Those Hidden Microsoft Tricks !!

These items are not meant to be vindictive. But are just interesting to play with. You may have heard about them but never knew how to test for them yourself.
If you know of any other hidden bits, email me at micronica@micronica.com.au and we will include them.

Microsoft Excel 97 Flight Simulator (Actually looks pretty good !)
- Thanks to Tom Allen
- Verified and tested perfectly on my own Excel 97 SR-1
- Open excel 97 and make sure a blank work sheet appears.
- Select EDIT, GO TO menu.
- In the bar type x97:l97 (that's an L not a 1) and then click OK or GO TO (whichever apears). DO NOT CLICK ANY WHERE AFTER THAT.
- Press TAB on the keyboard once.
- Press and hold CTRL and SHIFT and with the mouse click on the Chart Wizard button near the top of the screen (It looks like a bar chart with a blue, yellow and a red column in that order).
- This should open a window called ?????????
Now your are in !
- Move mouse left and right to turn the plane.
- LEFT mouse button moves forward faster.
- RIGHT mouse button moves back faster.
- Press to exit
Microsft Word Animated Pinball Machine
- Thanks to Tom Allen
- Open Word 97 and type: "Blue" (Copy exactly but without the two " marks)
Highlight the word and then press CTRL + D (opens the FORMAT, FONT menu).
Select the text to be the pure colour blue (not any other shades of blue). Also make it BOLD. Then press OK.
Make sure the I shaped cursor is placed after the text and also make sure that the text is no longer selected.
Put one space after the text and type: "" (two quotation marks).
Now click on HELP, ABOUT MICROSOFT WORD.
Hold CTRL + SHIFT and then double click on the WORD LOGO on the lefthand side.
Presto...animated Pinball Table with author credits
I'm told this does not always work. But worked for me and my Word 97 SR-1.
Microsoft Access Magic Eight Ball Yes/No Generator
- Thanks to Tom Allen
- Verified and tested perfectly on my own Access 97 SR-1
- Open Access 97 in Office 97
- Select to create a new database.
- Give this any file name and click OK.
- Select "Macros" tab to open the macro table with two columns with the headers ACTION and COMMENT.
- Select "New"
- Click in the first cell in the ACTION column on the first row. (On a spreadsheet its coordinates would be 1,1).
- Press space bar once. Then click on the first cell under the COMMENT header.
- In this cell, type: Magic Eight Ball
- Close this window and when it asks if you want to save changes made, select yes.
- In the box provided, call the macro: Magic Eight Ball
- This now appears on your screen as the only item in a list.
- Drag this (click and hold on the name) onto the tool bar near the top of the screen and place it next to the spell checker icon (There are other places you can put it but it always works when placed here).
- Now click on the new Eight Ball icon and see what it suggests as a random Yes/No answer if ever you can't make up your mind :)
Microsoft Word Thesaurus
This works on IBM PC and has also been tested on Mac Office 98.
It seems that some Microsoft programmers have their own type of humour.
The following only works in some versions of Word. Please let us know which versions you find it works or does not work in.
- Open a new Word Document and choose "Language", "Set Language" from the "Tools" menu. Select "English (United States)". Now type in "Unable to follow directions". Highlight the sentence and press Shit+F7 for the thesaurus. See what comes up !!
- Also try "I'd like to see Bill Gates dead" and consult the thesaurus. See what that says.
About Microsoft Excel 95
You must have the old Excel 95, not Office 97. You must be on Win95 not 3.11. Then try this:
- Open a new file. Scroll down until you see row 95. Click on the row 95 button. This highlights the whole row. Press Tab to move to the second column. Now move the mouse and click on "Help" then "About Microsoft Excel". Press CTRL-ALT-SHIFT and click on the "Tech Support" button simultaneously.
- A window will appear. TITLE: THE HALL OF TORTURED SOULS. It has a Doom style format and you can walk around the hall. And on the sides of the walls are the names of the tortured souls.
- Now walk up the stairs and come back down. Face the blank wall and then type in EXCELKFA which opens the blank wall to reveal another secret passage. Walk through the passage and do not fall off. When you get to the end you will see something really eerie...