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
Amazon UK are selling Office 365 Home for very near their lowest price, saving ₤28 on the usual price. As we type this, the price is ₤51.09 here. That’s as good as you’re likely to get. Microsoft will sell you exactly the same thing for ₤79.99! That’s the Home (soon
Snap Camera is a way to ‘fancy up’ your webcam with fancy effects including the now infamous potato. There are other subtle effects that will work with Zoom, Skype, Teams or any other online calling service. Also a color slider inside some lens effects. Get Snap Camera from https://snapcamera.snapchat.com/ it’s
Some lighting, positioning and other tips for looking your best and more professional during an online call or meeting. Where to put the camera The camera should be about the same level at the top of your head then tilted down a little to your eyes. In other words, have
Find and add the Indian flag into Office documents, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, then use some Office picture tools to enhance the image. The same help applies for any other national flag, just look for a different source. Get the Indian Flag Image There are many, many copies of the Indian flag available. We’ve opted for
Word and PowerPoint allow you to not only put a colored border around a picture, instead try a pretty gradient effect for single color or multi-colored rainbow effects. Like most of the fancier border effects, you can access gradient border settings in the Format Picture pane, by going to Picture
Many café, restaurants and other businesses are closed due to the pandemic but still missing an opportunity to keep in touch with customers. Here’s a sign and tips to help recover when restrictions are lifted. There’s a lovely café near us which has closed for the duration. It would be
Excel’s Workday() function counts working days before or after the starting date. The counted workdays automatically excludes weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and can account for holidays. We previously explored the NetworkDays.Intl() function in Microsoft Excel to calculate the number of working days between two dates. Workday() is similar but returns the date (past or future) after the number of workdays. It is useful
Microsoft has rushed out a new Skype feature that lets you setup an online meeting or group call with a single shareable link. Of course there a good things about this option and some very bad things. As usual, the setup is more complicated than Microsoft makes out. This new
Continuing our look at what to put in a bag ready for an emergency trip to hospital. A checklist to ‘Prepare for the worst’. In part 1 Get ready for hospital – have a ‘go bag’ ready we looked at the devices to take, what to put on them and
