The Electric Wand
Weekly tips from the "Tip o' the Week" email distribution inside of Microsoft.
Tip o' the Week 318 – Read Maps on Windows 10
The development of accurate maps was one of humankind’s biggest advances (after learning to talk)...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/25/2016
Tip o' the Week 317 – The Wunder Years
As regular readers know, ToW is often peppered with funny/stupid/obscure links to web content...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/11/2016
Tip o' the Week 315 – Getting to know Windows 10 Mobile
There was a time when the software “ship cycle” resulted in delivery of the final version, the...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/26/2016
Tip o' the Week 314 – time, time, time, see what's become of me
In the northern hemisphere, it’s winter. Time marches slowly by, as the springtime stretches just...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/19/2016
Tip o' the Week 311 – Band on the Run
… or bike, golf course, in the gym etc. The original Microsoft Band might not have won many fans for...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/29/2016
Tip o' the Week 310 – New Year, new Outlook discipline
Now that the festive period is behind us, it’s time to get back to the mundanity of the New Year....
Author: EwanD Date: 01/15/2016
Tip o' the Week 307 - Skype Meeting Broadcasting
It’s been a busy time for the Skype team at Microsoft. At the Convergence EMEA conference, it was...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/17/2015
Tip o' the Week 302 - Bing Maps Preview
Bing Maps has had a bit of a refresh recently, with a new look and some tweaks to functionality...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/27/2015
Tip o' the Week 304 - Xbox One goes to 10
When the Xbox One console was released in November 2013, it marked a change in architecture compared...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/20/2015
Tip o' the Week 300 - Xbox Streaming to PC
So,ToW reaches its 300th weekly missive. In the first weeks and months following the inaugural ToW,...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/30/2015
Tip o’ the Week #296 – Win10 Xbox App: snap snap, grin grin
There are a variety of apps out there for grabbing your PC screen in video format, using for making...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/02/2015
Tip o’ the Week #294 – OneDrive sharing & syncing
OneDrive - the consumer-oriented file-sharing service, www.onedrive.com – has added a nice new...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/25/2015
Tip o’ the Week #295 – Outlook 2016 tweaks
Office 2016 for the PC is nearly here. Many Office users have been already running a preview...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/18/2015
Tip o’ the Week #293 – STOP SHOUTING ON CONF CALLS
Keeping track of the characters on conference calls could be a new type of buzzword bingo – from the...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/11/2015
Tip o’ the Week #291 – A few handy date handling tips
Sometimes, the Tip o’ the Week is all about one topic, and sometimes it’s a theme that spans several...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/21/2015
Tip o’ the Week #286 – Windows Explorer tweaks in Win10
Here’s a quick tip on navigating around Windows 10, courtesy of Stuart Leeks, concerning the File...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/24/2015
Tip o’ the Week #284 – Music on OneDrive
Did you know you can now put music on your OneDrive, and stream it to the Xbox music app on your...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/17/2015
Tip o’ the Week #282 – Delay your mail
There are several techniques to delay sending messages, something that could be considered good...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/10/2015
Tip o’ the Week #285 – Windows 10 picking up pace
The release of Windows 10 has started to pick up speed as it nears its planned July 29th RTM. If...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/02/2015
Tip o’ the Week #281 – Calculator rebooted
So, Windows 10 will be with us in less than 2 months. As well as many significant improvements and...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/11/2015
Tip o’ the Week #280 – Telling time on Windows 10
For some time now, the death of the watch has been predicted, as people increasing use other devices...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/04/2015
Tip o’ the Week #278 – Skype for Business UI tips
Skype for Business has rolled out across a good number of customers and it’s, generally-speaking, a...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/29/2015
Tip o’ the Week #279 – Windows 10’s multiple desktops
Windows 10 is developing apace. A new build (10112) arrived this week if you’re on the “Fast Ring”...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/22/2015
Tip o’ the Week #276 – Reduce massive PowerPoint files
Windows Explorer has a search function which can filter found files, based on some attribute or...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/09/2015
Tip o’ the Week #275 – Prioritising External Email
Do you suffer from email overload? The temptation is to get dragged into dealing with all the...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/01/2015
Tip o’ the Week #273 – Projecting your Windows Phone
It’s often handy to be able to show to an audience what’s happening on a phone’s screen (or other...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/24/2015
Tip o’ the Week #274 – Hello, Skype for Business
Instant Messaging (and later, voice/video calling) has been with us, in the corporate world, for 15...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/17/2015
Tip o’ the Week #272 - Finding your phone (again)
(breaking the fourth wall) Inevitably, when writing the Tip o’ the Week for 4½ years, the odd topic...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/03/2015
Tip o’ the Week #271 – Finding your Friends
Sometimes, people don’t want to be found. That’s maybe understandable if you’re a sweary unemployed...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/27/2015
Tip o’ the Week #269 – Clip to OneNote, once more
Time moves on. Things that are news soon turn into things in history: 20 years ago, Microsoft Bob...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/13/2015
Tip o’ the Week #267 – Synchronising Outlook Signatures again
Hot on the heels of last week’s missive about how to snaffle more storage space, once again we...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/06/2015