Quickly make Word Indexes with concordance or AutoMark
A more efficient way to mark index entries in Microsoft Word is with a concordance or AutoMark file. It’s a separate document with a table of words to be found in the document coupled with their index entries. See Simple Indexing in Microsoft Word for an intro to Word’s indexing features. Concordance or AutoMark? The […]
Simple Indexing in Microsoft Word
We’re going to talk about creating indexes in Microsoft Word. ‘Real’ books often have an index at the back which Word can create for you. An index is a list of terms or topics that can be found within the document. Microsoft Word has the ‘fixings’ to make an index and automatic options to take […]
How we made the ‘Adjust your monitor’ sign
Re-creating the “Don’t be a Spock” sign in Word wasn’t hard especially since the original sign seen at the laboratory was probably made in Microsoft Word. Here are some comments on the design. The standard Arial font was used throughout. The two images and captions are in a 2 x 2 cell table with spacing […]
The case of the missing file extension
You’ve received a document, but when you try to open it, the file stubbornly won’t appear! We explain how to fix it. Our editor-in-chief saw that problem in an Internet cafe‚ in Ketchikan, Alaska and was surprised when neither the manager of the store nor the cruise computer ‘expert’ knew the answer. As you probably know, […]
Black Right Pointing index ☛ symbol in Office
How to insert the Black Right Pointing index ☛ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Black Right Pointing index ☛ symbol can be used for pointing a direction on a sign or as a different bullet symbol. There’s also a similar, lesser known symbol Black […]
Microsoft 365 cloud outages, what happened and what you can do
Another bad week for Microsoft’s customers who rely on the Microsoft 365 hosting and other cloud technologies. There were global outages for more than half a day in Teams, Azure, Xbox Live and many other Microsoft Cloud services. All should be restored by the time you read this but there are still questions about what […]
Right-click menus now in Office for iPad
The Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPad are getting right-click menus when there’s a external mouse or trackpad connected. It’s a good move with more iPads being used with separate keyboard & mouse as a mini-PC. Sadly the new menus aren’t all they could be. Right-click (Microsoft calls a ‘secondary click’) on an image […]
Broken Vertical Bar ¦ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Broken Vertical Bar ¦ in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Broken Vertical Bar ¦ symbol was sometimes used in computing. These days there’s no specific use for the broken vertical bar but it’s good to keep in mind as a design alternative to […]
Dictation updates in Office 365 for Mac
Microsoft has added new features and interface to Dictation in Word for Mac. Voice commands, auto punctuation and even a !@$#$ profanity filter. It’s almost the same as Dictation in Word 365 for Windows. A different shortcut key ‘tis all. Clicking the Dictation button on the Home tab or pressing Option + F1 now opens […]
Windows fixes for Office and printing problems
The March 2021 Windows patches have caused at least two major bugs (sorry ‘issues’) that can affect Office users or anyone trying to print. Here’s the fixes and workarounds. Printing bug This is a nasty bug caused by the Windows patch KB5000802 not being properly tested before release. An update to vaguely ‘improve security’ in […]
Office docs to avoid at all costs, the old formats
There are types of Office documents that you should NOT open, even if they come from someone you trust. Here’s the full list of file extensions for the older Office document formats which are much more likely to be ‘malicious’ docs from hackers and criminals. We’ve talked about the risks of receiving hacked documents using […]
The case of the disappearing Office 365 UserVoice
Without notice, the main forum for Office customers to tell Microsoft what they want has disappeared. No explanation of what’s happened and what, if anything, will replace it. For many years, Microsoft has boasted about their UserVoice pages such as https://office365.uservoice.com/ but it’s gone dark. All the years of suggestions and discussions have been deleted, […]
More changes for Word’s Spelling and Grammar
No need to right-click to see spelling and grammar suggestions in Word and Outlook 365. It’s changing so only a single left click will show the suggestions, corrections and more. On the downside, fewer options are initially displayed. Useful features are now multiple clicks away and hidden from view. It’s part of Microsoft unstated policy of […]
Word gets YouTube and other embedded content
Word online (in a web browser) can now embed live web content like videos from YouTube or a quiz from Forms Embedded content is fully interactive within the Word document. Play the video, fill in the form/quiz. No special command or ribbon button necessary. Just paste in the web link, Word will embed the content […]
A new way to convert a Word document to PowerPoint
Word online (web browser) is getting a way to convert a Word document into a PowerPoint presentation. For the moment it’s available as a preview feature in Word online. See if you have it at File | Transform. Transform document to presentation Start from File | Transform | Transform to PowerPoint presentation First, choose a […]
Not Equal ≠ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Type the Not Equal ≠ sign into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Not Equal ≠ symbol is used in equations, obviously but it’s also handy shorthand in a heading or slide. The official Unicode name is ‘Not Equal To’. How Not Equal ≠ looks in different fonts. Here’s some examples of how Not Equal ≠ looks in […]
