Microsoft Office

you run a typical business, you probably create certain publications — such as newsletters, flyers, postcards, and gift certificates — over and over again. Although each new version is unique, some elements remain consistent, like your company name and address.

In a monthly newsletter, for example, much of the layout stays the same, but the content of the newsletter changes for each version.

You can make a template from any publication by saving that publication as a Publisher template file. When you start a new publication by selecting a template, a copy of the template file opens, so that the original template isn’t altered by mistake. If you want to make changes to a template, you can open a copy of the template file, make the changes that you want, and then save it again as a template.

You can save time by designing a master publication that reflects your company brand and identity and then saving it as a template. Then, each time you want to create a new version, you can use the template and add only the information that is unique to that version. Using a template for a publication that you regularly produce not only saves time but also ensures quality and consistency.

There are many ways to create a publication in Publisher. Publisher offers designs with dynamic features that make it easy to change the design, layout, colors, and other elements.

Publisher is great for any business, small or large. See what Publisher can do for you and your business.

Fellow MOONies (MicrosOft OneNote), if you have OneNote Mobile installed and are having problems, try this.

Althought OneNote Mobile hasn’t been developed for Symbian (and my Nokia 9500), alot of you may have the application on your WINMos and iPhones, like this unfortunate man. John Guin over on the OneNote team blog has this great hint:

A quick “what to do” about dropping a phone with OneNote Mobile installed

“I have a Palm Pro which was syncing beautifully with OneNote on my PC. Then tragedy, my Palm was dropped. I received a new one and Active Sync restored everything. No matter what I try however I cannot get the info in OneNote on my PC to sync to the Palm.”

My first thought was to suggest he install OneNote Mobile on the device. It turns out he already had done that, and then mentioned that the replacement device came with OneNote mobile already installed.

A quick check with the ON Mobile team came up with these three steps:

1. Uninstall the OneNote Mobile version installed from PC since he already has one on his device. He can do this by going to Programs –> Remove programs. After uninstalling, he should only have one version of OneNote Mobile on his device.

2. Delete (all) Active Sync partnerships between this device and his PC.

3. Create new partnership and try syncing again.

This makes sense. I could see scenarios in which two different installations of ON Mobile on the device could be conflicting. Plus, deleting the Active Sync partnership would likely be necessary since he is using a new device at this point.

I forwarded these steps to the fellow and he replied that deleting the partnerships and recreating them worked fine. He can sync now and is back to using OneNote.

Nothing Earth shattering here. I liked the way this person explained the problem and mentioned what he had already tried in his attempts to get sync working again. That avoided problems with suggesting steps he had already taken and saved some email time back and forth.

This was a nice little fix for restoring sync and I figured I should pass it along.

From Amazon.com and Infopath Team Blog:

Product Description
Content types are a core concept used throughout the functionality and services offered in SharePoint 2007, and are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful manner. A content type is a reusable collection of settings users apply to a certain category of content in order to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way. If you have ever created or thought about creating document-centric SharePoint solutions, then this book is for you. It teaches power users, administrators, and developers how to use SharePoint content types and walks them through the process of creating one in a sample scenario. The first two chapters provide an overview of content types and can be read by anyone who has had experience with SharePoint. Chapters 3 through 8 are targeted at SharePoint power users and administrators, offering details about the components of document content types and walking readers through the process of creating a sample performance appraisal solution. The last two chapters are geared toward developers and describe how to programmatically manipulate the sample performance appraisal solution with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Topics covered include creating columns, associating document templates, customizing the Document Information Panel, adding workflows, defining an information management policy, reusing content types within a site collection, and programmatically manipulating a content type.

The Living in Outlook series is about sharing tips and workflows around real-world scenarios.

OUtlook Team Blog has this great tip for you:

Quick Parts exist both in Outlook and Word, and allow you to save pieces of content to easily re-use, like the introductory text at the beginning of the Living in Outlook series, as you see in this post. Personally I like to use Quick Parts for all those answers that I repeat over and over again, and am tired of re-typing. I also have a few Quick Parts that contain holiday messages and images that I like to reuse. So let’s get started!

Creating a Quick Part

1. Select the Content You Want to Save

The first step involves selecting the content that you have created and want to reuse. In this example I have selected a table that I fill out and send repeatedly.

2. Add the Selection to Quick Parts

Now that the content is selected click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and then click Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery….

3. Choose a Name for Your New Quick Part

Choose a name that you want for the Quick Part and press OK.

You’ve just created a Quick Part!

4. Use Your New Quick Part

Now that you have seen how easy it is to create Quick Parts, let’s look at how it’s even easier to use them. Whenever you want to insert your Quick Part click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and you will see a gallery with all your saved Quick Parts!

Clicking on the Quick Part will insert it at the current cursor position.

You can find more advanced options by right-clicking the desired Quick Part.

You know those “top 25 random things about you” lists that are going around on Facebook (and elsewhere)? I’ve received a few too many in the past few days. My colleague David Salaguinto must have been looking over my shoulder this weekend because his Office OFFline comic today matches the reality of my FB and email inboxes. Yours too? I ran out of time this weekend to inflict on my friends and coworkers my own version, so for now I’ll borrow his (and then I’ll get back to serving up the latest Office help-and-to info for saving time and money. Honest.)

Ok, I havent’ received a single one of these ‘annoying’ 25 things about you’ lists, and i’m feeling quite left out of being annoyed.

Team Excel blog posted some useful information for you Excel warriors out there.

When gathering data in Excel it is common to start with information found in a variety of sources, frequently lists or tables located on the Internet. Customers often copy and paste this data into Excel from the original source, but unfortunately this can also unintentionally paste many additional objects into the spreadsheet besides the data. These objects (shapes, text boxes, controls, etc.) are often not noticeable to the user after the paste, but can result in slower performance and larger file sizes. One step customers can take to avoid unwanted, hidden, and invisible objects in their document is to find and remove the objects after the paste operation as part of their data cleansing process.

The following steps will help you find and delete all of the additional objects in your Excel 2007 worksheet.

The first thing you want to do is verify that you have additional objects on your spreadsheet. The easiest way to view a sheet’s objects is to turn on the on the Selection Pane (on the Home Tab go to the Editing Chunk > click the Find and Select Dropdown > select the Selection Pane option making the pane visible). Looking at the selection pane you will see a list of all objects on the current sheet and an indication if the objects are visible or hidden. If the selection pane is blank then you do not have extra objects on the sheet.

Once you have the selection pane open and verified that you have objects on the sheet, the next step is to put your spreadsheet in Design Mode if it is supported on your current workbook. Design Mode will only be enabled in Excel if your sheet contains certain types of controls. Turning on Design Mode will allow you to select all controls, not just the basic shapes and form controls.

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From Office OFFline and our community podcasters to the latest in demos optimized for mobile devices, we’ve got a podcast for you. Enjoy! And don’t forget to let us know what you like.

What are podcasts?
A podcast is an audio or video file that is distributed on the Internet. Some podcasts serve as entertainment, such as TV show episodes, cartoons, or the latest music. Other podcasts offer training, “how-to” overviews, step-by-step demonstrations, and tutorials on a particular subject. Much of this content is produced and shared by people just like you.

Unlike multimedia files that you download or stream to your computer one file at a time, podcasts can part of a series whose “episodes” can be downloaded on a schedule and automatically updated if the content changes. Subscribing to podcasts is an easy way to keep track of new content from your favorite authors. Subscriptions also let you discover new content that covers a variety of subjects that may be of interest to you.

The name “podcast” derives from the combination of the terms “iPod” (one of the first portable media players) and “broadcast.” While you can watch podcasts on your computer like any other Web video or audio file, most people enjoy podcasts on their portable media players, like the Zune or the iPod. Think of podcasts as downloadable TV or radio shows that you can watch or listen to no matter where you are.