Office 2010: The Movie

Microsoft barred from selling Word, has plan for workaround

The US Court of Appeals has ordered Microsoft to drop support for editing Custom XML in Word, essentially stopping the company from selling current versions of one of its flagship products and affirming a $290 million patent infringement judgment against the software giant. The injunction, which goes into effect on January 11, 2010, not only bars the sale of Word 2007, but also affects all editions of Microsoft Office 2007, since Word comes bundled with all of them.

Link:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/...

Students get Window 7 for $29.99

Its the Ultimate Steal (MS marketing at work).

Ultimate Office for $59.99 - includes all Office applications.
Windows 7 for $29.99.

Both sound like great deals to me.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/...

See the new Office 2010 icons

I don't like them. Hate that font used in the letters.

Link:
http://cybernetnews.com/office-2010-icon-pack/

Ever hear of GUI Mags?

In a short, GUI Mags are small magnets of GUI components that let you lay out an interface on a magnetic white board. The idea is simple and, for those who like white boards, a great idea.

If your interested in making your own GUI magnets its pretty simple:

1. Get some Printable Magnet Paper
2. Use a tool like Pencil Project to get an idea of GUI components
3. With your favorite paint program or sketching program print a sheet of GUI components onto your magnetic paper

That's all there is to it.


Link:
http://www.guimags.com

video: See whats new in Outlook 2010

Office 10 - Outlook

Just read this:

It’s all too common to drown in email every day. Luckily, Microsoft® Outlook® 2010 gives you tools you need to stay on top of practically everything. Save valuable inbox space with improved email conversation tracking and management. Compress long e-mail threads into a few conversations that can be categorized, filed, ignored, or cleaned up with a few clicks. From advanced email organization and search to a completely redesigned look, Outlook 2010 provides you with a world-class experience to stay productive and stay in touch with all of your networks.

That makes me interested. Might just get me to upgrade.

See whats coming in Office 10 - videos

I don’t know what timezone Microsoft’s web servers are running on, but it’s revealed the much anticipated Office 2010 release in great detail way ahead of the expected official announcement at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference 2009.

Will you upgrade? Any point upgrading to a new version of Office? Is there anything new in Office that makes it worth upgrading? I'm still on Office 2003 and have never had that "I wish this application did this" moment so I'm not sure I need to upgrade. Add to that my dislike for 'ribbons'.

Videos:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090713/...

The videos are being re-uploaded so some videos on the page may be down.

SaveAllAttachments for Microsoft Outlook 2007

This outlook add-in adds the missing feature in Microsoft outlook which allows you to save and with option to remove all attachments from multiple emails at once.

Link:
http://www.netpro.biz/saveallattachmentsol2007.html

[ found on LifeRocks ]

Zero-day vulnerability in PowerPoint spawns Microsoft alert

Security Advisory 969136 describes the new problem as one that can allow remote code execution if the file recipient opens an infected file. The Microsoft Security Research & Defense blog is rather more useful (not to mention straightforward -- yes, they're seeing it out in the wild, used in targeted attacks), recommending several defensive maneuvers while we await a patch.

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

Followup: Convert Excel and PowerPoint to webpage

The Google trick for converting a Word document to clean HTML also works pretty well for Excel documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Much better than anything provided by Microsoft for saving Office documents as a webpage (HTML).

OpenOffice 3 officially released

Following three years of continuous improvement, OpenOffice.org has now reached the landmark version 3.0, with a host of new features including native support for Mac OS X users.

I have been pointing clients to OpenOffice for a long time now as its a great replacement for the bloated, and expensive, Office from Microsoft.

New Features:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

Download:
http://download.openoffice.org/

Get URLs from hyperlinks in Excel

Just copy the code into the VBA editor (alt-F11) in Excel and make sure the sheet with hyperlinks is selected as the active worksheet before running (place cursor in the sub name and press F5). The URLs are placed in the cell next to the cell containing the hyperlink.

Sub GetURL()

  Dim oHyperlink As Hyperlink

  For Each oHyperlink In ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks
      oHyperlink.Range.Offset(, 1) = oHyperlink.Address
  Next

  Set oHyperlink = Nothing

End Sub

Allowing users to edit the same Excel file at the same time

Link:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/...

Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the answer in green (Accepted Solution)


To allow users to only edit specific ranges when working in a shared workbook:

From the Tools menu, select Protection, and then Allow Users to Edit Ranges.
This advanced option allows multiple users (for example, when working on a network) to update data in a well defined and private area. Each workbook user is allotted a range in the sheet with a unique password.

Link:
http://www.exceltip.com/st/...

Importing web data into a usable format using Excel

You ever come across a web page with lots of data you would like a copy of? Maybe in the format of a pretty Excel spreadsheet. Follow the steps below to get data from a web page into an Excel spreadsheet.

Scrape data from a web page:

1. Find a source of data you want (for an example use: Country List)
2. Open a new, blank Excel document
3. Select menu -> Data -> Import External Data -> New Web Query
4. In the address bar enter your URL (try the sample I used above)
5. Under Options (right of the address bar) try with no formatting first and then try Rich Text or HTML (attempts to style it to match the web page)
6. Press 'Go'
7. After the page has completely loaded you should see yellow boxes with black arrows next to tables that can be imported. Scroll down to the main table and click the arrow. It should now be a check.
8. Press 'Import'
9. Press 'OK'

That should be it. Your table of data should not be an excel spreadsheet where the data is nicely laid out in columns. From here you can work with the data in Excel or export to CSV (can be used to easily import into an database).

Also, I bet you didn't know that the data will be automatically refreshed when the data on the web page is refreshed. Pretty cool. Huh?

Enjoy!

Add a delay to sending your emails to prevent the Oh-No's

How many times have you sent an email and then realized a few seconds later that your snarky comment was sent to the entire mailing list, or left an embarrassing typo in an email to somebody you were trying to impress?

A 5min delay is usually enough time to fully process the email you were going to send.

Link:
http://.../use-outlook-rules-to-prevent-oh-no-after-sending-emails/

Microsoft Office Goes Online

Read the full story over at SarahInTampa's blog:
http://www.sarahintampa.com/sarah/2007/10/microsoft-offic.html

This is something I have been giving a lot of thought lately. What will the software world look like in 5 years? In 10 years? Will desktop application development be needed anymore for software built for the masses? Will everything move to the online world? Google and Microsoft think so.

The online world and online applications have so many benefits that it may be an inevitable future and the reason I have realigned myself to websites and online applications. Slowly the hurdles of online applications are being overcome, like offline work (see Google Gears) and as more are addresses, like security, the need for a local application will become less.

What are your thoughts? How would you like having you sensitive data processed online?

Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In

The Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In makes it easy to use a Web page as a data source in Excel. The add-in plugs into Excel 2007 seamlessly, its entry point located on the Data Tab under the From Web option. The system extracts data by learning from a user’s selection of data they wish to capture into Excel. The more selections, the more the system is trained. An example scenario: You wish to import and track data from MSN's weather page. Visit the site using the tool, enter Data Capture mode, and select a row or two of data from the table. Then click Select Similar, and the system will find similar data based on your previous selections. You then can click Import and leverage Excel's rich data-editing capabilities, including the Refresh command, which will revisit the Web page and extract potentially new, updated data.

Link:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads...

VBA Macros get a productivity boost with MZ-Tools

MZ-Tools 3.0 is a freeware add-in for Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic 5.0 and the Visual Basic For Applications editor (provided by a VBA-enabled application such as those in Office 2000 and higher) which adds several productivity features to the IDE.

I have used MZ Tools since a very early release back in VB6 days. This is one of those things that if you work in a Visual Studio IDE or create macros in Word / Excel you will wonder how you ever did without.

Link:
http://www.mztools.com/v3/features.aspx

How to use Outlook as the interface to Gmail

1. Get your contacts into Gmail:

1. Open Outlook and select File -> Import and Export
2. Choose Export to a file and select Next
3. Choose Comma Separated Values (Windows) and select Next
4. Highlight the Contact folder to export and select Next
   
5. Select a filename and location to store the contacts and select Next
6. Select Finish
7. Now log into your Gmail account
8. Select Contacts from the left-hand navigation area
9. Click the Import link in the upper right of the contact area
10. Browse for the file you created in the first 6 steps and select Import Contacts

That's it. All your Outlook contacts will now be in your Gmail account. From Gmail you can click on any contact to fully edit their information. I know the purpose is to use Outlook as the main interface for Gmail but having your contacts duplicated in Gmail is to ensure that you are never without easy access to your email and contacts.

Next we have to setup how to check and send out emails through your Gmail account from Outlook.

2. Setup Outlook to check your Gmail account and use Gmail to send emails out:

Luckily Google has made this very easy by allowing users POP3 and SMTP access to Gmail.

First - Allow POP access to your Gmail account:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13273

Leave the email on Gmail and have it pushed into the Gmail archive. The reason is if your system ever crashes or your on the road you will have complete access to your emails.

Second - Get a new email account setup in Outlook to handle Gmail:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13278
(version of Outlook before 2003)

Gmail combined with Outlook is a powerful combination that ensures you're never without your email.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets makeover

Google Docs & Spreadsheets makeover: "The Google Docs & Spreadsheets beta is sporting a new look with a couple of slick new features, like folders.

In addition to a prettier interface with new icons and expandable trees on the left, the old tags have been replaced by good old-fashioned folders. Finally, the search box offers Google Suggest as-you-type docs and spreadsheets results suggestions for faster getting at what you need. Log in to your Google Account to check it out"

Link:
http://.../google-docs--spreadsheets-makeover-272706.php

Fix the sluggishness of Outlook 2007

Microsoft released a fix for the slowness that some users are experiencing with Outlook 2007. Kinda weird that it seems hidden in another patch as some kind of after thought.

This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Google “PowerPoint” coming

Google’s Office Suite Complete: Google “PowerPoint” Confirmed: "There’s no need for further speculation: Today at the Web 2.0 Expo Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that Google will soon launch a PowerPoint clone, completing their basic office suite (they already have"

Link:
http://.../googles-office-suite-complete-google-powerpoint/

HELP: Looking for a local spam tool to run inside of Outlook

Must work with a Bayesian filter, just like SpamBayes, except support a white list of my contacts in Google - having the ability in Outlook to mark email as Spam and Not Spam is something I like. This gives me easy access to all incoming emails.

My current tool is SpamBayes.

Anyone know of such a application?

How to access Outlook Express Newsgroups from Outlook

1. On the Standard toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.), click the Toolbar Options arrow .
2. Point to Add or Remove Buttons, and then click Customize.
3. Click the Commands tab.
4. In the Categories list, click Go.
5. In the Commands list, click News, and drag it, without releasing the mouse, until it rests over the Go menu. When the menu displays a list of commands, point to where you want the command to appear, and then release the mouse.

2007 time zone update for MS Windows operating systems

Be ready for the brand new daylight savings time change. You need to get Windows and Office ready.

Link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928388

MS Word's HTML rendering engine used in Outlook 2007

Why on earth would MS not take advantage to all the improvements made in the IE7 engine with standards compliance and use Word's rendering engine? Just wait until users start complaining about newsletters and other HTML emails not looking right in the new Outlook.

Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into. Thanx Microsoft.

Link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338201.aspx

Vista and Office 2007 for Free?

Somthing just doesn't seem right about this offer to receive a fully licensed version of Vista and Office 2007 from Microsoft. Watch out with this one and before you enter ANY information search around on Google and see what people have to say.

Link to the offer:
http://www.powertogether.com/#

Whois on the domain:
http://whois.domaintools.com/powertogether.com

Could it actually be for real:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=261550#261550

Seems it just may be.

Unprotect a protected Word document

1. Open a protected document in MS Word
2. Save as "Web Page (*.htm; *.html)", close Word
3. Open html-document in any Text-Editor
4. Search "-w:unprotectpassword-" tag, the line reads something like that: w:unprotectpassword-JSHDNW08-/w:unprotectpassword- (the dashes are used because HTML tag enclosures get removed from the blog posting)
   
5. Keep this "password" in mind
6. Open original document (.doc) with any hex-editor
7. search for hex-values of the password (reverse order!)
8. Overwrite all 4 double-bytes with 0x00, Save, Close
9. Open document with MS Word, Select "Tools / Unprotect Document" (password is blank)

Found this a long time ago so I'm not sure who to give credit to.

Add your folders to the Open / Save dialogbox

This is the Windows XP Pro way to customize the Places Bar (folders listed on the left of the dialogbox) in the standard Open / Save dialogbox.

1. Open the Group Policy Editor by opening the start menu -> run -> gpedit.msc
2. Drill down to Windows Explorer User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Common Open File Dialog
3. Double-click the Items displayed in Places Bar setting
4. Make sure the setting is Enabled
5. Customize the Place to display with your folders*.

* - You can use Common Shell Folders by using any of the following folders: CommonDocuments, CommonMusic, CommonPictures, Desktop, MyComputer, MyDocuments, MyFavorites, MyMusic, MyNetworkPlaces, MyPictures, Printers, ProgramFiles, Recent

Now you're saying what if I don't run WinXP Pro? Well you need to either use TweakUI or edit the registry directly.

Registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER -Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\PlacesBar

String value (name will be Place0 to Place4):
"Place0"="c:\\temp"

The above will only work for the Windows dialogbox and not the Microsoft Dialogbox. The following can be followed to modify these dialogboxes too: Office 2000 | Office XP | Office 2003

...some additional hacks can be found in Veign's Registry Hacks...