Staying Connected

Microsoft is Ordered to Stop Selling Word, but MS Finds a Workaround

This all started when a Canadian software company i4i took Microsoft to court alleging that Microsoft was using code in its Word program that i4i held the patent for.  The code allows users to more efficiently edit XML (Extensible Markup Language) which determines how the program interprets content.  Ultimately, the court found in favor of i4i and ordered Microsoft to stop selling the code in question by January 11, 2010 and to pay restitution to i4i in the amount of $290 Million.

Microsoft of course appealed the decision, but the appellate court upheld the lower court’s decision.  On the surface, one may think that Microsoft may have to stop selling Word, but it is only that one specific piece of code that deals with XML that is infringing on i4i’s patent.  Microsoft has had a contingency plan in the works since August and they are poised to remove that code from the Word program so that all copies of Word sold after January 11 are free of the patent-infringing code.  Furthermore, that code will not be anywhere in Office 2010.

So what does this mean to consumers?  Not too much.  No recall was ordered for current versions of Word, so no one is required to remove Word from their PC’s or destroy their disks.  If you need to purchase a copy of Office after January 11, go ahead; the offending code will be removed by that point.  If you have been looking forward to purchasing Office 2010, nothing is holding you back.  Microsoft is considering appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, but until that decision has been made, it will comply with the court’s orders.

How Many People are Still Using Office 2003?

Office 2010 is on the horizon. But I know there are some people who historically trail technology by 1 or 2 versions. So my 4--part question is,

 

1. How many of you are still using Office 2003?
2. Once Office 2010 gets released will you move up to 2010?
3. Or...do you consider yourself NOT an early adopter, and will you just upgrade to Office 2007?
4. Or will you not upgrade at all? (not recommended)

 

When you respond, include your reasons why. Thanks!

Use Microsoft Streets and Trips for Your Business

Let’s say you make deliveries or you have a sales team that does onsite visits.  Microsoft Streets and Trips can help you create efficiency in those routes.  If you have to make multiple stops, you can enter in all the addresses on the side, then click “Optimize stops”.  Streets and Trips will then calculate the most efficient route for you.  This is a great way to reduce the amount of time and gas that it takes to complete the stops. 

Each route will show the addresses in order of the most efficient path, the driving directions including turns and mileage, and a map with the route highlighted.  There are plenty of options in Streets and Trips including an automated calculator that will determine how much fuel will be used based on the MPG that you enter in.  You can also enter in the current cost of gas and it will determine fuel cost as well.

Click image to enlarge

 You can make preferences on route selection based on quickest or shortest.  In other words, taking the interstate might be 1.5 miles longer, but because you are driving at 65mph, you get to your destination 10 minutes earlier.  You just click which one is more important to you and it will optimize accordingly.  You can also base your preferences on road type.  So if you are towing a large trailer and you want to avoid high speed roads altogether, you can set that preference as well.

With a single click, you can download updates to the map that will reflect current road construction updates.  You can also click to show nearby places, then select the categories of nearby places that you want to see on the map.  Categories include gas stations, ATM’s, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, paid parking lots, and more.

And of course once you are done with your planning, you can either print everything out or send all the information to your cell phone or to a GPS device.  If this is a route that you run regularly, or if you just want to keep track of your trips, you can name and save the route so you can open it up later.  You can get everything that is described in here for $39.95.  There are other versions that cost more and do more.  You can check out all the options at Microsoft’s Streets and Trips webpage.

Check Your Work Email From…Anywhere

Did you know that OWA (Outlook Web Access) is available to you if your company uses Exchange or Hosted Exchange?  OWA allows users to check their work email from anywhere that has an Internet connection. 

When you login, it will look just like your Outlook that you are used to seeing.  You will have all of your emails in your inbox, sent items, public folders, custom folders that you have created, etc.  Also, all of your calendar items, contacts, and tasks will be there.  If you make any changes, then when you get to the office, you will see those changes.  Likewise, if you make any changes at the office, when you check your email via OWA later that day, you will see those changes as well.  This is a great way to keep in touch, no matter where you are.  Here’s how to use it.

For those who use the Hosted Exchange service:
Open up your Internet browser and type in webmail.connectwise.com.  That will take you to a login page.  Enter your email address and password, and you are in.  Easy!

For those who are using your own Exchange server:
By default, Exchange automatically sets up OWA and it configures OWA to be reachable by the following web address – https://mail.yourdomainname/exchange. There a couple of points to notice here.  First of all, the beginning of the web address is different than usual.  You are used to seeing http. This starts out with https.  If you type "http://" instead of "https://", it will not work. 

Secondly, the “yourdomainname” part of the web address is the last part of your email address.  If your email address is JDoe@acmewidgets.com, then your OWA web address would be https://mail.acmewidgets.com/exchange.   Enter that in your Internet browser address bar and the login page should pop up.

Keep in mind, this is the default setting for Microsoft Exchange.  The setting can be changed, and some companies choose to change the web address for reasons that work for them.  If you follow the above instructions, and the login page for OWA does not show up, then your Exchange settings may have been changed.  In that event, talk to your network engineer and find out what your OWA web address is.

The Big Easy Offer is Back!

 

This is a great transition from my last post about not waiting until the beginning of the new year to make that purchase you’ve been thinking about.  From November 1 to January 2, Microsoft is running their Big Easy offer again.  For those who are not familiar with this program, it works like this.  You purchase qualifying products from Microsoft such as Server 2008, Pro versions of Vista or Windows 7, Office Small Business or Enterprise edition, or a choice of many, many others.  We send in the purchase information to Microsoft.  Microsoft sends you a credit voucher that you can spend with ConnectWise for services.  The services can be anything labor-based such as installing your new software, regular service calls, help desk support, etc.

At this point, the two most popular questions are, “which products are qualifiers?” and “how much is the credit voucher?”.  There are a lot of products that are qualifiers, but here is a list of some of the most popular ones:

• Windows XP Pro
• Windows Vista Pro
• Windows 7 Pro
• Any edition of Exchange Server
• Office Pro Plus
• Office Small Business
• Office Enterprise
• SharePoint
• Various versions and editions of SQL
• The following editions of Windows Server: Web, Small Business Server, Essentials, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter (Standard and Premium where applicable)

This is not a comprehensive list.  If you have questions about a particular product, call us and we can look it up.

Regarding the amount of the voucher, it depends on how many products you purchase.  But here is an example.  Let’s say you need a new server and 5 new PC’s.  The server will have Windows 2008 Small Business Server, and the PC’s will have Windows 7 Pro.  In addition to that, each PC will get Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition.  Your credit voucher will be great because you are buying multiple products from multiple categories (Server OS, Desktop OS, and Office System).  In this scenario your credit voucher would be $735.  And you would be able to spend that $735 for any labor-based services that ConnectWise offers.

But again, this offer is only good from Nov. 1 to Jan.2.  So if you are going to purchase equipment and software, now is the time to do it.  Well, wait a couple days…November 1 is the day to do it   :-)

SharePoint: Connect your Outlook to your SharePoint calendar

If you're a user of SharePoint, and have a calendar to keep track of events or even shared schedules in SharePoint, here is a short (15 minute) training course from Microsoft to link Outlook & SharePoint together.

What would you gain: plenty! By connecting the SharePoint Calendar to your Outlook, you would be able to:

• Perform side-by-side viewing with your main Outlook calendar.
• Use Outlook to edit SharePoint items directly, even if offline.
• Copy items between the two calendars
• Get reminders for SharePoint calendar items

Check out the training course, with animations on how to do everything at: http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102550981033

Was this tip helpful or do you have any comments? If so, please leave a comment below!

Power of SharePoint: Tips & Tricks with Documents

If you use Document Libraries in SharePoint, then here are a few handy tips for using SharePoint in the browser or Office 2007 programs:

• Use the power of search

SharePoint has a pretty powerful search index, allowing you to search not only for titles of a file, but the content of the files. It takes too much time to open files one at a time. Use the search box, filtered to your Document Library to make quick work:

Power of SharePoint: Versions in Document Libraries

So yesterday we discussed under utilized features of SharePoint Document Libraries and covered the reasons to use the check out feature. Today I'm going to cover another cool feature, Version Tracking.

In SharePoint, you have the ability to enable versions on a document library by document library basis. Versions allow you to go back in time to review or restore a document to an older version. You would be amazed at how a file can change over time. You may not even recognize it! So how do you take advantage of versions?

Power of SharePoint: Document Libraries

One of the most under-used features of SharePoint are Document Libraries. Everyone know to use them to store documents, but did you know the power of the Document Library?

The 2 most under utilized features are Check Out/In and Version history. In this post we will talk about the basics of using a document library and some reasons to use the Check Out/In features.

Windows Update kills PowerPoint feature

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes over at zdnet is getting reports of a recent update that is killing the embedded DVD feature of PowerPoint.

As Adrian points out, the patch is KB973815/MS09-037 - and it  kills the mswebdvd.dll which is used to control the embedded access to DVD content from within the PowerPoint presentation itself. If this is something you do, you should avoid this update for now.

Office Live - the test that never was...

Wow, it's been 5 months now since I promised to test out Microsoft's Office Live  product (which is still in Beta) and I must say, my family was underwhelmed...

Not that the product has any faults that I could find. It integrates with Office 2007 perfectly, allowing me to open from and save to the Office live site with no problems. That actually worked quite easily. I also tried out the templates, no problems there, but they could use more. so what happened?

Use Microsoft Publisher to Create Brochures

When you need to make up a quick brochure and you do not have the time or budget to get a professional involved, you can use Microsoft Publisher to accomplish the task in a relatively short amount of time.  With Microsoft Publisher you can create brochures, business cards, gift certificates, flyers, forms, invitations, and more.

Microsoft Publisher comes bundled in the Office suite of products along with Word, Excel, and others.  But it only comes in certain versions.  Those versions are Small Business, Professional, and Ultimate.  If you have any other version, you will need to upgrade before you can take advantage of the money and time-saving help that Publisher offers. 

When you open Publisher, you start off with a new document.  You choose the type of document, such as “Brochure”, then you can either create from scratch or use one of their built in templates.  The templates are great because the layout and the elements are already in place for you.  Often times, images will be included.  This makes it quick and easy to build what you need. 

If you want more options for templates, you can always go online to Microsoft’s Office Template download site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx .  There you will find many different templates that are free to download.  Here are a couple examples of brochure templates designed specifically for Real Estate.

  

Microsoft Office 2010....64bit?!?!

Rumor on Nerd Alley is Microsoft Office 2010 will be made available in both 32 and 64-bit versions.  Even better, both versions are rumored to be available on the same DVD and installed using the same product key. 

This past weekend Office 2010 build 14.0.4006.1010 was leaked. This may be the very same build available as technical preview in a couple months.  This build included the following applications:

Office 2010 includes Access, Excel, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Workspace, Visio, and Word.

Emil at Ars Technica writes his first impressions of changes to Office 2010. "As you can see, some applications have changed a lot more than others. The ribbon seems to be on every application now, which is great for consistency's sake. The splashscreen you see for every application is actually animated, which is why the colours at the bottom will look slightly different from screenshot to screenshot. The biggest change, in my opinion, is that the file/orb menu is no longer a menu. When you click the colored office button, you get a screen that is shown in the second screenshot for each application."

Protalinski, Emil. "Leaked: Office 2010." ARS Technica 15 May 2009 Web.19 May 2009. <http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/05/leaked-office-2010-technical-preview-screenshots.ars>.

Use Color Categories to Quickly Identify Outlook Objects

Most people do very well when it comes to recognizing visual cues.  That is why Outlook has color coded categories built in.  However, many people don’t know how to effectively use them.  Any object in Outlook that can have a category assigned to it.  Objects include emails, contacts, calendar appointments, and tasks.  All you have to do is select the object, then click the Category icon.  You will then see the dialog box where you can select which category you want to assign to the object. 

Afterward, the color code will show up next to the object.  If the object is a calendar appointment, then the description block on the calendar will be that color.  By default, the category colors are named according to their color.  That is not very helpful, so there is a way to edit the category names to represent something more meaningful.  Again, click on the category icon.  But this time, when the dialog box opens, click once on a color, then click the rename button.  You can then change it to whatever makes sense for you.  If you run out of colors, you can click New and add a new category color and name it. 

By doing this, you can take a quick glance at your objects and determine what they are and make quicker decisions and better plans.  Someone wants a meeting at 10.  I have two appointments in my calendar, one for 9 and one for 11.  But they are both orange, so I know those are teleconferences.  I can go ahead and commit to the 10 o’clock because I know there is no drive time involved with my other two appointments.  And I can do this without having to open up each appointment and review the details.

Sometimes the inbox can become visually cluttered.  Using this system allows you to see at a glance what action needs to be taken or what the email contains.  RSVP, call back, proposal, and signed contract are just some examples of categories that you might use to help color coordinate your emails.  When you color code your Outlook objects into categories, you end up with more meaningful information quicker.

Working with Office Live - Sharing with others

As promised, I started using Office Live with my family. One of the first tasks was to share the document workspace so they could get into it. The process was simple enough, after logging in, I just clicked on Share, input the e-mail addresses, and clicked send.

One of the cool features I learned during this process is just how much like SharePoint this product is. I was able to link the online Calendar with my Outlook, then drag and drop my personal appointments over so I could share with the family my doctor appointments and puppy classes.

More info to follow as we test more out...