What to do when Outlook won’t reconnect to Exchange Server Ira J writes from his work laptop: “I have Outlook on my laptop for work. I leave it on all the time whether I’m connected to the Internet or not. Sometimes Outlook won’t connect to the office even when there’s
Another way to enter lists in Excel, why Microsoft’s effort sucks and an alternative. Excel has two ways of typing in data, there’s the usual direct entry into the worksheet or you can make a form with a single click of a button. For example here’s a ‘typical’ Excel list:
How to get your Office Product Key when the computer is broken. Shelia M has an Office install problem …. ” My two year old computer broke down in 2010 and the hard drive was replaced by the engineer. When I started the computer Microsoft Office was GONE. This year
Why can’t you add repeating words or phrases to the Microsoft Word custom dictionary? Word’s custom dictionary can’t handle repeating words or phrases and it should. While we wait for Microsoft to catch up there are limited options available. Microsoft Word’s custom dictionary only lets you add single words to
It’s easy to make an Excel list into an HTML table. Excel has great list making features. It’s often the best way to manage a simple list or database. There’s features for sorting, filtering, auto-complete and calculated fields. But using the finished list isn’t always obvious, especially if you want
Free training manuals for Office 2007 and before plus Quick References for Office 2010. Mouse Training in the UK has released their training manuals free for all comers plus some Quick Reference Guides. The Training Manuals are for Office 2007, Office 2003, Office XP (2002) and Office 2000. They cover
OneNote is merely the modern version of a Renaissance concept. The commonplace book isn’t a common thing these days, but it was once, er, common. Programs like OneNote might see a revival of the idea though, perhaps, not the name. A commonplace book was an early form of ‘scrapbook’ where
Word’s spell checker has some peculiar ideas about where an & symbol belongs. Susan S. writes with a question about the Word spell checker. She’s noticed that an ampersand next to a letter doesn’t trigger a spelling error in Word. We tried it out and she’s right: An ampersand next
Why is an obviously incorrect word not picked up by Word’s spell checker? Susan S. complains that her copy of Word has phrases like ‘ Thisis ‘ which aren’t showing up as a spelling error. In other words there is no red squiggly line when there should be. We’ve had
How to quickly change to ‘Text Width’ view in Word. A useful view for Word documents is Text Width view but it’s not on the toolbar or ribbon so how can you switch to it quickly? Text Width view is good because it puts text across the available screen width
Why the low use of Bitlocker when it can secure your private documents and emails? A recent survey has found that nearly 99% of computers that could encrypt their hard drives with Microsoft’s Bitlocker don’t bother. On a normal computer, the hard drive is ‘open’. Even if someone doesn’t have
A new spam email, ignored by Outlook’s spam filter, is supposed to have a spreadsheet file for Excel. A new spam email is arriving in Inboxes, trying to trick Excel users into opening it. This email isn’t detected by the Outlook 2007/2010 spam filter (latest update and configured to ‘High’)
Making ordinary texts look extraordinary has been possible for many versions of Word. Alas, the features can make ordinary text look awful – if you’re not careful. Making ordinary texts look extraordinary has been possible for many versions of Word. Alas, the features can make ordinary text look awful –
Instyler’s Travel add-in for Outlook lets you block the travel time around an appointment in Outlook calendar. One long-standing problem with Outlook is the lack of a ‘travel time’ option. You can make an appointment but there’s no direct way to include the time it takes to get to and
How to get useful extras for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 without ‘social’ connections. Microsoft’s Outlook Social Connector adds useful features to Outlook, even if you have no interest in the links to Facebook, Windows Live Messenger etc. The social connector adds the Outlook 2010 People Pane to two earlier
Some registry/policy options to control the Outlook Social Connector. Buried on the Microsoft Support site is KB2010103 “How to manage the Outlook Social Connector by using Group Policy” it provides some options for managing the OSC but mostly for network administrators. These options can apply to Outlook 2010 as well
See what Facebook friends are doing while using Outlook. Microsoft has released another ‘social connector’ that lets you see Facebook details inside Outlook. It is available for Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003. Simply download it from Microsoft and install. Outlook 2010 users should choose the 32-bit or 64-bit
Microsoft extends the social connections in Outlook 2010 to earlier versions of Outlook. Microsoft has released an add-in for Outlook 2007 and 2003 that lets you link to social networking sites like Facebook in a similar way to the People Pane in Outlook 2010. It’s not perfect but it’s a
Looking for 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar calendar info? … click here Outlook’s Internet Calendar feature can be used to follow the round ball game or interesting things. I don’t know about you, but my football/soccer gene was removed at birth. The whole World Cup event is a mystery to
How to change the Product Key in Office 2007, Office 2003 and Office XP. Changing the Product Key in Office 2007 isn’t as easy as with Office 2010. In effect what you have to do is remove the existing Office 2007 software registration info and force Office 2007 to ask
Switch from imperial/metric from inside Word 2002/XP to Word 2010. The Measurement Converter is a Smart Tag (Action in Word 2010) that can change your text from imperial/US to metric or vice-versa. As the name suggests converts measurement units used in the Word document for example convert miles to kilometers
A look at Smart Tags from Word 2002 to Word 2010. Smart Tags (or Actions as they are called in Office 2010) is a way to put special commands against certain words or phrases. Smart Tags look at the text and, if applicable, become available – in geek speak they
It’s so easy to avoid being caught by Word’s hidden data, yet it still happens. Rep. Jay Inslee from the US House of Representatives is the latest victim of the ‘hidden data’ in a Word document. He released a letter of support for the FCC Chairman, unfortunately the document made
How to write an email now and send it later. For many versions of Outlook you’ve been able to write an email now but delay sending it until a later time. Like many things with Outlook, there are several catches to the supposedly simple feature. Why delay sending a message?
