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Microsoft Office 2016: Lots of upgrade questions and some answers

Microsoft began rolling out Office 2016 for Windows on September 22. Since then, there have been a lot of questions around timing and installation techniques from those attempting to move to the latest version of Microsoft’s Office suite.

Office 2016

It turns out that not everyone has been able to upgrade to the latest release this week, in spite of Microsoft declaring the suite generally available. Instead, as many have discovered, the Office 2016 rollout is a staggered one, and one which has resulted in some OneDrive, Skype for Business and other app and service installation and compatibility issues.

While Microsoft officials did say a week ago that the company would be moving to a servicing/branch model with Office 2016 similar to the one the Windows 10 team is using, details on exactly how that would play out for Office users were scarce. But thanks to Microsoft pages and KB articles — we now know more.

Office 2016

It turns out anyone in the Office 365 First Release program was able to get the latest Office 2016 apps for Windows as of this week. The same is true of those on the existing Office 365 Small Business Premium, Business and/or Business Premium — but only for those who are buying new subscriptions, according to the chart from a Microsoft community answers post, embedded above. Automatic updates to Office 2016 for those on these three plans won’t begin until the fourth quarter of 2016..

Just to add a little more complexity to this already complex set of rules, Microsoft is in the midst of replacing its Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Busines plans with three new ones. The three: Office 365 Business, Business Essentials and Business Premium. Microsoft has pushed the suggested migration date kick-off for these new plans back from October 1 to December 1, 2015, The reason for the date change: “The renewal experience will be best for users who have the latest version of Office,” meaning Office 2016.

Those with Office 365 ProPlus SKUs — meaning Office 365 Enterprise, Midsize and Education — are on the Current Branch for Business. This means these users cannot upgrade to the new Office 2016 for Windows bits right now unless the administrators change the update branch to be used by some/all of their users to Current Branch.

“For Office 365 ProPlus subscribers, administrators can opt to upgrade by manually rolling out to their users with Office deployment tools available today, September 22. Automatic updates for Office 365 ProPlus customers will begin early next year,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed when I asked.

Here are some more links that might help those interested in making the move to Office 2016:

Microsoft made the Office 2016 for Windows release available to MSDN subscribers on September 22. Volume licensees will have access to the new release via the Volume License Servicing Center (VLSC) as of October 1.

DreamSpark users got access to Office 2016 on September 22. Microsoft Action Pack and MPN subscribers will get access on October 1. And Home Use Rights for Office 2016 for Windows and Mac, both, will be available as of October 7, according to Microsoft.

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Now Microsoft Office 365 tackles ‘fake CEO’ email spoofing attacks

Microsoft is rolling out a host of new email security features for Office 365 later this quarter, as it looks to thwart hackers and criminals.

‘Insider spoofing’ or faking the CEO’s email address to trick the CFO into transferring millions to criminal bank accounts is big business. Now Microsoft is using big data and reputation filters to try and squish the threat.

According to the FBI, between October 2013 and August 2015, 7,066 US businesses have fallen prey to ‘business email compromise’, netting criminals an estimated $747m.

Non-US victims lost a further $51m over the period, with the FBI estimating a 270 percent increase in identified victims since January 2015, when it first released figures about the threat category.

As Microsoft notes, when a corporate email domain is spoofed, it makes it hard for existing filters to identify the bogus email as malicious.

However, Microsoft reckons it has achieved a 500 percent improvement in counterfeit detection using a blend of big data, strong authentication checks, and reputation filters in Exchange Online Protection for Office 365.

It’s also rolling out new phishing and trust notifications to indicate whether an email is from a known sender or if a message is from an untrusted source, and therefore could be a phishing email.

The company is also promising a faster email experience as it vets attachments for malware and new tools to auto-correct messages that are mis-classified as spam. The aim is to boost defences without impairing end-user productivity.

Malicious email attachments remain a popular way for attackers to gain a foothold in an organization and, as RSA’s disastrous SecurID breach in 2011 showed, a little social engineering can go a long way to ensuring someone opens it.

Microsoft’s new attachment scanner, called Dynamic Delivery of Safe Attachments, looks to reduce delays as it checks attachments for potential threats.

Currently it captures suspicious looking attachments in a sandbox with a ‘detonation chamber’ where it analyses it for malware in a process takes five to seven minutes.

Microsoft hasn’t figured out a faster way to analyse the attachment, but instead of holding up the email as it conducts the scan, it will send the body of the email with a placeholder attachment. If the attachment is deemed safe, it will replace the placeholder and if not, the admin can filter out the attachment.

The feature is part of Microsoft’s Office 365 Exchange Online Protection and Advanced Threat Protection services.

The company is also tackling false-positive spam, or legitimate messages that are mis-identified as spam, and vice versa, with a new feature called Zero-hour Auto Purge, which allows admins to “change that verdict”.

“If a message is delivered to your inbox and later found to be spam, Zero-hour Auto Purge moves that message from the inbox to the spam folder; the reverse is true for messages misclassified as spam,” Microsoft notes.

Microsoft is testing this approach with 50 customers and says it will be rolled out for all Exchange Online Protection global clients in the first quarter of 2016.

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Can’t Change Windows 7 Theme?

Can’t change the Windows 7 theme? Is your Windows 7 theme stuck on “classic”? If it is stuck, then you can try to apply a few fixes and see if if you can unstuck it! Often it is stuck, because your PC is configured to be optimized for best performance, rather than best appearance!

 

Windows

Overview

Configure PC for better Appearance
Start Windows 7 Themes Service
Problem: Themes Service Cannot Be Started

Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons

Often the reason why your Windows 7 theme could be stuck on classic is that your PC is configured to be optimized for better performance. I could imagine that some laptops are even pre-configured that way. Actually, it’s a good setting, but if you want a better appearance I can understand that it’s annoying to be stuck on “classic” theme. So, if you can’t change your Windows 7 theme, you might want to check your PC configuration first:

1. StepOpen the Control Panel

Control Panel


2. Click on “System and Security”:

3. Step Click on “System”.

4. Step In the sidebar, click on “Advanced System Settings”:

5. Go to the tab “Advanced” and click on “Settings”:

System and Security

 

6. Step Scroll down the list, at the bottom double-check that the item “Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons” is checked. If this is not checked, your Windows 7 theme will be stuck on “classic” for a long time, because this completely disables your fancy visual Aero appearance.

Windows 7 Themes

This is also often the problem why people can’t seem to be able to active the Windows 7 Aero theme, because their PC is configured to be optimized for the best performance and not the best appearance.

Themes service is not started

If your Windows 7 themes service is not started your Windows 7 theme will be stuck on “classic”. You can’t change your Windows 7 theme when the theme service is disabled. So, let’s check if your themes service is up and running.

1. Step Click on “Start” and enter “services.msc” into the search field. Click on the item that appears.

2. Step Scroll down the list until you find the item “Themes” (or enter Themes while one item is selected)

3. StepYou will now see if the Themes service is running currently and what mode it is in (Automatic, Disabled, Manual):

If it’s currently “Disabled” or in “Manual” mode and not started, you have to start it manually and change the mode to “Automatic”.

4. StepDouble-click on “Themes” and from the dropdown select “Automatic”, click on “Start” and then on “Apply”.

Themes Properties

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Surface Book pre-orders sold out at Microsoft’s online store

If you were still thinking about placing an order for a new Microsoft Surface Book, then you will have to look somewhere other than the Microsoft store.

surfacebook

While there doesn’t seem to be a massive supply issue with the new Apple iPhone 6s smartphone, in the past we have seen Apple products sell out quickly and deliveries move from days, to weeks, to months. It seems that Microsoft’s new Surface Book may be generating more interest than planned.

Last night I went to the online Microsoft Store to place an order for a base model Surface Book. I found that the only available status when choosing that model was, “Email me when available.” I jumped through the other four models and discovered the same thing. It seems Microsoft is sold out of pre-order stock for all models at its online store.

We reached out to Microsoft to try to find out more about stock status and when buyers could expect to place pre-orders. I also asked if there will be units in Microsoft retail stores on launch day, 26 October. Given that units are sold out online, we may even see people queue up for possible stock in stores.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement, “We’ve seen strong demand for Surface Book and have sold out of pre-order supply for October 26 availability. We will have limited quantities of Surface Book available in store on October 26 and will be updating online availability with new product ship dates soon.”

UPDATE: Microsoft updated its store and is no allowing customers to pre-order the five Surface Book variations. What you will find instead of an email me when available button is updated delivery expectations, ranging from five to six weeks for three models and seven to eight weeks for two models.

While I was disappointed that I couldn’t purchase a Surface Book through Microsoft directly, I found that Best Buy and Amazon will also be selling this new computer. Best Buy did not appear to be taking pre-orders, but I was able to purchase the Intel Core i5, 8GB, 128GB model from Amazon for $1,499.

The Amazon website does not appear to carry the 256GB i5 without dGPU or 256GB i7 models. The 256GB i5 with dGPU looks to be the only other model available for pre-order. The 512GB i7 model is on the site as an option, but redirects you to the Microsoft Store for purchase and it’s not avaialable there.

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First look: Five Office 2016 preview apps

At the Microsoft Ignite 2015 conference last month, the company showcased the latest iteration of its Office suite. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect.

Office 2016

Each month I compile lists of five apps that fall into various categories, such as apps to save you airfare, process monitors, and tools for protecting online privacy. This time around, however, I wanted to do something a little bit different and give you a glimpse of five applications that will eventually make up Microsoft Office 2016.

1: Word 2016

Microsoft is introducing two versions of Word 2016: a feature-rich desktop version and a lightweight, touch-optimized version. The desktop version looks and feels a lot like the previous version (Figure A), but Microsoft is introducing some new features, such as real-time co-authoring.

Figure A

Word 2016 Desktop Version

The touch-optimized version of Word (Figure B) is currently available only for use on the Windows 10 preview. It contains the essential features that users most commonly need to do their jobs, with a clean interface that’s ideal for touch screens, small screens, or for anyone who is intimidated by the desktop version’s exhaustive feature set.

Figure B

Word 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

2: Excel 2016

As is the case with Word, Microsoft is releasing two versions of Excel. The desktop version (Figure C) is much more feature rich and will likely be the best choice for hard-core Excel users. It includes new capabilities, such as business intelligence integrated directly into Excel and some data loss prevention features.

Figure C

Excel 2016 Desktop Version

The touch-optimized version of Excel (Figure D) is similar to its Word counterpart, in that it’s designed to be lightweight and includes only the most commonly used features. Although more capable, this version of Excel reminds me a lot of the version that is included with Windows Phone 8.1.

Figure D

Excel 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

3: PowerPoint 2016

The PowerPoint 2016 preview doesn’t seem to have changed all that much from the previous version, either (Figure E). The most noticeable change to the interface is the addition of the Tell Me bar, a Cortana-like interface that will be shared by all of the Office 2016 applications. It allows users ask Office how to perform a particular task.

Figure E

PowerPoint 2016 Desktop Version

As with Word and Excel, Microsoft has also created a lighter weight, touch-optimized version of PowerPoint (Figure F).

Figure F

PowerPoint 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

4: OneNote 2016

On the surface it is difficult to tell what, if anything is new in OneNote 2016 (Figure G), beyond the enhancements that exist for all the Office applications. Web searches for OneNote 2016 features have as yet failed to reveal anything significant. I admit that I don’t use OneNote often, so it is entirely possible that new features exist and I simply have not found them.

Figure G

OneNote 2016 Desktop Version

Although the desktop version of OneNote seems to be similar to OneNote 2013, the touch-optimized version (Figure H) has an intuitive interface that’s easy to use. The touch version is more full-featured than the version that was included with Windows Phone 8.1, but it doesn’t contain all the features of the desktop version.

Figure H

OneNote 2016 Touch-Optimized Version

5: Sway

Microsoft PowerPoint has been around in one form or another for what seems like forever. During that time, it has become more refined, but it’s still basically just a slideshow tool. In Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft is introducing Sway (Figure I) as a next-generation alternative to PowerPoint.

Figure I

Sway (Next Generation Alternative To PowerPoint)

There are two main differences between PowerPoint and Sway. First of all, PowerPoint is linear. A PowerPoint presentation has a first slide and it has a last slide and usually, a number of slides in between. In contrast, Sway is designed to be more organic and allow for more free-form presentations.

The other major difference between PowerPoint and Sway is that Sway is designed for Web content. A Sway presentation can include photos, YouTube videos, and items from Facebook, Twitter, OneDrive, etc. Some have argued that Sway is like OneNote because it aggregates information. However, OneNote is more of an organizational application, while Sway is designed for presentations.

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10 Word Defaults You Can Customize

Takeaway: Change a few key default settings in Word and you won’t have to make the same tweaks over and over.

Word does a good job of assuming how the average user works, but some of Word’s default settings can be annoying and inefficient. Some users don’t know they can permanently change these settings, so they continue to reset them for each new document or just struggle along. Users should consider resetting the following defaults to work more productively. Of course, there are more defaults to set.

1: Line spacing

The default line spacing setting in Word 2007 and 2010 is 1.15, not 1, as it is in 2003. Microsoft believes 1.15 is more readable online. If you’re not generating Web content, adjust the style(s) you use in Word’s template (Normal.dotx), as follows:

  1. Click the Home tab.
  2. Right-click Normal in the Styles Quick gallery and choose Modify.
  3. Choose Paragraph from the Format list.
  4. In the Spacing section, change the At setting from 1.15 to 1, as shown in Figure A.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Check the New Documents Based On This Template option.
  7. Click OK.

Figure A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This change will adjust all Word styles based on Normal, so be sure that’s what you want.

2: Smart quotes

If you generate Web content or other published material, you probably have to undo Word’s smart quotes in favor of straight quotes. You can do so quickly enough by pressing [Ctrl]+Z, but that becomes tedious after a while and you might forget. If you use straight quotes more than smart quotes, disable smart quotes as follows:

  1. Click the File menu and choose Options under Help. In Word 2007, click the Office button and click Word Options. In Word 2003, choose Auto Correct Options from the Tools menu and skip to step 4.
  2. Choose Proofing in the left pane.
  3. Click AutoCorrect Options in the AutoCorrect Options section.
  4. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
  5. Deselect the Straight Quotes With Smart Quotes option in the Replace As You Type section, shown in Figure B.
  6. Click OK.

Figure B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disable smart quotes for all new documents.

3: Paste special

Word’s paste special feature retains the source formatting. If you’re pasting from foreign sources, you probably reformat it once it’s in your Word document. If you do this a lot, change the Paste Special default as follows:

  1. Click the File tab and choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options.
  2. Select Advanced in the left pane.
  3. In the Cut, Copy, and Paste section, choose Use Destination Styles from the Pasting Between Documents When Style Definitions Conflict drop-down.
  4. Choose Keep Text Only from the Pasting From Other Programs drop-down, as shown in Figure C.
  5. Click OK.

Figure C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several paste settings make this a flexible feature; choose the setting that’s most efficient for you.

This feature is significantly different in Word 2003. From the Tools menu, choose Options, and click the Edit tab. In the Cut And Paste section, click the Settings button to display the options shown in Figure D.

Figure D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Word 2003 is more specific, but it allows some control.

4: File Location

Word saves your documents in My Documents. If you find yourself resetting the save location a lot, reset the default as follows:

  1. Click the File tab and choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click the Word Options button. In Word 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu.
  2. Select Save in the left pane. In Word 2003, click the File Locations tab.
  3. Specify the new folder in the Default File Location field shown in Figure E. Or click Browse and locate it that way. In Word 2003, highlight the Documents item and click Modify. Use the Modify Location dialog to specify the new folder and click OK.
  4. Click OK.

Figure E

 

 

 

 

 

Word will save documents to the specified folder instead of My Documents.

5: Spacing between paragraphs

When you press [Enter], Word increases the line spacing to add a bit more white space between paragraphs. This extra space isn’t the same as a blank line, so you can’t delete it by pressing Backspace. To eliminate this extra spacing, do the following:

  1. Click the Home tab. In Word 2003, select Paragraph from the Format menu.
  2. Click the Paragraph group’s dialog launcher (the small arrow in the lower-right corner). In Word 2003, click the Indents And Spacing tab.
  3. Check the Don’t Add Space Between Paragraphs Of The Same Style option.
  4. Click Set As Default, as shown in Figure F. (Not available in Word 2003, but you can change this format for the current document.)
  5. Click OK.

Figure F

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eliminate the additional white space between paragraphs.

6: Mini toolbar

When you select text, Word displays the mini toolbar, which hosts several formatting options. Even though it’s dimmed, it still annoys some users. You can press [Esc] to hide it or you can permanently disable it, as follows:

  1. Click the File menu and choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options.
  2. Choose General in the left pane (if necessary).
  3. In the User Interface Options section, uncheck the Show Mini Toolbar On Selection option, shown in Figure G.
  4. Click OK.

Figure G

Uncheck this option to disable the mini toolbar.

7: Drawing canvas

Word’s drawing canvas is a distinct layer for drawing. Objects placed in a canvas have an absolute position and remain together as a group. Most users find the canvas layer difficult to work with and frankly, most users don’t need it. If you’re still using Word 2003, disable the canvas layer as follows:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. Click the General tab.
  3. Uncheck Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes in the General Options section.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Word 2007 and 2010 disables the canvas layer by default. If you happen to be working with the drawing canvas enabled, disable it as follows:
  6. Click the File menu and then choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options.
  7. In the left pane, choose Advanced.
  8. In the Editing section, uncheck the Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes option, shown in Figure H.
  9. Click OK.

Figure H

The drawing canvas is annoying enough that Microsoft finally disabled it by default in the Ribbon versions.

8: Normal.dotx

Word bases new documents on Normal.dotx, but the template’s settings might not fit your needs. If you have just a few changes, customize Normal.dotx. A common customization is to change the font and size. To make the change at the template level, do the following:

  1. Open a new document and click the Home tab.
  2. Click the Font group’s dialog launcher (the arrow in the bottom-right corner). In Word 2003, choose Font from the Format menu.
  3. Make the necessary font changes. For instance, you might choose Arial, 12.
  4. Before closing the dialog, click the Set As Default button. In Word 2003, click Default.
  5. In the resulting confirmation dialog, select the option to set the default for all documents based on the Normal template, as shown in Figure I.
  6. Click OK twice.

Figure I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make a font change at the template level.

Other template customizations you might want to make include margins and styles. Use a custom template, rather than Normal.dotx, to meet requirements that are more complex.

9: Word selection

When you select part of a word and then part of the next, Word selects the whole word for you — whether you meant to or not. To disable this selection option, do the following:

  1. Click the File tab and choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu.
  2. Choose Advanced in the left pane. In Word 2003, click the Edit tab.
  3. In the Editing Options section, deselect the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word option, as shown in Figure J.
  4. Click OK.

Figure J

Ridding yourself of this annoying selection behavior is easy.

10: Spelling, grammar, and formatting

Word identifies misspelled words, grammatical errors, and formatting inconsistencies, as you type:

  • A red line indicates a word not found in the dictionary (possibly misspelled).
  • A green line indicates a possible grammatical error.
  • A wavy blue line indicates an inconsistent format.

I recommend that you get used to the display and not disable these features — they’re a helpful indication that something might be wrong. On the other hand, if you find them distracting, you candisable them. To disable the red and green lines, do the following:

  1. Click the File tab and then choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu.
  2. Select Proofing in the left pane. In Word 2003, click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
  3. In the When Correcting Grammar and Spelling In Word section, uncheck the first three options: Check Spelling As You Type, Use Contextual Spelling, and Mark Grammar Errors As You Type, as shown in Figure K. (There’s no contextual spelling option in Word 2003.)
  4. Click OK.

Figure K

You can disable Word’s spelling and grammar indicators.

To rid documents of the wavy blue line, do the following:

  1. Click the File tab and then choose Options. In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu.
  2. Select Advanced in the left Pane. In Word 2003, click the Edit tab.
  3. In the Editing Options section, uncheck the Mark Formatting Inconsistencies option under Keep Track Of Formatting. In Word 2003, deselect the Mark Formatting Inconsistencies check box in the Editing Options section.
  4. Click OK

Even the most competent users make an occasional error and these features identify potential problems. Adjusting to them will probably serve most users better than turning them off.

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10 ways Microsoft Office 2016 could improve your productivity

Microsoft wants Office 2016 to be the last office productivity suite you will ever need. Here are 10 things you should know about how it plans to make that happen.

Microsoft Office 2016

On September 22, 2015, Microsoft released Office 2016 to the masses. At first glance, you may not notice much has changed since Office 2013. But when you look deeper, you will find some interesting and productivity-enhancing differences.

For years we’ve been promised wonderful benefits from cloud computing, and Microsoft Office 2016 is trying to deliver on those promises. It’s designed to meet our expectations of what a cloud-based, mobile-ready productivity suite can and should be. Only time will tell if Office 2016 actually delivers the goods, but the initial reviews are promising.

Here are 10 things Microsoft Office 2016 offers as it aspires to be the last productivity suite you are ever going to need.

1: Real-time co-authoring

Co-authoring has been around for a long time for many Office apps, but with Office 2016 that collaboration can now take place in real time. That means you will be able to see what your co-conspirators are doing in a Word document or PowerPoint presentation as they do it—and conversely they will be able to see what you are doing. It won’t even matter where you are or what device you are using.

2: OneNote notebook sharing

OneNote is one of the most useful applications available in Microsoft Office, and it is also one of the least appreciated. Office 2016 allows you to share a OneNote notebook with as many people as you want. And because OneNote works with text, images, worksheets, emails, and just about any other document type you can think of, it can be a great central resource for a team working on a project. That is, if they know to use it.

3: Simplified document sharing

Office 2016 simplifies sharing of documents by adding a Share button to the upper-right corner of your Office apps. Clicking that button will give you one-click access to share your document with anyone in your contacts list. You don’t even have to leave the document to do it. That does sound pretty simple.

4: Smart attachments

If you’re like me, you have to send email attachments just about every day. In previous versions of Office, adding attachments to an email required you to navigate to the location where the document was stored. You can still do that in Office 2016, but if the document in question was one you worked on recently, it will now show up in a list of shareable documents right there in Outlook. Essentially, Office 2016 keeps a universal recently worked on list for you.

5: Clutter for Outlook

Like most of us, you probably get a ton of email every day. Wading through the Outlook inbox to prioritize each email takes time and hampers your ability to be productive. Office 2016 adds a new category to your inbox triage toolbox, called Clutter. You can designate certain emails as low priority and they, and future similar emails, will be deposited automatically into a Clutter folder in Outlook. So now you have four categories for email: important, clutter, junk, and delete.

6: Better version history

Collaboration and creativity can be a messy process, with shared documents changing drastically over time. Office 2016 compensates for potentially lost ideas by keeping past versions of documents and making them available directly from Office applications under the History section of the File menu.

7: New chart types in Excel

The ability to visualize data with an Excel chart has always been a welcome and powerful capability. However, the list of available chart types found in previous versions of Excel needed an update. Office 2016 adds several new chart types to the templates list, including Waterfall, which is great chart if you like to track the stock market. Other new chart types include Treemap, Pareto, Histogram, Box and Whisker, and Sunburst.

8: Power BI

Between the release of Office 2013 and Office 2016, Microsoft spent a great amount of time and capital acquiring technologies that shore up its business intelligence and analytical applications. Power BI, a powerful analytics tool, now comes bundled with your Office 365 subscription. Knowing every little detail about how your business is running is essential information, and Power BI can bring it all together for you.

9: Delve

Delve is another new tool that comes with an Office 365 subscription. The best way to describe Delve is as a central location that gives you access to everything you have created, shared, or collaborated on using Office 2016. It is another recently worked on list, only this version of the list is stored in the cloud—so you can access it from anywhere with any device using the Office 365 Portal.

10: Purchase choices

Office 2016 is generally available only as a subscription. Even if you buy a boxed version of Office 2016, you are buying access to an annual subscription, with one exception. If you purchase the Office Home & Student 2016 box, you pay a one-time fee of $149.99 for just the basic Office apps.

Microsoft has definitely stacked the deck so that the best bang for the buck is a subscription to Office 365, which includes Office 2016 plus all the cloud services. Businesses should be looking at one of the Office 365 for Business subscriptions. It is also going to be your best deal.

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Pro tip: Sort table data in a Word document

sort word

Microsoft Word

 

Sorting data in a Word document isn’t something you routinely do. On the other hand, presenting list and table data is, so the potential exists that one day you’ll want to sort something. The good news is that it’s easy to sort data in a table or a list. In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that. We’ll work through a few simple sorting examples. You can use most any table, or you can download the example .docx or .doc file.

Behind the scenes

Word relies on paragraphs when sorting, which seems a bit odd within the context of a table (or list). The paragraph formatting mark determines where one paragraph ends and the next starts. As you can see in Figure A, there’s no paragraph mark in a table. The end-of-cell markers denote the end of each cell’s content. The similar marker at the end of each row (outside the right border) is an end-of-row marker. These markers also contain cell and row formatting. When sorting a table, Word relies on the end-of-row marker to identify where one row ends and the next begins, the same way the paragraph mark does. (To see a document’s formatting symbols, click Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.)

Figure A

Table end-of-row markers are similar to paragraph markers.

Sort by the first column

We’ll start with the simplest sort possible; we’ll sort a table by the values in the first column. To do so, select, the table by clicking its move handle (the small square in the top-left corner). If you don’t see this handle, check the view. It’s available only in Print Layout and Web Layout. With the entire table selected, do the following:

  1. Click the contextual Layout tab. In the Data group, click Sort — or click Sort in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. In Word 2003, choose Sort from the Table menu.
  2. The resulting dialog does a good job of anticipating the sort. Notice that the Header Row option (at the bottom) is selected. As a result, the Sort By field is set to Species — the label in the first column’s header (Figure B).
    Figure B

  3. This is exactly what we want, so click OK. Figure C shows the sorted table.
    Figure C

Before we move on, let’s discuss the Type and Using options to the right. We didn’t need to change either, but sometimes you will. The Type options are Text, Number, and Date. Word usually defaults to the appropriate data type. You can force a specific type by choosing a different option other than the one Word assumes (but you’ll rarely have reason to do so). The Using options defaults to Paragraph — we talked about that earlier.

Sort by the second column

That first exercise was easy. Let’s complicate things a bit by sorting by the second column. Fortunately, it’s just as easy as the first. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from the first exercise. Then, do the following:

  1. In the resulting dialog, click the Sort By drop-down.
  2. Choose Common Name, the header label for the second column.
  3. Click OK. Figure D shows the results of sorting by the second column.
    Figure D

That wasn’t any more difficult that the first sort. Tell Word which column contains the values you want to sort by and click OK — that’s it!

Sort by multiple columns

With only two sort tasks under your belt, you’re beginning to see how simple the sorting process in Word can be. Let’s complicate things a bit so you can see how flexible this feature truly is. Let’s sort by the Class column and then sort the bird and mammal groups in a secondary sort. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from the first two exercises. Then, do the following:

  1. To sort by the Class, choose Class from the Sort By drop-down.
  2. To further sort each class group, click Common Name from the Then by drop-down (Figure E). You could add a third column to the sort if the results warranted the additional grouping.
    Figure E

  3. Click OK to see the results shown in Figure F.
    Figure F

What about lists?

You might be wondering how to sort the same data in list form. Word handles the list sort the same way — the exact same way. Highlight the list and click Sort in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. In the resulting dialog, check the header option and set appropriately (if necessary). Then, determine the sort order by choosing the fields (columns), appropriately.Figure G shows the result of sorting the same data in list form.

Figure G

Sort a columnar list the same way you sort a table.

 

Office 2010 is Retiring

The popular Microsoft Office 2010 is reaching end of support in a few months. To avoid security risks, it’s time to upgrade to a newer version of Office. The good news is that you have options.

drawing of a man holding a laptop in front of a very large laptop with "update" on the screen and a wrench in front

What Does End of Support Mean?

Microsoft Office 2010 has been a popular version of the application over the last decade. The unfortunate news is that support for it ends this fall — on October 13, 2020, to be exact. All of your Office 2010 apps will continue to function. However, using an unsupported version of any software exposes your computer to serious and potentially harmful security risks. Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, or security fixes for Office 2010 vulnerabilities that may be subsequently reported or discovered. This includes security updates that help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

  • You’ll no longer receive Office 2010 software updates from Microsoft Update.
  • You’ll no longer receive phone or chat technical support.
  • No further updates to support content will be provided, and most online help content will be retired.
  • Another difficulty you may face is incompatibility with some of the newer programs and file formats.

If you’re using Office 2010, it’s probably a good time to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office.

Upgrade Options

The best way to protect yourself and your organization is to upgrade to a newer version of Office:

  • Cloud upgrade: Subscriptions to Microsoft 365
  • On-premises upgrade: Office Standard 2019

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one cloud solution with a number of different licensing options to fit your organization’s needs. The best part about cloud-based applications is that you no longer have to worry about retirements, patches, and end of support. Cloud licenses are automatically updated with new features, new applications, and security updates. Many cloud subscriptions also include installed (or desktop) versions of the application, so you can have the same look and feel of the Office applications you are accustomed to using, but built with more robust features and benefits.

Microsoft Office Standard 2019

Microsoft Office Standard 2019 is the latest version of the on-premises version of the office suite and is a good option for you if you are not ready for the cloud version at this time. This version of Office includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Publisher.

If you have any questions, please email us at support@sjtechies.com or call us at (856) 745-9990.

Microsoft updates support policy: New CPUs will require Windows 10

In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel’s Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months.

Windows 10

Enterprise customers are still the bulwark of Microsoft’s Windows business, in both the client and server segments.

Historically, those customers have also been among the most conservative, lagging years behind the latest releases of an operating system release. Those practices have been encouraged by Microsoft’s support lifecycle, which offers a generous ten years of support for each Windows release.

Effective today, that policy is changing in a subtle but significant way, with the addition of new hardware requirements for support of pre-Windows 10 releases. The company’s also publishing a preferred list of systems that will receive special attention for updates and support.

Yes, Windows 7 (currently in the Extended support phase) will continue to receive updates until January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. But in a series of “clarifications” to its support policy today, the company announced that support for those older Windows versions will be available only for “previous generations of silicon.”

Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support… Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming “Kaby Lake” silicon, Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996” silicon, and AMD’s upcoming “Bristol Ridge” silicon.

The policy will be phased in beginning with systems based on Intel’s new 6th-generation CPUs (code-named Skylake), which debuted a few months ago. New consumer-based Skylake devices must run Windows 10 to be supported.

For enterprise customers that want to buy “future proof” new hardware based on Skylake processors running older Windows versions, Microsoft will publish “a list of specific new Skylake devices we will support to run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.” That support will run for a period 18 months, until July 17, 2017, after which those enterprise customers will be expected to upgrade to Windows 10.

Examples of systems that will be on the initial release of the list include Dell’s Latitude 12, Latitude 13 7000 Ultrabook, and XPS 13; HP’s EliteBook Folio, EliteBook 1040 G3; and Lenovo’s ThinkPad T460s, X1 Carbon, and P70 models.

The list will continue to be updated, Microsoft says.

Any machine that earns a place on the elite enterprise support list will get very special treatment indeed, with the idea being to reassure corporate customers that these models are especially likely to perform well on Windows 10 in the new era of continuous updates:

For the listed systems, along with our OEM partners, we will perform special testing to help future proof customers’ investments, ensure regular validation of Windows Updates with the intent of reducing potential regressions including security concerns, and ensure all drivers will be on Windows Update with published BIOS/UEFI upgrading tools, which will help unlock the security and power management benefits of Windows 10 once the systems are upgraded.

These models also get special treatment for enterprises that are still planning their Windows 10 migration, with an 18-month grace period where the older OS versions are fully supported.

Through July 17, 2017, Skylake devices on the supported list will also be supported with Windows 7 and 8.1. During the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends. After July 2017, the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices.

Of course, enterprise customers who want to stick with earlier Windows versions beyond that mid-2017 deadline have lots and lots of options, based on current generations of Intel processors such as the Broadwell and Haswell lines. Those systems, which are based on what Microsoft calls “downlevel silicon,” will continue to be fully supported for pre-Windows 10 operating systems.

In today’s blog post, Microsoft says it’s seeing “unprecedented demand from our enterprise customers” in Windows 10. Enterprise customers are especially interested in new Windows 10 security features like Credential Guard, which uses hardware virtualization to safeguard credentials from attack.

Windows 8-era enhancements like Secure Boot, which protects systems from being compromised by rootkits and bootkits, also require new hardware.

Not surprisingly, today’s announcement contains the usual cheery statements from Microsoft’s three biggest hardware partners: Dell, HP, and Lenovo. All three companies compete aggressively in the low-margin consumer market, where virtually all new systems will run Windows 10. But enterprises will pay premium prices for the improvements in battery life and security in Skylake-based mobile systems, making this the most attractive segment to target.

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