It was only a matter of time before someone became so bored in the lockdown that they made a song about Microsoft Word. Ghetts, a British ‘rapper‘ (translation: singer/songwriter in the modern styling) has ‘dropped‘ (released) a song and video entitled ‘Microsoft Word’. As a boring white man in his
Section breaks are probably one of the most useful features in Word when you are formatting complicated documents. They allow you to change formatting aspects that would otherwise be the same throughout a document, such as page orientation, margins, columns, headers and footers. Column changes (2, 3 or more columns)
There are two ways to make Microsoft Word open with your preferred font ready to go. Just like with Two Ways to Change Word’s Opening Paper Size there are two ways to change the default or preferred font. Change the base Normal style or open the main Word template and
Nirsoft’s SearchMyFiles has received a major boost. It can now search inside Office documents and PDF’s. SearchMyFiles is the Windows search tool that should be included with Windows. It’s interface might be old-fashioned but all the options are visible, including some not available in Windows. Some of the highlights in
There’s big gap between the response of the Windows and Office parts of Microsoft to the coronavirus troubles. One team has understood the changed needs of customers and adapted; the other part of the same company is carrying on as normal and even taking advantage. Most people think that Windows
Microsoft has changed sentence spacing default setting in Word 365. Now the default is set at a single space at the end of a sentence, not two spaces. You can still choose your own preference or stop the checks completely. Single sentence space vis double spacing is one of those
Word numbered lists can do a lot more than simple 1, 2, 3 so here we’ll show you some better (1st, 2nd) and maybe unusual options (First Level, Second Place etc). All these and more are possible with Microsoft Word’s numbering plus a little knowledge and cunning. Numbering controls are
Format Painter in Office will work to copy formatting between shapes which is very useful for complex Gradients. But they don’t always format copy in the way you’d expect. We’re obliged to Office-Watch.com reader, Lorelei, for pointing out that Format Painter can copy gradient fills in most but not all
A pop-up message to Office 365 / Microsoft 365 says there are ‘more benefits’. Are there extra benefits in Microsoft 365 or is it more Microsoft hype? This dialog appears after an update to Office 365 …. Office 365 is now Microsoft 365 New Name. More benefits. Same price. Microsoft
Word has six shortcuts to make horizontal lines, here’s how they work, change them, color the lines and how to stop lines when they get out of control. All six line shortcuts There are six horizontal line shortcuts. For each one type the same character three times at the start
Microsoft is pushing video backgrounds to PowerPoint slides, but they really are a bad idea and should be banned from slide decks. Designer’s Design Ideas will start with a background video. Microsoft loves showing off these moving backgrounds because they impress people at demonstrations. Moving backgrounds are not a good idea because they distract the
Today (21 April 2020) is that day Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365. What does that mean to you and using Word 365, Excel 365, PowerPoint 365, Outlook 365 etc. A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that ‘Office 365’ was becoming ‘Microsoft 365’ from today. There’s NO change in the software
Inserting live video into a PowerPoint presentation is possible in different ways. With online meetings and presentations all the rage, it’s natural that people would like to show themselves and their presentation at the same time. Either half and half screen (left) or some variation of video in box (right).
We’ve made a few changes to our COVID-19 tracking workbook for Excel 365. The kind comments from readers are much appreciated. For those of you who asked, it was made by our Editor-in-Chief, Peter Deegan, who is safely locked-down in London. Peter refreshed the COVID-19 statistics (which any Excel 365
Google Slides can be handy for sharing and working on presentations with other people, but sometimes you just really need that file in PowerPoint. No problem – it’s actually really easy to convert them. All you have to do is download the file and save it as a PowerPoint file. If the Google Slides File is Open If you have your
Microsoft has released about 113 security bug fixes for Windows and Office in their April 2020 dump of patches on ‘Patch Tuesday’. The main change is a block on external references in VBA code, a change that hasn’t been fully documented. These security fixes will be pushed out via Windows
Over Easter there was a three day serious breakdown in Outlook.com for Australian users among many. The problems were first acknowledged by Microsoft about 1pm Sydney time on Saturday 11 April and continued for around three days! Mostly Aussies were affected with pockets of trouble in Europe and USA. A
The April 2020 security fixes for Microsoft Office come with a warning that some VBA code will stop working. There are workarounds to let some references through. The KB4557055 security fix blocks VBA references that link to Internet or intranet sources or have been downloaded from the Internet. That will
PowerPoint includes quick access to character spacing features that make slide titles stand out. In PowerPoint there are two useful features to make a slide title jump out at the viewer. Character Spacing is quickly changed on the Home tab. More subtle is Kerning. When it comes to Design, and clarity in Design, Space is almost as important
Some of the features and tricks in our COVID-19 worksheet for Excel 365. We’ve made this workbook as a practical and timely example of some important recent Excel features and how they can be used. Open up the workbook in Excel 365 for Windows and add some countries to see
Keep track of COVID-19 statistics using this automatically updating Excel spreadsheet that shows the latest cases and deaths for selected countries with populations also added for you. We’ve been a little annoyed at media coverage that deals with raw numbers without adjusting for population. We opened up Excel 365 and
Microsoft is adding what it’s calling ‘Private Annotations’ to Word 365 with OneDrive or Sharepoint, We’re not sure what all the fuss is about because anyone with any version of Word can do the same thing now. Microsoft is trying a ‘quick fix’ for a common user request. Private Annotations
Modern Microsoft Word (Office) has some picture tools which can convert an image into an outline that kids can use for coloring in. We’ll be the first to admit, the image to outline options aren’t great but they are serviceable, quick and easily done with tools you have in Microsoft
It is possible to send and receive faxes without a fax machine. At least you can send a fax from your computer without a fax machine because there are online services to do that for you. We’ve noticed some press reports were overwhelmed offices have reverted to faxes because their
