Dig into a Microsoft Office document file, such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and see its inner workings, here’s a straightforward method. It reveals the small files that comprise an Office document, mostly XML files, which you can easily explore with a text editor. Very occasionally it’s helpful or necessary
Black Friday means many software deals, on Microsoft 365 and especially Microsoft Office. Here’s how to navigate the treacherous waters of Black Friday sales and ensure you get genuine products without falling prey to fraudulent offers and scams. Recognizing Too-Good-To-Be-True Deals It’s easy to be tempted by offers that seem
Microsoft is ending their Publisher desktop publishing product completely. Here’s the vital details you need to know, including how to keep your Publisher software after the end date. Publisher is Microsoft’s desktop publishing software that’s been available since 1991 mostly as part of some Microsoft Office bundles but also sold
Yes, Microsoft Word lets you select vertical (up or down) text blocks. Most text selection in Word involves selecting horizontally – selecting a line or a paragraph of text. Sometimes, though, you need to select a vertical slab of text. To do that, hold down the Alt key while you
Here are the exact colour codes and new names for the ‘Overground’ lines in London, plus how to add a thick double line in Office documents just like on a Tube map. The changeover is happening in late November 2024. Some old rail lines in London were coloured Orange on
Social media is spreading a false ‘tip’ that’s supposed to stop Microsoft spying on your work in Word and Excel. The suggestion might not work at all and worse, it’ll stop important Office features from working at all. And Microsoft is NOT spying on Word, Excel or PowerPoint for their
There’s a hidden trap in Microsoft Excel’s DateDif function that rarely gets a mention and is too easy to overlook. DateDif() is a long-standing Excel function that returns the duration between two dates. It’s not a ‘full’ Excel function because it was added for compatibility with Lotus 123 and has
Understanding the difference between Excel’s stored value for a cell and its displayed value is important. It happens a lot and can make a big difference to the results. Back in the day we detailed a bug in Excel 2007 where the wrong number appears on the screen yet Excel
A PowerPoint action button is a shape you can add to your slides, allowing you to hyperlink to another slide or webpage, play a sound, or trigger other actions. It’s an easy way to add interactivity and navigation to your presentation with very little effort. It’s also a way
How to get the official Porsche color “Turbonite” in Microsoft Office for Word documents, PowerPoint slides and more. The color has been announced by Pantone with the code PMS-2336-C. Porsche Turbonite is described in the usual flowery terms by Pantone: Turbonite color codes It’s easy to apply the Turbonite color
Stop accidentally turns CAPS ON when you don’t want it. There’s a way to change the Caps Lock key to do something else or nothing at all in both Windows and Mac. Maybe I’m getting clumsy in my old age but on some keyboards I keep hitting the CapsLock key
Excel is now 40 years old and it’s capable of some amazing things. Let’s not forget some of the mistakes made by users and serious bugs by Microsoft along the way. First a reminder of some Excel bugs and how Microsoft never seems to learn from their mistakes. Excel bug
Quickly add a Halloween ghost, pumpkin, witches’ hat and more to your Outlook email, Word document or PowerPoint slides which have many in-built icons, graphics and pictures to enhance your “All Hallows’ evening” Icons, Stock Images, Stickers and Illustrations are all available in Microsoft 365 for Windows or Mac. Some
Adding a picture to PowerPoint text background look great and is easier than you might think. Even better, are many hidden options to adjust the image and position it exactly as you want. Curious about how to create text effects like in the image below? Look no further—if you have
Excel is everywhere including in crime fiction here’s some examples. Jo Livingstone has compiled some excerpts from novels that mention Excel. “George spent the next week glued to the chair in front of his computer, plugging new figures into his Excel spreadsheet, moving them about from column to column like
Here’s what you need to know now there’s only a year left for Office 2016 and Office 2019 before their official support ends. End of Support On 14 October 2025, Microsoft will stop making security and bug fixes for Office 2019 and Office 2016 for both Windows and Mac. Office
If you’ve used OneNote recently, you’re probably aware of the feature allowing you to draw shapes and make lines straight. Then Word for Windows got “Draw and Hold”. Now Excel and PowerPoint can draw straight lines and draw neat shapes (circle, square and more). We’ll explain how it works and how
Make it easier to see your current cell in an Excel workbook by dynamically highlighting the selected row, column, cell or headings. Here’s obvious and more subtle highlighting options plus the downside of highlighting, real world tips and debugging tricks if you’re having trouble. There are many different variations on
Excel can make bar charts in-cell without bothering with the full Chart system. Despite what you might have seen, there’s plenty of options in Excel Data Bars. The usual example of Excel Data Bars has the colored bar in the same cell as the value. In this article we’ll show
It’s not enough to setup two-factor security for your Microsoft account. Make sure your recovery settings are checked and up to date. Do it now before it’s too late. Today we’re helping someone trying to login to their Microsoft account after losing their password. Many, many hours of frustration and
Here’s how Office Watch reader, Erik and we drilled down into Windows and Word to narrow down the source of the Word language bug. Erik’s tests are with Office 365 on Windows 11 Pro 23H2 but the same behavior has been reported by others in many versions of Word and
Sometimes Word will switch to another language despite all the settings saying otherwise. With the help of an Office Watch reader, we’ve dug into the details to find what might cause the bug in Word and suggest some possible solutions. Word and Office should obey the default language setup in
Ever wondered what font is used in a famous logo? There’s a fascinating collection of familiar brands with their names replaced with the font name. Emanuele Abrate has made Logofonts, for example the Starbucks logo with the font name, FreightSans Black. Nike uses Futura. WhatsApp with HelveticaNeue. YouTube uses AlternativeGothic
An 85-year-old blunder has just been fixed at Westminster Abbey to change the spelling to Brontë with the important diaresis. Here’s how to type an ë in Word and other matters arising. Here’s how the memorial to the Brontë sisters looked in Poets Corner until a few days ago. For
