The Electric Wand
Weekly tips from the "Tip o' the Week" email distribution inside of Microsoft.
Tip o’ the Week #143 – Share your calendar externally
Organising our home lives is increasingly done digitally, from keeping in touch with friends and...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/26/2012
Tip o' the Week #142 - Touch and Outlook 2013
Here’s a super-quick Outlook 2013 tip for anyone with a Touch-enabled PC running Windows 8…...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/19/2012
Tip o' the Week #141 - more Outlook 2013 tweaks
A couple more tweaks for those of you who are enjoying Outlook 2013 (or Outlook “15”). The...
Author: EwanD Date: 10/12/2012
Tip o’ the Week #139 – Taskbar fun
Windows 95 (aka “Chicago”) introduced us to the wonders of the Windows “Taskbar” as a way of...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/28/2012
Tip o’ the Week #137 – Peek-a-boo, Take two
Following on from ToW #135, which introduced the “Peek” capability in the flat and shiny-shiny...
Author: EwanD Date: 09/14/2012
Tip o' the Week #135 - Outlook 2013 Calendar first look
You may have seen news of Office 2013 (aka “Office 15”), and if you’re a committed early adopter,...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/31/2012
Tip o' the Week #133 - The Art of Cut n' Paste
Like many concepts in everyday computing, the widely-adopted functionality of Cut & Paste has...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/24/2012
Tip o' the Week #132 - tweaking IE10 compatibility
This week, a tip concerning Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 Release Preview. Not running it yet?...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/16/2012
Tip o’ the Week #130 – Searching in Outlook
Ever since the 3rd party “Lookout” add-in was built for Outlook about 8 years ago, the pilers have...
Author: EwanD Date: 08/10/2012
Tip o' the Week #127 - Windows Phone and History
This week sees a short but sweet Windows Phone tip, courtesy of Kevin Lief. He paints the picture of...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/27/2012
Tip o’ the Week #126 – Voice dial on Windows Phone
It may be a little known aspect of Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 that you can issue voice commands to the...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/20/2012
Tip o’ the Week #124 – The evolution of Windows Phone Marketplace
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that an update a few months ago to the desktop Zune software has...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/13/2012
Tip o’ the Week #123 –Windows 8: sign in, with Pic & PIN
A short but sweet Tip this week, aimed at those of you who are running Windows 8: if not, why not...
Author: EwanD Date: 07/06/2012
Tip o' the Week #121 - Networking with Lync
This week, we have a semi-rehash of earlier tips (#51 and #67), based on some investigation work...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/15/2012
Tip o’ the Week #120 – The colour of time
This week’s tip is a lovely little Windows app, recommended by Ceri Morris. It’s a little like the...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/08/2012
Tip o’ the Week #119 – Using Outlook in multiple windows
This week’s tip comes courtesy of Jon Morris, who is agog at the way lots of people switch between...
Author: EwanD Date: 06/01/2012
Tip o’ the Week #112 – Change Outlook’s startup folder
Productivity gurus wax on about how gaining and maintaining control of your never-ending to-do list...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/18/2012
Tip o' the Week #111 - Sharing PowerPoint in Lync?
If you're regularly part of a Lync call which involves presenting slides, here's some best practice...
Author: EwanD Date: 05/11/2012
Tip o' the Week #110 - Tracking Outlook responses
Most of us regular Outlook users are well-versed in the Request/Response model of doing things other...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/20/2012
Tip o' the Week #109 - SkyDrive on the move
Everyone should know about SkyDrive - the free Microsoft service that gives users with a Live ID...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/13/2012
Tip o' the Week #108 - Using Accelerators
Internet Explorer 8 added a concept known as IE "Accelerators" - the principle being that you could...
Author: EwanD Date: 04/06/2012
Tip o' the Week #106 - Revisiting Microsoft Tag
We've covered Microsoft Tag before on Tip o' the Week, but it's worth paying another visit as a few...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/30/2012
Tip o' the Week #105 - Productivity? Learn to type!
Thinking about general productivity often leads one down the path of some methodology to get things...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/23/2012
Tip o' the Week #104 - Windows 7's clock & date
One of the neat little design touches of Windows 7 that changed as a result of usage analysis was...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/16/2012
Tip o' the Week #102 - When did someone really put something in their calendar?
I've been thinking about writing this tip since the ToW started almost exactly two years ago (yay!)...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/09/2012
Tip o' the Week #101 - Finding files for dialogs
How many times a month do you have a file (a picture, maybe, or a document) that you want to upload...
Author: EwanD Date: 03/02/2012
Tip o' the Week #99 - Is your hard disk just "on"?
One frustrating aspect of a modern PC is when it seems to slow down inexplicably, even when it's not...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/24/2012
Tip o' the Week #98 - OneNote calendar front-end
Here's a doozy of a little application that provides a great front-end to OneNote 2010, from Omer...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/17/2012
Tip o’ the Week #96 – Reining back Outlook’s file size
Outlook likes to cache lots of information on your PC – which is generally beneficial. All of the...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/10/2012
Tip o’ the Week #95 – the new Windows Phone lock screen
One of the most immediately user-friendly aspects of Windows Phone 7.5, aka Mango, is also one that...
Author: EwanD Date: 02/03/2012
Tip o’ the Week #92 – Take and Share better meeting notes
Be the scribe OneNote is a great audit tool. When you’re in meetings with customers and partners why...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/27/2012
Tip o’ the Week #91 – So you're OOF? Meh.
Now that Outlook, Exchange and Lync all provide a way of showing that someone is Out of the Office...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/20/2012
Tip o’ the Week #90 – Advanced Windows 7 Calculator
Yes, really. When did you last use Windows Calculator? When did you last look to see if there are...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/13/2012
Tip o’ the Week #87 – Hello? Hello?? Can you hear me?
There is an all-too common refrain which echoes around the open-plan offices of many a Microsoft...
Author: EwanD Date: 01/06/2012
Tip o’ the Week #86 – Jump into SharePoint sites
Following last week’s IE9 “turn websites into apps” tip in ToW#83, here’s an early Christmas...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/21/2011
Tip o’ the Week #83 – some more IE9 tweaks
It’s been a little while since we dug into Internet Explorer in the Tip of the Week, so I figured it...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/16/2011
Tip o’ the Week #81 – I’m Late!
We’ve all had that feeling when you just know you aren’t going to make it in time for your next...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/09/2011
Tip o’ the Week #77 – Saving docs straight to SharePoint
Here’s a simple tip inspired by Luke Debono, who was asking how he could save directly from within...
Author: EwanD Date: 12/02/2011
Tip o’ the Week #76 – Have you got the Lync effect?
If you’re lucky enough to be using the Microsoft Lync IM & communications platform, it’s worth...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/25/2011
Tip o’ the Week #74 – The Age of the Train
Now then, now then… Remember the old 1980’s Jimmy Savill advert for British Rail? RIP, Jingle Jangle...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/18/2011
Tip o’ the Week #73 – Using Bing Maps in London
Here’s a quick but useful tip for Bing Maps (did you know, by the way, that you can jump...
Author: EwanD Date: 11/15/2011