Two new Windows PowerToys are especially useful for many Microsoft Office users. One is a better way to type accented characters, the other grabs text from images. Quick Accent, Text Extractor and, to a lesser extent, Screen Ruler are all additions to the PowerToys collection that can be useful for
Your deadline is in four hours, you’ve got pages to write and BAM! a letter key breaks on your keyboard …. What do you do? There are at least six different workarounds available in Word, Windows and Mac. A broken key happened to Colin Chambers, a University of Buffalo student
Make the same drive letter or patch appear for the same removable drive, plugged into Windows computers. Keep Microsoft Office Open menus working for external drives. Jenny N writes: “I have a problem with Word when working with documents on my flash drive. If I insert the drive days later
Microsoft has released a fix for the ‘Follina’ security hole in Windows which was being exploited via hacked Office documents. We explained the Follina hack and long delay before Microsoft finally acknowledged the problem. The security hole is in Windows or specifically the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (msdt) but it’s
Windows 11 is getting a way to view your Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and Office 2019 licence details within the Windows Settings app. At Windows Settings | Accounts | Your Microsoft account … it shows a lot of the details from the Office.com account web pages. Windows 11 for Microsoft
The Windows Emoji Panel has its problems which are amply demonstrated by a common symbol that’s hiding in the long symbol lists – the Pi symbol 𝜋 . We’ll explain where it’s hiding and generally grumble about this part of Windows 11 and 10. The Emoji Panel is in Windows
Type the OK Hand sign 👌 into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. OK Hand sign 👌 emoji is mostly used to symbolize approval, agreement, all that is well but there are other meanings. Scuba Divers use 👌 hand sign to
Microsoft replaced the Paperclip emoji with their dreaded Clippy in Windows 11. Here’s how to get a proper paperclip symbol instead of the Microsoft branded alternative. We’ve already explained how the Windows 11 emoji panel has a paperclip with eyes and a smile. Which might be OK, but what if
The dread Clippy, the paperclip with eyes, is still hiding in Windows and Office. The Windows 11 emoji panel and Segoe UI Emoji font have Clippy instead of a plain old paperclip that other apps use. Use the Emoji Panel in Windows 11 (Win + . ) and search for
Character Map is a Windows feature that’s very useful for Microsoft Office users. It lets you insert symbols and, importantly, find them which is not possible within apps like Word. Windows Character Map has been around for as long as we’d like to remember and it’s mostly done right. If
There’s a simple and unobtrusive way to find a missing mouse pointer in both Windows 11 and Windows 10 using the Find My Mouse utility. Sometimes that mouse cursor seems to disappear. Nothing catches your eye when you moving the mouse around. There is a nice and easy solution using
Slipped into the bottom of a long Microsoft announcement was news about which versions of Microsoft Office would not be supported on Windows 11. According to Microsoft, Office 2013 is not supported on Windows 11. With that little snippet of news, here’s the list of Office releases that ARE supported
A clever techie, Rudy Ooms, has found a worrying bug in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The Wipe and Fresh Start options are supposed to remove all user data from a computer but leave really obvious files behind and unencrypted. The problem is the Windows feature which is advertised as
There’s a quick way to clone or duplicate an existing file in Windows 11 so you can make a new, similar document. Quite often a new document is based on an existing one, for example a fresh invoice for the same things each month. Or a proposal to a new
There are three symbols that Microsoft won’t put in their fonts for Windows and Office. They are obscure and you’re unlikely to need them. It’s an interesting bit of trivia and example of the differing corporate cultures and judgements. (This article includes an image that might offend some people. NSFW,
Office 365 for Windows is getting the Mica effect in a coming release for Windows 11 users. What is Mica? How will affect Microsoft Office users? We’ll explain Mica ‘material’ (Microsoft’s pretentious noun), show you what it does and how (little) it matters to Office users. Also how to get
Windows lets you make the text cursor stand out on your screen. Additionally, you can edit the text cursor thickness to improve its visibility in Word, Outlook and anywhere you type. Changing the cursor is especially helpful in finding your place in Word. With the optional Text cursor indicator preview,
Make your extra fancy mouse cursors using a feature buried in Windows 11, Windows 10 and earlier Windows too Download mouse pointer themes for free, from sites like Open Cursor Library. Microsoft has made the option to change your Pointer Icons a little tricky, it takes a few steps, but is fairly easy to manage once you’ve downloaded your theme. As Microsoft has left little creativity when it comes
Microsoft PowerToys have fixed a glaring omission from Outlook, Windows and the Edge browser. PowerToys now lets Outlook preview PDF, Markdown and SVG attachments in the Reading Pane. For too long, the main way to get an Outlook preview of a PDF email attachment was to install the whole Adobe
There’s another really cool way to check what a file really is, even if the file extension is missing or wrong. It works for many file types including Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, both old and new formats as well as password protected docs. Thanks to Office Watcher, Bill G.
All about Windows 11 software and accessory compatibility, promises of better and fewer updates and our view on whether Windows 11 is worth switching. See all the Office-Watch.com coverage of Windows 11 Software and accessory compatibility Underneath the changed desktop lies much the same core technology that’s in Windows 10.
Windows 11 is now available to the public but in a very slow and gradual way. Here’s how to get Windows 11, upgrade precautions and, perhaps more important, whether it’s worth bothering to change from Windows 10. Office Watch’s opinion on Windows 11 Our advice – wait, there’s no need to rush into
From Tuesday 5 October 2021, a new look is be available to Microsoft 365 and Office 2021. Don’t worry, it’s not a major change. Everything on the tabs, ribbon and dialogs remains exactly where they are. Microsoft grandly calls it a ‘visual update’ we call the changes ‘a new coat
The hardware requirements for Windows 11 are surprisingly high especially the increased security requirements. Some brand-new computers, even Microsoft’s own high-priced Surface computers bought today might not be compatible with Windows 11. See all the Office-Watch.com coverage of Windows 11 Unlike previous major Windows releases, you can’t assume that a
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