Recent Discussions
Add-in Error: We could't connect to the '{0}' catalog server for this add in
For the past month every time I try to use an Add-In in word I get the following error "we couldn't connect to the '{0}' catalog server for this add in." I have tried from multiple computers, Safari, Chrome, different accounts, etc. and nothing is working. It is a personal account and I use word online. It happens for multiple add-ins and I have reached out to the companies directly and they said it was a Microsoft issue.
How to filter to include blanks without selecting blanks.....
Good Morning All, I have a spreadsheet on Excel Online version that people fill in for requesting PPE and it has drop down boxes so they can select what they need. The people filling it in are not the most knowledgeable with computers never mind Excel just FYI for context. When the spreadsheet gets filtered eg to show only the requests for Bob, it shows the items for Bob and then the row underneath is row 532 which is outside my data and therefore the drop down boxes do not show so when someone comes to fill it in they can't select what they want to order and just end up free typing which defeats the object and means things can get missed. I want to be able to filter the spreadsheet in any column EG Bob so it shows the items for Bob and then the next row is the next 'available' row which in this example would be row 23 but also people are filling this in daily so row 23 is not set. Tomorrow it will have more data in and the next 'available' row could be row 30 so obviously tomorrow I would like to be able to filter to Bob, see all of Bobs items and then the next row showing is row 30. This is a test doc: https://1drv.ms/x/c/15153d41767146da/IQDVK5iPAiw-SoUyrf9ciYdwAb76zwpiF-IAtr6ISry1KwQ?e=v4vo3C Hope that makes sense and hopefully I am not asking for the impossible! Many Thanks,Microsoft Cans Power BI App for Reporting Microsoft 365 Usage
Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics Power BI app will retire on August 1, 2026. The alternative is the usage reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center or to develop a custom Power BI dashboard based on data imported through the Graph usage reports API. The decision isn’t surprising, but I’m sure that some will mourn the passing of Microsoft’s first tool to report usage information. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/29/microsoft-365-usage-analytics/Names in Excel Name Manager
I have a spreadsheet ( I will call it spreadsheet "A") driven by macros that creates a new worksheet each month. I am developing a second spreadsheet I will call it spreadsheet "B") that links to it for a monthly summary. I have given all the cells names that are to be linked. The issue I am dealing with is when a new monthly tab is created on "A", I want the links from "B" to be updated to the new month. The approach I am taking is to delete all of the names in "A" and recreate them for the new month. (The reason I want to delete the older names is because over time, the Names list would grow into a very large list of obsolete names). The problem I am encountering is that when a name is deleted, a dialog box appears that the user has to acknowledge that, Yes, I want to delete this name. I want to make this process transparent to the user. So, my question is: Can I delete a name without generating this dialog box?
BYROW/BYCOL/MAP Variants for Nested Arrays + BENCHMARK
Hey everyone! I made some simple BYROW, BYCOL, and MAP variants that can return nested arrays, and I also made a BENCHMARK function for performance testing. Here's some code for testing: BYROW⊟ = LAMBDA(array, function, [orient], LET( me, LAMBDA(me, seg, LET( n, ROWS(seg), IF( n = 1, function(seg), IF( orient, HSTACK( me(me, TAKE(seg, INT(n / 2))), me(me, DROP(seg, INT(n / 2))) ), VSTACK( me(me, TAKE(seg, INT(n / 2))), me(me, DROP(seg, INT(n / 2))) ) ) ) ) ), IFNA(me(me, array), "") ) ); I didn’t put a huge amount of effort into polishing this but In my tests on my device, these performed a lot better than using REDUCE + VSTACK for the same kind of thing, so maybe it’ll be useful to someone. Really curious to see how people use it, and if something looks like it should be optimized or changed, say so. I'll update them regularly, fix bugs whenever I can. You can find the rest of them on my Gist pages: https://gist.github.com/Medohh2120/f565516bc636700adf5ba27fd8f0d19e, https://gist.github.com/Medohh2120/d9d04f56d93694aed9d0c49d516f0fbf.
Help calculating a date, excluding weekends and US holidays
Hello - I am trying to fix an old IF statement to show a business day Work day. The current IF statement "=IF(WEEKDAY(NOW())=2,NOW()-3,NOW()-1))" still works except for US holidays, so we had a calendar popup to choose the correct date when there was a US holiday. The calendar popup doesn't work now due to an upgrade of Microsoft 365 to 64-bit. I tried updating the IF statement to a Workday IF statement and used a table "Holidays" listing the US holidays, but it isn't working. Any thoughts?Migration from Hosted Exchange (Hybrid) to M365 Classic Outlook Client Problems and Solutions
Hello Everyone, I'm a tech who started on a 8088 processor in the 80's. Not mentioning the Vic20 and C64 since that hardly seem relevant! I'm posting here to hopefully help the next person with the issues I've had over the last few weeks. My client had to port his email from a provider with an on-perm Exchange server in a Hybrid setup with M365 to his own M365 environment. I expected this was to be about 3 hours of work for me - setup M365 environment, plan the cut-over window, update the Outlook clients on each PC. It ended up being roughly 20 hours of my time and at least 10 hours of dedicated time for my client. For those wanting to jump directly to what mostly fixed it use this link, it should get you past the dreaded "an encrypted connection to your mail server is not available" when trying to add the mail account into a clean profile. Use https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/classic-outlook-troubleshooters-086e3d66-5404-4034-9cc5-545909dcc166 and pick "Classic Outlook Profile Setup Troubleshooter" Most hits are going to tell you its an autodiscovery issue, but if you're reading this I'm going to assume you've already confirmed that. Our issue was some ghost configuration, only on the PCs previously setup for mail on the old server. A new PC could add the same account without issue. Some of the research suggested this would not happen if the proper Microsoft migration process is followed to move the account - but in our case the previous provider was unable to perform the migration. I'll skip over the research we tried along the way, such as New Outlook Profiles, Registry entry changes, MS Personal users with the same email as MS Business Users, Autodiscover problems (including concerns that the base website for the client was offering invalid data), and so on. After each hit where we applied a fix we again had to try adding the mail to the profile, and each time we sat watching the little circle for up to 5 minutes only to get the same error. Now, once we found the link above - which did not come up in most searches - things got better, but not 100%. We added the profile ok but then Outlook gave a permission error while starting. To fix that, the user signed in must have administrative access and you use File Explorer to navigate to the folder identified in the error. In our case it was in folders kept under \Windows\System32\. When prompted that we need to grant permanent access we said yes. In our case this is where Outlook was storing the ost files. That worked for most of the clients, but we had one additional issue where the error was pointing to a folder that didn't exist. Just creating the folder was not enough, the final fix was to hold CTRL-SHIFT down while opening Outlook to start in administrative mode to allow it to create the ost file in the newly created folder. Finally 3 weeks after our cut over window, while the client had to use OWA, we were able to get outlook running. This was critical for my client because they did not have access to the mail history since the migration didn't happen - they had to open a copy of their PST in Outlook and use mail in OWA and constantly bounce back and forth. I hope this helps someone avoid the pain we went though!Microsoft Rolls Out the New Calendar Sharing Model
An automatic upgrade is currently ongoing to move Outlook calendar sharing from the old MAPI-based model to a new REST-based model. The new model has been available to Outlook classic clients on an optional basis and is now becoming the default. The REST model is simpler and exploits the Exchange Online service instead of depending on client transactions. It’s also part of the transition to the new Outlook. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/28/calendar-sharing-outlook/
How to add a new month to the existing bar graph?
Question: How to add a new month to the existing bar chart? I have 3 rows. Oct 2025, April 2026, May 2026 The headings are: Month, Start Value, End Value, Change The bar chart has the 3 start values and then the 3 end values then the 3 change I added a 4th row and the formulas and they change values as they should. The June values are just dummy values. But I do not know how to add the 4th month to the existing bar chart that updates as well. I can create a new one but then I have to re-create the chart details.Microsoft Authenticator führt Wiederherstellung nicht aus
Ich möchte die App auf meinem neuen Handy weiter nutzen und habe dafür auf dem alten Gerät eine Sicherung erstellt. Wenn ich nun die App auf dem neuen Handy einrichten möchte, bekomme ich eine Fehlermeldung, daß es angeblich keine Sicherung gibt. Ich benötige die App dringend für die MFA. Kann jemand helfen?Sending a Welcome Message to New Employees Part 2
Recently, I wrote about how to use PowerShell to send a welcome email to new employees together with attached ICS files for corporate events. Although new employees can add the ICS files to their calendars (so the solution works), simply inviting employees to attend those events by updating the participant list with PowerShell is an easier and better approach. This article explains how to find calendar events, update participant lists, and update events with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/27/new-employee-email2/
Combinar correspondencia ahora que han desaparecido los DDE con resultados con solo dos decimales
Buenos días: antes combinaba correspondencia de un word con un excell, para hacer mis facturas mensuales con DDE, pero ahora esa opción ha desaparecido y cuando combino me salen muchísimos decimales. He aplicado el formato directamente en Word modificando el campo de fusión con un cambio de formato numérico (por ejemplo, \# "#,##0.00" para forzar dos decimales), pero sigue sin hacérmelo... alguna idea para poder fijar solamente dos decimales en el excell para que los resultados de la combinación en word den solo 2 decimales?UltraTax CS Cloud Hosting for Secure and Flexible Tax Operations
Accounting firms are increasingly adopting UltraTax CS Cloud Hosting to improve operational flexibility, simplify collaboration, and securely manage tax preparation workflows. As remote work continues to grow across the accounting industry, cloud-hosted tax environments provide firms with reliable access to applications and client data from virtually any location. One major benefit of UltraTax CS Cloud Hosting is enhanced accessibility. Tax professionals can securely log in to their accounting environment using laptops, tablets, or desktop systems without being restricted to a physical office. This flexibility allows accounting teams to continue working efficiently during busy tax seasons while supporting hybrid and remote work models. Another advantage of hosted UltraTax CS cloud solutions is improved data protection. Cloud environments typically include encrypted access, automated backups, multi-factor authentication, and disaster recovery systems to help protect confidential financial records and client information. Centralized hosting also minimizes the risk of data loss caused by local hardware failures or unexpected disruptions. Performance and collaboration also improve in cloud-hosted tax environments. Multiple users can work on tax files simultaneously, share information securely, and maintain better workflow coordination across departments or office locations. Centralized management additionally reduces the burden of maintaining local servers and handling frequent software updates. Scalability is another important factor for growing accounting firms. Businesses can easily expand storage capacity, add users, and support larger workloads without making major infrastructure investments. Apps4Rent offers reliable hosting solutions designed to support secure tax-preparation environments, remote access, and efficient accounting operations for firms using UltraTax CS. Overall, UltraTax CS hosting services help accounting firms improve productivity, strengthen data security, simplify collaboration, and support more efficient tax preparation operations in modern digital work environments.Allow Canvas Studio Public Embeds in Microsoft Sway
Sway is a hidden gem inside of Microsoft 365. I just discovered it, and it's an amazing tool to turn old PowerPoints or even lecture notes into dynamic lessons for students! One limitation I'm running into is the embed whitelist. While I know this app likely has low priority, is there any chance there is a way to request a specific site be added to the embed whitelist? My biggest priority would be Instructure's Canvas Studio. Microsoft's new LTI 1.3 integration with Canvas has some rough edges, but it's an amazing start! Thing is, I don't want to share a wall of text lecture notes from Microsoft Word through OneDrive. I like the dynamic and more visually oriented style of Sway. The Problem: Currently, when trying to embed instructional videos from Canvas Studio into a Sway presentation, the platform blocks the embed code. This forces educators to either upload duplicate files to a different hosted service (like YouTube or Vimeo) or break the seamless student experience by using text hyperlinks. And the problem with YouTube is that many of our local community partners at K-12 schools have YouTube blocked on the Chromebooks early college students use. Proposed Solution: White-list Canvas Studio public embed domains so that users can seamlessly paste iframe code from Canvas Studio directly into Sway Embed Cards. This will create a smoother workflow for the thousands of schools utilizing both Microsoft 365 and Canvas LMS. And while you're in there adding Canvas, You might consider expanding that whitelist further. Scribe tutorials would be great, or similar services. TikTok might be controversial, but that would be good. Students don't click links; they'll click play on embedded content. Expand the whitelist, please!
Pasting formatted tables from Excel into other software - issues
I am copying and pasting a large table, with lots of cells merged into, headers for combined rows and colums, with lots of coloured and formatted cells. When it is pasted into Word or Excel, the first 20-30 rows are OK, but then after a while, mid-row, the colour formatting (but not the cell text contents) becomes displaced a two cells to the right. The colouring then corrects itself further down the table, but then drifts in and out of alignment. I think it may be an issue with the merged cells, particularly in the case where if they weren't merged then the content of the cell is wider than the cell, so requires wrapping - but this does not appear to be consistently the issue. I have tried unmerging everything and allowing columns to autofit to full width, but that does not resolve... it had been fine until around March 2026 - was there an update around then? Any suggestions welcome.
Tab header font issue when the "new zoom" feature is enabled
We found a curious font display issue, which can only be reproduced if the "new zoom" feature flag is active: We can reproduce it with build 20026.20076 with the zoom slider visible (e.g. in the "Current Channel (Preview)"), but we cannot reproduce it on the same build with the zoom slider invisible (e.g. on a freshly updated system in the Current Channel, which has not received the staged rollout yet) or with older builds (e.g. the current Monthly Channel build). The problem itself is unrelated to zooming. Repro 1. Create a new Access database. 2. Create a new form in Design View. 3. Add a Tab Control. 4. Set the tab control's "Use Theme" property to "No". 5. Add a button with the following code: Private Sub Command3_Click() Dim start As Double ' Localize the page name, if you use a non-English version of Access Me.Page2.Visible = True ' Simulate long-running operation (3 seconds) start = Timer Do Until Timer > start + 3: Loop End Sub 6. Save and open the form in Form View. 7. Click the button. Expected result: Nothing happens for 3 seconds. Actual result: The tab header's font switches to some old raster system font (MS Sans Serif?). After 3 seconds, the form returns to the 21st century. This issue is easy to work around: just do the long-running operation before setting the Visibility property, this will reduce the font-change to a short flicker. Still, this appears to be an unintended side effect of the changes made for the "new zoom" feature, so I thought it might be helpful to report it while that feature is still being worked on.Table Design -How to see which table styles adopted
I have only recently discovered table design / table styles in word and is trying to adopt using it just like Styles in my work. But I realize that I am facing a problem. For word style, i can usually see which style is adopted by clicking in the existing paragraph and check with style is highlighted in the style gallery. This does not seem to work for table styles. I previously set a custom table style and then apply it to an existing table in the document. When I click on the table, I do not see "custom" being highlighted in the table styles gallery. Is there also no way to name table styles like word styles? It gets really confusing to search only by visual shape/colors in the gallery. I really want to remove some of the table styles from the gallery to avoid users from trying to use them.Reporting Usage Patterns for Room Mailboxes
A recent post on the EHLO blog discusses how to find whether room mailboxes are active. I've been down this path before and created a PowerShell script to analyze the usage of room mailboxes. In this article, I explain some of the finer points about the topic, including whether to use Exchange Online PowerShell or the Graph Places API to find room mailboxes, the permissions required to retrieve event data from the room mailboxes, and what has to be done to run the check on an ongoing basis. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/26/room-mailboxes-usage/
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