Tag Archives: MS Office

fixed : add total number of pages to page numbers in Word for Mac

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Question :
I am working in Word (from Microsoft Office for Mac) on a multi-page document and I want to include the page numbers including the total number of pages.

How do I do that ?


Answer :
In Word 16 (the current version of the texteditor from Microsoft Office for Mac) it is straight forward to include page numbers. To include page numbers in your Word document, do this :
– have your document open in the Word.app
– click on ‘Insert’, either in the top menu bar or in het document’s menu bar
– then click on ‘Page Numbers’
-and in the small ‘Page Numbers’ popup screen that now opens, set the desired position (Top/Header or Bottom/Footer), the desired alignment (Left, Center, Right, Insides or Outsides) and put a checkmark if you wish to have the ‘Page number shown on first page’ also
– then click ‘OK’ and page numbers will automatically appear on all pages

However… if you also want to include the total number of pages next to the page numbers, you cannot do that this way or any similar way… you will need a completely different method :
– have your document open in Word.app
– first make sure you are on the first page of your document
– now, click on ‘View’ in the top menu bar
– then, in the pulldown menu, click on ‘Header and Footer’
– then, click with your cursor in either the Header or the Footer, depending on where you want the page numbers
– click on ‘Insert’ in the top menu bar
– in the pulldown menu, click on ‘AutoText’
– and in the next pulldown menu, click on ‘Auto-text’
– in the ‘AutoCorrect’ popup window that now appears, click on the ‘AutoText’ tab/button
– then scroll though the alphabetical list and choose “Page X of Y” andd click the blue ‘Insert’ button
– now, eacht page will have both page number and total number of pages in the Footer (or Header) of each page
– so, basically you’re done now
– but… if you want do do some customization, you can…
– to change the font of the page numbering, just select the text “Page 1 of 22” (if your document has 22 pages) and choose the desired font and font size
– to change the “Page 1 of 22” into something like “1 of 22” or “1 ( 22 )”, just select the part of the “Page 1 of 22” text that you want to change and adjust it to your liking [ and if you accidentally delete either the page number or the total number of pages, just redo from start ]

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : MS Auto Updater warning saying I need to upgrade eventhough I am already on the latest version

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Question :
every time I restart my Mac, I get an error message from Microsoft saying that I can’t update, but I can’t find what’s wrong. When I click the link provided for more information, I get a page on the Microsoft website telling that support for MS Office 2019 for macOS has ended and that I should either updagrade to MS Office 365 or MS office 2021 for macOS… but as far as I know I am already running MS Office 2021 for macOS…

What is wrong ?

Answer :
Eventhough there is a very small chance that something completely different is going on, in the majority of cases, your problem will be that you are running the MS Office apps that you primarily use (e.g. Word, PowerPoint and Excel) in the 2021 version and some of the MS Office apps that you never use (e.g. Outlook, OneNote or OneDrive) are still on the 2019 version.

To solve this problem, do this :
– open the Finder
– go to [your Mac] > Library > Application Support > MAU2.0 > Microsoft Autoupdate
– doubleclick on Microsoft Autoupdate to run the MS Autoupdate.app
– click on the pulldown-button (top-right ; the downward-pointing triangular arrowhead)
– now the pulldown list of recent updates will fold out
– in the list, spot the apps that aregiving an error
– then click on the ‘Check for Updates’-button and wait for other updating errors to appear
– if the MS Office apps that you regularly use (e.g. Word, PowerPoint and/or Excel) are giving an update error saying you need to upgrade, your version of MS Office for macOS is outdated and you should buy the newest version or switch to an Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365) subscription
– if you only get updating errors for apps that you never use (e.g. Outlook), open a new Finder window
– then, goto [your Mac] > Applications
– then, type the name of the app you are looking for (e.g. Outlook) in the search field top right
– in the list of applications that appears, select the app you are looking for
– right-click on it’s name and choose Delete from the pulldown menu
– in the warning window that appears, typ your computer password (the password you use to startup & unlock your Mac) and click OK to allow the app to be deleted from you Mac

That’s it !

Enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : contact Microsoft Office Helpdesk

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Question :
I have questions about Microsoft products that go beyond regular issues that are documented in the FAQ. Previously, I would contact the Microsoft telephone Helpdesk ( NL 020-5001500 ), but if you call that number nowadays, you just get a voice message telling you to go online since the Helpdesk is no longer supporting direct contact to callers…

But on the website mentioned, I am getting stuck in a loop… any progress I make sends me back to the same page were I can only typ a question, but there is no chat option given, even when specifically asking for β€œtalk or chat to helpdesk”…
Even Google searches or searching anywhere else on the Microsoft website, doesn’t get me to a page with a chat option… Even the Microsoft-owned chatbots ChatGPT or BingChat AI can’t help me…

What can I do ?

Answer :
Microsoft’s telephone helpdesk used to be great… but the options for contacting Microsoft are a complete mess… unbelievable !
But there is a chat helpdesk, but finding and contacting it is very complex… here’s how to :

  • Do this on a computer (it can be done on an iPhone, but the web chat interface is not really suited for that)
  • Go to the Microsoft website using this link :
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/home/contact
  • Β in the search field typ β€œtalk to agent” and (click β€œDone” and) click the blue β€œGet Help” button
  • scroll down and click the blue β€œContact Support” button
  • on the next “Tell us a little more about your problem” page, select your product or service from the pop-up list (activate the list by clicking on the triangular arrow on the right of the selection box)
  • when the second pop-up list appears, select your support category
  • then click the blue β€œConfirm” button
  • on the next page, click on β€œChat with a support agent in your web browser”
  • on the next page check if the email address shown corresponds to the one of the Microsoft account you are having problems with, if not typ the correct account email address first, the click the β€œConfirm” button
  • now, wait for the live chat will start

    NOTE :Β 
  • If you would prefer to chat in your local or native language, you need to tell this in the chat to the English speaking agent…
    (unfortunately, at the time of writing, the autoranslate service is not working and waiting queues for local language chats are extremely long, so chatting in English is about your only option…)

    That’s it !
    enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : can’t find Word-document I recently saved

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Question :

I have some Word-documents that I am working on and now I can’t find one of them any longer… I’ve searched on my Mac, but I can’t find the file I’m looking for… I was almost certain I had saved it, but I must have overwritten it or saved it under a different name or something since I can’t find it any longer… I’ve been on this for about an hour and I’m completely stressed out since I’m afraid the file is gone forever and I need to completely redo it…

Do you have any suggestion that might help ?


Answer :
This is not a definite solution for anyone who has as lost Word-document, but it’s an ultimate ‘stress saver’ (a.k.a. ‘life saver’) for anyone who is used to saving Word-documents on his/her Mac :

If you do a quick save of a document in MS Office nowadays — be it a Word .docx, a PowerPoint .pptx or an Excel .xlsx — Office defaults you to saving it on your OneDrive, even if you never use your OneDrive…

So, here’s how to check if your ‘lost’ Word-document was ‘accidentally’ saved to your OneDrive ( note : this solution is nearly identical for PowerPoint & Excel ) :

  • do not close MS Word if you have lost a Word-document ; the chances of still being able to recover the Word-document are extremely decreased if you close of re-open MS Word since that partially wipes the temporal memory…
  • with MS Word still open, go to “File” in the top menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Open Recent”
  • in the nested pulldown menu that appears, click on “More”
  • in the “Microsoft Word” titled window that appears, scroll down the list of recently opened and/or edited documents to find your ‘lost’ file
  • if you have any idea of the last date you have worked on the ‘lost’ file, quickly scroll down to that date
  • when you find the ‘lost’ file in this list, see that ‘OneDrive’ is listed as the saved location, then click on the file name and the document will open
    (if you can’t find it in this list, not all is lost, but you will have to search the ‘recovered files’ first ; this post will hopefully help you on that)
  • when the document is open on your screen, scroll through it to check if actually is the ‘lost’ file and the correct/recent version of it
  • if so, go to “File” in the top menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Save as” or “Save a Copy”
  • in the window that opens, make sure you select a location on your Mac to save the document to, then click “Save”
  • that’s it… you now have your ‘lost’ document back and saved to your Mac

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : How to split up an existing table in a Word document

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Question :
I have received a Word document from someone else and it has a large table in it that spreads over multiple pages. But the table consists of various chapters, so it would be more logical to split the table up into smaller tables. So one small table for each chapter. That would make the table’s content far easier to read and understand when reading it form paper after having it printed out.

Is there any way to split an existing table in a Word document ?

Answer :
Yes, there is… and it isn’t hard to do ; if it’s a large table spreading across multiple pages you might even want to split it both vertically and horizontally.

To split a table vertically (to divide it into an upper and a lower table) in Word 16 (from Office 365 and Office for Mac 2021 & 2019), do this :

  • open the document in Word
  • scroll down to the table you want to split
  • in the table, select the cell that should be the first (upper left) cell of the lower table after the split
  • then goto the top menu bar (the one that is fixed, not the one that is floating with the window) and select “Table” (in-between “Tools” and “Window”) and select “Split Table” from the pull-down menu that appears
  • now the table has been split vertically into an upper and a lower table

That’s it ! …and of course you can repeat this as many times as you like πŸ˜‰

To split a table horizontally (to divide it into a left and a right table) in Word 16 (from Office 365 and Office for Mac 2021 and 2019), do this :

  • open the document in Word
  • scroll down to the table you want to split
  • if the table spreads across the page from the left to the right page margin, you will need to make some separation space first, to do that do this :
  • > select the entire table and resize the width a little to the right, enough to have the space that you eventually need in-between the separated tables is on the right of the original table first (in short : squeeze the entire table a little)
  • then, make sure there is at least two empty lines (of no text) below the table (in short : put the cursor behind or directly under the table and hit the ENTER-key 2 times, to create 2 empty lines)
  • then, select all cells of the table that you want in the right table after the split ; they will turn blue
  • then, drag the upper left blue cell ; that part of the table will now start moving along with your cursor
  • drag your cursor below your table and release ; now you will have the split table that you would like on the right below the split table that you would like on the left
  • then, hover over the lower table with your cursor
  • when the drag-sign (little square with vertical and horizontal arrows inside) appears, select it and drag it
  • when the dashed outline of the lower table starts moving with your cursor, drag it to the right of the upper table and release if it’s in place
  • if it’s hard to get both tables aligned, you can use the zoom-slider in the bottom-right corner to zoom in and/or you can temporarily switch on page grid lines (not table grid lines) ; to switch on (and off) page grid lines, do this :
  • > in the top bar of the Word document window, select “Layout” so a blue line will appear under it, then in the icons bar click on “Align” (in-between “Selection Pane” and “Group”) and select “View Gridlines” from the pulldown menu

    That’s it !
    enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : Two-sided printing in MS Word for Mac

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Question :

I usually work in Apple’s Pages.app to do my text editing, but now someone sent me a school document that was made in MS Word. It opens just fine in Word for Mac, but when I want to print, I can’t find the “Two-sided printing” option…

How can I do Two-sided printing in Word for Mac ?

Answer :

As always, the solution is simple, you just have to know where to look and what to look for…

…anyway, here’s how-to do this in Word 16 (2021) :

Note : in older versions it is similar, but sometimes slightly different (just one of those things to know is that “Two-sided printing” is called “Duplex printing” on Windows and therefore also in older versions of MS Office for Mac…)

  • open the document in Word for Mac
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Layout” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Layout settings view, see that “Two-Sided” is listed, with the option to choose “Long Edge Binding” (for portrait mode documents) and “Short Edge Binding” (for landscape mode documents)
  • > note that if “Two-Sided” is not listed here, your printer doesn’t have the option to print two-sided automatically, and you will have to do the two-sided printing manually [see below]

That’s it !

If your printer can’t do two-sided printing automatically, you can do this to get two-sided printing manually :

  • open the document in Word for Mac
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” set both “From:” and “To:” to 1 and click the Print button
  • when your print is ready, draw a huge arrow on the back of the printed page pointing upward like the text on the front side
  • then put the page in the printer’s feeder drawer and make sure the arrow you have drawn on it is on the upside and pointing into the printer drawer and close the printer drawer
  • then click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” set both “From:” and “To:” to 1 and click the Print button
  • now look at the printed page that comes out and figure out how to put the pages in after having them printed on one side (make sure you have this correct before proceeding ; if you can’t get your head around this, just redo the above steps and print a new testpage)
  • now, get ready to print the entire document :
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” select “All”
  • then wait for all even pages to print
  • when done, flip over the bulk of printed paper the way you figured out to be right (using your test page as a reference) and put it back in the printing drawer
  • make sure that not only the orientation is correct, but that the first page is on top and the last page is at the bottom also
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Odd pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” select “All”
  • then wait for all odd pages to print
  • …now check if your document is printed correctly on both sides !
  • if not… you have gotten your page flipping incorrect… too bad… you’ll have to redo from start…

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰