We place all of the “Shortcut of the Week” tips from 2004 in the one convenient place. Tip 1 – Undo The Undo function has become especially important over the years as Microsoft puts more ‘intelligence’ into their products. Sometimes it ‘corrects’ your spelling or re-formats something you were quite
While it lasts, there’s a deal available on Microsoft 365 Personal via Amazon US. Reduced prices on the Personal plan are rare so it’s a good chance to save on extending your subscription. Personal for $28 off Use this link to pay $41 instead of $69.99 Stocks are limited so
Any major Windows or Office update focuses on the new and changed stuff. Inevitably, there are also items removed or ‘deprecated’ (meaning they won’t be improved and will eventually be removed). See all the Office-Watch.com coverage of Windows 11 Windows 11 removes or moves quite a few features, some are
Microsoft will be releasing a totally revamped set of emoji for Windows and Office. Some previews have been released including some new post-COVID emoji and the return of a loved(?) character from Microsoft’s past. The current emoji in Windows look tired and flat compared to what Apple users enjoy so
Microsoft has now announced Windows 365, their ‘Cloud PC’ service for businesses. What is a Cloud PC is and why you might use one. A Cloud PC is a whole computer running ‘in the cloud’. You can access this computer from any device and operate it just like a normal
Another round of bug fixes for both Window and Office including an update to the PrintNightmare fix. PrintNightmare is a serious security breach found in all versions of Windows and Windows Server back to Windows 7. The original ‘out of band’ patch was flawed, stopping some USB printers completely. A
The latest and serious Windows security bug is called ‘PrintNightmare’. We’ll explain what it is, how serious the bug could be, what you should do about it balancing the ‘known unknowns’. UPDATE: Almost as predictable as the sun rising … the PrintNightmare patch caused problems for some Windows users. The
Our annual Microsoft Word vs the Spelling Bee Champions contest has returned for 2021. Word has done better than in the past but was still beaten by an extraordinary 14 year-old. Here’s the list of words used in the final rounds, (rounds 10-18) of the Scripps Spelling Bee as they
Excel isn’t just for budgets and number crunching, you can use it for making lists and even organizing your love life! Lisa used Excel to find her True Love. She listed all her dates in Excel with details somewhat like this… Excel, combined with some personal rules. eventually led her
Let’s look at some of the new (or new-ish) stuff in Windows 11. Widgets (again), Voice typing (Speech to text), Meet Now, Teams and putting Android apps on the Windows desktop. See all the Office-Watch.com coverage of Windows 11 Widgets Widgets are returning or to put it another way, Microsoft
Criminals try using Microsoft Office to get money from you using various phone scams impersonating Microsoft. Here’s how to protect yourself. Scammers are clever, sophisticated and look very sincere. Often there are stark warnings about dire consequences. In the end they want your money, infect your computer, steal your personal
Microsoft Office 365 is getting a new look for Windows 10 and the upcoming Windows 11. We have a video of the changes coming soon. On Windows 10 and 11, the Office apps get a ‘visual refresh’ to a more neutral, color scheme. Windows 11 apps get what Microsoft calls
Amazon UK was offering Microsoft 365 Family at more than £25 less than the usual price for both new and renewing customers as part of their 2021 Prime Day deals. It’s still available more than a week later! There are a few peculiarities about the offer, we’ll explain those below
New email notifications in Outlook can be quite distracting, especially in Windows. Here’s how to stop them or change the notices to make them less distracting and suit you better. Or just change the new email sound to something you prefer. The default email notification appears in the bottom right
Outlook 365 for Windows has a Meet Now button on the calendar views, why not elsewhere? Meet Now is Microsoft’s calling & meeting service. It’s officially part of Teams but is getting a life of its own for computer-to-computer calling and online meetings by individuals. It has features like screen
Tim Harford has an interesting long read on spreadsheets from its origins in the late 14th Century Italy to modern Excel with diversions into smallpox, Enron, Covid and even teasing Bill Gates. The Tyranny of Spreadsheets is on the Financial Times web site. It’s usually firewalled but the link should,
How to embed the necessary fonts into a Word document so everything is included that the receiver needs to view and edit it. You’ve made a document, it looks great and you send it off to someone or a print shop. They call complaining that it looks weird and claiming
PowerPoint can show slides on a screen as a high-tech signboard, using a self-running presentation known as Kiosk display. Here’s how to do it plus all the settings and tricks available. We’ve all seen screens displaying information on a series of slides – maybe in a shop or conference. Maybe
OneDrive is getting photo editing options directly in the apps and web site, saving you the trouble of switching to another picture edit app for simple changes. It’s a good move to handle many of the basic, quick edits that are needed. Perhaps before sending by email or instant messaging.
Microsoft has added more stock images to Office 365 apps to help people celebrate Mental Health month (May). Also some extra app themes and pictures for Pride Month (June). Mental Health images May was Mental Health Awareness Month so Microsoft added some appropriate Stock Images for documents and slides. They
A little known but useful Teams feature is synchronizing Teams files folders to your Windows or Mac computer. Files are available quickly, more easily and offline via Explorer or Finder. But there’s a trick to getting it working. The official way to access documents and files in Teams is via
Microsoft has announced their plans for later this year with additions to Teams, Whiteboard and an expansion of their Fluid components concept. None of these things are available now. It’s all future promises, nothing substantial customers can use today. Let’s strip away all the hype about ‘hybrid’ workplaces that are
Immersive Reader, already in Word, is coming to Outlook 365 for Windows. It’ll help people who have trouble reading on the screen or more generally. It’s part of Microsoft’s Accessibility drive to make Office documents available to as many people as possible. With Immersive Reader, an Outlook email is reformatted
OneDrive has quietly boosted one of its most important features, the ability to synchronize more than one account on the same computer or portable device. Here’s how for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. It’s possible to sync almost all the OneDrive accounts you have access to. A personal OneDrive
