Transform how you format Word documents with keyboard shortcuts—going beyond the built‑in ones for Headings 1–3 by adding your own for Heading 4, 5, 6 (and beyond) that Microsoft has forgotten. With these simple tweaks, your document structuring becomes faster and more consistent. Word’s in-built Heading styles come with some shortcut keys, but
Microsoft is retiring the Reuse Slides feature, however you can still copy slides manually—and it’s simple. Whether you’re preparing for a meeting, a lecture, or a project presentation, knowing how to quickly and efficiently move or copy slides between presentations can save you both time and hassle. To get started,
When will your version of Microsoft Office stop getting security bug and software bug fixes, what Microsoft calls the “end of support“. This is important because software updates are necessary for Office apps. Mainly because outdated versions are more vulnerable to hackers, particularly in the case of opening malicious emails,
Down in Australia there’s another example of a mistake when redacting a Word document before public release. Make sure you delete any links to redacted text, such as a Table of Contents or summary. What caught our eye was the latest example of an oversight when redacting a document. Aussie
Transform your next presentation by mastering five powerful ways to add images in PowerPoint. Whether you’re embedding visuals directly from the web, creating photo albums, leveraging SmartArt, or using Copilot enhancements, these expert tips will streamline slide preparation. On a PowerPoint slide with a picture placeholder, just click the image
Add the US National flag “Old Glory” “The red, white and blue” into Office documents, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, then use some Office picture tools to enhance the image. Learn how to properly get and use the US Flag in Word Excel PowerPoint for your presentations and documents. The same
Still using .doc, .xls, or .ppt files? These outdated Microsoft Office formats are not just relics—they’re major security risks and should be banned. Hackers exploit these older files to spread malware, ransomware, and steal data, as they often bypass modern antivirus protections. After our suggestion to ignore old style Office
RTF files may seem safe, but they can carry hidden risks. Hackers use RTFs to exploit Microsoft Word and even infect systems through email previews. Learn why RTF isn’t as harmless as it looks—and how to stay protected. The confusion is understandable. After all .RTF (Rich Text Format) files aren’t
Struggling with a sea of worksheet tabs at the bottom of your Excel window? Whether you’re managing dozens of tabs or juggling shared workbooks with tight screen space, discover how to fit more visible tabs across your Excel workbook can transform your workflow. In this guide, we walk through both
OneNote offers an electronic equivalent to the ‘sticky note’ or side-note. Most OneNote demos show off the full-size pages with a full range of feature but Quick Notes is the smaller and faster part of OneNote for Windows. Let’s explore how to make a Quick Note, what they can do
Our annual look at the words that challenged the Scripps Spelling Bee champs to see how many are recognized by the spell check in Microsoft Word. Again in 2025 Word was beaten by some very clever 14 year olds. Here’s a selection of the last round words from the 2025
Whether you’re managing schedules, tracking deadlines, or analyzing time-based data, comparing dates in Excel is a critical skill. This guide walks you through how to use the powerful IF function to compare dates—such as determining if one date is before, after, or equal to another. Learn essential Excel formulas that
Be careful comparing text in Excel because it looks easy but there are traps when comparing exact text (including upper/lower case) or not. Whether you’re cleaning data or ensuring accuracy in sensitive fields like usernames or product codes, we’ll help you get the results you need every time. Case-insensitive IF
In Excel there are various options for making sure a text label singular (e.g. person) or plural (people) matches the quantity. There’s the standard answer (IF() functions) or clever cell formatting tricks. For example if the cell has 1 item you want the singular label: 1 cookie But if the
There’s a little trap in Excel when figuring out the number of days between two dates. Excel has one way, but the real world has two others. It’s easy to forget the differences and it can matter when the date calculation is close to some limit, for example in a
Importing text files into Excel can sometimes lead to unexpected data conversions—like turning product codes into dates or trimming leading zeros from IDs. To avoid these issues, Excel’s Get & Transform feature (also known as Power Query) offers a more reliable method for importing text data. You can ensure your
Google offers a great variety of free open-source fonts that can be used in Microsoft Office, Windows or Mac. You just need to know the right trick to access them for Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Over 1,800 Google Font families There are 877 1,816 Google Font families currently available at
Tired of Comic Sans but still want a casual, friendly font? Microsoft Office has better built-in alternatives or there’s many other fonts that keeps the charm without the cringe. Here’s a quick guide to upgrading your documents. The Wall Street Journal has a history of Comic Sans, the font that
Display scores or ratings visually in Excel using solid and hollow emojis or symbols, you can use a combination of simple formulas and conditional formatting. This approach is useful for representing ratings, progress, or performance in an intuitive and engaging way. With a little Excel trickery, you can show multi-colored
The Startup Boost feature coming to Word 365 is really a sly trick by Microsoft. It’s a trick that anyone can do with any Office app and any version of Office. Startup Boost starts the app but hides it away. Word lurks in the background until the user clicks on
Office Watch reader Steve G is having a problem in Word. The F9 key isn’t updating fields in a Word document. He suspects a buggy patch of Windows or Office. Here’s how to find the source of the Function key or any keypress problem and fix it. Hint – it’s
Shapes, images, and other items can be grouped together and often should be in Word, PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office apps. When you group shapes or objects, you can move, resize, rotate, flip them all at once, as if they were a single object. If you’ve ever had trouble moving
Don’t be scared of Master Documents – just very, very careful. Master Documents is useful and sometimes essential but it’s not the most stable or reliable part of Microsoft Word. What is a Master Document? In Microsoft Word, a Master Document is a Word document which has links to other
Back in 2015 we were amazed and dismayed to discover a privacy gap in Microsoft Office. Seven years later Microsoft has done nothing to fix or warn customers about. The problem is with images inserted into Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The image ‘meta-data’ including GPS coordinates are retained with