Visual Basic for Applications (VBA in abbreviation) is a handy approach to automate Microsoft Office tasks and its a favorite of a lot of Word and Excel power users. Even though VBA is installed automagically, accessing the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), with which you'll enter your VBA code, doesn't automatically appear in the Ribbon.

Never fear, you can add it toward the Ribbon by enabling the Developer tab. From inside an Office application, such Word 2016 or Excel 2016:

Click File
Click Options
Click Customize Ribbon
Under the list of Main Tabs, select Developer
Click OK

The Developer tab will appear on the Ribbon and by it you can open the Visual Basic Editor.

If opening the Developer tab and clicking submit is a little a lot of work, additionally you can open the editor when using the keyboard shortcut Alt+F11, which fits whether the Developer tab is enabled or perhaps.

Asus and HP are two of the companies that will bring Windows 10 on ARM laptops into your market with the coming months, however it looks like the fresh new project is already gaining some love from more manufacturers, including Samsung and Xiaomi.

Both of these are currently doing their own Always Connected PCs running Windows 10 on ARM, as reported by a report from Fudzilla, but for the time being, couple of other specifics are provided. And yet, it's not difficult to determine how important this is for Microsoft's new project.

Samsung is presently one of the largest mobile phone handset manufacturers and then the first adopter of brand new high-end Snapdragon processors, that will be also projected to power Windows 10 on ARM with a bit of tweaks.

Their devices will follow the same strategy even though the other models running Windows 10 on ARM and possess long battery lifespan, probably by extras like detachable screens and support to your S Pen.
"China expansion"

In the event of Xiaomi, its involvement is much more important for Microsoft. Xiaomi has become the largest tech companies in China and it is devices are selling like hot cakes in the domestic market, so by launching an Always Connected PC, this Microsoft expand the Windows 10 on ARM push locally.

The majority of foreign companies have struggled to win China, so Xiaomi's Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 laptops will give you Microsoft a bigger probability expanding adoption in the new os in this handset in the country.

In regards to pricing, it's expected that Xiaomi's models is more affordable than Samsung's, though this is going to clearly utilize a series of factors, including hardware.

Neither Samsung nor Xiaomi confirmed plans to launch Always Connected PCs, but more news concerning this front should land which includes 2018 when the first manufacturers start shipping their devices. People are also likely join the party, including Lenovo and Dell.

Microsoft services will be receiving smarter like they gain more artificial intelligence (AI)-driven features, the website announced Wednesday.

Office 365, Cortana, and Bing makes use of AI that can assist users find more useful information and perform technical tasks, an argument said. The fresh features with biggest impact to your enterprise come from Cortana and Office 365.

Cortana have the opportunity to sort emails determined by importance and summarize with regards to ones, then have built up an update during a commute. The feature are doing fine across accounts, to be sure the update could include notes from being a personal Gmail account and work emails site Outlook, from the release. The feature is often useful for busy professionals by using a constantly full inbox.

Another new Cortana feature should be skills chaining, which should suggest other skills that expand ones you already use. In particular, if you use the assistant you should buy tickets, it would suggest adding the situation to your calendar, with regards to the release.

For Office 365, Excel make use of machine learning to analyze data and show trends via pivot tables and charts, the making said.

"Data is exceedingly valuable, nevertheless it's only valuable stopping actually able to extract insights out of it," Rob Howard, director of product marketing for Office, said at the release.

For business pros who require quick insights from smaller sets of data, the automated option will be helpful. Together with quickly providing information, users won't need advanced Excel training ascertain the data want to.

Additional Office 365 features include selecting what acronyms mean in Word documents by searching through emails as well as other documents, and being able to look through other Office files without leaving your actual document.

AI are likewise heading to Bing, seeking to meet changing user needs for searchengines like yahoo.

"They don't just require a list of websites," the making said about consumers' demands for bing. "They might want a personalized answer, as in restaurant recommendations according to the city they are surely traveling in. Or it's possibly that they want a great many answers, so that they can get different perspectives around a topic. They often even need help figuring out an appropriate question ought to."

Bing features include a visual search to help individuals find out more details about something using a photo, using computer vision, object recognition, and machine reading comprehension. Another may be teaching Bing might a user in order to provide more information in case your question is too vague.

Additionally, each user asks a potentially subjective question, Bing will respond with two different perspectives, the making said.

"That's an integral part of Microsoft's effort to realize that sometimes a question don't have a clear white or black answer," the making said.

Users are increasingly in search of opinions as an alternative for simple facts like addresses or non published numbers, the release said. Bing will ever try to find the best results results and gives them objectively, the discharge said.

Such changes will assist consumers and business leaders alike access information more involving their question, and just have greater confidence that this results are trustworthy. Seeing all parties of an argument may make users more informed and will help prepare for counterpoints.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

Microsoft is boosting its everyday AI applications for Office 365, Cortana, and Bing, the retailer announced Wednesday.
Cortana definately will organize emails by considering importance, summarizing the best ones to update the user. Excel makes use of machine methods to provide automated insights into data.
Bing create a visual search, as well as provide multiple viewpoints where a user asks a subjective question.

There's no better time for purchase a Windows phone when you don't care about app and OS updates, because Alcatel IDOL 4S may be yours straight away for just $169.

Consequently the device is getting a price cut of more than $301 at the Microsoft Store, probably to try from the software giant to remove inventories.

Microsoft hasn't quite been the number one Windows phone supporter lately along with company itself confirmed that no new hardware and software updates are planned for a platform.

Which means that users who aren't willing to stick with the latest state of Windows 10 Mobile would better migrate to Android and iOS, as Microsoft is supporting them both with updates towards the apps released frequently.

While waiting, however, users who don't mind using Windows 10 Mobile can purchase the Alcatel IDOL 4S at the incredibly low price, and it is obvious that the faster they generally do it, the most because suppliers are surely limited and also offer may well be removed soon.
"Technical specs"

The Alcatel IDOL 4S amongst the best Windows phones ever released, coming having high-quality 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display that appears brilliant who has vivid colors, excellent brightness, and good contrast, but with a Snapdragon 820 chip, which throughout its launch, was the most powerful Qualcomm processor.

The CPU is paired with 4GB RAM, therefore you get 64GB storage, accompanied by a microSD card slot offering a spare 128GB should you are interested.

In terms of cameras, the IDOL 4S offers a 21-megapixel auto-focus unit in the back and an 8-megapixel camera on your front for selfies and video calls.

It remains to be seen the length of time this offers are going to be eligible buyers in the United States, but offered the shrinking userbase using the platform, Microsoft has every reason to save it up and running ahead of last unit comes.

Microsoft has just posted this year's TV commercial in the holiday season, and unsurprisingly, the agency is paying attention to a Windows 10 feature specifically intended for creators.

The highlight the year 2010 is the new Paint 3D app that's effortlessly the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and which Microsoft presents along with Remix 3D, an on line community whose role shall be to provide access for a large line of 3D models and users to show their projects.

The video puts primary on "Gabe the Yeti," a character which Microsoft says was given birth to in Paint 3D, to attempt to emphasize in order to 3D capabilities of their new application.
"Paint 3D offered alongside Paint app"

"When we are all inclusive and celebrate our differences you can easlily make the world an improved place. 3D Holiday tells the background of a young child who proceeds an imaginary adventure through space where she and "Gabe the Yeti" encounter various characters who want a little love and support, culminating for a celebration for many of the," Microsoft explains.

"In this ad we show Paint 3D, a creativity app seen on all Windows 10 PCs. Furthermore feature Remix 3D, a residential area site for sharing and evolving creations; a lot of characters while in the ad were inspired by those seen on Remix 3D."

Accessible in the Fall Creators Update, Paint 3D will not likely replace the original Paint application, but has alongside it a universal app with support for PCs along with Surface Hub.

Despite the fact Paint 3D isn't clearly normal app that Microsoft hoped it is, it has already received about 1,000 ratings inside the Windows Store using an overall score of 4.4 stars through a maximum of 5. It remains to be seen if that new ad would drive a lot of people to Paint 3D, but at least this way more Windows 10 users discover its existence for the latest version of your operating system.

At home today the ad below and scroll up to listen to the soundtrack (Better Place by Rachel Platten?)

It's a well known fact that developers and users alike are leaving Microsoft Windows phones, mostly in response to Microsoft itself abandoning the mobile platform, and already another company waves goodbye to users.

Kik Messenger, which utilizing parts of globally is a top messaging application, is abandoning Microsoft Windows phones devoid of official announcement or anything similar to this, obviously and since the existing Microsoft Windows phone user base is so small it doesn't make much sense to remain around.

However it's so key, Kik Messenger has rarely received updates on Microsoft Windows phones, and also the latest version shipped in 2016. Blood circulation lack of updates, however, it was eventually one of the top messaging apps for various Microsoft Windows phone users, so seeing it go is clearly a tremendous loss.

Kik Messenger are unable to be downloaded on Microsoft Windows phones, as well as the download links seem to have been removed as well as from the Store, as well as from the company's websites. Direct links aren't available either. Alternatively, Kik keeps getting updates on Android and iOS, therefore if you're looking for a different platform where apps are generally updated, you know what ? you have to do.

"Microsoft: You're better off Microsoft Windows phones"

Microsoft itself has admitted recently that Microsoft Windows phones have not any future, no less than from a consumer perspective, without the new features and hardware planned.

Instead, updates will continue to be released, and they won't bring anything besides small bug fixes and security patches to deal with vulnerabilities that might expose the actual number of users still running Microsoft Windows phone.

For the time being, the company is substantially narrower on improving its Android and iOS offering with frequent updates to their apps and services to confirm full compatibility by using these platforms.

Furthermore, the software giant has also started selling Android smartphones into individual stores, having the Samsung Galaxy S8 identified as one of the best techniques experience Microsoft apps on top of a non-Microsoft Windows platform.

Many different Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 systems get each year a Windows Update error that prevents them from checking for updates take an unclear reason.

Posts upon the company's Community forums could indicate where the bug first appeared on December 3 and it's a server-side issue, it means that users may possibly not have anything to so as to have this fixed. Instead, Microsoft has always been tight-lipped on the actual reason for the bug, rrnspite of the growing volume of posts located on the said Community thread.

Checking for updates on a impacted systems fails with error "Windows could not search for new updates," some saying that additional message reading "Windows Update cannot currently look for updates considering that the service is not running. You may have to restart your personal machine," when they go through the "Get help with this error" option in Windows Update.

Rebooting the product or and also "Try again" option doesn't subject, and for the time being, there are signs that undoubtedly two workarounds repair.
"Set back any kind of time to March 12"

Some recommend deploying older fixes released by Microsoft, as this is isn't the first time the software giant disintegrates Windows Update on Windows 7, but at once, it appears that setting back the date to March 12, 2017 also restores Windows Update functionality.

Funny enough, long-time Microsoft rival Apple recently experienced an iPhone bug may possibly also be addressed by setting back the date on its devices, but it goes without saying that your chosen two issues aren't related in both instances.

As it typically happens on Microsoft's Community forums, there's no helpful answer for users which might be trying to cope with the Windows Update bug, and officially the firm has remained completely tight-lipped to be able to fix this.

Very likely, the software giant will correct it in the coming days ahead of the Patch Tuesday rollout that starts this month on December 12.

Microsoft is utilized in earnest concerning the next feature update of Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 4. It's already released plenty of builds to Insiders within Fast ring, and from now on the software giant revealed a few of the big extra features users will look forward to.

However, also, it delivered something from the bombshell to Insiders keen to endeavor forthcoming features and changes for their own reasons -- future additions aren't still available to all.

On a blog post, Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar reveals that Microsoft is about to start A/B testing in new builds.

She explains:

We're checking out start doing controlled studies with a of new features for Windows 10 we're implementing. We've been this method on a smaller scale -- like seizing different Hub icons in Microsoft Edge to determine which one people like more. Now we're gonna start practicing these with entire features. Consequently a smaller number of you will initially get certain extra features in builds while others may not get these additional features for a while, while we compare the usage and satisfaction among these features versus many people don't. Eventually everyone may get these features -- nevertheless it just may well be awhile. In this particular approach, this also means that in this article make these characteristics broadly available if it is ready, definitely not tied to the major feature update of Windows 10.

The Insider program is quite confusing with its choice of rings -- Fast, Slow, Release Preview, Skip Ahead... -- these days going forward there's a high probability you won't reach test out an appealing that excite you the most, whichever ring you're in.

That's going to disappoint many. What's your choose this latest move?

Windows Timeline amongst features that Microsoft announced recently and that have been supposed to land around the Fall Creators Update, but as a result of development struggles, the software giant needed a great deal more time to grab it ready.

And from now on it looks like we're near receiving Windows Timeline during the Windows Insider put in the Fast ring, when using the company confirming within the Windows Developer Day that it's willing roll out beginning version of the feature for testing.

It goes without saying that Windows Timeline has grown to become expected to become available for all users in the production ring of your release of Windows 10 Redstone 4 in the year, though as we've all learned already, the treatment depends on how development, testing, and bug fixing advances at the same time.

"Coming in Windows 10 Redstone 4"

With Windows Timeline, Windows 10 users may establish snapshots for their app activity for a certain moment and thereafter go back during time to restore the nuvi to the saved state. This feature uses the strength of cloud and works across devices that the same Microsoft account is configured with Windows 10, then it makes switching from just one PC to an a smooth transition that quickly alludes to the documents and files users were creating at a certain moment.

A demo that Microsoft's Joe Belfiore showed recently, and which you'll watch below starting at 15:30, demonstrates this Windows Timeline uses cards to come up with the saved snapshots of every PC, making it feel like quite easy to buy where to go back in time.

Windows 10 Redstone 4 is projected to produce sometime in the spring, with development anticipated to be carried out in March, specialists Microsoft's strategy to release two different OS releases year in year out. The Timeline feature go live by eliminate the year within the insider build, while development and refinements should be accelerated this chair was created 2018.

Some time recently, Microsoft quietly removed its Delve application for Windows 10 inside the Microsoft Store.

I would not mean the Delve for Windows 10 Mobile (which might not be news, given Microsoft's depart its mobile OS). I'm mentioning the version for Windows 10 on PCs -- which is actually surprising, given Delve was just one of Microsoft's most celebrated Windows 10 applications.

Delve, which Microsoft officials described back in 2014 as a "Flipboard for Office 365," was can be a new kind search and presentation application. It has been built applying the Office Graph (now termed as the Microsoft Graph).

I'm not sure exactly when Microsoft removed the Office Delve app for Windows 10 from Store, but @GlynPress alerted me of this a week ago.

An e-mail on the Delve support page says:

"The Office Delve for Windows 10 app isn't any longer supported features been aloof from the Windows Store. Our recommendation is that you use the Web sort of Delve instead....

"If you have now the Office Delve for Windows 10 app placed on your device, you may still use it, however the app may shut down in the future."

Specialists Microsoft when and why the brand decided to drop Delve. I was no response upon the "when." However, the rest of the answer, fed to me via a spokesperson, weren't what I expected; this is more interesting:

"Delve is many personalized search and discovery experiences run by the Microsoft Graph, who has provided a single for how search results surface across Office and Windows. Our vision for workplace search would be that it is accessible no matter where you are working, personalized and applicable to you, and that it surfaces originates from across Microsoft 365.

"As we announced at Ignite, we still climb enhance the search and discovery experiences across Microsoft 365. As part of this, we're focusing our efforts about the Windows taskbar search experience inclusive of content the ones inside your organization, and content within your local device, simply just the rich web search experience including Delve together with other search bars within Office 365."

Aha. So this is more about a consolidation and rethinking of search inside Windows and Office 365 than whatever else ..

At Ignite, company officials explained that contrary to expecting users to consult with a particular site uncover information pertinent to their business requests, Microsoft is attempting to bring search to from where the users are. Whether inside SharePoint, Bing (via Bing for Business) or Windows 10, Microsoft wants to make search more consistently and intuitively, officials said.

Across the Windows front, it appears that Microsoft is exploring new approaches to make search more front-and center in Windows 10. An innovative, immersive search experience, very similar to Apple's macOS Spotlight, will most likely testable soon by Windows Insiders. Users will search for files, pictures, settings, apps plus more ! via a search engine that will be independent through the current Cortana search engine in Windows 10.

I'm curious what Microsoft's new consolidated Microsoft 365 search experience suggests to Cortana's future evolution. So far, we don't have clues with that....