Why are three symbols censored by Microsoft Windows and Office?
There are three symbols that Microsoft won’t put in their fonts for Windows and Office. They are obscure and you’re unlikely to need them. It’s an interesting bit of trivia and example of the differing corporate cultures and judgements. (This article includes an image that might offend some people. NSFW, as they say). There’s a […]
Typing both Tilde ~ ∼ symbols in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
How to insert either of the Tilde ~ ∼ symbols into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Tilde ∼ symbol is easy on some keyboards but for other keyboards, there’s no specific key for Tilde. The two Tilde symbols There are TWO tilde symbols in the […]
Where did WordArt go after Word 2007?
Microsoft loves tinkering with WordArt and in Word 2010 the entire feature was expanded to Text Effects and split into two features on different tabs. Here’s how to find all the old WordArt features plus a lot more. Back in Office 2007 there was one WordArt feature on the Insert tab. It was quite limited […]
Turn on or off the new look Office 365 for Windows
The new look Office 365 (and Office 2021) is coming. For the moment you might have the option to try it or not. Here’s how. Look for the megaphone If a megaphone appears on an Office app title bar, you can try the new look Office for Windows. Click on the icon to open the […]
2001: A Space Odyssey and font kerning
We’ve looked at design and typography in 2001: A Space Odyssey and how to use the ‘2001’ look in Microsoft Office. Two readers asked about some curious kerning in our version of the title font.Maybe you’re not interested in the fine detail of the text in a fifty year old film? Fair enough. We’re going […]
Word tables for formatting magic
Use Word tables to do formatting tricks, make complex formats easily and solve Word formatting problems. There’s more to Word tables than just showing grids of information like this: Tables have all sorts of little tricks in them and let you do clever things in Word. Here’s a look at some of those tricks … […]
Up Down Arrow ↕ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Up Down Arrow ↕ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Up Down Arrow ↕ symbol is a vertical line with arrowheads on both ends, pointing up and down. How Up Down Arrow ↕ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Up Down Arrow ↕ looks in common Office fonts. Up Down Arrow ↕ codes These are the […]
Pantone 2022 color in your Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Pantone has announced their “Color of the Year” for 2022 and, as usual, we’ll explain how to use those exact colors in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. For 2022, the new color will also be appearing in Microsoft products with a nice PowerPoint template with extra color palettes. The color of 2022 is … Very […]
Black Chess Queen ♛ symbol in Word, PowerPoint and Office
Insert the Black Chess Queen ♛ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Black Chess King ♛ symbol is useful for users that want to represent the chess piece as a symbol, rather than an image. Or just a generic crown icon. How Black Chess Queen ♛ looks in different fonts. Examples of how Black Chess Queen ♛ looks in common […]
Action Pen is editing by drawing in Microsoft Word
The Ink Editor button in Word 365 has gone, replaced with the ‘Action Pen’ on the Draw tab in Word 365. Some of the ink gestures have quietly changed since the original release of the Action Pen. The ‘Action Pen’ is now on right-side of the Draw tab | Drawing Tools. The Word 365 for […]
Great Word style renaming and alias tricks
Rename Word styles or give them alternative names/aliases. Sometimes you’ve got no choice but to make an alias because the original style name is fixed. Any style can have an alternative name which appears in the Style Gallery. That’s a useful trick because there’s limited space for the style name on the Gallery and the […]
Make the Style Gallery work better for you in Word
The Word Style Gallery doesn’t have to be left the way Microsoft supplies it. Fix the Gallery to make it work better for you. Microsoft Office often has menus and options aren’t designed for the customer. Instead they are setup for Microsoft’s needs in ‘out of the box’ demonstrations or to showcase as many choices […]
All 14 separate Style lists and settings in Word
Microsoft Word, since 2007, has developed a confusing mish-mash of lists, galleries and dialog boxes to view, select and manage styles. We’ve received a few questions about finding style options so this Office-Watch.com article will try to make sense of all fourteen places. It’s a guided tour to the various Style setup, configuration and management […]
Who and how to get the new look Office for Windows
The gradual rollout of the new look Office for Windows (Microsoft 365 and Office 2021) continues. More users, but not all, can now try the revamped Office interface. We’ve had a lot of feedback from Office Watchers about the new look. Some approve, others definitely don’t. Some users are eager to try the new look […]
Approximately Equal To ≅ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Approximately Equal To ≅ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Approximately Equal To ≅ symbol with a curvy line above the usual = symbol is commonly used within Mathematics to refer to approximate equality between two values, congruence or isomorphism. Not to […]
Word: get a list of styles in a document
Word lets us down when it comes to viewing a document’s styles and how they link together. The only way to see a detailed list of styles is to Print them! In the print pane, choose the drop-down list under Print All Pages and scroll down until you see the little known ‘Styles’ option. (Tip: […]
