolation’ of some type. We know what we’re talking about because Office Watch has been working remotely for […]
Outlook viewing – relaxed or tight?
Fit a little more onto your Outlook 365 for Windows display. Sadly the option doesn’t apply to the entire Outlook window. On the View tab, Layout there’s a choice Use Tighter Spacing with the choice of ‘Relaxed’ or ‘Tight’. What does that mean? The main list vertical spacing changes. With tight spacing one or two […]
