What? Office Fast Ring catches up with Slow Ring
The latest ‘Fast Ring’ Insiders update to Office for Windows restores the correct versioning between the Fast and Slow Ring ‘Insiders’ releases. Normally, the latest changes and new features appear in the Fast Ring release. After the bugs have been discovered by the fearless Fast Ring testers, an update goes out to the ‘Slow Ring’. […]
Fix: Outlook .msg files switch to Acrobat .PDF
We have Office-Watch.com readers and others trying to fix a problem with their Outlook .msg files which have mysteriously become linked to an Acrobat PDF Reader program. The .msg files start sporting the familiar (but quite inappropriate) red and black PDF icon. If you double-click to open the .msg file, Acrobat Reader doesn’t know what […]
OneNote for Windows 10 misleading Outlook feature
Microsoft’s promotion of a new OneNote for Windows 10 feature is, to put it politely, misleading. The updated app doesn’t do what the hype promises. You can’t insert a meeting from ‘Outlook’ and not ‘Outlook 2016’ as Microsoft alleges. Hype vs Reality is something all Microsoft customers are familiar with, but this goes beyond some […]
Office Emoji look different on other devices
Emoji in emails should be used with great care because what the receiver sees can be very different from the emoji you entered. This isn’t Microsoft’s fault. It’s in the complex nature of emoji with different fonts etc. The ‘take away’ is that emoji’s are great but keep in mind that they might not appear […]
Outlook for Mac is getting read and delivery receipts
An upcoming release of Outlook 2016 for Mac will get something that Outlook/Windows users take for granted: Read Receipts and Delivery Receipts. It’s hard to believe but the current and past versions of Outlook for Mac don’t have these features. Source: Microsoft The feature is now available in Outlook 2016 for Mac with the Slow […]
Drag and Drop comes to Outlook for Mac
The ability to make a new Outlook item from an existing one by drag and drop is, finally, coming to Outlook for Mac. This feature lets you drag an email to the calendar or tasks folder, Outlook will make a new appointment or task using the email as a basis. Microsoft has been demonstrating Source: […]
Outlook discovers Emoji after seven years – goodbye to J, hello color Smiley
Microsoft is a slow learner. After seven years they’ve finally fixed an annoying emoji bug in Outlook and they’ve done it in a typically sideways fashion. Current versions of Office display an incompatible smiley emoji that often appears as the letter J – instead of 😊 If you’ve ever seen a message with a J […]
Invoke – Outlook speaks and we get the heebie-jeebies
Microsoft is joining the voice device market alongside Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home with the enticing possibility of making Outlook speak to you via Invoke. Harmon Kardon will be releasing Invoke, a speaker and Cortana powered device. Details are few at this stage however it opens up the possibility of a device that will speak […]
Outlook users may need to update their Apple email password
Apple has announced a change to how third-party products, like Microsoft Outlook, connect to iCloud services. From 15 June 2017, you’ll need an ‘app specific password’ for Outlook and other programs to connect with Apple services. This makes two-factor authentication for Apple ID’s compulsory if you use external products. Two-factor authentication is a good thing. […]
Ransomware and WannaCrypt special
Everyone is talking about ransomware now that the WannaCrypt has spread like crazy across the world. These nasty viruses target your documents and precious files including Microsoft Office files and Windows backups. This is a little embarrassing for us because Office-Watch.com has just released a new book that’s suddenly become very topical. Everyday BACKUPS – […]
Amazing security bug in Windows Defender
Microsoft has moved quickly to block a security hole in their own anti-virus software, Windows Defender. We’re used to seeing email or instant messaging used to infect a computer when opening a document in Word or Excel, maybe an email in Outlook. But this is quite different and very worrying. The bug is in Microsoft’s […]
Windows 10S and your Microsoft Office choices
Coming soon is a new version of Windows, the Windows 10S. What does it mean for Microsoft Office users? The 10S is a stripped down and limited version of Windows 10. Some advanced features aren’t available while others are set to Microsoft’s preferences automatically. To buy 10S is cheaper than the Home or Pro editions, […]
Dubai font, free for everyone
Last week, Microsoft released the Dubai font to their Office 365 customers only. Now the city-state of Dubai has released it to everyone. Dubai is a new font which has both western and Arabic characters in the one package. It was created by the Dubai government with assistance from Microsoft. You have to hand it […]
Signal ‘gets’ Office documents and PDF – at last!
At last the cries of eager Signal supporters have been heard – the latest releases allow secure transfer of Office documents, PDF and more. Signal is a well-respected, very secure and private messaging system. The makers of Signal licence their open-source encryption to other messengers like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp. Even better, Signal deliberately retains […]
A new Outlook attack method – Microsoft in denial
Sensepost has revealed an interesting way to hack your computer via Outlook. Microsoft’s public response has been to deny there’s a problem and put the responsibility on customers. The method hasn’t been used ‘in the wild’ and it’s not easy to infect Outlook. But we’ve heard that before (especially from Microsoft) and history tells us […]
Fix AutoComplete in Outlook to delete bounced emails
If you send an email to an invalid email address, that address will ‘stick’ in Outlook via the AutoComplete list. Here’s how to fix that. Let’s say you send an email to fence@fred.daggcom (misplaced period/fullstop). The email will ‘bounce’ with an error message. Despite that, the wrong email address still appears in the AutoComplete list. […]
