Wanna be a better, faster Office user? Impress your friends? Be the envy of women and men for miles around? Use simple keyboard sequences, called Keytips, that you don’t have to memorize because they are on the screen. Instantly access Ribbon commands in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows
Pasting text into Microsoft Word can quickly turn a clean document into a formatting mess. Fonts change, spacing breaks, and styles multiply without warning. This guide explains the best ways to paste text into Word while keeping your document consistent, professional and how you want it, whether you’re working from
Many Word users struggle with navigation panes and Table of Contents features — not because Word is broken, but because what Word calls “Headings” aren’t always true structural headings. In Microsoft Word, built-in heading styles like Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on are tied to outline levels, which Word
Linking text boxes in Microsoft Word allows content to flow automatically from one box to another, making it easier to design newsletters, flyers, and complex page layouts. This guide explains how Word’s text box linking works, its limitations, and practical tips to avoid common formatting problems when working with flowing
Learn how to quickly insert the unique Exclamation Question Mark (⁉) symbol across Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on both Windows and Mac. Whether you’re adding emphasis and excitement to documents, spreadsheets, slides or emails, this step-by-step guide shows you the fastest methods — including keyboard shortcuts, the Symbol
Learn how to create high-quality PDF files from Microsoft Office documents using the two main methods: Save As/Export and Print to PDF. This guide compares both approaches so you can choose the best one for your needs. Whether you want clickable hyperlinks, bookmarks, backgrounds, or a simple fixed layout PDF
Pantone’s color of the year for 2026 is “Cloud Dancer”. You can use that exact color in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Designer using the right Hex/RGB color code. And we’ll look at the flowery prose that’s become a hallmark of this annual promotion. The color of 2026 is …
In a move reversing a 2023 policy, the U.S. State Department has officially returned to using Times New Roman font for its communications, ending the brief tenure of Calibri. Why choose one font over another? Times New Roman vs Calibri – the pros and cons of each font. The US
Type the Left arrow ← into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. The official Unicode name is ‘Leftward Arrow” ← but it can be called ‘Left pointing’ ‘Left facing’ or just ‘Left Arrow’ See also Right arrow → symbol in Word, Excel,
If you’ve ever paused over that little horizontal line in a document and wondered whether you should use a hyphen, en-dash or em-dash, you’re not alone. In Microsoft Word there are nine distinct dash or hyphen-like characters, each with its own typographic role and keyboard shortcut. From the standard hyphen
Ever had a heading in Microsoft Word that seemed to wander off from its paragraph like a rebellious teenager? Or a bullet point that ghosted its follow-up text? Enter “Keep with Next” or KWN to its friends, Word’s low-key matchmaker that makes sure certain paragraphs stay together—forever (or at least
Microsoft Word lacks native support for adding prefix and suffix text through styles—but clever workarounds can make it possible. This guide from Office Watch shows how to simulate prefixing and suffixing paragraphs or character styles, just like CSS’s :before and :after elements. Learn how to format consistent labels, product codes,
Microsoft Word’s grammar checker might help with commas and verb tenses, but it misses one subtle yet frequent English mistake, putting numbers, amounts, times, or dates in the wrong order. After our article on adjective order in English , Aussie Office Watch reader “MJ” pointed out something that Word doesn’t
Did you know Windows quietly swaps out Helvetica font for Arial every time you open certain documents? This subtle substitution affects how text looks in Word, browsers, and more. Learn why Helvetica isn’t included in Windows, how Microsoft handles font replacements behind the scenes, and what you can do to
Microsoft’s default font family, Aptos, isn’t limited to Microsoft 365 or Office 2024. Anyone can download and install the complete Aptos font set directly from Microsoft to use across any app or platform. Whether you’re running Office 2021, older Office versions, or non-Microsoft software like LibreOffice, this quick download ensures
Need an attention-grabbing border for safety notices or urgent messages? Creating a striped border in Microsoft Word isn’t as simple as it seems—but with the right technique, you can design professional-looking emergency or warning signs in minutes. This step-by-step guide from Office Watch shows how to use Word’s background picture
Want to make your Microsoft Word pages or signs stand out? Skip the frustrating page background tool and try this smarter way to add diagonally striped borders. Get full control over stripe position, color, and layout — perfect for eye-catching warning signs, notices, or creative designs that look sharp on
Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 have several save features, AutoSave, AutoRecover, background saves, and backup copies. Our guide explains the differences, limitations, and best practices so you can avoid losing important work in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. Maybe you’ve seen these two options in Word Options |
Make sure your Microsoft Word documents look the same everywhere by embedding fonts, just in case the right fonts aren’t installed on recipients’ systems. How to embed fonts in Word on both Windows and Mac plus the options and alternatives for font embedding. Allow anyone opening the document to see
Take control of automatic formatting in Microsoft Word, the AutoFormat and AutoCorrect features. Whether you’re frustrated by Word turning your asterisks into bullet points or want to customize how your documents handle quotes, lists, and spelling corrections, this guide explores every option available. Discover how to manage, disable, and fine-tune
Hiding and protecting an Excel worksheet is NOT the same as full encryption. Protected workbooks can be encrypted and not available without the right password. Worksheets protected or hidden with a password are absurdly easy to view whether you have the password or not. Excel has long had the ability
Calculating the ‘Standard Error of the mean’ or SEM is simple using Excel’s in-built functions. Understanding ‘Standard Error of the mean’ isn’t hard either. We’ll explain the formula and what it all means. To calculate standard error of the mean get the Standard Deviation of a sample (STDEV.S() or STDEV())
Understanding Standard Deviation isn’t hard, especially with Excel’s help. This quick guide shows the difference between sample and population functions so you can choose the right one and get accurate, informative results every time. Standard Deviation in Excel The standard deviation measures the variation from the average or mean of a
How did we make a Word table with a picture background for a recent article – asks an Office Watch friend? She meant this table of Zoom shortcuts for toggling audio and video . There’s a similar table for Teams shortcuts. The quick answer is … we cheated! Word can’t
