For years, I accepted Excel's ribbon exactly as Microsoft designed it, even though I only used a fraction of its commands. After spending 10 minutes removing the clutter and reorganizing my favorite tools, I had a personalized workspace that sped up my workflow and stayed with me every time I opened Excel.

After years of using Excel, it's easy to fall into muscle memory. You click the same ribbon tabs, rely on the same shortcuts, and barely notice when Microsoft adds new tools. That's how I initially overlooked Focus Cell, a simple feature that solved one of my biggest frustrations when working in Excel.

Obsidian has hundreds of community plugins—so many that simply browsing the list can feel overwhelming. Most plugins are built for specific workflows, and not every plugin will be useful to everyone.

Muscle memory is hard to shake. If you've spent years in Photoshop, you're not going to have a good time switching to GIMP. It took me three tries to switch over, and even then, tools like PhotoGIMP were incredibly helpful. You're unlearning years of shortcuts and what feels ingrained, which is hard to commit to for a tool you've never used before. If you're on the fence about switching to an alternative, then this tool is exactly what you need.

Create, customize, and export your invoices with AI for $19.99

The post Use AI to create your invoices for $20 appeared first on TechRepublic.

Excel isn't known for being pretty, but the overlooked IMAGE function changes that. I'd used the IMAGE function before for simple visuals, but I wanted to see how far it could go. So I put it to the test by building a couple of interactive tools, and by the end, my spreadsheets felt more like apps than worksheets.

I use FOSS (free and open-source) tools every day on my Linux machine. But before I started really getting into it, there was one app that changed the way I thought about software to that point: LibreOffice. Discovering it changed my mind about how I use software and I consider it a hidden gem that's hiding in plain sight.

Though we likely won’t see it until next year, I’m predicting the pickle emoji will knock the eggplant emoji off its pedestal.

San Francisco gave Apple and Google 28 days to address 13 alleged AI nudify apps, raising questions about app-store controls and AI governance.

The post San Francisco Orders Apple And Google Remove 13 AI Nudify Apps appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple Music now costs $11.99 per month in the US, while Family and selected Apple One plans are also rising. Here is what subscribers will pay.

The post Apple Raises Apple Music and Apple One Prices appeared first on TechRepublic.

The Document Foundation (TDF) has criticized proprietary file formats and the lock-in they create, with Microsoft's ubiquitous Office formats drawing particular scrutiny. TDF would doubtless welcome a world where everyone used LibreOffice or another open equivalent, yet the reality is that Microsoft's productivity tools still dominate the office software market. However, that shouldn't be a problem. Files are interchangeable these days, right? Office uses the Office Open XML (OOXML) format, so switching applications and opening .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files should be straightforward. "The reality is considerably more complicated," TDF says. Setting aside the standardization of OOXML itself, which, TDF states, "was one of the most contested processes in the history" of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the result was OOXML Transitional, which initially coexisted with OOXML Strict. OOXML Strict, according to TDF, eliminated most of the problematic legacy elements, "but not all." Microsoft, on the other hand, defaulted to OOXML Transitional, tucking Strict at the end of the options list. "The practical effect is that the format used daily by hundreds of millions of people is the one that only Microsoft's own software implements correctly, whilst the cleaner variant – which other software could actually support – is not used, and has now even disappeared from some versions." TDF acknowledges the counterargument that the "lock-in" claims are exaggerated and that, for all the controversy surrounding its standardization, OOXML is as open a standard as any other. But TDF disagrees: "A standard that only one implementation fully supports is, from a functional point of view, a proprietary format with a standardisation certificate." The OOXML specification, which runs to thousands of pages, "did not describe a format designed for interoperability, but rather the existing behaviour of Microsoft Office, including legacy behaviours, undocumented features and implementation details specific to Microsoft's source code," TDF claims. Document lock-in has to be a factor in sovereignty considerations. "A truly independent document, one that displays identically on any system, in any country, for any user, regardless of the software used – requires informed choices at every stage of its creation." These include the format – TDF gives the example of the OpenDocument Format, used natively in LibreOffice – and even fonts to avoid a dependency on an application that might drop out of support, leaving documents effectively orphaned. Just ask anyone looking glumly at the upcoming demise of Microsoft Publisher and wondering what will become of their files. We wondered how an organization would cope with a legacy of thousands, or even millions, of documents. Italo Vignoli of TDF told us there were a few options - use a script and LibreOffice to do a bulk convert and then manually check for interoperability issues, only convert documents needed on a regular basis and send the rest to PDF, or a combination of the two. The latter, Vignoli said, "is usually the chosen one for large organizations, as the first two are often difficult or impossible because of the size (and therefore the number of offices and people involved)." There are plenty of consultants and individuals able to advise on best practise (Vignoli cited experience from migrating half a million seats from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice) but the habit of relying on proprietary tools and formats can be a difficult one to break. "When an institution sends a letter formatted with a proprietary font, embedded in a proprietary format, produced by proprietary software, it is not communicating information but perpetuating a dependency," TDF says. "Digital sovereignty begins with the recognition that this is a choice: the file format is a choice, the font on the page is a choice, and the software is a choice." The Register contacted Microsoft for its take on file formats that lock in users, but aside from acknowledging the question, the company has yet to respond. ®

The more I use—and learn about—the command line, the more I want to do in it. Whether it’s playing music, working with a git repository, or browsing the web, if there’s a way it can be done in the terminal, I want to try it.

BitWarden is a fantastic password manager, but if you're averse to recurring costs (especially in the form of subscriptions), the recent price hikes could be difficult to accept.

I have a habit of keeping all my software and files, regardless of whether I use them regularly. I have a sweet deprecated version of Noteworthy Composer (to run on a VM) and a portable version of Reaper that I've been using for years. The modern web and modern services have made it increasingly difficult (ahem, Amazon, ahem) to preserve software and digital purchases. So I preserve my software as much as possible, the same way someone might preserve their family photo albums.

I tried the new Knockoff extension to filter out all the cheaply made junk I don’t want to buy.

Opening a PDF, reading its contents, and closing the window is one of the most basic tasks you can perform on a computer. It seems as passive as reading a physical piece of paper. In reality, two things are happening behind the scenes that you don't see: your reader is communicating with the software developer, and the document itself may be sending information to whoever drafted it.

When it comes to self-hosted alternatives to Google Photos, it doesn't get much better than Immich. The app is designed to provide a seamless experience for people switching from Google Photos—and it definitely shows.

I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit diagnosing stubborn Windows problems: sluggish laptops, desktop crashes, weird startup behavior, you name it. Over the years, I’ve used plenty of different tools, from flashy “PC optimizers” that promise too much, to hidden system utilities that actually deliver. What I’ve learned is that many of the best ones are lightweight, reliable, and give you a clear view of what’s really happening under the hood, so to speak.

When Brave first appeared on the scene, it built its reputation on being a fast, lightweight, and privacy-focused alternative to Chrome, without any of the bloat. Sadly, over the years, Brave has become bloated itself, adding features such as AI, crypto wallets, rewards, and news feeds that users never asked for. Brave Origin is a new stripped-down version of Brave that removes the bloat, but there's a pretty significant catch.

I spent years fighting Excel's default behavior before realizing many of its biggest annoyances could be fixed in minutes. These buried settings changed the way I work and let me customize Excel to behave exactly how I want. Best of all, I only had to change them once, and Excel remembers my preferences every time I open the program.