We both are longtime Office users and Microsoft trainers, and although our opinions about products and teaching do differ from time to time our passion for technology, our students, and our desire to make the Office products better remain strong and consistent. And that right there makes us great collaborators. We recently did an interview with the Office Insider Team. You should check it out.

Why We Wrote This Book

When we sat down to write this book, we looked at a few Word books on the market and were a bit surprised by how…well…perfect they made Word seem. That hasn’t exactly been our experience working with Word over the years. Don’t get us wrong though. We love Microsoft Word! We are definitely fans of the program. But we  also aren’t going to let what is great about Word excuse some of the inconsistencies and what we see as  flaws that have remained in the program over the years.

We wrote this book as problem-solution guide for users to work through and around some of those inconsistencies and gaps that remain in the program despite Word’s many improvements and advancements . We also spend a great deal of time clarifying terms, and versions of Word you’ll encounter in the wild—things that both new and experienced Word users often find confusing.

Topics Covered in the Book

The book itself is divided into three main sections:

1. Working More Efficiently, Together or Alone with Word
2. Making Sense of Formatting Short and Long Documents
3. Help! Word is Being Strange! Troubleshooting Common Problems

Working More Efficiently, Together or Alone with Word

The first section covers topics that deal with ways in which we work and how that may change how we must approach using an application like Microsoft Word. The world of work has changed, and apps are trying to catch up to the various ways in which people are working. What is slow to change alongside the ways people work is how people work with their more “legacy” applications—applications like Microsoft Word. Think about it. You probably learned to use MS Word a very long time ago, right? But I bet the way you work changed recently, right? Has the way you work with Word changed much? Do you still approach the application the same way? Like a print document? Even though you don’t print anymore? It might be time to rethink this approach.

In this section of the book, we cover topics that will help people use Word across a variety of devices, collaborate with others more effectively and efficiently, and use Word for uses other than print design, like using it to help you read faster or to help you concentrate better in distracting environments.

Making Sense of Formatting Short and Long Documents

In this second section, we focused on the kinds of documents that people produce using Microsoft Word and tools and features within Word to help them produce and organize both short and long documents faster. We decided to think outside the box with some of these and also decided to include some standard advice as well, like Microsoft stock templates; however, you won’t find the traditional advice in using those templates in this book (I have very specific opinions about their templates and how they should be used). We covered topics like

• Using and Editing Stock Templates
• Numbered and Bullet Lists
• Section and Page Breaks
• Styles
• Automation and Macros
• Illustrations, Charts, and Table Basics
• Document Accessibility (including Dictate, and transcribing audio)

As huge as this section was we honestly could have kept on writing. There is just so much in here, but we had to cut it off somewhere.

Help! Word is Being Strange! Troubleshooting Common Problems

This last section is dedicated to a few common questions and problems that Bill and I have seen students ask over our years of teaching MS Word. We wanted this section as a whole to walk readers through how to troubleshoot general Word issues as a skill as much as show them specific ways to troubleshoot a few select common problems we see. In other words, the goal of this section is that the knowledge gained, hopefully, will be transferrable to other issues you might encounter in Word or other Office applications. You will learn basic troubleshooting steps to take in any application, not just in Word with this one problem. We think that is far more valuable (and possibly the most valuable thing this book will teach).

Some of the problem we tackle in this section include

• Too much space (as is how to remove extra white or blank space)
• Annoying Automation (Word does things automatically. Sometimes it’s helpful; sometimes it is not)
• Frustrating Numbers and Bullet Lists (because…well, you probably know why if you’ve ever used Word for longer than a minute)
• Copy and Paste (yeah, you read that right. People have a shockingly hard time with this. It’s supposed to be simple, and it is…perhaps, a little too simple AND a little too hard?)

Where to Buy

If you’d like to buy this book, you can purchase Microsoft 365 Word Tips and Tricks on Amazon.

I think it is worth a read, or at least having on your bookshelf for when you just want to scream at Word. It’s designed so that you don’t have to read it cover-to-cover. Every chapter stands alone. You can pick it up, put it down, and reference it when you need it. It is a more expensive book. If cost is an issue for you, the ebook is slightly cheaper, or you can always request your local library or university library purchase a copy of the book. Many people forget that is an option! That is what they are there for.

UX Fail or by Design?

I seriously doubt Microsoft would hide the option to install the full Office apps to subscribing customers on purpose. These apps are awesome and very powerful. Why would they hide that and give you something less awesome? But it does seem that I talk to more students and customers than not who are Microsoft 365 subscribers who are also unaware of how to install the desktop versions of Office. In some cases, they log into Microsoft 365 and think that the Office for Web apps ARE what they are paying for, that they ARE the Microsoft 365 full desktop applications.

Spoilers: they are not the same. There is a big difference between the Office for Web apps and the desktop apps.

In the picture above, considering that people typically read top to bottom and left to right, and that the left side of most websites get more attention (there are some exceptions) most will probably see the app launcher “waffle icon” or notice the brightly colored app icons for each Office app to the far left. Those icons, however, do not download or install the desktop apps; they take you to a page where you can launch the Office for the Web apps in your browser. In other words, you can click on the Word icon, and then click New Document, and then begin writing right from within a web browser.

And that’s great if you just want to begin working right from where you are. You don’t need to install anything. You can work from anywhere. But working like this does have its limitations. The app you use on the web does not have all the features that the full desktop version has. Sometimes, you will need the power of the full Office apps connected or disconnected from the web to do what you need to do. And for that, you will need to install the desktop apps.

If you want to Install Office to your Desktop, that option appears to the far right back on that welcome screen, as small text—an option, which people (at least the ones I’ve interviewed) often miss unless they know it is there as an option.

Alternatively (if you don’t see the button there), you can visit https://portal.office.com/account/ (sign in if prompted), and click Install Office.

A Caution about Installing Office

If you are a student, and would like to download Office 365, great! This is where you would go to install. But be warned…installing your university’s license means this is your university’s software you are installing. They control the license. It may also override any previous version of Office you have or had installed on your computer. So, say you have a perpetual license of Office 2016 on your computer. I would not recommend installing this one as these two versions cannot coexist, side-by-side. For more information about installing and using different versions of Office, see this Microsoft post.

Check to See If You Are Eligible

If you are unsure if your university qualifies for free MS Office, Microsoft has a site where you can enter your university email address and verify your eligibility. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office and enter your school address in the form field to see if you qualify.

But in the meantime, if you currently have a subscription to Office 365 Personal or Family or Business(ish) subscription, you will be receiving an email soon (like today-ish maybe?) about this name change.

This email will state three key details:

1. You don’t need to do anything.
2. The price stays the same.
3. The subscription name will update automatically in the admin center on or after April 21, 2020.

And the name changes will be determined based on the subscription you already have.

• Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Office 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
• Office 365 ProPlus will become Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise

If you would like to learn more about the personal and home Microsoft 365 subscription naming changes, you may read more about them here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/30/introducing-new-microsoft-365-personal-family-subscriptions/

If you would like to learn more about the business Microsoft 365 subscription naming changes, you many read more about them here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/30/new-microsoft-365-offerings-small-and-medium-sized-businesses/

Microsoft has just announced and released some excited new improvements to how the Morph transition works in PowerPoint, and if you are an Office Insider (like me) you can test drive this feature and provide early feedback.

Office Insiders

If you are an Office Insider on build 16.0.11331.1000 or higher for Windows; build 16.23.203.0 for Mac (don’t know what build you are using? See this article), you now have access to a brand new feature in PowerPoint that allows you to rename objects using the Selection Pane following a special naming scheme so that the morph transition will know that these shapes are to be paired or morphed together.

How to Use the New Morph Naming Convention or Scheme

Step 1: Open the Selection Pane

1. From your Home tab on your Ribbon, inside your Drawing group, click the Arrange button
2. From the menu that appears, click on the Selection Pane button to open the Selection Pane.
   Your Selection Pane should now appear on the right-hand side of your screen.

Step 2: Apply the Naming Scheme to the Objects You Want Morphed

Just begin an object with two exclamation points “!!”, and then make sure that the second object on your next slide is also named the same exact custom name, also beginning with two exclamation points.

In the above example, on Slide 1, I have a circle named “!!Morph”, and on Slide 2, if I want that circle to morph into a square, I will need to name that square “!!Morph.” But I could have named the objects anything. I could have named them both “!!PowerPointRocks” or “!!IHateWinter”; just as long as the two objects are named the same and begin with two exclamation points, they should morph together.

With the object renamed to match the previous slide, and beginning the name with two exclamation points, you are now ready to position and format the object however you’d like.

Step 3: Apply the Morph Transition to Slide

Now that you have named, positioned, and formatted the objects, you can apply the Morph Transition (if you haven’t done so already) and preview the transition.

To read more about what is possible with these new Morph improvements, visit the Office Insider blog.

My Initial Impressions

For those of you who have always wanted a fast and easy way to morph from one shape to another in PowerPoint—well, you’ll just have to keep waiting because  I wouldn’t call this new feature the “fastest” or the “simplest”  method possible, but it IS DEFINITELY EASIER THAN WHAT WE HAD TO DO, which was to edit the points of all our shapes so they’d “play nice”.  So, with that in mind, this new feature is promising in that I find it a step in the right direction.

After playing around with this feature a bit more, I am finding that more complex shapes won’t morph very “pretty” and I do find myself having to go in and edit points to simplify the shape, once again, so they will look a little nicer.

Take this fire, as an example…

Technically, it does morph into the other flame shape, but not quite as I would hope it would. But going into the shape and removing some of the points to simplify the shape does make it easier for PowerPoint to morph using this method.

But here is the end result of a looped morph sequence:

Another problem is this feature is not discoverable. No end-user will be able to see or figure out this method of morphing all on their own, without reading about it or without proper training–so training your staff will be essential.

All in all, this feature will make more complex morph sequences possible. We now do have more control over how and what gets morphed together on the slide compared to before.

Want to learn more about PowerPoint animation?

If you want to learn more about PowerPoint animation, I created a great in-depth course with Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning that will walk you through all the intricacies of animating in PowerPoint for Office 365 on the PC.

They are not the first to use twins, though, as an example to help clarify the difference between the two versions of Office. Even I have often referred to Office 2019 and Office 365 as twins or siblings in my own training. In fact, my recent PowerPoint Tips and Tricks course from Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning uses twins to help explain the difference—that even though they look similar, they have very different personalities and should be treated as unique and separate entities (just like people) in order to avoid confusion when one program updates or receives a new feature and the other does not.

However, what Microsoft is doing here with this Twin Challenge is not in the same spirit. What started as a campaign to let users compare the features of both products and help users decide for themselves which is better, Microsoft has turned this analogy into a “which one is better?” competition, pitting one product against the other (and therefore pitting actual people or twins against one another), implying that one product (or twin) is superior to the other.

I assure you, readers, this is not true.

Office 365 and Office 2019 are BOTH great products, each with its own unique pros and cons depending on your own individual or company-specific needs.

Without getting bogged down into too many details…

Office 365 is great for

• Fast learners
• People who need cloud storage
• People who have multiple computers or devices

Office 2019 is great for individuals who

• Don’t want to pay a lot of money (over time)
• Only really need Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Don’t like things “moving around” on them

Now, I do not work for Microsoft directly, but full disclosure, I do make a living teaching people how to use Microsoft products and services, as well as other competitor applications and services too. But if you are thinking about purchasing Office 2019 or Office 365 and can’t decide which one you should buy, feel free to contact me. I’d be happy to help in any way that I can.

In the meantime, before Microsoft (hopefully) pulls the campaign from its website, check it out and see what you think: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/02/06/the-twins-challenge-office-365-crushes-office-2019/

1. It requires a feature (the PowerPoint Morph transition) that is ONLY available in newer versions of PowerPoint (either Office 365 subscribers or those with PowerPoint 2019).
2. It requires you to painstakingly edit points for your shapes, which requires…
   • A steady hand
   • A lot of patience
3. It requires time.

As such, this task is not intended for a PowerPoint beginner. You should be already familiar with PowerPoint animations. That said, the exercise below is a very basic example to show you conceptually what is possible–morphing one shape into another shape and the process required for doing so.

Materials

To begin, you need only a blank slide in a current version of PowerPoint (either Office 365 or PowerPoint 2019). See How Do I Know What Version of PowerPoint I am Using?

Step 1: Insert a Square

1. Click on your Insert tab.
2. In your Illustrations group, click the Shapes Icon, and click on Rectangle tool.
   
   That will turn your cursor into a drawing cursor that looks like a cross.
3. Now, single click, once, anywhere on your blank slide to create a 1” x 1” square.

Step 2: Edit the Shape’s Points

1. Right-click on your shape and in the shortcut menu that appears, select the option “Edit Points.”
2. Hover your mouse over the top red segment of the square, and right-click to reveal the Edits Point menu; click “Add a point” to add a point to the top segment.
3. Now, right-click on the top segment and click on “Delete Segment” to delete the point you just added.

I know, this seems like a pointless step since your shape will ultimately look the same. But it is an important step. You need to change the shape somehow from the default stock shape by editing its points, even if it is just one point or one segment, in order to be able to morph the shape in a later step.

Step 3: Duplicate the Slide

1. Right-click on your slide that contains the square shape you created in the previous step.
2. In the shortcut menu that appears, click on the option Duplicate Slide.
   
   An exact copy of your slide will appear after that slide in your Slides Pane.
   

Step 4: Edit the Second Shape’s Points

1. On the slide you just duplicated, right-click on the square and in the shortcut menu, click on “Edit Points.”
2. Hover your mouse over the top-right point, right-click, and choose the option “Delete Point” to turn the square into a triangle.
   

Step 5: Apply a Morph Transition to Your Slide

1. Navigate to your Transition tab on your Ribbon, and click on the Morph transition to apply the transition to your slide.

Your shape should now morph from a square to a triangle.

Want more Office Tips and Tricks?

If you found the above advice helpful, be sure to check out my PowerPoint Tips and Tricks video training from Lynda.com or from LinkedIn Learning for more helpful advice.

Office 365 vs. Office 2019

Many people assume they have installed the latest version of Office, but are surprised to find they don’t have the latest features being advertised. This is usually the difference between how individuals have licensed Office and whether or not they have subscribed to Office 365 or purchased Office 2019 or an earlier version of Office (a.k.a the perpetual or traditional license).

Office 2019

Currently, Office 2019 is the latest perpetual version of Office you can purchase. This is the classic one-time purchase model of the Office suite, licensed for one PC or Mac that includes Microsoft support for 60 days. Included in this suite are Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word only.

Office Professional 2019 includes the core Office applications, plus Publisher and Access. If you want to check to see if this is the version you have purchased, just open any Office application on your computer (like PowerPoint), and go to File > Account > Product Information (on the right-hand side). There it should say “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019” or something similar. But it will NOT say subscription product.

Office 365

Office 365 is the subscription version of Office (as in you pay monthly or yearly). This version will update and give subscribers access to all the new, latest features as they become available (depending on your organization’s channel or your operating system).

To check to see if you have Office 365, open any Office application (like PowerPoint) and go to File > Account > Product Information (to the right-hand side of the Account screen). From there, under Product Information, if you are a Home or Personal subscriber, it should say “Subscription Product Microsoft Office 365” or something similar.

If your version of Office doesn’t say anything like I’ve described above, you might have an education or corporate subscription and/or a VERY OLD version of Office. If you get Office through your company or school, just consult your company’s or school’s IT department. If you suspect you have a VERY OLD version of Office, you might consider an upgrade, to either one of the perpetual licenses (like Office 2016 or Office 2019) or to the subscription version (Office 365).

Have Office 365? But Still Missing a New Feature?

If you have Office 365, but you are still missing a new feature that Microsoft or others are talking about online, then there are a few reasons you might still be missing this feature.

1. Your updates might not have been released yet to your Office build.
If you are on a corporate or education Office 365 plan, or are on an earlier build of Office 365, you might not yet have access to that new feature. To check your Office build number, go to File > Account and under the About PowerPoint section, next to the version number, in parentheses you should see a build number:

You can look up the update history for Office 365 by build number here and see if the feature you are looking for has been released yet in your specific build.

2. You might need to restart PowerPoint (or your computer).
This happens to me on occasion. I hear about a new feature coming, I check for updates, download a new build, I get the new build, and the new feature  I was expecting to show up does not appear or doesn’t seem to “activate.” The first step of trouble-shooting ANYTHING computer-related is to restart or reboot. Restart PowerPoint. If that doesn’t work, just restart your computer. You’d be surprised how often this DOES work.

3.  You might be running an older operating system.
This one threw me off too. When glitter pens were first introduced, I was all “Hey, how come I don’t have glitter pens?!”

Turns out, I had to have Windows 10 (not Windows 8.1 like I had at the time) in order to have glitter pens show up inside of Office! Wouldn’t think that would be a requirement to have a stupid sparkly rainbow pen, right? Turns out it is.

4. You might have Intelligence Services turned off.

There are a lot of new features in Office that require something called “Office Intelligence” features to work. It’s a fancy name that Microsoft has given to all of their collective AI-powered services. Put simply, these services need something from you in order to work, most namely, your data. And in order for that to happen, you need to give Microsoft permission to share and collect and store your data on their server for a X amount of time.

If you said “no,” any feature that requires the use of “Microsoft Intelligence services” will be either missing or turned off in Office.

Sometimes Microsoft will be nice and warn you or remind you of this fact, but sometimes they won’t. The feature will just sometimes be missing, leaving you very very confused.

5. The feature you are thinking of might not be a PowerPoint feature—it might be a PowerPoint add-in.

Office is made more powerful by 3^rd party tools and apps. Developers can write small programs and tools that work with PowerPoint much like apps that work with your phone. Some of these apps are free, and some are apps that you pay for. Some of these apps you can download from within PowerPoint and some you can download from the internet. Either way, you might see a new button, toolbar or task pane inside of PowerPoint that adds new features and functionality that wasn’t there before. Microsoft didn’t create it. Someone else did.

Want more Office Tips and Tricks?

If you found the above advice helpful, be sure to check out my PowerPoint Tips and Tricks video training from Lynda.com or from LinkedIn Learning for more helpful advice.

And there IS a BIG BIG difference.

I’ve written about it here and made videos about it. When I teach Office 2016 in the classroom, it is the first thing I have to explain. Always.

So now, I am thinking maybe my old explanation is just not working (or at least not catching the eye of some folks). So, maybe it’s time to channel my favorite white-haired doctor.

Let’s Go Back in Time

When Microsoft created Office 2016, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was just like any other Office release from the past. You bought the software like you bought Office 2010, installed it. And that was that. You paid for it once. It was yours. If you wanted new “features” for the software, you would have to wait until the next release was announced (in this case, Office 2019) and buy that software when that software is made available for purchase. That is the traditional software model of the past.

But then Microsoft announced a “new way” to purchase software, a subscription model, like Netflix. You don’t really buy it—you subscribe to it. And with that subscription service you will get a lot of applications, not just the core few, and all the new updates and features as they are announced, without having to wait until the next release—but, the thing is, you get these new features inside your Office 2016 labeled application. That’s right. These applications are still called PowerPoint 2016, even though you are an Office 365 subscriber. So, for office workers who are just handed a machine with Office 2016 installed on it, they have no idea what their company did–buy Office 2016 (the old school way) or subscribe to the new service. And here is where the point of confusion begins for many (and why it matters).

Office 365 as an “Alternate Office 2016” Timeline

Essentially, when Microsoft split the Office software model into two, it split the Office timeline creating an alternate Office 2016.

Those who just bought the traditional Office 2016 (non-subscription) will not have access to new features—only the traditional support updates. Those who purchased Office 365 subscriptions and are running Office 2016 will be receiving continual updates and upgrades to their applications. They are living in a completely different timeline (reality) than the traditional non-subscription Office 2016 users.

But this is a simplified view of the timeline. In reality, Microsoft has branched the timeline even more. Just within the Office 365 Home subscription, here is what we have:

With the addition of the Insider Program, which gives subscribers the ability to test out newly released features even earlier than normal, either on a targeted or “slower” track, or a more frequent or “faster” track—the Insider Program means that our Office applications are further splintered.

And this is just the Office 365 Home subscription. This doesn’t get into the subtle variations of business and enterprise subscriptions.

Great Scott! This is Heavy! How Some End-users React to Office 365 Marketing

What does this mean for the average Joe or Jane end-users in the Office who just don’t pay attention to Office versioning? It means a whole lot of confusion. It means every single time they see a successful marketing campaign on Twitter or YouTube of Microsoft which pushes one of the newly released features of Office 365 (which are all so very cool, by the way…there is some great stuff coming!) these users jump into Office 2016, thinking “Hey, I have Office 2016, how come I don’t have this feature?” And then they think that either (1) something is broken (which potentially can result in an increase in IT support tickets); (2) that they are not doing something correctly (which can impact productivity and training costs); or (3) they blame/bash Microsoft (which actually affects quite a lot of things, not just the Microsoft brand).

What You Can Do to Help

If you are an Office professional reading this, you are off to a great start! Chances are you Googled your way here! That’s a great habit! Keep doing that! But, your next step if you work regularly with Office applications is to follow the people who update Office—the folks at Microsoft! I keep this list as up-to-date as possible with all things Office related. Start following some of the blogs on that list, depending on what applications you use the most. If you use PowerPoint, follow the Microsoft PowerPoint blog, and other key PowerPoint and presentation professionals.

If you work in IT or the training industry, I think awareness and training is key. The vast majority of end-users still do not understand the differences and intricacies between Office 2016 and Office 365. So, if you work in IT, be patient, train your end-users, and spread the word. Hopefully, in time, things will be simple again (well, relatively speaking).

In PowerPoint, to select or pick up a color outside of PowerPoint:

1. Make sure the object you wish to color is selected. Remember the rule, “If you want to affect it, you must select it!”

In this example, I have selected a blue square.

2. Next, go up to the formatting property you wish to change on the Format tab, such as “Shape Fill,” or “Shape Outline.” In this example, I will choose “Shape Fill.”
3. In the Format Property menu, select the eyedropper tool.

That will turn your cursor into a little eyedropper.

4. With the eyedropper tool activated, click and hold down your mouse button and drag your mouse outside of PowerPoint to the area or window that contains the color you wish to pick up.

4. To apply your desired color, release your mouse when you see a preview of the color you desire appear next to your eyedropper.

If you’ve been following me or my posts, you might have already heard me tell you to “go to UserVoice” and leave feedback for PowerPoint or some other program or company.

If you want your feedback to be taken seriously and get a lot of votes and therefore have a better chance of being implemented within the program (though it is not guaranteed of course, even if it gets a ton of votes), here are a few tips!

#1: Don’t be a jerk.

I know this is the internet, and things recently have gotten a little out of hand. But please remember that there are real people doing difficult work on the other side of here. I know you are frustrated. Believe me, I am too sometimes (a lot of times), and I know full well how hard it is to keep frustrations in check when you are working under a deadline and your #1 application isn’t working like it used to or, well, should be.

You know what? The developers at Microsoft just might be frustrated too. I don’t know for sure, but I know developers and the likelihood is pretty high they are. You might even be suggesting a feature that they themselves have been pushing for FOR YEARS but haven’t had the support or money or time required to get the go-ahead. We’ve all been THERE, right? I know I have! So be nice, okay? Okay. And I’ll try to remember my own advice.

#2: Be specific

Writing a suggestion that reads “Make a selection and visibility option in pptx for mac” may seem specific enough, but you’d be incorrect. This statement assumes that the developers of Microsoft know what this person does for a living, what he/she thinks the “selection and visibility option” is, what he/she wants to do with it, how he/she will use it, and so on. They can assume from the comment here that this person probably wants to reorder objects (textboxes, placeholders, shapes), but they don’t know if that’s all this person is hoping to do or if that is even what he/she is really talking about. I an ASSUMING he/she is talking about the Selection Pane, like we have for the PC version…but again, I am just guessing.

When writing your suggestions, make sure to include details–details that answer questions that the developers may have about how you are using PowerPoint in that specific moment. Here are some examples:

• What would you like to accomplish with the suggested feature?
• Why do you, specifically, need it for your job/personal life?
• How would you like to manipulate options within the pane/window? Mouse? Touch? Voice-commands?
• Basically, the more specific about why you think this feature is necessary or needed, the better. BUT!!!!! They do ask that you keep your suggestion to 25 words or less. So, make sure and be selective in what information you include. Include ONLY the information that is MOST pertinent to your particular issue/suggestion.

#3: Write your own “user story.”

Since being specific in 25 words or less is really, REALLY hard, you might consider using the structure that developers use called “user stories.”

Developers often take suggestions like the above and attempt to write what is known as “user stories” from them, trying to get into the users’ head a bit (the user is you, by the way. I know…it is a very cold and sterile term for a person, isn’t it?) so that they are not talking about little random features but valuable people with real world problems to be solved.

The User Story is structured like this:

As a [describe your job title here], I want to be able to [describe your goal here] so that I can [describe your reasons/thinking here].

The thing is, for some developers, this is just not an easy task. People use programs for all kinds of reasons and in all kinds on unpredictable ways sometimes. This is where you can help, by drafting your own user story. Use the above structure to help you speak the developers’ language and offer developers more insight into who you are and why you need the suggested feature. Help them understand you a little better.

So, if we were to rewrite the above suggestion using the user story structure, it might look something like this:

As a technical teacher, I would like to be able to see my diagrams/ individual shapes in a pane list, hide them, and reorder them with my mouse, so that I can see what objects are in front or behind others more easily.

The above example is 43 words. Oops. Well, I think Microsoft is just going to have to deal with the extra words on this one.

#4 Follow Suggestion Etiquette

There are many different feedback forums for Office on UserVoice, so make sure you are posting your suggestion to the correct forum. That is key. Not posting to the correct forum will hamper your suggestions getting votes and delay the idea getting communicated to the appropriate team at Microsoft (seriously, the place is just huge). They say they read them all, and eventually will move/merge ones that are misfiled, but I imagine that does take time.

Also, be sure to check and search ideas that others have suggested before suggesting your own. Oftentimes, someone else has had the same brilliant idea you have! Go vote up their suggestion. If you create a duplicate entry, that might split the votes and your idea will be less likely seen as important in their suggestion queue.

#5 Share Others’ Suggestions

I mentioned this earlier, but it is an important one. Share suggestions with your social network, with colleagues, and friends that you know who use PowerPoint or other Office applications. Many people still do not know this place exists, or they assume that Microsoft doesn’t take feedback seriously. They really do, is the thing. It is actually quite remarkable. That is service, support, and interaction that you just don’t get at Apple or Google, by the way. And don’t get me started on Amazon!

So, check out the PowerPoint UserVoice page when you need a break (not when you are frustrated because “something broke” or you are on a deadline) and sift through the suggestions to see if there are any that you feel like voting and supporting too.