Did you know Windows quietly swaps out Helvetica font for Arial every time you open certain documents? This subtle substitution affects how text looks in Word, browsers, and more. Learn why Helvetica isn’t included in Windows, how Microsoft handles font replacements behind the scenes, and what you can do to
A viral post sparked debate over whether Microsoft Word’s grammar checker shows hidden bias, but the truth is more technical than cultural. Office Watch investigated and found that Word and Google Docs simply make different choices about what to flag in grammar suggestions. There’s no homophobia here, just decisions that
Microsoft’s new Copilot() function in Excel comes with real risks. When used incorrectly, Copilot() can produce misleading or nonsensical results that could compromise data accuracy and decision-making. Treat this AI feature with caution and Microsoft should add stronger safeguards and clearer warnings against misuse. It all started with this post
Want to show only the year, month, or day from an Excel date? We explain how to use the TEXT(), YEAR(), MONTH(), and DAY() functions or cell formatting to display or calculate date details efficiently. Learn when to use each method, which is fastest, and how your choice affects Excel
Microsoft is testing new Office icons for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that drop their signature “W,” “E,” and “P” letters. The minimalist redesign, currently seen in iPhone preview apps, aims for simplicity but sacrifices instant visual recognition. Without letters, the icons blend into a sea of app symbols, making it
Need an attention-grabbing border for safety notices or urgent messages? Creating a striped border in Microsoft Word isn’t as simple as it seems—but with the right technique, you can design professional-looking emergency or warning signs in minutes. This step-by-step guide from Office Watch shows how to use Word’s background picture
Want to make your Microsoft Word pages or signs stand out? Skip the frustrating page background tool and try this smarter way to add diagonally striped borders. Get full control over stripe position, color, and layout — perfect for eye-catching warning signs, notices, or creative designs that look sharp on
What does the new Microsoft 365 Premium plan mean for all subscribers? It’s all good news with no major changes or price rises to worry about. Microsoft 365 Premium: Copilot AI, new Features & Pricing is the the second major change in Microsoft 365 consumer plans in less than a
Microsoft is extending more Copilot features to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, offering expanded AI tools across Word, Excel, Outlook, and more. While users now gain access to enhanced drafting, summarizing, image generation, and voice features, the long-standing cap of 60 AI credits per month still applies. Compared to
Thinking about switching to Microsoft 365 Premium? Whether you’re moving from a Personal or Family subscription, upgrading unlocks expanded AI-powered Copilot features and enhanced productivity tools. This guide walks you through the upgrade process, highlights what to expect, and answers common questions about credits, shared accounts, and potential billing issues—helping
Confused by ads promoting “Microsoft 365 Premium for Consumer”? You’re not alone. Until late 2025, no such plan even existed—making many online offers misleading at best and outright scams at worst. With Microsoft now officially releasing Microsoft 365 Premium, it’s crucial to understand how to spot the real subscription and
Microsoft is making it easier for college and university students to afford essential productivity tools. Eligible students around the world can now get Microsoft 365 Personal starting with a year free before continuing at for 50% off. The plan includes full access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, 1TB of OneDrive
Microsoft 365 Premium is the newest consumer plan that bundles the popular Family subscription with Copilot Pro at a much lower cost. For $199 a year, subscribers get six accounts with full Microsoft Office apps, 1TB OneDrive storage each, and premium Copilot AI tools for the plan owner—including research, data
Austria’s Armed Forces have officially completed their migration from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice across 16,000 workstations, marking one of the largest government moves to open-source software in Europe. While cost savings were a factor, the driving force behind the switch was ensuring data security, independence from external cloud providers, and
Microsoft is rolling out a new wave of AI-powered tools in Microsoft 365. Copilot Agent for Word, Excel, and Office promise to generate full documents, reports, spreadsheets, and presentations from natural language prompts, then refine them through AI chat. Microsoft aims to make content creation faster and more consistent across
Microsoft is promoting Excel Agent as a powerful new AI feature designed to build entire worksheets from a single prompt—but how well does it actually work? Office Watch put Excel Agent to the test and found a mix of promise and pitfalls. From creating a mortgage comparison sheet to handling
Microsoft has made Copilot more powerful—but also more confusing. With Agents, Agent, and Actions all referring to very different AI tools, even experienced Office users are left wondering what does what. Agents (plural) for Copilot in business and enterprises can take actions automatically such as tasks setup a new employee. Now,
Microsoft is rolling out three new “Companion apps” for Microsoft 365 users on Windows 11, People, Calendar, and File Search. Designed as lightweight taskbar tools, these apps bring quick access to contacts, schedules, and cloud-stored files without switching between Outlook, Teams, or SharePoint. There are three new Microsoft 365 apps
Microsoft has quietly opened up its Frontier program—a public preview for Copilot and AI features—to Microsoft 365 Family and Personal subscribers. While Enterprise users have had access for a while, everyday users are now being invited to test AI-driven tools across Word, Excel, and the web apps. The process to
Cybercriminals are exploiting a subtle typography trick called evil kerning to disguise fake domains as trusted ones like Microsoft.com or Gmail.com. By tightening letter spacing, “rn” can appear as “m,” making scam addresses like rnicrosoft.com or grnail.com nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. Here’s how the scam works, why it’s
Microsoft has quietly changed how storage is handled in Outlook.com: email attachments now count against your OneDrive quota. For users on free Outlook.com accounts with only 5GB of OneDrive space, this shift can quickly consume cloud storage and even disrupt email if quotas are exceeded. Here’s what this means for
You don’t need Microsoft 365 or desktop Office to edit your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files. With Office Online, anyone can upload documents from their computer, make changes directly in a browser, and save the updated file back to their hard drive—all for free. This simple method works across Windows,
Microsoft has quietly adjusted its classic Office “red,” shifting to a slightly softer. While the change may seem minor, it means improved readability and compliance with accessibility standards. But there’s a downside too in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on both Windows and Mac, ensuring users get a color that
Clicking a link to a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file doesn’t always give you the choice of where it opens. Sometimes it launches in a browser, other times in the desktop app. Microsoft has scattered the controls across Outlook, Office apps, and web options, leaving many users frustrated. This guide
