Outlook for Windows has both automatic and manual options to translate incoming messages into a language you understand. We’ll explain the choices available and the Outlook settings that are in a strange order. Microsoft Translator supports over 100 languages, enabling users to translate text across a diverse array of linguistic
Pivotby() is a new and easy way to make PivotTables in Excel. It’s one of two new ‘aggregation functions’ but we prefer to call them fast summary powers. We’ll dig into the detail of what PivotBy() can do. Excel has been able to group or combine data for many years
For many readers being able to edit incoming Outlook messages is just a handy feature, but for anyone in the legal or corporate world it could have ‘interesting’ consequences. In Outlook for Windows, open the email in a full window (not the Reading Pane) then go to Message | Move
What’s the story behind the “Update Licence” option that’s appearing in Microsoft 365 apps? What does it mean and when to use it? In Microsoft 365 for Windows you might see a new item on the bottom of the File menu called “Update Licence”. It’s strangely prominent and misleading, based
There’s a useful but niche Excel warning about date with two digits for the century. That’s a useful precaution but sometimes the warning is wrong! Those of us around at the turn of the century will remember the Y2K problems and possible mistakes with a date that has only two
Copilot AI makes writing Excel formulas a lot easier but you still need to check the results to make sure Copilot has understood want you want and gives the right answer. There’s a lot of hype and promises about how AI can help make work easier. That’s not as true
Drop in some Easter flavor to your documents, slides or emails from right inside Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel. Either religious (Ascension, Crucifix etc) or secular (eggs, chocolate, bunnies) images and graphics are available. Modern Office, especially Microsoft 365 have stock images and icons from a large collection compiled by
There’s more than one Credit Card 💳 image available in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac. How Credit Card 💳 looks in different fonts. Only two standard Windows fonts have the credit card symbol; Segoe UI Emoji and Segoe UI Symbol.
Grouping in Excel lets you collapse or expand sections of a sheet so you can see the ‘big picture’ but still drill-down to how totals were made. Another use for grouping is hiding rows or columns from view. You can organize and manage data more effectively by grouping together rows
Microsoft has announced some of their plan for the changeover to the newer, totally rebuilt, Outlook for Windows. The changeover plan will be in four stages; Opt-in, General Availability, Opt-out and finally Cutoff. There are no specific dates given, just a broad structure but the whole switch from ‘classic Outlook’
The paid versions of Copilot AI in Microsoft Word often appear when it’s not wanted and Microsoft isn’t giving their paying customers any choice. Microsoft is assuming that anytime there’s a blank document or even paragraph that customers want Copilot to jump in. So they’ve put Copilot ‘front and center’
An interesting bug in Microsoft Word, thanks to an Office Watch reader. Changing the edit points around a rectangular image can hide some text that should be visible. It appears to be a bug in the code to wrap text around an object in some narrow circumstances. Here’s how to
A respected author has a warning about the future of AI using the mixed history of spreadsheet mistakes as an example. Tim Harford is an excellent columnist and author known as “the Undercover Economist”. Check out his “More or Less” podcast for the BBC. In a recent article he argues
Excel has some nice choices for clearing out cells quickly. You can remove the contents, the formatting only or both contents and formatting plus choices for deleting just notes, comments and cleaning up links. As you can see the drop-down menu Home | Editing | Clear offers options such as:
Here’s how to switch away from the new Aptos fonts in Microsoft PowerPoint and back to the old Calibri fonts or something else. Microsoft has forced a change to Aptos as the new default font in PowerPoint but that change doesn’t suit everyone. In particular, Aptos doesn’t make much (or any) visible difference for
Get rid of the over large ‘AutoSave’ slider on the Word, Excel or PowerPoint status bar. The Autosave button (strictly a label plus slider) takes up a lot of room on the top row of modern Office apps. That space is quite crowded and you need it to fit as
Excel has some useful options for printing less than an entire workbook. Printing a selection, active sheets or just a table. As Office-Watch.com has discovered before, there’s a lot more available in Office than a quick look suggests. See Print options are at File | Print then choose the menu
There are shortcuts that automatically format bold and italic text in Word. The same shortcuts and more work in WhatsApp texting as well. There are now four more formatting options; bullet lists, numbered lists, quotes and inline code. AutoFormatting Bold and Italics as you type In Microsoft Word and Outlook
Make an unpleasant point with the world’s ugliest color. A ‘drab dark green’ can be used in any Word document, Excel sheet or PowerPoint slide. And we’ll explain the recommended complement color and font. It’s not our opinion, but the market researched result of an effort to find the most
The British have 546 ‘drunkonyms’ or words for drunkenness according to a new academic study. We could not resist seeing how the Microsoft Word handles them (after we’ve had a quick drink to get us going 😀) We compiled a list of 55 drunkonyms and ran them past the Word
Copilot now has some in-built editing of the background of an AI made image, some borrowed from similar features in Designer. Request an image from Copilot e.g. “Make an image of a koala in the desert”, select one of the thumbnail pictures to see the full size version. Click on
Ever wondered what fonts say to each other. How newcomer Aptos treats Calibri? How Dingbats dance and what Comic Sans wears? Elle Cordova answers these and other important typographical questions in two Instagram videos. Fonts Hanging Out part 1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C2cZBIAr24m/ Fonts Hanging Out part 2 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2sxcszyLnN/ Enjoy … Excel –
All Outlook for Windows have a critical bug which makes it too easy for any hacker to gain access to a computer. It just needs a simple link clicked from an email to bypass Office Protected View protections, even from the Preview pane. So all Outlook’s should be updated asap.
Microsoft Loop has a new feature that should be added to Word and PowerPoint, see what text has been written by Copilot AI instead of a human. Loop is adding a tag (‘floatie’) which shows who wrote some text and includes ‘Copilot’ as one of those authors. That’s a very
