Skip to main content
Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Blog

End of featured posts section

Recent articles

Published 
4 min read

Create Convincing Visualizations by Adding Reference Lines to Your Excel Charts 

<p>Have you ever wanted to add a horizontal or vertical line to your chart to indicate a key value, sales threshold, important date, or the average of your data?  Are you looking to impress managers and convince clients with your superb charts? Reference Lines (see the dotted black line on the chart below) can be powerful tools in effectively communicating important points in your data.  There is currently no specific built-in functionality for creating Reference Lines in Excel 2010, but there are still a few ways to add them to your chart. </p>
Published 
1 min read

Download Office 2010 Service Pack 1 

<p>The Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) -- a bundle of updates based on what we've learned during Office 2010's record-breaking first year-- was released yesterday. Learn more about it in the SP1 announcement on the Microsoft Updates (Sustained Engineering Team) blog, or just go ahead and download it now from the Download Center. SP1 will be available through Microsoft Update as an automatic update in 90 days. It's available there now as a manual update to those who've installed all Office Automatic Updates. </p>
Published 
2 min read

Understanding images: Part 3 – Anchoring 

<p>Why do figures, or images, sometimes jump to a different page in your Word document? This is one of the great mysteries of Word and today, I’ll reveal the answer. To get to the bottom of this question, it’s important to understand the concept of anchoring. Every floating figure in a Word document is actually attached to the page. This point of attachment is called the “anchor” and is indicated by a small anchor icon. To see this, you’ll need to enable the display of the icon by clicking the File tab and then clicking Options. In the Display section, select the check box next to Object Anchors. Now, when you select a floating figure, you’ll see the anchor icon appear on the page. </p>
Published 
3 min read

Understanding images: Part 2 – Wrapping styles 

<p>Wrapping text around figures, also known as graphic objects or images, can help give your documents a more polished look and help focus attention on the most important content. Last week, I wrote about the basics of inline vs. floating figures. One of the big differences between these types of images is that floating images are positioned separately from the text, allowing text to wrap around, over, and behind the images. Word has several wrapping styles that give you control over how the image integrates with the document. Today, I’ll explain the options and share my thoughts on when to use each one.</p>
Published 
2 min read

Understanding images: Part 1 – The basics 

<p>Figures can add a ton of pizazz to a document, but they don’t always behave the way you might expect, which can be incredibly frustrating. With a little behind the scenes information, you can put your figures in their place. Theresa Estrada, a program manager on the Word team, writes today about the basics of working with graphic objects--shapes, text boxes, pictures, and more. This is the first of a series of posts about graphic objects.  </p>
Published 
4 min read

Is Microsoft OneNote hijacking your print jobs? 

<p>While we don't usually focus on tech support issues here on the Office Blog, let me shine a quick light on a recurring issue that has caused some of you to scratch your heads and write in about. In a nutshell, the problem appears to be that OneNote 2010 (or OneNote 2007) intercepts all of your print jobs whenever you try to send any information from your other programs or your Web browser to your trusty printer. While this is a great way to save paper and finally "go green," it's no laughing matter when your boss expects you to hand him or her a printed report and you can't seem to do that. Read the full blog post to see what's behind this little problem and how you can fix it!</p>
Published 
2 min read

Wrap text in Access 

<p>How do you wrap text in Access? It's a question we hear quite frequently on Office.com. It may surprise you to learn that in most places where text is displayed in Access, text wrapping is on by default. The key is making sure there is enough room for the text to wrap.</p>
Published 
9 min read

Power Tip: Improve the security of database connections 

<p>When linking to external tables using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Access offers to set up a Data Source Name (DSN). The DSN is quite convenient, giving us a graphic method to quickly build and specify an ODBC connection string without having to remember all of the syntax and parameters. Unfortunately, when the time comes for deployment, using a DSN can introduce some security issues. In this post, Access MVP Ben Clothier explores some methods for improving the security of your ODBC connections.</p>