The Electric Wand
Weekly tips from the "Tip o' the Week" email distribution inside of Microsoft.
Tip o’ the Week #210 – Beam me up!
In the last few weeks, Nokia has shipped the Lumia Black update and it’s widely available. There are...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/07/2014
Tip o’ the Week #209 – Shhhhhhhh!
How many times have you been awoken by your phone, tablet or PC blaring an alert first thing in the...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/21/2014
Tip o’ the Week #204 – Mirror, mirror, on the big screen
Many people who’ve had a new laptop in the last year will have experienced the frustration of...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/14/2014
Tip o’ the Week #203 – Remote control of Office
Anyone who regularly presents will have had the occasion when there’s a need to wander around the...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/07/2014
Tip o’ the Week #202 – Screen grabs, reprised
Previous ToWs have covered how to capture the screen image on Windows, but things have moved on a...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/31/2014
Tip o’ the Week #201 – Multi-monitors with Windows 8.1
One of the best presents you can buy your PC is a second monitor. There have been a few ToW’s past...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/24/2014
Tip o' the Week #199 – Checking your home network speed
As winter bites, as roadworks cause pandemonium, there may be a trend for staff to work at home...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/26/2013
Tip o' the Week #198 – 22 minute meetings
Hot on the heels of last week’s “How 2 rite English proper” tip, and the previous extensive Outlook...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/19/2013
Tip o’ the Week #196 – Change Outlook meeting duration
It’s seemingly an irrefutable law that when you book a meeting for an hour, it takes an hour. Or...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/08/2013
Tip o' the Week #194 – Windows 8.1 Reading List
Windows 8.1 is now available free for existing users of Windows 8, and in a break with tradition,...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/01/2013
Tip o’ the Week #191 – Lync meeting updates
Lots of people (including Office365 users) should have been moved to Lync 2013 by now, though the...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/18/2013
Tip o' the Week #190 – PowerPoint slide picks
Everyone in the developed world seems to have been subjected to PowerPoint at some stage. PowerPoint...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/11/2013
Tip o’ the Week #189 – Outlook View Tips
Outlook 2013 introduced some changes to the way the standard inbox view is presented. It’s basically...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/04/2013
Tip o' the Week #188 – Writing on Windows
Owners of the HP Revolve 810 laptops (as many in Microsoft recently received through the new laptop...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/06/2013
Tip o' the Week #187 – A Route for old times
Once upon a time, a company called NextBase wrote some software to help people plan routes across...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/30/2013
Tip o' the Week #185 - Outlook, offline!
Previous ToW entries have covered the need to sometimes tell Outlook to pipe down and let you get on...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/23/2013
Tip o' the Week #184 - ActiveSync account limits
Various people have commented on issues they’ve had whilst setting up new PCs, especially after the...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/16/2013
Tip o’ the Week #183 - Screen Grabs on Windows 8.1
If you’ve taken the plunge and updated to Windows 8.1, you may have spotted a mix of improvements...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/09/2013
Tip o’ the Week #181 – “Working Elsewhere” status
This week’s tip comes courtesy of Phil Cross, who discovered it one day whilst trying to tell his...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/05/2013
Tip o' the Week #180 - A touch of magic
As more and more of us continue to enjoy new laptops courtesy of the Windows 8 Refresh program, the...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/28/2013
Tip o' the Week #178 - Copy as Path, turbocharged
Long-term readers of ToW may recall tip 101, which featured the “Copy as Path” command in Windows 7....
Author: EwanD Date: 06/21/2013
Tip o’ the Week #175 – a ‘tastic OneNote add-in
Regular ToW readers might recall a previous mention of an add-in to OneNote which provides useful...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/30/2013
Tip o’ the Week #174 – Presenting tips from the pros
This week’s tip comes after another successful “Tech.Days Online” session in late April, delivered...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/23/2013
Tip o’ the Week #173 – LinkedIn Contacts in Outlook
This week’s tip focuses on the power of LinkedIn. Some people use it as their system of managing...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/10/2013
Tip o’ the Week #172 – Dreaming of Apps
Clearly, the most obvious difference in Windows 8 compared to other operating systems (from inferior...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/03/2013
Tip o' the Week #171 - eWallet on your phone
One attribute of your phone is that it tends to be with you all the time, so it makes a great place...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/19/2013
Tip o’ the Week #168 – Loving some Windows Phone 8 tips
At a recent “Love It” internal event hosted in Microsoft UK’s Reading campus, a whole series of tips...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/11/2013
Tip o’ the Week #165 – Take the tour
When was the last time you actually read the manual? Or actually skimmed over the Terms &...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/29/2013
Tip o’ the Week #161 – Windows Phone 8 “Portico”
Attention, Windows Phone 8 owners… you may not have spotted it, but there’s a pretty decent update...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/20/2013
Tip o' the Week #159 - Avoiding breakers on the side
What’s that you say? A Breaker on the Side? Well, Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, no...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/15/2013
Tip o' the Week #157 - Bing photos R Us
Everybody loves the lovely photos that feature every day on Bing. Did you know the images can and do...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/01/2013
Tip o' the Week #153 - Lync 2013 shortcuts
Happy New Year! On the topic of Year (2013) and New, the Lync 2013 client introduced a whole load of...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/04/2013
Tip o’ the Week #152 – Zoom, Zoom!
If you ever see someone make a presentation or give a demonstration, who says “you can’t see this,...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/21/2012
Tip o’ the Week #151 – dates, leaks, sides
First, an update on last week’s ToW. Both Daryl Gywn & Will Thompson pointed out a quicker way...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/14/2012
Tip o’ the Week #150 – It’s a date!
Some tweaks and tips are basically not all that exciting unless you find they solve a problem you’ve...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/07/2012
Tip o’ the Week #149 – Take up thy Surface and Walk!
Far out, man! The Surface, maybe more correctly described as the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT,...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/23/2012
Tip o' the Week #147 - Sharing Windows 8 Apps
The next few weeks’ Tips will be out of sequence since they coincide with the launch of Windows 8....
Author: EwanD Date: 11/09/2012
Tip o' the Week #144 - Office 2013 Templates
A short and sharp tip this week, courtesy of Louis Lazarus, concerning the way the New Office...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/02/2012