Microsoft is updating the rules which govern use of their services including Office 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, Cortana and Xbox. Despite what you might have heard, there’s nothing really new or changed, just some clickbait headlines. There are reasons to be concerned about the Microsoft Terms and Conditions, but they are
A recent New York Times article about Microsoft Word has good information but the headline is quite wrong. The article is called “How to Format Documents While Barely Lifting a Finger” so we expected a piece about how to reformat a document using themes or styles. Instead it’s about dictation
It’s been a busy few weeks for Richard Appiah Akoto the Ghanaian teacher who taught Microsoft Word with only a blackboard. Mr Akoto was flown to Singapore for a Microsoft Education conference where he received a standing ovation. Quite something for his first trip outside Ghana. “I wanted to teach
You’ve all heard about “The Cloud” as if everyone knows what it is. It’s clear from recent reader messages that not everyone knows about The Cloud. Or they think they know. Or they don’t realize how much the cloud can and will do. Office-Watch.com explains the cloud and how it
Timeline was a new feature in Windows 10. It was a way to see which documents and files you’ve opened across all your devices. What you won’t hear is that Office already has a similar feature. The Office team has already synchronized the Open / Recent Documents lists across Word,
Libraries is a great Windows feature that Microsoft introduced and promoted in Windows 7 but now regrets and hides in Windows 10. We’ll explain why they’ve changed their mind and why you should still use Libraries to manage your Office documents. A Library bring together the contents of many folders
A follow up on our story about the Corel patent case and the more confusing case of a developers licence to use the MS Office ribbon interface. As we noted, the Microsoft page that explained the rules for using the Office interface were ‘retired’ even though they are still relevant.
An Office-Watch.com reader asks about the emails promoting Outlook.com that are heading his way. All of a sudden, I’m getting emails asking me to sign up for “Outlook.com”. Do you know what that is all about? I already subscribe to “Office 365” following the purchase and update information that you
Amazon US has a deal bundling current US Tax software with Office 365 Home or Personal. It’s just an example of how Office 365 bundle offers should be checked closely. Office Watch has always been wary of any deals combining Office software with other products. Too often the combined price
A rare factual error in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that, amazingly, is related to Microsoft Word. In an item about The White House Calligrapher, Oliver said the job was easy because there’s already a font with the job title in Microsoft Word. And he shows a Word for
Last week we got a peek at the current White House notepaper and could not resist trying to make our own in Microsoft Word. White House notepaper in the President’s hands – 21 Feb 2018 It’s a simple, classic look that anyone can use and adapt to their needs. We’re
Here’s a manual method of replacing text with filler or anonymous words in Microsoft Word Use this when you need help with a Word document formatting problem but can’t share the troublesome .docx because it contains confidential information. Our head honcho, Peter Deegan, had this problem himself. A friend asked
A follow up on the story of the Ghanian teacher who has to draw Microsoft Word on his blackboard to teach the program. He’s Richard Appiah Akoto a 33 year old teacher at Betenase M/A Junior High School in the town of Sekyedomase in central Ghana. A place so obscure,
Microsoft has an unstated policy of degrading perpetual licence Office in favor of the annual payments for Office 365. This is happening in lots of little steps. Nothing major to alienate customers but enough incremental changes to shift the balance in favor of annual Office 365 payments. It’s a form
Think learning Office is hard? Spare a thought for this teacher in Ghana who teaches Word without a computer. He draws Word on a blackboard to teach the program. Source: Ghafla.com It’s an amazing piece of work. Yes, it’s pre-ribbon Microsoft Office, Office 2003 or before. The whole story would
Many of the Office 2019 assumptions and rumors don’t account for the changed business model at Microsoft. Redmond’s dirty little secret is they’d prefer not selling Office 2019 at all. Office 2019 is the ‘perpetual licence’, single payment, fixed feature version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft will release it later this
A new report confirms what most Microsoft Office customers know; there’s more security patches in Microsoft products, despite years of promises. Not just the latest Word, Excel and Powerpoint but even new products like the Edge browser are increasingly vulnerable. An Avecto report shows 87 vulnerabilities in 2017 – a
The Corel patent dispute raises the interesting question, can other developers use the Ribbon interface in their own products? The answer isn’t clear. There was a clear path to follow but Microsoft has managed to confuse the issue. The Ribbon with it’s tabs, buttons, galleries, collapsing view as the window
Here’s how to share Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel or PowerPoint) for viewing or editing via Dropbox. Document collaboration works a little differently in Dropbox compared to OneDrive. There are different methods and limitation for sharing on Dropbox. We’ve already shown how to install Dropbox, enabled the Microsoft Office Online
Dropbox Badge is their document collaboration option that provides Dropbox specific features inside Microsoft Office programs, It works with a refreshingly wide range of Office version. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Windows and Macintosh. Office 2007 to 2016 for Windows. Office 2011 and 2016 for Mac. It only works
Just in time for Valentine’s Day <g>, Microsoft has released yet another set of patches for security holes in their products. There’s about 55 patches including a particularly nasty Outlook bug and problems with Microsoft new ‘safer’ Edge browser. Microsoft has or will push these fixes out through Windows/Microsoft update.
Based on past experience, Microsoft may offer a ‘free upgrade’ from Office 2016 to Office 2019. Here’s how you might be able to take advantage and get two Office licenses for two computers. An interesting idea from Office Watch regular ‘Ron S.’. All this makes some assumptions, so it’s NOT confirmed,
If you’re thinking of buying the upcoming Office 2019, here’s a possible money saving trick to consider. Another interesting idea from Office Watch regular ‘Ron S.’. Office 2019 is the next ‘perpetual licence’ fixed feature version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft will release it later this year. If you’re not interested in
A jury has found Corel guilty of six patent violations in it’s WordPerfect and QuattroPro products which have breached Microsoft Office related patents. Yes, WordPerfect and QuattroPro are still out there! We were surprised too. The patents relate to the Office interface like the ribbon. In WordPerfect, Corel even goes
