Microsoft is pushing video backgrounds to PowerPoint slides, but they really are a bad idea and should be banned from slide decks. Designer’s Design Ideas will start with a background video. Microsoft loves showing off these moving backgrounds because they impress people at demonstrations. Moving backgrounds are not a good idea because they distract the
Today (21 April 2020) is that day Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365. What does that mean to you and using Word 365, Excel 365, PowerPoint 365, Outlook 365 etc. A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that ‘Office 365’ was becoming ‘Microsoft 365’ from today. There’s NO change in the software
Inserting live video into a PowerPoint presentation is possible in different ways. With online meetings and presentations all the rage, it’s natural that people would like to show themselves and their presentation at the same time. Either half and half screen (left) or some variation of video in box (right).
We’ve made a few changes to our COVID-19 tracking workbook for Excel 365. The kind comments from readers are much appreciated. For those of you who asked, it was made by our Editor-in-Chief, Peter Deegan, who is safely locked-down in London. Peter refreshed the COVID-19 statistics (which any Excel 365
Google Slides can be handy for sharing and working on presentations with other people, but sometimes you just really need that file in PowerPoint. No problem – it’s actually really easy to convert them. All you have to do is download the file and save it as a PowerPoint file. If the Google Slides File is Open If you have your
PowerPoint includes quick access to character spacing features that make slide titles stand out. In PowerPoint there are two useful features to make a slide title jump out at the viewer. Character Spacing is quickly changed on the Home tab. More subtle is Kerning. When it comes to Design, and clarity in Design, Space is almost as important
We’ve made a new version of our COVID-19 statistics workbook that’s compatible with Excel 365 for Mac. Keep track of COVID-19 statistics using this Excel spreadsheet that shows the latest cases and deaths for countries you choose and populations also added for you. Excel 365 for Windows has a separate
Some of the features and tricks in our COVID-19 worksheet for Excel 365. We’ve made this workbook as a practical and timely example of some important recent Excel features and how they can be used. Open up the workbook in Excel 365 for Windows and add some countries to see
Keep track of COVID-19 statistics using this automatically updating Excel spreadsheet that shows the latest cases and deaths for selected countries with populations also added for you. We’ve been a little annoyed at media coverage that deals with raw numbers without adjusting for population. We opened up Excel 365 and
Amazon UK are selling Office 365 Home for very near their lowest price, saving ₤28 on the usual price. As we type this, the price is ₤51.09 here. That’s as good as you’re likely to get. Microsoft will sell you exactly the same thing for ₤79.99! That’s the Home (soon
A new report suggest that many organizations are paying too much for Microsoft 365 (Office 365). The same might apply to some individuals with Microsoft 365 Family/Home. The Coreview report identifies three costly mistakes with Microsoft 365 licencing. Buy too many licenses; ‘err on the side of caution’. Not assigning
Snap Camera is a way to ‘fancy up’ your webcam with fancy effects including the now infamous potato. There are other subtle effects that will work with Zoom, Skype, Teams or any other online calling service. Also a color slider inside some lens effects. Get Snap Camera from https://snapcamera.snapchat.com/ it’s
Microsoft has rushed out a new Skype feature that lets you setup an online meeting or group call with a single shareable link. Of course there a good things about this option and some very bad things. As usual, the setup is more complicated than Microsoft makes out. This new
Zoom has problems but there are easy settings that will fix your online calls and meetings. It’s time to balance some of the excessively worrying Zoom coverage of recent days. Some people and extreme groups are taking advantage of the open defaults on Zoom. There’s an organized effort to share
Zoom has changed some meeting defaults to make their group calls, webinars, classes etc a bit more secure from intruders. There’s more for a Zoom host should do to protect their meetings, classes and calls. Two default settings have changed. Passwords must be set for all meetings and the Waiting
Continuing our look at what to put in a bag ready for an emergency trip to hospital. A checklist to ‘Prepare for the worst’. In part 1 Get ready for hospital – have a ‘go bag’ ready we looked at the devices to take, what to put on them and
If you get so sick they send you to hospital, you’ll be too ill to get ready. ‘Prepare for the worst’ by making up a hospital ‘go bag’ with what you’ll need. Visitors to hospitals are being severely restricted so make sure you have communication options. Prepare your computer for
We’re pleased and relieved to return multi-currency support to our Ebook store. Look for the pull-down list of supported currencies at top right of any shop page. Prices will change to the amount charged in your chosen currency. Choose from these currencies: US dollars Canadian dollars UK Sterling Euro Australian
You don’t need a tripod or camera stand, just a few books and other bits can do the job. Don’t believe us? See the example set by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, CC, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester,
There’s a simple and cheap way to expand the view of computer and smartphone cameras. Simple clip-on wide angle lenses can change the narrow view of a iPhone, iPad, smartphone or laptop camera into a wide view. They give you a wider view of a room which is great for
If you have words or longer sections of text that you type frequently and don’t want to have to type in full each time, Word allows you to set your own shortcuts to automatically enter this text in a few keystrokes either AutoCorrect or AutoText. There are two ways to
Google Sheets can be handy for sharing and working on spreadsheet files with other people, but sometimes you just really need that file in Excel. No problem – it’s actually really easy to convert them. All you have to do is download the file and save it as an Excel file. If
A lot of misleading talk about the Microsoft 365 change makes it seem a lot bigger and more of an upheaval than it really is. Time for a reality break … breath regular everyone. Headlines like these are all ‘bollocks’ as the British say, nonsense: Office 365 major shakeup Replacing
Here’s a readable and searchable version of the Microsoft 365 summary table that came with Microsoft’s announcement of the rebranding from Office 365 to Microsoft 365. It shows the differences between ‘free’ Office (with a Microsoft account), Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365 Personal) and Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office
