Get your Holiday ‘sweaters’ for Teams, PowerPoint & more
Microsoft has released some ‘sweater’ backgrounds for Christmas, Hannukah or anytime of year. The PNG images are intended as backgrounds for Teams calls but can be used anywhere. A PowerPoint slide, Word background, Zoom call background or whatever. Adding Virtual Background or blurred video to TeamsAdd your own background image to a Teams call They […]
New look in Microsoft 365 for Mac coming in early 2021
Microsoft 365 for Mac is getting a revamped look for the Home or Start menu in early 2021. Here’s all the new and old features in the Home pane or as Microsoft calls it “Office Start experience” (no kidding) The Home panel changes to be more consistent with what’s visible in Microsoft 365 for Windows […]
Here’s how Gmail can now edit Office docs directly
Google’s Gmail can now directly edit Microsoft Office documents arriving in email attachments. It’s available to all Gmail users, free and paid accounts. It removes a lot of the hassles of exchanging Office documents with Gmail and Google Docs/Sheets/Slides users. No more document conversion hassles … at long last! Email Attachments edited directly Any incoming […]
Office 2010 patches! A nice December 2020 surprise from Microsoft
The usual security fixes for Microsoft Office this month include some unexpected patches for Office 2010 which is a pleasant surprise. Office 2010 is now officially out of support (since 13 October 2020) but still works fine. That’s supposed to mean there’s no more patches. Microsoft hasn’t explained their reason for these unexpected fixes but […]
Outline View new in PowerPoint for Android
PowerPoint Mobile for Android is getting an ‘Outline View’ but it’s not like Outline View in Windows or Mac versions of PowerPoint. This Outline View is really an ‘Outline to Presentation’ wizard that lets you make an outline or bullet point list then choose a slide theme to quickly make a presentation. When starting a […]
PowerPoint Outline tricks with Word
You don’t have to write directly onto each PowerPoint slide. Instead write an outline of headings and text, then convert into slides. There are two ways to do it, with Word or directly into PowerPoint. Outline View View | Outline View shows each slide title with bullet points within a slide. Slides can be made, […]
Special offer for Microsoft 365 Business Premium or an even cheaper option
If you’re thinking about getting Microsoft 365 email hosting with full Teams and SharePoint, Microsoft has a limited time offer this week only. However, before you jump into their deal, there’s another very similar option that’s even cheaper. Until 30 November 2020, Microsoft is offering 25% discount on their Business Premium service for small businesses. […]
The latest Office ‘Insiders’ names changes
Microsoft can’t help themselves when it comes to naming their ‘Insiders’, ‘Preview’ or beta test versions. The names change for no good reason and timing is different for each platform rather than all Office apps changing at the same time. The latest changes are for MacOS, iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices. They’ve happened months after […]
Now there’s Stock videos for your PowerPoint slides
Short Stock videos are coming to PowerPoint 365 slides and backgrounds. Instead of searching the web or making your own little videos, they are now available from PowerPoint itself. All the videos are short (around 10 seconds) and automatically loop by default. Here’s four of them as a sampler .. They seem intended as backgrounds […]
Easy video backgrounds in PowerPoint
Adding a video as the background of a PowerPoint slide is surprisingly easy. You might expect that it requires special features but it doesn’t. There are some tricks to know if the slide gets muddled up. A true PowerPoint slide background has to be still a solid color, gradient, pattern or picture. But the layer […]
Office 2010 updates are still available, here’s how
0Patch is stepping in where Microsoft has left by offering continued security updates for Office 2010 after official support was dropped a few months ago. Newly discovered high risk security bugs in Office 2010 will get micropatches from 0Patch. These unofficial updates change the existing program files to prevent the new security lapses troubling your […]
Putting a Command on the Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is located on the left side of the Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook title bar. You can add commands, options and even symbols for easy and quick obvious access By default, the QAT only has Save, Undo, Redo and Touch/Mouse commands but you can cut down on unnecessary keystrokes by placing […]
Quickly add any special characters in Office
One of the eternal questions to Office Watch is about adding characters to an Office document. Symbols and characters not on the keyboard. The most common requests are for adding currency symbols like Pound £ Euro € or Yen/Renminbi ¥ but can also include the @ symbol which can, even these days, be missing from […]
Make your own ‘Awards’ with Word and PowerPoint
Those ‘award’ logos with the laurel or fern on each side can be made in Word or PowerPoint. The ‘awards’ can be serious or joking. Here’s the thing we mean, you’ll often see them on theatre or movie posters. Format The standard wording for these logos is: Award organization (Academy Award, Pulitzer, Tony, BAFA) The […]
Copyright © tricks for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Tricks for typing the Copyright © into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Copyright © symbol isn’t on any keyboard but is so commonly used that there are special shortcuts available to type © Copyright © in Word and Outlook The Copyright © has an inbuilt […]
Illustrations, new graphics in Microsoft 365 Windows and Mac
Illustrations are a new graphics option coming to Microsoft 365 that supplements the existing Icons with a wider range of visual aids for documents, emails, worksheets and slides. They’ve appeared, without any mention, in preview versions of Microsoft 365 for Windows (version 13415.20002) and Microsoft 365 for Mac (v16.43 20102102) On the same dialog box […]
