Back in 2002 I wrote an Access Archon article dealing with reference issues, among them the problem of certain references being upgraded when a database is opened in a higher version of Access, but not downgraded when it is again opened in a lower version. You might think that over the last 16 years Microsoft […]
There is a way to make a shortcut or menu button to jump directly to the Find dialog box, as compared to the Navigation pane which is now the default for Ctrl + F. Thanks to all the Office Watch readers who sent in the tip including: Karen, Ron, Geoff, Calvin and Alice. Also thanks […]
You can use Find combined with your own actions and easily switch between the Find and editing. That’s great for situations where a simple Replace command isn’t enough. Because Find results show up in the left-hand pane or dialog box, you can move between find results, change the text in or around each result before […]
Following on from our introduction ‘Find in Word’ here’s some Word Find tricks that you might find useful. Select and Find If you select some text in a document then use the Ctrl + F shortcut, Word will find other instances of the selection in the current document. Find blank lines Finding and removing blank […]
We’ve all seen the standard Find/Replace in Word, either the ‘new’ pane or the older dialog box. Like so much else in Word, there’s a lot more available than the obvious features. Here’s a look at some of tricks. Press Ctrl + F to start a Find. In recent versions of Word, the Navigation pane […]
When you type or paste a web link into Office, it normally converts it into a web link automatically. But occasionally that feature doesn’t work right. We found one example when researching the famous artist Roy Lichtenstein and one of his best known works. Click on the image to see the Wikipedia article about Whaam! […]
A friend is expecting a parcel via Fedex and got the email shown below, so they wondered if it was really from the courier company or not. This particular email got past both the Gmail and Outlook spam filters. We thought it was a good example to use of the tell-tale signs to look for […]
John Harcourt-Rigg writes …. “Could you tell me why Microsoft do not offer a similar discount programme for users of Microsoft Office 365 that users receive in USA. That is a discount for: Serving Members, and retired Military Veterans Australian VETS have served side by side with USA veterans in most international conflicts, have done, […]
UPDATE: we’ve totally updated this article see How to get a refund of Office 365 With the release of the ‘free’ Office for iPhone/iPad apps with many editing features, there’s probably some unhappy Office 365 subscribers out there. If you bought Office 365 for the editing features in Office for iPad or Office Mobile for iPhone, […]
Q: Arne Johnston writes that he has four phone number fields in a table, but that is not enough. How can he handle this better? A: For phone numbers, emails and other IDs, a separate linked table is best. I have one with just three fields: CompanyID (links to the main table), Description, and IDOrPhone. […]
Access Archon Column #234 By Helen Feddema Access versions: 2007-2013 Level: Intermediate Introduction Sometimes, when working on an Access subform, you will get the “Field Cannot be Updated” error (no error number), generally when typing the first character into a new record: The Help topic for this error is of little help, attributing the problem […]
As part of the Outlook for Mac release, Microsoft has indicated their Office for Mac plans. A new Office for Mac (Office 2015 for Mac?) will be released in the second half of 2015. Office 365 subscribers/renters will be able to switch to the new Office for Mac at no extra charge. There will also […]
Microsoft has released a new version of Outlook for Macintosh computers with new features but it’s not available to everyone. This Outlook is separate from Outlook 2011 that comes with Office 2011 for Mac. It’s called Outlook for Mac version 15 and is only available to Office 365 subscription/rental customers. Office 365 Personal, Home, University […]
These days, Outlook Categories are saved within the PST data file. If you move the PST to a new computer, the categories will move too. Exchange Server saves categories with each user mailbox and they show up automatically when you login (even with Outlook Web Access). Backup and Restore Even so, there’s occasions when it’s […]
The Office rumor mill has been running hot this week. Office for Android Plenty of rumors that Office for Android is coming soon, possibly in early November. If that’s the case it can’t come soon enough for Office users. If Office for Android is as good as Office for iPad then it will be a […]
Microsoft has really made Office 365 more compelling by raising their online OneDrive storage from 1 Terabyte to Unlimited for Office 365 subscribers. If you have Office 365 Personal, Home, University or Business account, the OneDrive storage limit will be effectively removed entirely. For Home subscribers, shared among several people, each account attached to the […]
An iOS 8 trap for iPad users who have an external video connection cable. Many people have a little plug-in for their iPad that lets them put the video on any HDMI display … like most monitors and TV sets. This is great for anyone who needs big screen support, for example with PowerPoint for […]
Outlook has had a Categories feature for a long time … here’s how you can use it and why. Categories let you group Outlook items (emails, contacts, calendar and tasks) into broad topic areas or subjects … all without moving from their original folders. They can be subjects that a normal Outlook search could not […]
While delving into the details of Office document properties, we found some curious anomalies. They aren’t major but worth keeping in mind if you use document properties in Word documents. When you enter a document property it should just add the text and the same document property will show the same text in each place […]
Document Properties is one of those long-standing parts of Office that is worth another look. It can be quite useful and not always in the ways that Microsoft intends. At first, document properties looks like a fixed and rigid feature with limited use. However it can be used in much wider and creative ways. Any […]
WinBeta is reporting that emails are going out to people who qualify for the next step in Office software testing. This marks a major step in the progress to yet another version of Office. A few months ago Microsoft asked people to ‘indicate interest’. Now they appear to have culled those requests and sent emails […]
While Microsoft Word lumbers along, there’s some interesting and genuinely creative word processors out there. We’re not talking about direct rivals to Microsoft Office 2013 like OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Kingsoft Office Free, Google Docs, iWork or earlier versions of Office. Instead we’ll look at software that takes a very different approach to putting words on the screen […]
Microsoft has announced the existence but not availability of a new part of Office, Microsoft Sway. https://sway.com/ Sway is a new way to make a web based presentations with text, images, video, social media integrated. It certainly looks interesting. We think of it as a 21st Century version of PowerPoint, aimed at a connected world […]
Microsoft has increased the maximum size for a single file on OneDrive to 10GB. That’s a sensible change since Office 365 customers now have a Terabyte (1,000GB) available online. The 10GB limit applies to files transferred via the desktop or mobile apps. Uploads via web browser seem to remain limited to 2GB (we’re inferring from […]
Microsoft has made it easier for students to get a free copy of the Microsoft Office suite with a major streamlining of their existing Student Advantage program. How to get the free Office The student (13 years and older) has to be enrolled at a school which has MS Office licenced for all faculty and […]
More than a few Outlook users have seen this error message “The Microsoft Exchange administrator has made a change that requires you quit and restart Outlook” Problem is, the Microsoft message is lying! All too often Outlook users restart Outlook, even restart the computer, but the same message keeps appearing. Grrrrrr. Happily you can click […]
The Verge has been given a look at the next release of Microsoft Office, most likely called Office 2015, and a few of its features. This was a calculated ‘leak’ by Microsoft of selected images in advance of their big ‘Windows 9’ splash on 30 September. We’ve seen these selective leaks too many times before […]
In Windows 8.1 for Microsoft Office users we have an entire chapter on the OneDrive features – the good and the bad. We include the policy and registry settings necessary to disable OneDrive entirely in Windows 8.1. But is it a good idea to entirely remove OneDrive features? Microsoft does ram OneDrive in the face […]
In our recent article about simple Excel PivotTables we made a passing reference to the Data | Filter command for lists. Here’s how it works. Take any Excel worksheet that has lists with headings on the top row. Go to the Data tab and click the Filter button. This adds extra pull-down menus to each […]
The famous American ‘Can Do’ spirit takes on a new meaning at Detroit Fire Stations. Callouts to emergencies are sent to the fire stations by fax … yes, you read that right … fax. And it gets worse … When the fax arrives, paper comes out of the printer, hits a soda can with metal […]
Microsoft is getting near a ‘contempt of court’ citation in their court case against the US government over email privacy. The case began when Microsoft received a search warrant for emails of a customer. The emails are on a Microsoft server in Ireland. Microsoft is challenging the US law which allows the US authorities access […]
Choosing the sort type is really important and Word doesn’t always guess correctly. Office-Watch.com reader Peter M. reminds us that choose the sort type is really important: Text, Number or Date. “I just thought it worth pointing out that, for example 8, 70, 600 would sort in one order as Text and the reverse order […]
The latest updates to Office for iPad are good for Microsoft marketing but not existing customers. Microsoft has just released updates to their Office for iPad apps (Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad). What’s new and fixed for Office 365 customers? Nothing …. If you’re already an Office 365 renter/subscriber there’s nothing new at all. […]
The last man on the moon is missing from Microsoft Office. Let the conspiracy theories begin! The last man to walk on the moon, Captain Eugene Cernan, is a notable omission from the Microsoft Office dictionary. Update: as of November 2015 we’re delighted to see that Gene Cernan is now in the Microsoft Office 2016 […]
Dropbox plays ‘catch up’ on OneDrive and Google but still lose the cloud storage lead. And there’s a competitor that might beat them all. Dropbox has announced price decreases / storage increases to match offerings from Microsoft and Google. The lowest level of paid Dropbox is ‘Pro’ for $9.99 a month or $99 per year. […]
How to sort a list using a hidden or unseen list in Word. Sometimes you want to sort a list in a way that isn’t apparent to the reader. To continue our Apollo theme, here’s a list of the twelve men who walked on the moon with the order they stepped onto the surface. To […]
You can hide a column in Word, all it takes is a little trickery. Sometimes you want to hide a table column in a Word document but according to Microsoft you can’t do it. Here’s how to do it anyway. It’s true that there’s no explicit ‘hide column’ option like in Excel but you can […]
In-depth and clever tricks with sorting in Word. Following our look at different alphabetical orders, here’s a look at the sorting options in Word. You can sort paragraphs, lists and tables in a Word document. Select the list or paragraphs then choose Home | Paragraph | Sort. For tables there’s similar sort options are at […]
Which version of alphabetical order does Microsoft Word use? I thought that alphabetical order was, well, alphabetical order. That’s what I was taught at school and apparently I was taught wrong. There are at least three ways, two used by dictionaries, another by Microsoft and that’s for English alone! Reading Sue Butler’s delightful book ‘The Aitch […]
The ‘Modern’ version of OneNote gets Ink highlighting, Printing and PDF insertion. There’s a new version of OneNote for Windows 8 out today with some ‘new’ features that help it catch up ‘real’ OneNote for PC or Mac At this stage let’s be clear, we’re talking about the OneNote app for Windows 8 in Modern/Metro […]