Here’s how to mask a photo with any Microsoft Office shape or icon and do it with full control over what appears from the original image. We’ve already explained two simple ways to crop a photo to a shape or fill a shape with some options to move and resize
The picture option ‘Set Transparency Color’ doesn’t always work properly in Microsoft Office. We’ll explain the problem and suggest some fixes. When we were making our article “Make a transparent shape to mask a photo in Word, PowerPoint and more” we discovered that the ‘Set Transparent Color’ option didn’t work
Recent investigations have revealed some worrying truths about the risks in opening OneNote notebooks, a surprising fact about .one files, some bad news and good news. Criminals are increasingly sending out nasty OneNote .one files in emails, taking advantage of another Microsoft security ‘blind spot’. OneNote Embedded File Abuse from
Microsoft is expanding their Phone Link feature in Windows 11 to include Apple iPhones. That means call and SMS text messaging from an iPhone can appear on a Windows screen. Phone Link is already available for Android phones. With a connected smartphone Microsoft likes to talk broadly about ‘messages’ and
There are two ways to switch between Letter (Imperial) and A4 (Metric) paper sizes for Microsoft Word documents on Windows or Mac. One is easy and temporary, the other changes the document itself. Also how to switch Word’s default paper size and how to save PDF’s to another page size.
There’s a simple way to tell if your mailbox has the useful plus + address feature. Plus email addressing (aka disposable or sub-address) is sometimes available automatically (Gmail or Outlook.com) or has to be switched on (Microsoft 365 hosting). Some other mail hosts might have an option to allow plus
A peculiarity of indexes when you use big table cells to format your Microsoft Word document — and a suggested solution. Karen from New Mexico wrote to us describing a strange behavior in her Word document indexes. The documents are class handouts with each topic as a new row in a
Have all your favorite Office features and buttons in one place. Commonly used buttons or options that aren’t on the regular ribbon. The Office ribbon lets you make a personal tab filled with your choices. We will show you how easy it is to make in Word below, but this
A Word Drop-down list lets you quickly choose one of several options. It’s a fast way to make new documents with a standardized pattern. Don’t be scared, it’s easy to create even though the word ‘Developer’ is involved. We’ll show you how to make drop-down lists, change the bland ‘Choose
How to make a bullet list that has different bullet symbol or emoji for each Word or PowerPoint line. With the wide range of symbols and emoji in Word and PowerPoint there’s scope for creative lists that use symbols that relate to each line. It’s not possible to do that
Insert digits with double circles from ⓵ to ⓽ in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Outlook etc. Use them as an alternative way to number a list like this … Double Circled digits in different fonts Only two common Office fonts have double circled digits Segoe UI Symbol and Calibri. Here’s how
Type beamed ♫ or joined ♬ musical notes into Word documents, Excel worksheets, PowerPoint slides or emails. It’s possible to type musical notes and other notation in Word documents. Full musical scoring isn’t practical (there’s other software). Unicode only has two ‘beamed’ or joined musical notes, the Eighth or Quaver and the Sixteenth of Semi-quaver.
Type musical notes from breve 𝅜 (double whole note) to the semihemidemisemiquaver 𝅘𝅥𝅲 (128th note) in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Outlook etc. It’s possible to type musical notes and other notation in Word documents. Full musical scoring isn’t practical (there’s other software). How musical notes look in different fonts. Most fonts don’t include musical notes. The
How to make clue cards like the Jeopardy! TV show to use in PowerPoint or Word. Clue … it’s not as straightforward as you might think but we’ll take you through the steps and tricks. Use the well-known format to pose questions for your PowerPoint audience or as a section/chapter
Is the word ‘data’ singular or plural? It’s one of those changing usages of the English language that reasonable people disagree on. What does Microsoft Word’s grammar and style say … “Data is ..” or “Data are …”? The UK Financial Times has just changed its style guide to say
Outlook for Windows has the ability to select the time zone for an appointment, but what if the zone you need isn’t on the drop down list? Until Outlook 2007, Outlook only knew about one time zone and that’s the one currently set for Windows. All appointments are presumed to be
After explaining Body Mass Index calcs in Excel, there are other options. Finding your ideal weight from height and desired BMI. Also a BMI alternative and how it can be used in Excel. Find your ideal weight based on BMI Most BMI calculators show your current ratio but what about
BMI or Body Mass Index is a ‘rule of thumb’ calculating body fat based on height and weight. It’s easy to calculate in Excel whether you use metric or feet/pounds. BMI can be a polite way of saying how overweight a person is! A BMI over 30 is considered obese and need
Insert the Wavy Dash 〰 symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. Wavy Dash 〰 symbol is like a long curvy version of the em-dash, there’s no specific meaning or purpose. Not to be confused with the two Tilde ~
Word can ‘select all’ text of a chosen style, then you can change all to another style, here’s how, Gordon G asks “Just read Convert Normal style into Body Text style in Word why didn’t you use Select All from the Styles list then apply a different style?” In Word
Switching paragraphs from Normal style to Body Text styles in Microsoft Word is a clever use of the Replace feature that can switch text with any style to another. We’ve talked about how savvy Word users have their main text paragraphs in the Body Text style instead of the standard Normal
In a move sure to anger some folks, Microsoft is adding pronoun choices to contacts details on profile cards. People will be able to let others know how they like to be addressed: she/her, her/him, they/them or other choices. Before some blood pressure levels rise to dangerous levels, Office Watch
Make an automatic list of tabs in an Excel workbook a better and more flexible way with options to create clickable links and sort the sheet list. Unlike older methods, it works in Excel for Windows and Mac. We’ve already talked about fitting more tabs on the screen or making
There’s more possible with the humble ! exclamation mark / point in Microsoft Word or Office. At least five different ! available and that’s before changing color, size and other text effect options. We’ll show you ways to insert FIVE different exclamation marks into Office, as characters, icons, symbols and several
