In late 2018, Excel 365 got an important new feature, Dynamic Arrays . Here’s a simple way to use the feature to make your workbooks sort better and automatically. It also fixes a long-standing problem in Excel. We’re going to focus on a very simple and useful part of dynamic
How to insert the Double Vertical Bar ‖ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Double Vertical Bar ‖ symbol is used to represent norms in mathematics, (for example ). It can also be used to signify parallel lines. It can
Type the Cross of Lorraine ☨ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Cross of Lorraine ☨ symbol was originally a heraldic cross. In more recent times it was used in the global distribution systems, Sabre, Apollo, and Wordspan, as a delimiter
The BBC has a ‘long read’ about hidden information inside almost all photos. Office Watch has talked about this problem many times before including how the extra image data hides in Microsoft Office documents, despite the ‘Document Inspector’. It’s too easy just to think of an image as just what
You’ve received a document, but when you try to open it, the file stubbornly won’t appear! We explain how to fix it. Our editor-in-chief saw that problem in an Internet cafe‚ in Ketchikan, Alaska and was surprised when neither the manager of the store nor the cruise computer ‘expert’ knew the
How to insert the Black Right Pointing index ☛ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Black Right Pointing index ☛ symbol can be used for pointing a direction on a sign or as a different bullet symbol. There’s also a
The Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPad are getting right-click menus when there’s a external mouse or trackpad connected. It’s a good move with more iPads being used with separate keyboard & mouse as a mini-PC. Sadly the new menus aren’t all they could be. Right-click (Microsoft calls a
Type the Broken Vertical Bar ¦ in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Broken Vertical Bar ¦ symbol was sometimes used in computing. These days there’s no specific use for the broken vertical bar but it’s good to keep in mind
The March 2021 Windows patches have caused at least two major bugs (sorry ‘issues’) that can affect Office users or anyone trying to print. Here’s the fixes and workarounds. Printing bug This is a nasty bug caused by the Windows patch KB5000802 not being properly tested before release. An update
Excel in a web browser has some new improvements, many of them are familiar Excel desktop features moved online but one is unique to the browser-based version. Version history for collaboration, more zoom options for keyboard and screen, multiple range selections and changing regional settings are all now available online.
Microsoft has added more protections against nasty Excel 4.0 macros aka XLM macros. XLM or Excel 4.0 macros are an older pre-VBA system that’s still available in modern Excel 365 for Windows and Mac. XML macros have been around since 1992 but gradually replaced by VBA which debuted only a
There are types of Office documents that you should NOT open, even if they come from someone you trust. Here’s the full list of file extensions for the older Office document formats which are much more likely to be ‘malicious’ docs from hackers and criminals. We’ve talked about the risks
Type the Not Equal ≠ sign into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Not Equal ≠ symbol is used in equations, obviously but it’s also handy shorthand in a heading or slide. The official Unicode name is ‘Not Equal To’. How Not Equal ≠ looks in different fonts. Here’s some
Microsoft has announced two ‘perpetual licence’ or non-subscription versions of Office that will be released later in 2021. Both continue Microsoft’s unstated but bleedingly obvious attempts to push customers to annual ‘subscription’ payments. Here’s what Microsoft has disclosed so far with an explanation of the continued reduction of value for
The Office ‘all in one’ app, already available for iPhone and Android, is starting its arrival on Apple iPad. The app combines Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other goodies into a single app. The ‘all in one’ app, officially called just ‘Microsoft Office’ has started a limited preview. We’ll explain how
How to insert the Currency ¤ or scarab symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Currency ¤ symbol is used to denote an unspecified currency. It’s the generic sign you could use if the correct symbol isn’t available. It doesn’t
An Excel Table Form is a simple no-code way to view a single table row in an editable box. If a row of data is too wide, instead of scrolling left/right to find what you need, use a data form to add, edit, find, and delete rows. Table Form is
Apple’s new Privacy tags sound like a great idea but they rely on the honesty of app makers (Ha!) The simple labels can cover an enormous amount of privacy intrusion in Microsoft Office and Outlook mobile apps. The Washington Post is behind a paywall but the ‘general tenor of his
Here are some more ‘right pointing’ symbol options for Word, Excel, PowerPoint or any Microsoft Office app. We’ve already looked in detail at: White Right Pointing Index Hand ☞ Right arrow → symbol Now let’s see some other ‘right pointing’ options that can be used in Office documents. Right pointers
How to insert the white right pointing hand ☞ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Officially called “WHITE Right POINTING INDEX” ☞ symbol is a different or novelty form of the right arrow as a hand. It can be used
Metric to Imperial/US conversion or vice-versa can be a little messy in Excel, the new Lambda() feature lets you make an easier and simpler conversion function. It’s a simple and practical example of what’s possible with Lambda(). See Lambda – strange name for a really good extra in Excel Metric
There are two different levels of hidden sheets within Excel, hidden and the less well-known very hidden worksheets. We can easily hide our worksheets by right-clicking the sheet tab and selecting hide. There’s a more extreme option available. Very Hidden means the sheet/tab doesn’t show up at all in regular
Excel for iPad now has Split View, allowing two workbooks to be seen side-by-side. That’s catching up with Word and PowerPoint for iPad which got Split View in mid-2020. iOS 13 is required for Split View on iPad. Get more about Office on iPad and iPhone from Office Watch for
For a short time, Microsoft hinted at an important improvement to Excel. But this promise was quickly removed, leaving Excel customers hanging. The feature is/was ‘Show Changes’ and would let you see a history of changes in an individual cell. Show past values or formula in that cell. “Excel can
