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The Electric Wand
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/ewan
Weekly tips from the "Tip o' the Week" email distribution inside of Microsoft.
- Posts
- 434 from 7 Dec 2005 to 5 Apr 2019
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- archived, read-only
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- personal blog
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- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/ewan/feed.xml
2019 8
- Tip o’ the Week has a new home
- Tip o' the Week 471 – Buying stuff at auction
- Tip o' the Week 469 – To-Do Files and Accounts
- Tip o' the Week 468 – Get Office, My Office, Office app appears
- Tip o' the Week 466 – Mobile Teams Tips
- Tip o' the Week 463 – Photographs, eh (he asked him knowingly)?
- Tip o' the Week 461 – share LinkedIn profile quickly
- Tip o' the Week 460 – AI, AI, Oh…
2018 31
- Tip o' the Week 457 – Clipboard improvements
- Tip o' the Week 456 – Alexa on PC
- Tip o' the Week 454 – Time Zone Tumult Ahead
- Tip o' the Week 453 – Outlook Quick Steps
- Tip o' the Week 451 – OneNote auto-listing
- Tip o' the Week 450 – blur: team life?
- Tip o' the Week 448 - Sometimes, size does matter
- Tip o' the Week 447 – October is usually boring
- Tip o' the Week 446 – What's brown and sticky?
- Tip o' the Week 445 – Finding Modern App names
- Tip o' the Week 442 – Whose phone? Your phone...
- Tip o' the Week 440 – Break out the whiteboard
- Tip o' the Week 439 – Go! Go! Go!
- Tip o' the Week 437 – Mapping of Minds
- Tip o' the Week 435 - Symbols, reprised
- Tip o' the Week 434 – To Do: update To-Do
- Tip o' the Week 431 – Hiding your name
- Tip o' the Week 430 – developers, developers, developers
- Tip o' the Week 424 – Tracking meeting responses
- Tip o' the Week 423 – SwiftKey update swipes in
- Tip o' the Week 422 – Freshening Outlook.com
- Tip o' the Week 419 – What's the time?
- Tip o' the Week 418 – Preview Apps on Windows 10
- Tip o' the Week 417 – Resolving aliases in bulk
- Tip o' the Week 416 – Teams Slash At Apps
- Tip o' the Week 415 – Another right To-Do
- Tip o' the Week 413 – Got Skills, they're multiplying
- Tip o’ the Week 412 – I Stream a Stream
- Tip o' the Week 411 – Rip it up and start again
- Tip o' the Week 410 - Inbox Zero for New Year?
- Tip o' the Week 408 – sign up for email lists
2017 30
- Tip o' the Week 406 – A path! A path!
- Tip o' the Week 404 – [%subject%] not found %&
- Tip o' the Week 403 – Office Insiders and training
- Tip o' the Week 400 – Shake your Groove thing
- Tip o' the Week 401 – Go with the Flow
- Tip o' the Week 398 – New Dimensions in Sound
- Tip o' the Week 397 – Bing visual image search
- Tip o' the Week 396 – Handling dates in Office apps
- Tip o' the Week 395 – Resizing pictures in Windows 10
- Tip o' the Week 394 – Change your lock screen
- Tip o' the Week 393 – Searching in OneNote
- Tip o' the Week 392 – distract with GIFs
- Tip o' the Week 391 – Smile, control your emoticons
- Tip o' the Week 389 – Jump to Windows Settings
- Tip o' the Week 387 – Learning to Fly (reprised)
- Tip o' the Week 385 – Using Tags in OneNote
- Tip o' the Week 383 – Windows Maps refresh
- Tip o' the Week 381 – Send to OneNote
- Tip o' the Week 380 – Hey Cortana, take flight!
- Tip o' the Week 377 – Windows 10 Films & TV
- Tip o' the Week 376 – Toodle-oo, Wunderlist!
- Tip o' the Week 374 – Creators Update arrives
- Tip o' the Week 372 – Locking your PC
- Tip o' the Week 371 – Enabling 2FA for MSA
- Tip o' the Week 370 – Using Bookmarks
- Tip o' the Week 368 – Mail and Calendar apps mature
- Tip o' the Week 366 – Night, Night, screen light
- Tip o' the Week 365 – Throttling applications' network perf
- Tip o' the Week 364 – F is for Function
- Tip o' the Week 362 – Working with symbol characters
2016 34
- Tip o' the Week 360 – Seasonal online goodies
- Tip o' the Week 358 – MSPAINT becomes Paint 3D
- Tip o’ the Week 356 – How not to send mail accidentally
- Tip o' the Week 355 - How to buy a FBTV
- Tip o' the Week 353 – Killing me Softly, part II
- Tip o' the Week 352 – Skype for Business Custom Presence
- Tip o' the Week 351 – Searching the GAL
- Tip o' the Week 350 – Killing me Softly, part I
- Tip o' the Week 349 - Office 365 UI updates
- Tip o' the Week 347 – Mentions in Outlook
- Tip o' the Week 346 – Under the Bridge
- Tip o' the Week 344 – Inky betterness
- Tip o' the Week 343 – QUIET!!!!
- Tip o' the Week 341 – Project PCs to other PCs
- Tip o' the Week 340 – Windows 10 Ink Workspace
- Tip o' the Week 337 - PPT premium groove things
- Tip o' the Week 336 – Onetastic Update
- Tip o' the Week 334 – Windows Maps app updates
- Tip o' the Week 330 – Windows Store updated
- Tip o' the Week 329 – Fuzzy Duck? Yes, he does
- Tip o' the Week 328 – Clip for art's sake
- Tip o' the Week 327 – To sleep, perchance to dream
- Tip o' the Week 326 – Skype for Business, meet Skype consumer
- Tip o' the Week #325 – your time, my time, everyone’s time
- Tip o' the Week #324 – Delve into something new
- Tip o' the Week 323 – Some lesser-known Excel spreadsheetery
- Tip o' the Week 322 – Booking meeting rooms (again)
- Tip o' the Week 321 – Quick Access Toolbar customisation
- Tip o' the Week 318 – Read Maps on Windows 10
- Tip o' the Week 317 – The Wunder Years
- Tip o' the Week 315 – Getting to know Windows 10 Mobile
- Tip o' the Week 314 – time, time, time, see what's become of me
- Tip o' the Week 311 – Band on the Run
- Tip o' the Week 310 – New Year, new Outlook discipline
2015 27
- Tip o' the Week 307 - Skype Meeting Broadcasting
- Tip o' the Week 302 - Bing Maps Preview
- Tip o' the Week 304 - Xbox One goes to 10
- Tip o' the Week 300 - Xbox Streaming to PC
- Tip o’ the Week #296 – Win10 Xbox App: snap snap, grin grin
- Tip o’ the Week #294 – OneDrive sharing & syncing
- Tip o’ the Week #295 – Outlook 2016 tweaks
- Tip o’ the Week #293 – STOP SHOUTING ON CONF CALLS
- Tip o’ the Week #291 – A few handy date handling tips
- Tip o’ the Week #286 – Windows Explorer tweaks in Win10
- Tip o’ the Week #284 – Music on OneDrive
- Tip o’ the Week #282 – Delay your mail
- Tip o’ the Week #285 – Windows 10 picking up pace
- Tip o’ the Week #281 – Calculator rebooted
- Tip o’ the Week #280 – Telling time on Windows 10
- Tip o’ the Week #278 – Skype for Business UI tips
- Tip o’ the Week #279 – Windows 10’s multiple desktops
- Tip o’ the Week #276 – Reduce massive PowerPoint files
- Tip o’ the Week #275 – Prioritising External Email
- Tip o’ the Week #273 – Projecting your Windows Phone
- Tip o’ the Week #274 – Hello, Skype for Business
- Tip o’ the Week #272 - Finding your phone (again)
- Tip o’ the Week #271 – Finding your Friends
- Tip o’ the Week #269 – Clip to OneNote, once more
- Tip o’ the Week #267 – Synchronising Outlook Signatures again
- Tip o’ the Week #265 – Sorting pages in OneNote
- Tip o' the Week #259 – Manage your Christmas Cards in Outlook
2014 35
- Tip o' the Week #258 – The Network of Your Stuff
- Tip o’ the Week #256 – Clip Art clips off
- Tip o’ the Week #253 – Using Cortana in the Car
- Tip o’ the Week #251 – Toasting a new email message
- Tip o' the Week #249 – Sync your Desktop
- Tip o' the Week #247 – Block the adverts in IE
- IoT at Future Decoded, Excel Docklands, London–12th November
- Tip o’ the Week #245 – Podcasts on Windows Phone 8.1
- Tip o' the Week #244 – Ticking away, the time of day
- Tip o' the Week #243 - Parliamo Glasgow?
- Tip o’ the Week #242 – File favourites and Explorer
- Tip o’ the Week #241 – Where did that email come from?
- Tip o’ the Week #239 – OneNote templates
- Tip o’ the Week #238 – quiet hours on Windows Phone 8.1
- Tip o' the Week #235 - Present on Lync
- Tip o' the Week #233 – When I'm moving windows
- Tip o' the Week #231 – Linking LinkedIn and Outlook, look!
- Tip o’ the Week #228 – Lync Q&A
- Tip o' the Week #224 – Alarem Scarem in Windows 8.1
- Tip o’ the Week #229 – Cortana, let’s rock!
- Tip o’ the Week #220 – Wireless networking, 15 years on
- Tip o’ the Week #219 – OneNote takes flight
- Tip o’ the Week #218 – Have you got the touch?
- Tip o' the Week #216 – Bing Smart Search in Windows 8.1
- Tip o' the Week #223 – Clear your inbox
- Tip o' the Week #222 – Windows 8.1 Update 1 is here
- “Latent Data” – the secret sauce of the Internet of Things
- Tip o' the Week #212 – Filing and piling of email
- What is this “Internet of Things” thing, anyway?
- Tip o’ the Week #210 – Beam me up!
- Tip o’ the Week #209 – Shhhhhhhh!
- Tip o’ the Week #204 – Mirror, mirror, on the big screen
- Tip o’ the Week #203 – Remote control of Office
- Tip o’ the Week #202 – Screen grabs, reprised
- Tip o’ the Week #201 – Multi-monitors with Windows 8.1
2013 26
- Tip o' the Week #199 – Checking your home network speed
- Tip o' the Week #198 – 22 minute meetings
- Tip o’ the Week #196 – Change Outlook meeting duration
- Tip o' the Week #194 – Windows 8.1 Reading List
- Tip o’ the Week #191 – Lync meeting updates
- Tip o' the Week #190 – PowerPoint slide picks
- Tip o’ the Week #189 – Outlook View Tips
- Tip o' the Week #188 – Writing on Windows
- Tip o' the Week #187 – A Route for old times
- Tip o' the Week #185 - Outlook, offline!
- Tip o' the Week #184 - ActiveSync account limits
- Tip o’ the Week #183 - Screen Grabs on Windows 8.1
- Tip o’ the Week #181 – “Working Elsewhere” status
- Tip o' the Week #180 - A touch of magic
- Tip o' the Week #178 - Copy as Path, turbocharged
- Tip o’ the Week #175 – a ‘tastic OneNote add-in
- Tip o’ the Week #174 – Presenting tips from the pros
- Tip o’ the Week #173 – LinkedIn Contacts in Outlook
- Tip o’ the Week #172 – Dreaming of Apps
- Tip o' the Week #171 - eWallet on your phone
- Tip o’ the Week #168 – Loving some Windows Phone 8 tips
- Tip o’ the Week #165 – Take the tour
- Tip o’ the Week #161 – Windows Phone 8 “Portico”
- Tip o' the Week #159 - Avoiding breakers on the side
- Tip o' the Week #157 - Bing photos R Us
- Tip o' the Week #153 - Lync 2013 shortcuts
2012 40
- Tip o’ the Week #152 – Zoom, Zoom!
- Tip o’ the Week #151 – dates, leaks, sides
- Tip o’ the Week #150 – It’s a date!
- Tip o’ the Week #149 – Take up thy Surface and Walk!
- Tip o' the Week #147 - Sharing Windows 8 Apps
- Tip o' the Week #144 - Office 2013 Templates
- Tip o’ the Week #143 – Share your calendar externally
- Tip o' the Week #142 - Touch and Outlook 2013
- Tip o' the Week #141 - more Outlook 2013 tweaks
- Tip o’ the Week #139 – Taskbar fun
- Tip o’ the Week #137 – Peek-a-boo, Take two
- Tip o' the Week #135 - Outlook 2013 Calendar first look
- Tip o' the Week #133 - The Art of Cut n' Paste
- Tip o' the Week #132 - tweaking IE10 compatibility
- Tip o’ the Week #130 – Searching in Outlook
- Tip o' the Week #127 - Windows Phone and History
- Tip o’ the Week #126 – Voice dial on Windows Phone
- Tip o’ the Week #124 – The evolution of Windows Phone Marketplace
- Tip o’ the Week #123 –Windows 8: sign in, with Pic & PIN
- Tip o' the Week #121 - Networking with Lync
- Tip o’ the Week #120 – The colour of time
- Tip o’ the Week #119 – Using Outlook in multiple windows
- Tip o’ the Week #112 – Change Outlook’s startup folder
- Tip o' the Week #111 - Sharing PowerPoint in Lync?
- Tip o' the Week #110 - Tracking Outlook responses
- Tip o' the Week #109 - SkyDrive on the move
- Tip o' the Week #108 - Using Accelerators
- Tip o' the Week #106 - Revisiting Microsoft Tag
- Tip o' the Week #105 - Productivity? Learn to type!
- Tip o' the Week #104 - Windows 7's clock & date
- Tip o' the Week #102 - When did someone really put something in their calendar?
- Tip o' the Week #101 - Finding files for dialogs
- Tip o' the Week #99 - Is your hard disk just "on"?
- Tip o' the Week #98 - OneNote calendar front-end
- Tip o’ the Week #96 – Reining back Outlook’s file size
- Tip o’ the Week #95 – the new Windows Phone lock screen
- Tip o’ the Week #92 – Take and Share better meeting notes
- Tip o’ the Week #91 – So you're OOF? Meh.
- Tip o’ the Week #90 – Advanced Windows 7 Calculator
- Tip o’ the Week #87 – Hello? Hello?? Can you hear me?
2011 45
- Tip o’ the Week #86 – Jump into SharePoint sites
- Tip o’ the Week #83 – some more IE9 tweaks
- Tip o’ the Week #81 – I’m Late!
- Tip o’ the Week #77 – Saving docs straight to SharePoint
- Tip o’ the Week #76 – Have you got the Lync effect?
- Tip o’ the Week #74 – The Age of the Train
- Tip o’ the Week #73 – Using Bing Maps in London
- Tip o’ the Week #94 – Have you been Mango'd?
- Tip o’ the Week #93 – Ring the changes with Mango
- Tip o’ the Week #71 - Formatting tips for Office apps
- Tip o' the Week #70 - Windows Phone 7 usage abroad
- Tip o’ the Week #69 – Keep your favourites and Office settings synchronised
- Tip o’ the Week #67–Lync Conferencing Tips
- Tip o’ the Week #65 – SharePoint 2010, a starter for 10
- Tip o’ the Week #64–Some IE9 tips
- Tip o’ teh Week # 59: Apps on Bing Maps
- Tip o' the Week #57 - Using Microsoft Tag on Windows Phone
- Tip o' the Week #52 - OneNote on 3 screens & a cloud
- Tip o' the Week #51 - Five Golden Rules for OCS & Lync
- Tip o’ the Week #48: Stop! Think! Bing!
- Tip o' the Week #46 - Reduce your influx of Corporate Spam
- Tip o’ the Week #44 – Making Outlook show only email from external senders
- Tip o’ the Week #40 – monitoring your PC’s innards
- Tip o' the Week #39 - Multi-monitor with Win7
- Tip o' the Week #37 - Quickly create a new task
- Tip o’ the Week #36 – Using bookmarks in long emails
- Tip o’ the Week #31 – the lost art of the .EXE name
- Tip o’ the Week #30 – Sending emails from the past
- Tip o’ the Week #29 – Filtering email to reduce the noise
- Tip o' the Week #28 - Windows Key is your friend
- Tip o’ the Week #26 – multiple time zones in Outlook Calendar
- Tip o' the Week #24: Invite yourself to others' meetings
- Tip o’ the Week #23: Viewing Excel sheets side by side
- Tip o’ the Week #22: Sync SharePoint data into Outlook
- Tip o’ the Week #20: Outlook date cleverness
- Tip o’ the Week #19: Navigating multi-sheet Excel workbooks
- Tip o’ the Week #18: Resizing pictures in email
- Tip o’ the Week #17: Broadcast PPT to customers & partners
- Tip o’ the Week #16: All wiyht. Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?
- Tip o’ the Week #11: SharePoint alerts
- Tip o’ the Week #10: Navigate Outlook with shortcuts
- Tip o’ the Week #9: Delay sending email
- Tip o’ the Week #4: Telling others you’re on holiday
- Tip o’ the Week #3: IE8 usage tips
- Tip o’ the Week #2: Travel times in Outlook
2010 7
2009 25
- Exchange in the cloud or on the ground?
- Microsoft Online Services prices cut
- XP Mode in Windows 7 saved me money
- Outlook 2010 beta and E.164 number format updater
- Pinpoint a Microsoft Partner
- Mapping with Bing
- I Bing; do u Bing 2?
- Office Web Apps complement, not replace, Office
- Playing with Microsoft Tag
- The Emperor’s New Clothes
- Windows 7 Release Candidate available now
- Office 2007 SP2 now available
- Exchange 2010 beta & high availability strategies
- Outlook Thread Compressor download now available
- Microsoft Roundtable transitions to Polycom
- SMSE – a System Center light hidden under a bushel
- Apple put the ‘Networks’ in their place
- Formula 1 back on the BBC – only 2 weeks to go…
- Sign of the times: new car registrations
- Lessons of over-promise, under-deliver
- HTC s740 – great phone, just one thing…
- Happy 1,234,567,890 seconds since 1/1/1970
- Custom presence states in OCS – revisited again
- Windows 7 tips & tricks, and Media Center tuner drivers
- Top ten things for <insert company name> to do in 2009
2008 15
- What next for Windows Mobile?
- Updated LifeCam software
- How Microsoft can help you save money
- Border Lines in Word & Outlook
- The biggest file I've ever seen - 3Tb PUB.EDB
- Tips for optimizing Vista on new hardware
- Tip for finding when an appointment was created
- Imperialism, Metric-centricity and Live Search
- Exchange 2007 clustering advice
- Seadragon begets Silverlight "Deep Zoom"
- Windows Media Center query-based recording
- Virtuali(z)sation & datacenter power
- Exchange updates Transporter suite for Domino & IMAP
- The Firmware of Everyday Things
- Bird's Eye view on Live maps - how cool is that?
2007 94
- Unified Communications licensing made easy
- Tips for using Virtual PC and Virtual Server
- Bulk update Outlook Contacts' phone numbers to be E.164 compliant
- Exchange 2007 SP1 signed off
- Fun and games with identity (and keeping it safe)
- NASA's new server - with 4Tb of RAM and 2048 CPU cores
- Zune software and firmware upgrade now live
- Gartner's wisdom and the IO models
- Careful what names you give to Outlook Contacts when using UM!
- I learned a cool thing about Exchange UM today
- Voicemail sizes on Exchange 2007
- Holy smoke, it's an explosive demo
- Geek T-shirt cool - or not
- Microsoft launches "Online" hosted services
- Windows Home Server - would you have it in your home?
- Gibson Guitars "Riffs on OCS" (boom, boom)
- Custom presence states in Communicator, reprise
- Custom presence states in Office Communicator
- The business case for Exchange 2007 - part IV
- Identity & presence: the key to anyone's Unified Communications strategy
- The process of testing Halo3
- Playing with Roundtable prototype
- The business case for Exchange 2007 - part III
- Sometimes, you know you didn't pay enough
- Keep the Item count in your mailbox low!
- Laptop melts, for once it wasn't the battery
- OCS2007 trial edition now available
- Plain text, RTF or HTML mail?
- Living the dream with Office Communicator 2007
- The business case for Exchange 2007 - part II
- Lelouch's "C'etait un Rendezvous" gets mashed
- BBC iPlayer kicks up a stink
- Exchange mailbox quotas and a 'paradox of thrift'
- How to handle URLs with spaces in Outlook, Word etc
- The business case for Exchange 2007
- Technology changes during the Blair era
- The Campaign for Real Pedantry, erm, I mean numbers
- Outlook 2007 signatures location
- "Success kills" - Marc Andreessen on Facebook
- Measuring business impact
- Graeme Obree: The Flying Scotsman
- Picture association - a new variant of word association
- Sizing Exchange 2007 environments
- iPhone gets a date
- Live Writer beta 2 releases
- Surface er, surfaces
- TripAdvisor - an example of the web <done right>
- More Office Grooviness
- The power of SmartArt
- Finally, a sidebar gadget worth having
- Chris Bangle - an inspiration
- How to really wipe a hard disk
- Communicator phones sneaking out
- Thread Compressor for Outlook - do you want it?
- Blackberry outage - worrying for mobile mail junkies
- Outlook 2007 update - performance improvement on large PST/OST files
- The day I met Tony Blair, talked about online healthcare
- The Design of Everyday Things
- Batch-convert Office files to 2007's Open XML format
- Hosting of applications - the inevitable future?
- ZDNet sings praises of Office Communications Server beta
- Windows Live Mail Desktop - replaces Outlook Express for Hotmail use
- Is your email compliant with the (UK) Companies Act?
- Calibri: a font like no other...
- Free domain name, web site + email address with Office Live Basics beta
- Shortcut to quickly set your voicemail greeting in Exchange 2007 UM
- Water, Water everywhere, nor any drop to drink
- Is that a Zune in your pocket...?
- Mac vs Vista ads
- WSS Site Admin Templates now online
- Transporter Suite 2007 for Lotus Domino
- Virtual PC 2007 now available
- Remote control of Windows Mobile
- Thought provoking stuff...
- Virtual Earth Mobile - mapping on the move
- Orange announces SPV E650 Smartphone
- Windows Mobile 6 - aka Crossbow
- Sharepoint Services v3.0 Application Templates
- Can your phone system talk to Exchange 2007?
- Do you want to talk to your Exchange Server?
- Vista Aero Glass - performance hit (or not)
- Sansa e280 - I took the plunge
- Travel's a curse
- Use NewSID on cloned virtualised machines
- iPhone over-the-air experience
- "Dealers of Lightning" - an insightful history in Xerox PARC
- Choosing a new MP3 player - dilemmas, dilemmas...
- Sideshow Media Center remote - want one!
- Nice new calendaring features in Exchange 2007
- iGot-over-it-already
- Using Outlook Search Folders to filter only external mail
- You can't ignore a ringing phone
- Using Outlook Search folders to sift large volumes of email
- Some more useful Windows & Outlook shortcuts
2006 13
- Mrs Robinson - the finest rhythym guitar you'll ever hear...
- Some Handy Windows shortcut keys...
- Using HTC devices as a modem over USB in Vista RTM
- Keeping my SPV M3100 from getting scratched
- My Pocket PC kept waking me up with middle-of-the-night reminders... :(
- SPAM SWAG up for grabs
- Low-cost hands-free kit, anyone?
- Sending SMTP Mail from the command line
- Zooming in for demos
- Outlook 2007 caches other people's calendars
- Windows Mobile Device Center in Vista
- I'll get my coat...
- i-Mate device updates support direct push email from Exchange