The Ultimate Excel Trick

Here’s a great prank you can play on your colleagues next time one of them leaves their computer unlocked when they go for a coffee or lunch. Remember Wingdings? It’s the Microsoft font where every character is a picture. Well, it just so happens you can change Excel’s default font to Wingdings. The next time they open a new Excel workbook they’ll be feeling a little confused with all the pictures instead of regular characters. Just make sure you don’t leave it too long before you let them in on the joke. Try it out and let me know in the comments below what happened!

Change the default font to Wingdings.

Go to the File tab.
Select Options from the menu.
Select General from the Excel Options menu.
Change the default font to Wingdings.
Press the OK button.

Close Excel and then the next time they open a new workbook in Excel they’ll be greeted with a load of Wingdings.

Oh no, Excel is broken!

About the Author

John MacDougall

John is a Microsoft MVP and qualified actuary with over 15 years of experience. He has worked in a variety of industries, including insurance, ad tech, and most recently Power Platform consulting. He is a keen problem solver and has a passion for using technology to make businesses more efficient.