A reader problem tells us the symptoms of and solution to an unusual problem in Word 2002 related to having too many fonts installed. Office Watch reader Francine Millman, founder of PROMPT Consulting, writes: “Recently, I had a problem in Word 2002 whereby every single time I went to insert
There is an even-easier way to bypass “Password for Forms” passwords in Word. Last week I told you about the bogus “Word security exposure” that made it into the computer press, when writers should’ve known better. In a nutshell, a very bright guy discovered that he could zap out a
Will Microsoft’s new XML patent filings affect you? Our friends in Redmond say that “Microsoft may have patents and/or patent applications that are necessary for you to license in order to make, sell, or distribute software programs that read or write files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the
Piecemeal Office 2003 patches continue to roll in at a breathtaking pace. Piecemeal Office 2003 patches continue to roll in at a breathtaking pace. In addition to the Excel 2003 RAND() function patch that you have to beg for, there’s a raft of Word 2003 patches, all bundled into one
Another major tech news organization has picked up and flogged another red herring about a hack to Word’s password-protection feature. Another major tech news organization has picked up and flogged another red herring. “A simple hack to Word’s password-protection feature means documents may not be as secure as users believe.
The debate is on as to whether or not Microsoft “borrowed” the Word 2003 Reading Layout View from Eric Wilson. You tell me. Take a look at the screen shots and tell me if you think Microsoft, uh, “borrowed” Word 2003’s Reading Layout View from Eric Wilson. I dunno how
Microsoft’s “Remove Hidden Data” add-in is currently a mess. I warned ya last week. Microsoft’s “Remove Hidden Data” add-in is a mess. The add-in is supposed to strip all that potentially embarrassing hidden text out of Office files. In fact, it does a pretty good job most of the time,
Microsoft has posted the program that removes the two swastikas from the Office 2003 Bookshelf Symbol 7 font. Microsoft posted the program that removes the two swastikas from Office 2003’s Bookshelf Symbol 7 Font that I mentioned in a previous article in Office Watch. In fact, the tool does more than
Microsoft have rewritten the Excel 2003 memory manager so that it is no longer limited. You can now make serious use of all the RAM on your PC, at least up to a gigabyte. There’s some very good news about Excel 2003, and I didn’t want to let it slip
PDF isn’t a perfect format. But it beats the living daylights out of the DOC format for any files posted on the Internet. In the course of my DOC File Dumpster Diving (I like the ring of that phrase!), I recommended using PDF for any files posted on the Internet.
What’s causing Outlook 2003 to exit with the message “Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot. Do you want to save those changes?” If WinFax Pro is the source of the Outlook 2003 hang problem, what’s causing Outlook 2003 to exit with the message “Changes have been
The folks in Redmond have finally released a program which apparently removes hidden data from Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. After months – or is it years? – of kvetching from this corner, and dozens of documents that Microsoft posted on its own website laden with potentially embarrassing
We try to uncover why Outlook 2003 won’t quit for some users and why the icon remains in the System Tray. In a previous article, Office Watch reader BT told us about his problems getting Outlook 2003 to quit. BT clicked the “X” in the upper right corner, he clicked File
We show you how to clean up after people who inevitably type two spaces after every period – quickly and easily. My last missive on co-opting the “backwards P thingy” button on the Standard toolbar brought an avalanche of mail. And I was shocked! Many of you took me to
We take you through a few of the more common sources of unexpected information in Word documents. Office Watch last week and again this week exposed all sorts of hidden information in Word documents posted on the Internet. I’ve heard from many of you, wondering how we got into this sorry
Microsoft has released the spec for WordprocessingML (WordML), SpreadsheetML (ExcelML) and FormTemplate Schemas (for InfoPath) to the world. Here’s another news story that I just don’t get. Microsoft has released the spec for “WordprocessingML” (WordML), SpreadsheetML (ExcelML) and FormTemplate Schemas (for InfoPath) to the world. Cool. But the stories! “Microsoft
No doubt you’ve heard by now that Office 2003 ships with a font that contains two swastikas. (I think Reuters first published the story, but apparently Microsoft itself fed the story to the press). Apologies have been made all around, MS has promised a tool for removing the offending characters
We take a secondary look at one reader’s field code related problem. Okay. I blew it. What can I say? In the last edition of Office for Mere Mortals I told you about my friend and his untimely encounter with a weird {HYPERLINK …} thingy in one of his Word documents.
Microsoft isn’t the only group that’s waving its dirty laundry in the wind. Last week I talked about the importance of stripping “hidden” information from Word documents before posting them on the Internet. I took you through a bunch of examples of docs on Microsoft’s own site that included detailed
A reader writes in with a problem related to field codes in Word. An old friend – I last saw him at Comdex when Comdex was Comdex, if ya know what I mean – wrote with an interesting question: “As usual, I have a weird Word question that’s baffling me,
Word hides important, personal information inside its documents. You can get rid of some of the information most of the time – but it’s very, very difficult to delete potentially embarrassing information all of the time. I’m astounded at how many people just don’t get it. Word hides important, personal
If you’re going to send a .doc file to someone, or post it on the Web, seriously consider converting it to PDF before you let it go. Three years ago, I recommended that you convert your documents to PDF format before handing them out. I’ve mentioned PDF a dozen times
Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private information in file headers which people would sometimes rather not share. The British government of Tony Blair just learned this lesson the hard way. A few weeks ago, Richard Smith – whom many of you will recall as a tireless defender of
We continue our look at the bogus “Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert” report. All of you regular Office Watch readers know that Microsoft hired a PR firm to come up with a completely bogus testimonial – “Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert” – which MS posted on