Year of the Rabbit images and more in Microsoft Office
2023 is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar. There’s plenty of rabbit, bunny and other New Year related images, icons and Chinese character 兔 in Microsoft Office plus advice on the right colors to use for Chinese New Year graphics. Chinese New Year is on 22 January 2023, an excuse for fireworks, […]
Two ways to change the default font and more in Word
Changing the font, size or style for all Word documents is remarkably easy and there’s two ways to do it. Alter the font that’s automatically used when you make a ‘blank document’. In Word 2007 and later the default font face is Calibri, font size 11 and style Normal. This might not be the ideal […]
Compass 🧭 symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert a Compass 🧭 symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Compass 🧭 uses Segoe UI Emoji In Windows, the Compass 🧭 symbol is in the font: Segoe UI Emoji. Depending on the app and use, it’ll appear in color or black. The symbol can […]
Quick change the language setting in Word
There’s a way to quickly change the language setting for a multi-lingual Microsoft Word document, by adding a language selector to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) like this. Use this as a pull-down list to change the language setting in parts of a document. The problem is the fixed width of the toolbar item, which […]
Set the default translation language in Word
If you regularly translate text from or to the same language, you can set default languages. Once you have set the languages, Microsoft Word will automatically translate the text as soon as you hit Translate, without you having to set the text each time. To set the default languages, go to Review | Translate | […]
Converting Google Docs to Microsoft Word
Google Docs can be handy for sharing and working on documents with other people, but sometimes you just really need that file in Microsoft Word. No problem – it’s actually really easy to convert them. All you have to do is download the file and save it as a Word doc, Excel sheet or PowerPoint deck. If the Google Docs File is Open […]
London Street Signs, make your own in Word and PowerPoint
Famous London streets signs are selling for big bucks … or you can make your own in Word or PowerPoint for nothing. A sale of genuine London street signs by Westminster City Council included one for Abbey Road that sold for £37,200 (US$51,000). We thought that was a lot and figured out how to make […]
8 simple ‘Prohibited’ symbols for smoking, phones, kids and more in Word
Some ‘not allowed’ or ‘prohibited’ symbols, they can be used in Word, PowerPoint, Excel or Outlook. No Smoking, No Phone, No Children, No Drinking, No Pedestrians, No Bicycles, Not Drinkable Water or Mute. The Unicode symbol list includes red circle with diagonal to stop, smoking, children under 18, Mobile Phones, Littering, Pedestrians, bicycles plus no […]
Bulk conversion of old Office documents to new formats
How to bulk convert old documents (.doc .xls .ppt) into the newer Office formats (.docx .xlsx .pptx etc.). Microsoft has never produced a simple bulk conversion tool for the masses, much to the annoyance of users and network administrators. Redmond probably made that choice for their own self-interest but some of the reasons also serve […]
Quickly type Greek letters like beta, delta & gamma in Word
A little-known Word shortcut lets you type Δ Θ Δ Ω Π plus other Greek and math symbols quickly and easily. Ctrl + Shift + Q changes to the Symbol font for the next letter only. Only in Word for Windows, I’m afraid. Not Word for Mac. It’s a very old Word shortcut, it’s in […]
Micron µ or mu μ in Word and Office
Type the micron µ, micrometer or mu μ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Stuart H has an AutoCorrect suggestion: ” I need to use the symbol μ for micron (1/000 mm) and use mu for this. “ The Micrometre / Micrometer is one-millionth of a meter. The μ character is the Greek letter […]
Ohm symbol Ω in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Ohm symbol Ω into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Also the unofficial Siemens symbol, an inverted Ohm ℧ . Ohm is a measure of electical resistance with the symbol Ω It’s an official SI Unit of measurement just like gram, metre and many […]
So many power selection tricks hidden in Word
Here’s some power selection tricks in Microsoft Word for text, tables, pictures and more. You might think that selecting text and other things in Word is simple. Like many things in Office, there’s a lot more available than the simple methods that we all learn. There are quick ways to choose a word, paragraph, objects, […]
Omega upper Ω or lower ω symbols in Word and Office
Type the Greek letter Omega in upper case Ω or lower case ω in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Omega (uppercase Ω / lowercase ω) is the twenty fourth and final letter of the Greek alphabet. It is used to often denote the last or ultimate […]
Flowing column text in Word with break-out or sidebar
Sometimes there’s more than one way to do something in Microsoft Word like having four blocks of text on a page with images or text breakout with flowing columns of text with a side-bar or break-out. “How can I do a magazine-like layout with four blocks of text, one in each corner with a box […]
Limitations of Word Sort feature for name sorting
Microsoft Word’s Sort feature is OK but has its limitations. We humans insist on variations of the simple ‘first and last’ name that confuse a computer. Here’s some name sorting traps and workarounds. For short lists, it’s probably enough to do a Word surname sort then manually adjust the list for any anomalies. Longer lists […]
