Read Aloud in Word 365 and 2019 in depth
Read Aloud is the newer and better form of the old Speak feature from Word 2016-2010. It’s available in Word 365 and Word 2019. Read Aloud has more controls than the older Speak feature and it appears in more places within Word. The voice selection and settings in Windows are very different. Windows has the […]
Comment View change in Word and Office
Microsoft continues to tinker update the Comments part of Word with yet more changes coming in Word 365. We’ll explain the new Comments view plus look over some of the Comments features from recent years. At last, users get some control over how comments appear. Not a lot of control but some. For many years, […]
2020 – Year of the Icon?
2020 will be remembered for many things (big sigh) but from a design viewpoint, it could be the Year of the Icon. Many of those graphics are available either in Office directly or imported from elsewhere – we’ll show you both. Everywhere you go there are signs reminding us of the new life we have […]
Hear a document with Speak in Word 2016, 2013 and 2010
Word 2016, Word 2013 and Word 2010 for Windows all have a ‘text to speech’ or ‘Speak’ feature to read back a document. It’s hiding away behind the ribbon but works fine once you’ve found it. Speak button can be put on the Quick Access Toolbar or Ribbon. Select some text or Ctrl + A […]
Quick Fix for Office display problems
How to quickly fix display problems in Microsoft Office. When Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook don’t show up on the screen correctly. It doesn’t happen often but occasionally Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook open but as all grey. Clicking around the screen displays just a ribbon or menu but not the whole program. If other […]
Word 365 new feature mystery
Additions and changes to Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel etc) are often not explained properly beyond a short paragraph. Then there are cases where even that explanation is a mystery. We’re obliged to Hannah J. from Munich for asking about this item on the Microsoft site from April 2019 which we overlooked. From What’s new in […]
Nekofont – the cat font
Headline your next document with cats! Looking for something really different to headline your next document or presentation – why not use ‘Neko Font’ the font made out of cats. Strictly this isn’t a font you can download, instead you type text into a web page, choose the size (Large, Medium, Small or Tiny) and […]
Surface Earbuds with Office
Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds are out now and have some extras for Word, Outlook and PowerPoint users. When we look past the hype there’s more than a few special conditions to keep in mind. Surface Earbuds have been some time coming, we first mentioned them about nine months ago. Now they are here, reviews have been […]
Word for iPhone gets reading mode
Word for iPhone now has a reading mode … at long last there’s a way to look through a document without the keyboard and other editing tools getting in the way. When a document is opened, it’s in read mode. No pesky keyboard or menus. The top line has Edit, Mobile View, Search, Share and […]
ICE – In Case of Emergency card in Word
Word can be used to fill in and make an ICE or In Case of Emergency card. Our newsletter subscribers can download the Word document, ready to fill in and use. ICE cards are known to paramedics and emergency rooms the world over. An unconscious or uncommunicative patient is searched for identification and other information. […]
Animated GIF’s coming to Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Animated GIF support is coming (finally!) to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We discovered the new feature in a new Insiders build, Microsoft hasn’t announced anything. Here’s an animated GIF playing in Word 365. Paste or Insert an animated GIF now has play/pause buttons included (bottom left corner). The animation starts playing automatically when inserted. […]
Teams gets personal for families and groups
Microsoft has expanded Teams to allow personal groups like families, clubs and groups to use the service. Within Teams it’s possible to text chat, save and edit documents, share calendars and lists. A family could have a grocery list to which anyone can add items before the next supermarket run. A photo gallery of images […]
Numbered List with Only Odd or Even Numbers in Word
If you want a list of numbered items using only odd or even numbers; how do you do that? Are you thinking of Word’s automatic numbering feature? The answer is “Yes” if you add little Word trickery. What exactly you need to do is use the Numbering features but leave the even (or Odd) numbers […]
When Microsoft’s AI takes over, watch out
When Microsoft announced it was firing news human editors and replacing them with ‘Artificial Intelligence’, it was only a matter of time before the AI system would get it wrong. No-one expected it to happen so soon, even before all the humans had left the building. There’s a lesson in that for all Microsoft Office […]
What’s new in Office for Windows – May 2020
Some useful new features have now been rolled out to the public versions of Microsoft 365 (Office 365) for May 2020. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook all have improvements. Two we’ve already told you about, the other is new. Stock Images, Cutout People and Stickers Or what Microsoft calls “New images to bring your documents […]
Recovering lost Word for Mac documents
If you’ve lost or accidently deleted a Word for Mac document (or Excel or PowerPoint) there are various places to look for it some might not occur to you. This article is also helpful if you’re trying to find and delete any files or documents that must be removed for privacy reasons. Time Machine MacOS […]