Microsoft Office Blog by Chris Menard

DeKalb Chapter of CPAs - Technology tips in the shift to the virtual world

Chris Menard will present a Zoom training session to the DeKalb Chapter of CPAs on June 30, 2020, at 5:30 pm. Covered in the 1-hour session will be advanced Zoom hosting tips.

Teams download custom background images for Family Guy, the Simpsons and other shows

Fox has created backgrounds you can use as custom images in Teams meetings. The background images include The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Masked Singer, LEGO Masters, Bob's Burgers, and others.

Zoom Passcodes will be required for all meetings or a Waiting Room enabled starting July 19th

Zoom Passcodes are going to be required, OR a waiting room must be enabled for all zoom meetings from July 19, 2020. Yes, that is a new term from Zoom: Passwords are now called Passcodes.

Teams add your own virtual background directly in Teams

Microsoft has released a Teams meetings update that allows meeting participants to upload their own personal backgrounds. Teams is known for the popular blurry background effect and soon added pre-installed backgrounds. Now Teams allow custom backgrounds to be added easily.

Announcing a new collaboration series on creating a YouTube channel in 2020

A new collaboration project, A BEGINNER COURSE series on how to start a YouTube channel in 2020.

Ultimate Guide in Zoom: Mute and Unmute participants

Zoom allows the host to Mute and UnMute participants. One new feature rolled out in release 5.1.0 is the ability for the host to select "Ask All to Unmute". This feature is due to Zoom removing Unmute all in a previous update.

How to use the Windows clipboard

With the Windows 10 clipboard, you can copy multiple images and text at one time. The clipboard previously held one item, but now the clipboard holds 25 items.

Average Function in Excel

The AVERAGE function is one of the most popular functions in Excel. This video shows how to use the Average function, handles zero values when using the Average function. Zero values vs. blank cells will give different results with Average. As a bonus, using the AverageIF function with zero values.

Five Free Zoom Business Backgrounds

Five free virtual backgrounds with an office setting. The images are set at the optimum dimensions of 1920x1080. We will soon make them video virtual backgrounds.

Pop-out Chat in Microsoft Teams

Teams now allow you to instantly pop-out your one-on-one or group chat into a separate window. After popping out the chat, you can drag it, place it on another monitor, resize, or close the window as you wish. Pop-out chats are a great way to get a lot done when you’re in a meeting or in a call. I demonstrate in this short video how to have a meeting in Teams and then pop-out two chats.

Is it a good time to buy a home in the Metro Atlanta real estate market?

I caught up with Teri Khimani, my realtor, to discuss the real estate market in general, and also deep dive in the Metro Atlanta market, particularly through the lens of the current Covid-19 situation.

Translate languages in Google Sheets with GOOGLETRANSLATE function

Google Sheets has a translate function called GoogleTranslate. The function translates text from one language into another. It is free to use, and you can set up mixed references so you can translate the original text into many languages at one time.