Microsoft cheat sheets: Dive into Windows and Office apps

Need to get up to speed on the latest features in Excel? Wrestling with an old version of Word? Finding your way around Windows 11 or looking to get more out of Windows 10? Computerworld’s cheat sheets are easy-to-use guides to help you navigate Microsoft’s core productivity software.

Here’s a one-stop resource where you can find in-depth stories on several generations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows, focusing on what’s new in each major release. We’ve also got guides for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Loop, Whiteboard, Forms, Visio, Planner, and Windows itself.

Microsoft’s subscription-based office suite, called Microsoft 365 or Office 365 depending on your version, is continually updated with new features, so we periodically update the cheat sheets for the “365” versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other apps in the suite. But we’re willing to bet that many companies and individuals will stay on older versions of the non-subscription software (Office 2019, for example) for some time to come, so we’ve got cheat sheets for several older generations of those products as well.

Windows and Office tutorials and tips

Windows 10 and 11

Microsoft 365/Office 365 apps

Office 2016 and 2019

Office 2013

Office 2010

Windows 8

Windows 10 and 11

Windows 11 cheat sheet

To a great extent, Windows 11 looks and works like Windows 10, but there are several minor differences that take some getting used to. We cover all the important changes here, including new three- and four-finger gestures for touchscreen users in our lists of shortcuts and gestures for Windows 11.

Windows 10 cheat sheet

Windows 10 is continually improving with major feature updates every spring and fall. Get to know the interface and key features, and don’t miss our list of handy gestures and shortcuts for Windows 10. (Current for the Windows 10 version 22H2.)

Microsoft OneDrive cheat sheet: Using OneDrive in Windows

If you have Windows 10 or 11, you have OneDrive. Here’s how to back up, sync and share files in OneDrive and OneDrive for Business on the Windows desktop.

More tips for Windows 10 and 11

8 ways to be more productive in Windows 11

How to handle Windows 10 and 11 updates

18 ways to speed up Windows 10

13 ways to speed up Windows 11

How to protect your privacy in Windows 10

How to share a Windows 10 PC

How to protect Windows 10 and 11 PCs from ransomware

12 classic but essential (and free!) utilities for Windows 10 and 11

30+ free and cheap apps for Windows 10

How to repair Windows 10 or 11 in 4 steps

Microsoft 365/Office 365 apps

Updated! Microsoft Loop cheat sheet

Microsoft’s new Loop app provides shared workspaces where teams can collaborate. Our cheat sheet shows you how to use the Loop app.

Updated! How to use Loop components in Microsoft 365 apps

What makes Loop particularly useful is the ability to collaborate on content snippets called Loop components across multiple Microsoft 365 apps. Here’s how to use Loop components in Outlook, Teams, and other M365 apps.

13 tips to get the most out of Microsoft Whiteboard

For Microsoft 365 users, it’s worth adding Microsoft Whiteboard to your collaboration playbook. Here’s how your team can make the most of this digital whiteboard tool.

Word for Office 365/Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

Learn to use the best features introduced in Microsoft Word for Office 365/Microsoft 365 in Windows since 2015. This story covers all the features introduced in Word 2016, 2019, and 2021, plus several more exclusive to Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers. It also includes a quick-reference Ribbon guide for download.

Related:

Handy Word keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

Microsoft Word for Android (and iOS) cheat sheet

Excel for Office 365/Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

Learn about all the features introduced in Excel 2016, 2019, and 2021, plus several more exclusive to Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers. There’s also a quick-reference Ribbon guide for download.

Related:

Handy Excel keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

New! How to use PivotTables and PivotCharts in Excel

New! How to use slicers in Excel

New! Excel basics: Get started with tables

How to use Excel formulas and functions

How (and why) to use conditional formatting in Excel

How to use Excel macros to save time and automate your work

10 spiffy new ways to show data with Excel

Excel: Your entry into the world of data analytics

How to use Excel as a data visualization tool

8 simple ways to clean data with Excel

PowerPoint for Office 365/Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

Microsoft introduced several highly useful features in PowerPoint 2016 and 2019, and it continually rolls out more for users with Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Find out how to make the most of the new features.

Related:

Handy PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

Quick-reference Ribbon guide for PowerPoint in Office 365/Microsoft 365

Outlook for Office 365/Microsoft 365 cheat sheet

Discover all the major features introduced in PowerPoint 2016 and 2019, plus more exclusively for Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers — including a simplified Ribbon that shows only the most commonly used commands.

Related:

Handy Outlook keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

Quick-reference Ribbon guide for Outlook in Office 365/Microsoft 365

Use Outlook’s new calendar board view to organize your work

8 Outlook add-ins to enhance collaboration

How to filter Outlook emails on all your devices

How to check someone else’s schedule in Outlook

How to work across time zones in Outlook

Microsoft OneDrive cheat sheet: Using OneDrive for Web

OneDrive for Web lets you save, access, share, and manage your files in the cloud using your favorite browser — and it has a host of new features that aren’t available in OneDrive on the desktop. Learn how to use its new interface for a big productivity boost.

Microsoft Teams cheat sheet: How to get started

Microsoft’s answer to Slack and Zoom, Teams provides group messaging, voice and video calls, and useful integrations with other Microsoft 365 apps. Here’s how to get set up in Teams and find your way around.

Related:

28 power user tips for Microsoft Teams

14 best practices for Microsoft Teams video meetings

The 10 best new Microsoft Teams meeting features

How to have Teams meetings with people outside your organization

18 Microsoft Teams apps for content collaboration and management

Microsoft OneNote cheat sheet

Part of Microsoft’s Office suite and built into Windows 10 and 11, OneNote is a robust note-taking app that is also available as a free standalone product. Here’s how to get up and running with OneNote.

Microsoft Forms cheat sheet: How to get started

Online forms help you conduct research, collect feedback, test knowledge, and more. Here’s how to use Microsoft Forms to create surveys, feedback forms, quizzes, and other interactive forms.

Microsoft Visio cheat sheet: How to get started

Visio in Microsoft 365 is an excellent tool for creating custom diagrams to illustrate concepts that are difficult to explain through text. Here’s how to use it.

Microsoft Planner cheat sheet

Planner gives Office 365/Microsoft 365 users a built-in task-management tool that small teams can use to track plans, tasks, and progress. Here’s our guide to using Planner on its own and within Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Flow: A beginner’s guide

Flow (recently renamed Power Automate) lets you create automated workflows across apps and services that send notifications, ask for and offer approvals, and handle rote tasks automatically — with no coding required. Learn how to get started with this powerful tool.

SharePoint Online cheat sheet

Learn how to find your way around SharePoint Online (the Office 365 version of SharePoint), create sites, share and manage documents, work with calendars, integrate with Outlook and more. Then go beyond the basics in 5 tips for working with SharePoint Online.

More tips for Office 365/Microsoft 365/Office Online

10 highly useful add-ins for Microsoft Office

5 collaboration tools that enhance Microsoft Office

4 steps to repair Microsoft Office

Office 2016 and 2019

Word 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet

Learn how to use Word’s live collaborative editing features, Tell Me and Smart Lookup, and the new Translator pane in Word 2019. Also included is a list of handy keyboard shortcuts for Word 2016 and 2019. If you just want to know where to find various commands on the Ribbon, download our Word 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.

Excel 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet

Now updated for Excel 2019, our guide covers several useful chart types introduced in Excel 2016 and Excel 2019 for Windows, as well as how to use several impressive new data analysis tools. We’ve also got a list of handy keyboard shortcuts in Excel, as well as the Excel 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.

PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet

Like Word and Excel, PowerPoint 2016 and PowerPoint 2019 for Windows offer Tell Me, Smart Lookup, live collaborative editing and a slew of new chart types. We cover all that plus some handy features introduced in PowerPoint 2019 — not to mention our list of keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint and the PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.

Outlook 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet

Outlook 2016 for Windows has been enhanced with Smart Lookup, Tell Me, and features to help you find files you want to attach and keep a tidy inbox. And don’t miss our list of keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2016 and 2019 and the Outlook 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.

Office 2013

Word 2013 cheat sheet

Among the major features introduced in Word 2013 are a Start screen, a Design tab, Read Mode, and OneDrive sync. Our guide covers how to use them all and provides handy keyboard shortcuts for Word 2013. There’s also a Word 2013 Ribbon quick reference.

SharePoint 2013 cheat sheet

Learn the basics of navigating and using a SharePoint site, where to go to find some of the customization options, and 5 advanced SharePoint 2013 tips.

Office 2010

Word 2010 cheat sheet

Learn how to use Word 2010’s Navigation pane, image editing tools, text effects and other new features. Also see the list of handy keyboard shortcuts for Word 2010 and our Word 2010 Ribbon quick reference charts.

Excel 2010 cheat sheet

Excel 2010 introduces Sparklines, Slicers, and other enhancements to PivotTables and PivotCharts. Find out how to use those, along with keyboard shortcuts for Excel 2010 and our quick reference for finding your favorite commands on the Excel 2010 Ribbon.

PowerPoint 2010 cheat sheet

Learn how to use PowerPoint 2010’s multimedia editing tools, sharing options and other handy features. As usual, we’ve got keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint 2010 and a guide to finding old PowerPoint 2003 commands on the PowerPoint 2010 Ribbon.

Outlook 2010 cheat sheet

The Ribbon was only half-present in Outlook 2007, but in Outlook 2010 it’s ubiquitous. Other notable changes include Conversation View to group email messages, Schedule View for scheduling meetings, and an enhanced search function. We show you how to use them all, provide some handy keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2010 and detail where old Outlook 2003 commands are located in Outlook 2010.

SharePoint 2010 cheat sheet

Unlike earlier versions of SharePoint, SharePoint 2010 is based on the Ribbon interface. Here’s how to find your way around and get started with a SharePoint site.

Windows 8

Windows 8 cheat sheet

Not many people are still using this nightmare of an operating system, which radically overhauled the classic Windows interface in an attempt to make it more like a mobile OS. But just in case, here’s help finding your way around.