Sort a list of names by surname or more in Word
Microsoft Word sorting is more powerful than it appears, with a few extra clicks you can sort last names or anything else in a list. Sort is one of those Word features that’s been around for a long time. These days it’s tucked away on Home tab in the Paragraph group. Select a list or […]
Converting SVG into JPG, PNG or other raster image format
Converting SVG icons into JPG is essential for older Word and Office versions that don’t have native icon/SVG support. Here’s some options for conversion or sourcing alternatives. SVG’s are great with many advantages for Office 365 and Office 2021/2019 users. Not everyone has the latest Microsoft Office or shares documents with others who have earlier […]
Make your own ‘handwritten’ letters with Word
Microsoft Word has almost all you need to make ‘hand written’ notes and letters for a fraction of the cost of a special service. Dig into some of the lesser known Word font and line spacing settings to get that ‘written by hand’ effect. The New York Times has a report on Bond – a […]
Type Phi uppercase Φ or lower φ in Word and Office
Insert the Phi uppercase Φ, and Phi lowercase φ / φ symbols in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Phi (uppercase Φ / lowercase φ / φ) is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. The uppercase symbol has various uses, such as the cumulative distribution function of standard normal deviation in statistics. The lowercase symbol has […]
Word documents might write themselves and more
Microsoft is working on extending OpenAI features like ChatGPT to help people write Word documents based on a short suggestion. And there’s a lot more possible given Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, even a koala poem ‘written’ by Dorothy Parker. Office Watch has been looking at ChatGPT’s ability to write Office VBA programming code (with mixed […]
Up arrow ↑ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
How to insert the Upwards arrow ↑ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The upwards arrow ↑ symbol is used for various purposes. It can notate a mathematical symbol for ‘undefined’, for very large integers or in medical notation it can mean increased. Of course, there are plenty of uses in graphics and design elements especially […]
Banana 🍌 emoji in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Banana 🍌 emoji into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. There’s also a Banana icon in modern Office apps. How Banana 🍌 looks in different fonts. Only two Segoe fonts support the Banana emoji; Segoe UI emoji (color or black) and Segoe UI Symbol. […]
More adventures with Office VBA and AI
Get ChatGPT or Copilot to show working Office VBA code to select and open a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document. It’s an example of how to work with ChatGPT to get the code you need and its limitations. In episode 1 of this saga, Office Watch showed how to use ChatGPT to make sample Office […]
Sigma upper Σ or lower σ case symbols in Word and Office
How to insert the Sigma upper case Σ and Sigma lower case σ symbols in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Sigma (uppercase Σ / lowercase σ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In mathematics, the uppercase sigma symbol is used as an operator for summation, […]
Make a Word text box with rounded corners
A Microsoft Word text box can have rounded corners instead of the default square corners. It’s remarkably easy once you know the simple trick. Word Text Boxes always start with square corners, no matter which default you choose from the gallery. But once it’s inserted, a Word text box can be transformed many different shapes […]
Double Dagger ‡ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Insert the Double Dagger ‡ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Double Dagger ‡ symbol is used to mark a third footnote after the asterisk and dagger in a Word document. How Double Dagger ‡ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Double Dagger […]
Read Aloud a doc in Word for iPhone or iPad
Word 365 Mobile for iPhone and iPad have Read Aloud or Speak options to make a voice read the document to you. The Microsoft Office options are almost the same for both devices. Read Aloud in iOS is similar to the feature in Word for Windows with the same little control panel and options. It […]
Choices for formatting fields in Word Mail Merge
How to change the look of Word mail merge data like dates and dollar amounts to exactly what you want to see in the documents. Nancy M asks: “I try to merge data (such as amount, PO#, to whom, as well as the date) from an Excel database. In the Excel database the amount cells […]
Percentages that look right in a Word Mail Merge
How can you put percentages into a Word mail merge? There are several methods including the one we like because it’s reliable and simple. Following our article on importing Excel data into a Word mail merge, here are the options for using percentages. Excel might show a percentage but the number stored is a fraction. […]
Easily learn and make Office VBA with AI
ChatGPT or Copilot can be used to learn the basics of Microsoft Office VBA coding with examples made to order. Here’s some VBA made by ChatGPT for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and some of its mistakes. ChatGPT or Copilot will take a simple request and returns some text. People have used it to write […]
Hide any footnotes and endnotes in a Word doc
Hiding Footnotes or Endnotes in a Microsoft Word document is possible but needs a little trickery. Maybe you want a ‘clean’ version of the document without the clutter of notes. Or maybe the footnotes/endnotes are your own references for sources of information not intended for others to see. Ideally there should be options to print […]
