We mourn the passing of Woody Leonhard, Office Watch co-founder, on 8 March 2025 at age 73. Back in 1996, Woody Leonhard and Peter Deegan teamed up to create “Woody’s Office Watch” (the precursor of Office Watch) as a way to spread accurate and detailed news about Microsoft Office. Woody
Microsoft recommends a strange method for converting Publisher files into Word documents. We tested this ‘approved’ trick to see if it works in the real world. Microsoft Publisher is ending in October 2026 and many people are wondering how to keep using their .pub files, especially Publisher 365 will stop
For the last three days (since 3rd March) the Apple Mail app for iPhone and iPad hasn’t always been able to connect to Microsoft hosted mailboxes. While Microsoft delays, here’s the fix they won’t mention. Since Monday, many Apple Mail users have been pestered with login requests for their Microsoft
Microsoft is ending their Publisher desktop publishing product completely. Here’s the vital details you need to know, including how to keep your Publisher software after the end date. Publisher is Microsoft’s desktop publishing software that’s been available since 1991 mostly as part of some Microsoft Office bundles but also sold
With Skype ending what are the choices for making cheap phone calls, especially saving money on international calls? The ability to link computers and devices to regular phone numbers is something that Skype excelled at. You could call phone numbers from a device or setup a phone number that people
Microsoft is dumping most of their Skype service in May 2025, ending a very useful option for people around the world, especially who use a regular phone for communication. Here’s the ending timeline, an important extension for Microsoft 365 customers and alternatives (official and others). Skype has been around since
Back in 2015 we were amazed and dismayed to discover a privacy gap in Microsoft Office. Seven years later Microsoft has done nothing to fix or warn customers about. The problem is with images inserted into Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The image ‘meta-data’ including GPS coordinates are retained with
Outlook (classic) for Windows, the one we’ve all used for many years has been dropped from some Microsoft 365 installations even though the replacement Outlook (new) is still a “work in progress”. Here’s how to still get the ‘real’ fully-functioning, classic Outlook. Outlook (new) is the eventual replacement for what’s
Adding barcodes and QR codes into Word documents and mail merges is remarkably easy though hidden from view for no good reason. There are two unlisted field codes that drop barcodes or QR codes into a Word document. No need for special fonts, calls to web sites, VBA code or
Microsoft Word in a browser now has Copilot appearing more often than before, making things worse for their paying customers. Stunningly ignoring customer complaints about Copilot interrupting Word documents, Microsoft has chosen to make their AI service MORE intrusive. If you thought Microsoft could not make Copilot worse in Microsoft
Those low-priced offers for Microsoft Office, under $60 for software that typically retails for hundreds, questions about their legitimacy. Are they genuine deals or scams designed take your money? We have examined some of these offers and their sources. We’ve all seen these offers for cheap software and games. We’ll
There are two new special Microsoft 365 plans for consumers called “Microsoft 365 Classic” that Microsoft only mentions in passing. We explain what it ‘Classic’ is, what it costs and how to get it. Microsoft 365 Classic is a hidden part of the changes to Microsoft 365 in early 2025,
Microsoft 365 customers around the world are waking up to a new look in their Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook apps. It’s part of Microsoft’s huge changes to Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans which include a very limited Copilot AI service and a big price rise. Microsoft 365 users
2025 is a special number, as various social media posts have pointed out. It can be calculated in some interesting ways like (20 + 25)2 = 2025. Naturally we had to convert these into Excel formulas. 2025 is 45 squared, in other words, a ”perfect square”. This last happened in
2025 promises to be ‘interesting’ for Microsoft 365 and Office users, not always in a good way. Here’s some of the predictable events. What I can guarantee in 2025 is more Copilot and Outlook (new) hype – some justified and some stretching credibility. Happy New Year! Office 2016 and Office
Some last minutes Christmas tips to make personal gift tags, unique for the receiver (especially kids) using avatars or stickers, Plus coloring in pages to keep the littlies occupied. Avatars Put an avatar of the receiver on their Christmas gifts as personal gift cards. Go to the Avatar page on
Skype has stopped their Skype Credits service which is bad news for Microsoft 365 consumers who took advantage of their monthly 60 minutes of free calls to worldwide phones. Without notice, Microsoft stopped both Skype Credits and Skype Numbers (incoming phone numbers to your Skype account). What’s now appearing at
With your annual Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscription, you get a fantastic perk: an hour of free Skype calls each month to many overseas destinations, and yes, that sometimes includes mobile phones! 📞🌍 Skype isn’t just for computer-to-computer calls, it can also make free or cheap calls to regular landline or mobile phone
Get Economic data or graphs from FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) to load into your Excel workbooks or PowerPoint slides. From unemployment rates to the price of potato chips. FRED has 825,000 data sets for the USA and around the world. Tip: search FRED for your country (Canada, United Kingdom,
My favorite Outlook calendar view is very useful but most people don’t know it’s there. See today and the next week in one screen. I rarely care what’s happened in the past, I want to see what’s happening in the near future. That’s why my ‘Go To’ calendar view is
Enter the Ctrl + – (minus) shortcut in Excel. This powerful shortcut instantly deletes entire rows or columns without any confirmation. But there’s hidden trickery going on and some misleading info online. Ctrl + – is commonly said to “delete the selected row or column” but, as usual, the reality
Yes, Microsoft Word lets you select vertical (up or down) text blocks. Most text selection in Word involves selecting horizontally – selecting a line or a paragraph of text. Sometimes, though, you need to select a vertical slab of text. To do that, hold down the Alt key while you
There’s a hidden trap in Microsoft Excel’s DateDif function that rarely gets a mention and is too easy to overlook. DateDif() is a long-standing Excel function that returns the duration between two dates. It’s not a ‘full’ Excel function because it was added for compatibility with Lotus 123 and has
A PowerPoint action button is a shape you can add to your slides, allowing you to hyperlink to another slide or webpage, play a sound, or trigger other actions. It’s an easy way to add interactivity and navigation to your presentation with very little effort. It’s also a way
