Outlook 2016 – there’s (at least) three!
Amazingly, Microsoft has at least three programs that are called ‘Outlook 2016’. It’s not a trivial point, knowing which ‘Outlook 2016’ you have is important if you ask for help or tech support. Confused? Join the club. When Microsoft talks about ‘Outlook’ they probably mean ‘Outlook for Windows’. ‘Outlook 2016’ probably means ‘Outlook 2016 for […]
Entourage 2008 to Outlook 2016/Mac migration
Microsoft makes it hard for people to move from their Entourage program data to modern Outlook for Mac. Entourage was the email/calendar/contacts part of Office for Mac. Office 2011 replaced it with Outlook 2011 for Mac. Outlook 2011 had a conversion option that let former Entourage users move to the new software. That was dropped […]
IBM’s daft patent for ‘out of office’ emails
From the crazy bureaucracy department is the news that IBM has been granted a patent for Out of Office emails! That’s right, those automatic emails that go out when you’re poolside are now the property of IBM. From the patent application: “When the out of office agent is enabled, it automatically responds to e-mail that […]
Translator for Outlook but not for everyone
Last year we renewed one of our ongoing gripes with Outlook, the lack of an incoming email translation feature. See a ‘side-by-side’ translation of an email you’ve received. After many years, Microsoft has finally done something to fix this obvious gap, but they’ve done it in a typically self-serving way. Before you get too excited […]
AOL mail users – secure your email!
It’s not just politicians who get into trouble using public email services. They are just the headline-worthy tip of a much larger email problem. AOL has a way to secure a AOL mail account but too few people (and politicians <g>) use it. We’ve talked before about Two Factor Authentication as the essential to securing […]
Operation BugDrop hackers use Word documents
CyberX Labs has identified Operation BugDrop, which uses Word document to attack targeted businesses and steal corporate information. They send emails to the business they want to raid that trick people into enabling macros. Opening the hacked document displays the Security Warning and ‘Enable Content’ button are real; created by Word. But the sincere looking […]
Getting an image into Office – not as simple as you’d expect
You’ve chosen an image, now you have to get it into your Office document. You’d hope there was a single way to do that but, as usual, there’s plenty of options. Outlook has its own special needs, different from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. There’s also privacy and image size issues to consider. The simple way […]
What happens when you send an email
Check out this video from SciShow which goes some way to explaining how an email gets from your computer to another. Emails get routed through a series of computers to reach it’s destination. It’s not a direct connection from your computer to another. That’s important to all email users because it means: Privacy – any […]
Outlook.com Premium now available
The paid upgrade version of Outlook.com is now available with the usual, but enticing, opening offer. For an annual fee you get extras beyond the usual free offering: No Ads – on the browser interface version of your mailbox. Custom Domain – instead of using outlook.com, email addresses with your own domain. You can buy […]
Highlights of Feb 2017 updates for Office 2016 and Office 2013
Here’s the complete list of non-security updates for Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2013 plus our notes on some bug fixes that caught our eye. As usual, these updates will be pushed to most Office computers automatically. No action is necessary. Unexpected Issues Microsoft is always using different words to avoid saying ‘bug’. This […]
Try adding an .ics appointment into Outlook
Would you like to try adding an Outlook appointment, just to see how it works? We’ve made a simple test .ics you can download: Add a test appointment It’s a normal .ics file that can be added to Outlook for Windows/Mac or any other compatible programs (most calendar programs do). See Web Links Adding Outlook […]
Office Touch Bar support is happening soon – 3 months late.
Microsoft announced Touch Bar support with much fanfare back in October 2016. Over 3 months later and paying customers are still waiting. There’s been lot of talk about this feature including web sites with ‘tips’ on using Office with the Touch Bar without noting that it’s not got into ‘insider’ beta testing yet. New Macbook […]
Oxford Comma differences between Word 2016 and earlier versions
A few years ago we had a close look at the Oxford Comma (‘Comma required before last item’, serial comma, Harvard Comma etc) in Word 2013. We’ll now repeat those tests with the new “Microsoft’s own” grammar system to see if there’s any improvement. Office-Watch.com has already noted that the options for the Oxford Comma […]
Grammar checking returns to Office 2016 for Windows
Microsoft has restored an important missing part of Word 2016 for Windows; the Grammar and Style checking! It’s available for all Word 2016 for Windows users including the ‘perpetual licence’ users who normally don’t get ‘new’ features. This important improvement hasn’t had the usual Redmond hype, presumably because it’s more embarrassing for Microsoft to admit […]
StaffHub – shift management come to Office 365
Microsoft continues to expand the uses for their cloud storage of calendar information with the introduction of StaffHub. It’s an extension of the existing calendar and resource scheduling to include shift workers and especially those who mostly use mobile devices. Staff can download a StaffHub Apple or Android app (no Windows app) and login to […]
Outlook shared calendars now in Apple and Android devices.
Shared calendars are now supported in the Outlook apps for Apple and Android devices. At this stage, you have to setup the calendar sharing from an Outlook web interface. Both the sharing and acceptance of the share have to be done on the web site. Only view and edit permissions are now available with delegated […]
