Wise Owl Training - Hardware/software blogs (page 1 of 2)

Microsoft seem to be planning a big upgrade to Windows in the second half of 202

Posted by Andy Brown on 23 February 2021

There's a minor update to Windows due in Spring 2021, but a much bigger one in the offing in the second half of the year

Microsoft Office 2021 should be released in the second half of 2021

Posted by Andy Brown on 23 February 2021

Microsoft have confirmed that they will release another standalone versoin of Office in the second half of 2021 - this should include dynamic arrays, the XLOOKUP function and a new dark mode, among other things.

Changes to Edge and Windows in the new October 2020 Windows update

Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020

Although this is called a Windows update, the most useful changes are actually for the new Edge browser, as this blog explains.

A review of our first 6 months of online training

Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020

By the end of October we will have been providing online training for 6 months. After putting off doing this for so long, we've been surprised at how well it works - and so too have our clients, it seems.

The results of our survey on whether we should develop a Python or R course next

Posted by Andy Brown on 24 September 2020

Many thanks to everyone who voted in our newsletter survey on whether we should train in Python or R next - the results are in!

A trainer's experience of giving the first Wise Owl classroom course in 4 months

Posted by Andy Brown on 24 August 2020

What was it like giving the first classroom course for Wise Owl since the middle of March? There were good and bad points, as this blog explains.

Should you use JavaScript or VBA to program in Excel?

Posted by Andy Brown on 28 June 2020

Is JavaScript for Office (also known as OFFICE-JS) the next big thing? Unless you're a full-time web developer, emphatically no - this blog gives 3 reasons why you should continue to write your Office programs in humble VBA.

Retrieving past items from your clipboard using clipboard history

Posted by Andy Brown on 28 June 2020

Windows now lets you retrieve up to the last 25 things you've copied. It does this by keeping a clipboard history, from which you can paste items with a single keystroke.

This parody of mistakes you can make building a website is surprisingly funny!

Posted by Andy Brown on 13 March 2020

A website which includes help messages which don't, a password with ridiculous rules, an unhelpful timer, annoying default options for almost everything - thoroughly recommended!

Microsoft have rewritten their Edge browser to be based on the Chromium platform

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 February 2020

Microsoft have completely rewritten their Edge browser. The result is (by design) very similar to Chrome - you can even use Chrome extensions -but is probably even easier to use than Google's browser.

Office 365 ProPlus users will soon be using Bing as their default search engine

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 February 2020

Whether you like it or not, if you're running Office 365 ProPlus you will soon have your default search engine set to Bing. This article explains why this is happening, and how to get round it.

Good news for geeks the world over - you no longer need to eject USB sticks!

Posted by Andy Brown on 16 January 2020

Microsoft have changed the default Windows policy for writing to USB sticks, which means that you no longer have to worry about safely ejecting them.

How to enter the 2020 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship

Posted by Andy Brown on 10 January 2020

Think you know Excel (or Word/PowerPoint)? Put your skills to the test in the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships, held in California.

YouTube Silver Award - 100K + subscribers!

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 25 November 2019

We're proud to announce that YouTube have given us their coveted silver award, in recognition of the fact that our video channel has over 100,000 subscribers.

Wise Owl Training have joined Manchester Digital

Posted by Karen Webber on 08 August 2019

Wise Owl have joined the Manchester Digital network, promoting digital and tech businesses in the North-West.

The new Office 365 icons are horrible, but you are probably stuck with them

Posted by Andy Brown on 05 August 2019

For nearly all new Microsoft software updates Wise Owl are prepared to wait before commenting, but the new Office 365 icons are much harder to read and distinguish than the old ones!

How to switch between monthly and bi-annual updates for Office 365

Posted by Andy Brown on 05 August 2019

Most people will be on either the monthly or semi-annual update channel for Office 365. This blog shows how you can find out which channel you are on, and how to change your channel.

This short blog gives a quick Windows short-cut key to insert emojis into text

Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019

If you want to spice up your emails or reports, use this Windows shortcut to insert emojis.

A quick way to copy the path and name of a file in Windows Explorer

Posted by Andy Brown on 17 June 2019

This short blog highlights a quick way to copy the full path (including the file name) of a file in Windows Explorer.

Changes made to the main Office applications from Office 2016 up to May 2019

Posted by Andy Brown on 10 May 2019

To prepare the way for the start of a monthly Office update on this website, this long blog lists the changes made to Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word between the release of Office 2016 and May 2019.