Now … Sketchy Shapes the video!
Sketchy Shapes, the new line option in Office 365 now has a little video to go with it. Sketchy line option in Office for Windows and Mac Sketchy or wriggly lines in Icons and SVG graphics Source: Microsoft
Microsoft Office
All about Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and earlier versions.
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Add Apollo 11 events and anniversary into Outlook
The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is our excuse to show-off some features in Outlook for Windows/Mac. How to add past events, post events in other time zones, get reminders of upcoming anniversaries and set reminders for longer times than Outlook allows. Adding Past Events Outlook can save details of
Why Venice invented italics … you can use that trick in Microsoft Word.
Back in the 16th Century, italic fonts were invented and that trick can still be used today in Microsoft Word. Italics let you fit more text into the same space. An innovative Venetian publisher, Manutius, needed to make small and affordable books. Paper was expensive so anything that put more
German schools should not use Office 365 says Privacy Commissioner
The Privacy Commissioner for the German state of Hesse says that Office 365 should not be used in schools due to privacy concerns and access to the data by US authorities. It’s the result of Microsoft withdrawing from a previous arrangement to have German located servers which only the German
July security bug roundup and documentation errors
It’s time for the July roundup of patches for yet more security bugs in Microsoft Office including Office 365 and Office 2016 for Windows plus Office 2013 and 2010. Plus the latest example of confusing documentation errors. Office 365 and Office 2019 A bug which lets Office Javascript doesn’t check
Do you have the right SPF for your emails?
Anyone with their own domain name for email needs to make sure their SPF setting is correct. These days not just recommended, it’s critical to ensuring email reaches its destination. We’re not talking about sunscreen but Sender Policy Framework which is a method of verifying that emails for a domain
Font gives away fake document but it’s blamed on time travel
Here’s another case of someone trying to backdate fake documents and being caught by hidden details in the file. The font is the giveaway but not in the usual way. It’s the ongoing saga of Craig Wright, once a big name in the cyber-currency game. He’s now involved in a
The Windows update you really do need to install today
There’s a security bug in Windows that’s so serious Microsoft has released fixes for version of Windows they don’t officially support anymore. Here are links to the critical updates necessary or workaround if updating isn’t possible. About Bluekeep The Bluekeep security hole is being used by criminals to attack computers
Translate a whole Word document to another language
Word lets you translate an entire document in one go, either right click anywhere in the document, right click and select Translate, or go to Review | Translate | Translate Document. As with translating a selection, the Translator will open in a sidebar, where you can select the languages to
Translating selected text in Word
Word has a feature to translate text from one language to another. Whilst the translation may not be perfect, it does give you a starting point to understanding what the text says. You can either translate a selected piece of text, or the whole document. Translate works slightly differently depending
Make a distraction free Microsoft Word
If you’re the sort of person who’s easily distracted, or just want to focus on the content of your document without worrying about formatting, there are a number of ways you can clear the distractions from Microsoft Word, so you can focus on the text you’re writing. Minimize the Ribbon
Office 2016/2013/2010 bug fix lists for July 2019
Here’s a summary of the July non-security updates for Office 2016, Office 2013 and Office 2010. These updates should be automatically installed via Microsoft Update or you can apply them manually. Install them now if there’s a listed bug you need fixing, otherwise play it safe. Leave some time for
Iranian hackers attack using old Outlook security bug
The US government has issued a new warning about malware which takes advantage of a security lapse in Outlook for Windows, which was patched over 18 months ago. The warning generated a lot of scary headlines, especially since there’s suspect Iranian involvement. If you’ve been taking standard precautions and updated
Excel’s Power Query security exploit is a worry, but not a big worry
The Power Query exploit in Excel is a concern but one that most Excel users are already protected from. Look past some of the shock headlines (e.g “120 million users personal information at stake due to Microsoft Excel flaw”) . Mimecast did a good job tracing this security bug in
Windows 10 Registry %@$-up by Microsoft is no accident
There are times when we wonder about the decision-making process at Microsoft and the revelation about the stopping of registry backups in Windows 10 is a sad example of a bad choice. We’ll explain what Microsoft secretly did last year to make Windows 10, Office and other programs less reliable
Lame Icons in Office 365 isn’t helped by adding 300 more
Microsoft is hyping the addition of 300 more icons to Office 365 perhaps hoping to distract customers from the many problems finding and using the Insert | Icons feature in Office 365. We like the addition of SVG graphics (Icons) into Office because it opens up a much wider range
300 more Icons in Office, but which ones and where?
Microsoft is boasting that the Office 365 ‘Icons’ collection now has 300 more graphics but no information on what they are and no help finding them. The release of more Icons just emphasizes the problems with this cloud feature. Icons is a cloud service that delivers SVG graphics to Word,
New Outlook Dark Mode feature and other Insiders news
The 21 June 2019 Office 365 for Windows Insiders release 11815.20002 has a new Dark Mode feature in Outlook plus some fixes. Here’s the details including Microsoft’s report on ‘Notable Fixes’. Outlook New features Outlook 365 for Windows now has a Sun/Moon button when using Dark mode and the black
What’s up with the Office key?
Microsoft is planning an Office key addition to keyboards, to go with the existing Windows key. Here’s what we know and don’t know. The company is testing physical keyboards with an Office key combined with preview versions of Windows. Source: originally Microsoft via leaks It seems the Office key code
Office Insiders new Word feature and fixes
The 14 June 2019 Office 365 for Windows Insiders release 11807.20000 has a new feature in Word plus some fixes. Here’s the details including Microsoft’s report on ‘Notable Fixes’. Word – precision ink erasing PowerPoint already has small and medium ink erasers. They are now in Word too. In PowerPoint
Office 365 for Windows: Straight Talk
We’re delighted to announce a new ebook from Office Watch — all about Office 365 for Windows: Straight Talk. In-depth with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook 365 plus buying and configuration. For anyone with Office for Windows on an Office 365 subscription. It’s a truly independent guide to Office 365
Get Microsoft Office ready for Catalina, the next macOS
While most Office users have nothing to worry about, there are big changes in the next macOS codenamed Catalina. macOS v10.15 Catalina is out now for Mac computers and represents a major change. See MacOS Catalina update tips and Office compatibility Catalina = 64-bit programs only For the first time, macOS
Office for Android stops support for older devices
Microsoft has announced that the Office apps for Android won’t update for older versions of Android. These are the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook apps for Android. Quietly, the system requirements were changed to cover only the last four major versions of Android. Misleading news alert Despite what you may
Japanese Gannen and Ichinen date support in Excel, Office and Windows
As part of Microsoft’s support for the new Japanese Imperial era, they’ve added support for traditional Gannen writing of dates as well as the newer Ichinen style. Windows 10 now supports Gannen style Japanese dates but that support doesn’t flow through to Excel formatting. Normally the default date presentation in
