There’s a little trap in Excel when figuring out the number of days between two dates. Excel has one way, but the real world has two others. It’s easy to forget the differences and it can matter when the date calculation is close to some limit, for example in a
Some readers may know that the Office Watch head honcho, Peter Deegan, goes to the famous Edinburgh Festivals each year. Here’s some shows he’s looking forward to seeing and a few sadly MIA in 2025. Get the most for less money (and hassle) at the Edinburgh Festivals Mitch Benn Mitch
Microsoft’s relentless push of their new but still incomplete Outlook for Windows continues but it’s still possible to get the ‘real’ Outlook (classic). These days new installs of Microsoft 365 for Windows deliver Outlook (new) by default. Outlook (classic) is only available ‘on request’ if you know how to get
Good news for Excel on Mac users who like to “live dangerously” with more than one worksheet at a time. Excel for Mac is finally catching up with Windows to view multiple worksheets from the same workbook side-by-side. No more tabbing back and forth like you’re playing Whack-A-Mole with your
Ever felt like your PowerPoint comments had a mind of their own, wandering off when you moved content around? At long last, PowerPoint has learned a new trick: keeping comments ‘sticky’ attached to their content, no matter where you paste it. Previously, moving content in PowerPoint was like playing a
A tech enthusiast named has achieved the improbable: running the Linux operating system within Microsoft Excel. It’s a clever trick that no-one has been asking for. The 18-year-old named NSG650 created a project, aptly titled “Linux In Excel,” transforms the spreadsheet application into a minimalist Linux terminal. Opening the provided
Data nerds can have a lot of fun with the Australian election which has a lot of Excel compatible data for the 2025 and past elections. Daily updated stats as 2025 vote counting continues. Australian federal elections are run by an independent body, the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC manages
Skype is rolling out a snazzy new Dial Pad feature as the way to make calls to phone numbers, if you’re a savvy customer with Microsoft 365 plan, an active calling subscription or Skype Credit. Microsoft promo hides some important details. Skype is closing down and its ‘computer to computer’
Microsoft 365 users free Skype phone call benefit now lasts until March 2026 but, as usual, there’s a catch. Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans include 60 minutes of calls to many global phone numbers. That’s been a subscription benefit for many years. That benefit continues until 3 March 2026 even though
Importing text files into Excel can sometimes lead to unexpected data conversions—like turning product codes into dates or trimming leading zeros from IDs. To avoid these issues, Excel’s Get & Transform feature (also known as Power Query) offers a more reliable method for importing text data. You can ensure your
Excel 365 and Excel 2024 let you control automatic text data conversions with stop mistakes creeping into your sheets. Whether you’re opening a CSV file or pasting from the web, you can now decide how Excel handles your text, numbers, and dates—finally putting you in charge of your own data.
Microsoft has two mobile apps with the “Copilot” AI name. “Microsoft 365 Copilot” and “Copilot” apps for iPhone, iPad or Android. What’s the difference and which is best for you? Microsoft’s Copilot hype “Your AI companion for everyday life” (see below) always reminds me of “Your plastic pal who’s fun
Ever record or type a note thinking you’ll “sort it out later” — and then never do? Word for iPhone/iPad now has “Use Copilot“, a way to convert a voice recording or text notes and turn them into neatly organized documents in a style of your choosing. It’s worth a
AI systems have got a lot better at making and fixing Microsoft Office VBA code. We compare Copilot and ChatGPT to see which is best choice for coping with the complexities of Office VBA. Early in 2024 we tried asking ChatGPT for Office VBA code in some simple examples, the
Google offers a great variety of free open-source fonts that can be used in Microsoft Office, Windows or Mac. You just need to know the right trick to access them for Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Over 1,800 Google Font families There are 877 1,816 Google Font families currently available at
Tired of Comic Sans but still want a casual, friendly font? Microsoft Office has better built-in alternatives or there’s many other fonts that keeps the charm without the cringe. Here’s a quick guide to upgrading your documents. The Wall Street Journal has a history of Comic Sans, the font that
Display scores or ratings visually in Excel using solid and hollow emojis or symbols, you can use a combination of simple formulas and conditional formatting. This approach is useful for representing ratings, progress, or performance in an intuitive and engaging way. With a little Excel trickery, you can show multi-colored
Microsoft 365 Copilot is improving their document summary feature in Word across Windows, Mac, and the web for some customers. Still no mention of the feature that Word Copilot users really want! Copilot Summary appears at the top of Word documents, whether you like it or not. It can be
Check out this clever Python tool that converts Word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoint decks and PDFs into a plain text format. Markitdown is a Python library released by Microsoft via Github, converts many documents into nearly plain text (called MarkDown). It’ll convert all these formats into text. Some conversions need
There’s a special new color called ‘Olo’ developed by scientists in Berkely, California. The nearest match to Olo is possible in Microsoft Office, including Word and PowerPoint. Olo can only be seen with help from a special laser that fires the color into the eye. It’s claimed to extend human
PowerPoint is getting a useful addition to its Copilot AI options, make a new slide with Copilot. The Home tab of PowerPoint 365 will have ‘New Slide with Copilot’. A Copilot enabled Microsoft 365 plan is necessary, obviously. Or there’s “Add a slide” on the Copilot icon top-left of a
Get the most from Microsoft’s Emoji collection with a wonderful app, the Fluent Emoji Gallery with many options and puts Microsoft’s own emoji efforts to shame. Microsoft’s Fluent Emoji collection are a great collection of 3D looking icons but they are a bear to find and use. Michał Łeptuch’s Fluent
The Startup Boost feature coming to Word 365 is really a sly trick by Microsoft. It’s a trick that anyone can do with any Office app and any version of Office. Startup Boost starts the app but hides it away. Word lurks in the background until the user clicks on
Startup Boost is a new way to make Microsoft Word 365 start faster. Here’s how it works and how to disable it. Startup Boost is a little tech trickery. Word 365 isn’t really getting faster, instead it’s being started in the background (aka preload) where it’ll lurk until needed. In
