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Tag: Word

  • Uber Receipt Emails Are Crashing Microsoft Outlook and Word

    Uber Receipt Emails Are Crashing Microsoft Outlook and Word

    Microsoft has identified an issue with receipt emails from Uber, as well as some others, that are causing Outlook and Word to hang and/or crash.

    A recent update seems to be the cause of the issue, and will result in Outlook and Word not responding when certain emails are opened. The issue seems to only happen when opening emails with complex tables.

    When opening, replying, or forwarding some emails that include complex tables, Outlook stops responding. The same table contents will also cause Word to stop responding.

    This issue started in Current Channel Version 2206 Build 15330.20196 and higher. It also occurs in current builds of Beta and Current Channel Preview.

    The company has already issued a fix that will be released to the Beta channel soon. In the meantime, users who can’t wait for the fix will need to roll back to the previous version.

  • Unified Microsoft Office App For iOS Rolling Out

    Unified Microsoft Office App For iOS Rolling Out

    Late last year, Microsoft announced it was working on an all-in-one office app for iOS and Android. It appears the iOS version is in the process of rolling out.

    The new app brings Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single app, improving and simplifying worksflows. Microsoft still intends to offer the individual apps, especially for users that may only need one or two. For users who rely on the entire suite, however, the new app will have some nice improvements and save space.

    iPhone Optimized Office
    iPhone Optimized Office

    The new app is on the App Store although, at time of writing, only an iPhone-optimized version was available. When running it on an iPad, it recommends downloading an iPadOS app, although only the existing, stand-alone apps are available. Hopefully the iPadOS version is coming and has just not hit the App Store yet. Given that Office works best on an iPad, it seems unlikely Microsoft would fail to release an iPadOS-optimized version.

    In any case, once (if) both apps are fully available, Office will be a nice addition to the Microsoft family of apps, giving customers yet another option.

  • Microsoft Redesigns iOS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

    Microsoft Redesigns iOS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

    Microsoft has released a major update to its iOS apps, revamping the interface and adding new features.

    According to the release notes, Word was “redesigned from scratch,” to make the app “simpler, faster and more beautiful than before.” The word processor also includes an updated Alt Text Pane to make “content more accessible by adding helpful captions or even mark elements as decorative.”

    Similarly, Excel receives the same facelift and Alt Text Pane, but also ads Read and Reply on the Fly, giving users the ability to “respond to comments and mentions right from email without opening the workbook.” Finally, VLOOKUP replacement XLOOKUP makes its way to the iOS version.

    Powerpoint also gets the same visual redesign, as well as the Alt Text Pane.

    Microsoft’s Office apps are already some of the most powerful, full-featured applications available for iOS and go a long way toward delivering on the iPad’s productivity promise. This latest release is a welcome upgrade and has some nice quality-of-life improvements.

  • Chrome Beta For Desktop Adds Support For Microsoft Office Documents

    Despite Google’s best attempts at getting people to switch to Google Docs, much of the world still works in Microsoft Office. It may be a while before Google can win the format wars; but in the meantime, it will make sure Chrome users stay in Chrome when opening Microsoft documents.

    Google announced that Chrome Beta for desktop can now open Microsoft Office documents directly in the browser. In other words, all of your Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files can be accessed in the browser without having to open Microsoft Office.

    You could interpret this as Google firing a warning shot across Microsoft’s bow, but Google says it’s only watching out for its users:

    In addition to saving you time, the Chrome Office Viewer also protects you from malware delivered via Office files. Just like with web pages and PDFs, we’ve added a specialized sandbox to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.

    If you want to start viewing Microsoft Office files in Chrome, you’re going to first need the Chrome Beta. You can grab that here. Next up, you’re gonna need the Chrome Office Viewer which is also in beta. Google reminds users to help them squash any remaining bugs in the Office Viewer by submitting bug reports whenever things go wrong.

  • Microsoft Updates All Of Its Office Web Apps

    The Web is quickly becoming the new platform of choice for many tech companies. Google and Microsoft have been the two largest proponents of the Web over the last few years with both companies investing heavily in cloud computing and big data. Now Microsoft has finally updated one of its first forays into the Web-based collaboration software.

    Microsoft announced today that all of its Office Web apps have been updated to take advantage of new platforms like SkyDrive. The first Office Web apps were made available in 2010 and let users collaborate on documents in real time via any Web browser. It was similar to Google Docs, but now Microsoft is moving to be the Web platform of choice for those working in Word and other office documents.

    First up, the Word Web app was updated to improve its visuals on high definition monitors. There’s also new support for viewing and adding comments to a Word document. Many of the same features present in the desktop version of Word are available in the Word Web app.

    The Excel Web app features all of the essential features that you’ve come to expect. Users can now visualize data with high fidelity charts, even in 3D. The app now supports the ability to print from the browser as well.

    The PowerPoint Web app has received more updates than most due to its highly visual nature. Slides are now presented in high definition, just like on the desktop version. Audio and video playback is now supported on mobile devices as well. Students or office workers who are still working on a presentation at the last minute can also add new slides via a Web browser.

    On a final note, the OneNote Web app also received a few updates including the ability to search on a page or within a section. Like before, users can type anywhere on a page to add notes, pictures or tags. Those notes, however, can now be shared as URL that can be viewed on across PCs, phones and tablets.

    All the new updated Office Web apps have been optimized for IE10, Windows 8 and iOS 6. You can access them via SkyDrive and Outlook.

  • Microsoft, Novell Lawsuit Ends With Sopranos-Style Mistrial

    After seven years in court, Microsoft is expected to ask the U.S. federal judge to dimiss the antitrust suit filed against them by Novell. Novell made their closing arguments in the case last week but a jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision, leaving the judge to declare a mistrial.

    Novell originally filed the suit claiming that Microsoft purposely suppressed and sabotaged WordPerfect, a word processing platform developed by Novell, in order to consolidate users to Microsoft Word. Consequently, Novell claims they suffered severe financial loss due to Microsoft’s tampering. Alternately, Microsoft has cited Novell’s own mismanagement for the decline of WordPerfect’s popularity and usability.

    From Network World:

    In a filing to U.S. federal judge J. Frederick Motz, Microsoft’s lawyer said Monday that the company intends to renew its motion for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

    A motion for a judgment as a matter of law is a request for relief on the basis that the opposite party’s case does not have legally sufficient evidence for any reasonable jury to take a decision. It can be renewed as a second chance after a jury trial.

    In ruling on the renewed motion, under Rule 50 the court may allow judgment on the verdict if the jury returned a verdict, order a new trial, or direct the entry.

    Incredibly, some jurors were reported to be in tears after being dismissed. Attorneys on both sides admitted to being disappointed as they were hopeful to get some kind of verdict after all of this time.

    Oddly, the jury was hung at an 11-1 decision against Microsoft, which causes me to fondly recall all of those episodes of The Sopranos where the mob dudes would terrorize one poor juror into holding out from agreeing on a verdict. Members of the Sopranos mob family would intimidate and threaten one vulnerable juror in order to coerce them into dissenting from the otherwise unanimous jurors’ decision against the accused gangster. Without an agreement among jurors, the case ends in mistrial and the mobster walks free.

    But who knows if Microsoft actually has that kind of menacing clout; it all just sounds very odd.

    The actual request to dismiss the case is expected to be filed early next year.

  • Microsoft, Novell Antitrust Suit Finally Nearing An End

    After a little over seven years, the antitrust suit that Novell filed against Microsoft is finally nearing a close. Novell sued Microsoft and claimed that the software developer “unfairly used its monopoly on personal computer operating systems to suppress WordPerfect, a rival word-processing program” to Microsoft’s own word-processing platform, Word.

    Novell made its closing arguments in the trial yesterday, reiterating their claim that Microsoft deliberately sabotaged WordPerfect by tampering with programmer’s access to extensions and thus making it impossible for WordPerfect to run properly on Windows. Novell has argued that their precipitous decline of shares in the word-processing market, falling from 50% in 1990 to a lowly 10% in 1996, is a direct result of Microsoft suppressing WordPerfect’s access and successful operation.

    Microsoft has countered Novell’s claims in press releases, stating that the lack of quality in WordPerfect was due to Novell’s “own mismanagement and poor business decisions.” Microsoft defends itself further by arguing that, as of 1994, WordPerfect had already begun to decline in popularity and value and again places that blame on Novell, who they say had hoped to deprive “Windows of a key application [and] limit the success of Windows.”

    Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberating tomorrow if not later today.

    I barely remember even using WordPerfect in my youth, but should Microsoft be found liable for the lack of availability of WordPerfect, I will then have to wonder how many times in my past I wouldn’t have gritted the words, “I hate Microsoft Word,” or, “I hate OpenOffice,” because I could’ve been using WordPerfect instead.

    Then again, if it was still around, it’s just as likely I would’ve been muttering, “I hate WordPerfect,” too. Some people. They’re never satisfied.