69WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN...
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Weds
22 JuneExcel comments
can now be used
for discussions
between users, as
they are in Word- an update that is
only flagged the
first time you visit
the Comments tag
Excel comments and notes?
- Why is my PC shutting
down on its own? - How do I pin My Computer
to the taskbar? - How do I redact PDFs?
...And many more
Q
Recently, while
exploring my
Microsoft account
online I found myself on the
Devices page, at https://
account.microsoft.com/
devices. Here, I noticed that
Microsoft has assigned both
my Windows 10 PCs names
that seem to be a series of
random characters. Why is
this? Does it matter? I
couldn’t see an option to
change them.
Joseph Barnett
A
This isn’t Microsoft’s doing, per
se – as the Devices page in your
Microsoft online account just
reflects the names applied on the PCs
themselves. These can be set by the user,
but are typically auto-generated by the
computer’s manufacturer. The names
don’t matter but, if you have many
computers, random names aren’t helpful.
To change a name, on the relevant PC
click Start, Settings, then System followed
by About. Now click the ‘Rename this PC’
button (see screenshot^1 ), type a new
name^2 then click Next. Note, the name
can’t contain spaces, but hyphens are
allowed. You’ll need to restart your PC.How do I rename my PCs?
Q
I’ve recently subscribed to
Microsoft 365. I did this to
replace my Office 2010 apps,
which I understand are no longer
supported. Mostly, I use Excel, for
tracking household bills and so forth.
Sometimes I attach comments to
certain cells, as a reminder for
something or other. I don’t have a
problem, as such, as I can still do that
in Excel 365. However, I noticed that
they look a bit different from before.
Also, when right-clicking to attach a
new comment, I see an option called
New Note. I tried this and the text box
that appeared looked like my
comments used to. So what’s going on
here? What’s the difference between
comments and notes?
Kevi n Wa rdA
This is because Microsoft has
made a change to bring Excel
in line with other Office apps,
though it’s a bit confusing.
Traditionally, adding a comment in
Excel would result in a box that looks a
little like a sticky Post-it Note. Bycontrast, in Word, adding a comment has
for years created a place where an onging
conversation can take place between
different people who might need to work
on the document.
Microsoft stuck with that arrangement
for decades, but doing so presented
obvious inconsistency between the Office
apps. So, with Excel 2019, Microsoft
renamed comments to notes, so that
comments could become, well, comments!
In other words, creating a comment in
Excel now allows you to have discussions
with other people, as you might in a
Word document. If you want comments
that look how Excel’s comments used tolook and work, you’ll need to create
notes. Cells containing new-style
comments are marked with a purple
tag, while notes (old-style comments)
are flagged with a red marker.
Now, Excel 365 does inform users of
this change but only on the Review tab
of the ribbon, and only the first time
you visit it (see screenshot). So, it’s easy
to miss that. If comments/notes are
created via the right-click menu, as you
do, then you wouldn’t see it at all – so
you’d have no reason to know this.In System settings click ‘Rename this PC’ (1) and
enter your preferred name (2)Issue 633 • 8 – 21 June 20221 2