Microsoft Office

StickySorter is an Office Labs sponsored spare-time project by two Microsoft employees, Julie and Sumit. The idea sprung from the need for project teams all over the world to gather and organize data using a collaborative process known as affinity diagramming. Since its inception, StickySorter has evolved into a desktop application so anyone can use it to collaborate and organize ideas electronically, using a familiar sticky note interface.

Project: StickySorter

StickySorter is an Office Labs sponsored spare-time project by two Microsoft employees, Julie and Sumit. The idea sprung from the need for project teams all over the world to gather and organize data using a collaborative process known as affinity diagramming. Since its inception, StickySorter has evolved into a desktop application so anyone can use it to collaborate and organize ideas electronically, using a familiar sticky note interface.

Using StickySorter you can:

Effectively organize ideas into named groups which can be easily manipulated and rearranged.
Create custom views of data imported from spreadsheets or entered directly in the application.
Improve virtual brainstorming with features for navigating, searching, and arranging notes.
Collaborate across geographic boundaries by using StickySorter with Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

StickySorter was inspired by a real problem we encountered at work: Julie’s team was conducting a large study with researchers all over the world. They needed to sift through hundreds of research observations and organize them into groups using a process known as affinity diagramming. Affinity diagramming typically involves a team of people gathering in a room, writing down individual ideas or observations on sticky notes, placing the notes on a wall or whiteboard, and then arranging the notes into meaningful groups. The trouble was that the researchers on Julie’s team had already recorded their observations in Excel. Using sticky notes would mean they would need to manually copy all their observations onto notes, and then, after completing the affinity diagram, retype the observations and groups back into Excel. Furthermore, using sticky notes would require all the researchers on the team to be in the same room in order to participate.

Julie knew her team was far from alone in their frustration. Affinity diagramming is a process commonly used in many disciplines such as user research, product planning, and design. Inspired by this widespread need, we developed StickySorter as a means to bring affinity diagramming—and information organization in general—into the age of digital information and distributed teams. We developed a prototype, and after several iterations, arrived at StickySorter v1, which Julie’s team used to conduct many affinity diagramming sessions throughout their project.

StickySorter might have ended there, but other folks at Microsoft began hearing about the application and requesting to use it in their own projects. Until this point, we had been working on StickySorter as a side project on evenings and weekends. To release StickySorter to a larger audience, we knew we were going to need some help. That’s where the good folks of Office Labs came in: they offered us support in taking StickySorter from the original v1 prototype to the more complete and polished version that you can download today. Many thanks to Joe Coplen (Developer), Natasha Desai (Program Manager), and Nina Shih (Designer) for all their help in making that happen!

By Skip: If you want lots of visitors to your Web site, it helps to have lots of links to your Web site. Link exchanges — sometimes called reciprocal linking or link swaps — are a popular way to generate more links.

It’s a pretty simple concept. Say I have a veterinary practice and you run a pet store. I ask you to put a link to my vet business site on your pet store site and, in exchange, offer to put a link to your pet store site on my vet business site. This works well because we have complementary, noncompetitive businesses that target the same audience: pet owners.

These reciprocal links help drive traffic from my site to your site and vice versa. They also help us boost our rankings in search engines. This is because — generally speaking — search engines look at the number of links to your site from other sites when listing sites in search results.

How to get started with link exchanges

You have several ways to set up link exchanges.

Do it manually. The upside of this method is that it’s free and you can be assured that your links reside only on sites you deem worthy. The downside is that it takes a lot of work. It typically goes like this: You search the Web to find good sites that are complementary to yours, and then place a link to the site on your site. Next, you send a personalized e-mail to the site’s owner or webmaster asking them to reciprocate. You might also suggest where you think your link should reside on their site, and provide some wording that they could use.
Use link-management software. To avoid the drudgery of reviewing sites to find potential link partners, you can purchase software that does that — and more. iBusinessPromoter is one example, and has a free trial version you can download.
Join an automated link-exchange program. You can pay to have your site automatically included on all the Web sites of program members. A filtering option is typically available to exclude your site from link exchanges you don’t want. Check out LinksMaster.com for an example of this type of program.
Pay someone else to create your links. A number of companies specialize in finding and managing linking services, dramatically minimizing your involvement. LinkStrategy.com is one such service.

Find out how to use Microsoft Word to create a holiday letter to send to all your friends and family as well as mailing labels for a mass mailing. Also learn how to make holiday decorations with Word.

GOALS
After completing this course you will be able to:

Create and decorate a newsletter.
Create mailing labels for your envelopes.
Create some holiday decorations.

ABOUT THIS COURSE
This course includes:

Three self-paced lessons and three practice sessions for hands-on experience.
A short test at the end of each lesson; tests are not scored.
A Quick Reference Card you can take away from the course.

COURSE TEXT
The holidays are always a busy time of year. This time, get organized and let Word help you out.

Learn how to create and decorate fantastic newsletters that you can send in a mass mailing to your friends; run a mail merge to create labels for your envelopes; and have some fun making holiday decorations that you can get the whole family involved in.

To learn more about this course, read the overview in the center of this page or the table of contents in the left column. Then click Next to start the first lesson.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN
This course contains details on using mail merge to create labels; for more information about mail merge, see Use mail merge for mass mailings and more.

Many people try to keep in touch with friends and family during the holiday season. Writing a holiday newsletter is often a chore, but it can be fun if you use Word to lay it out, decorate it, and add pictures or family photos. You can also save time by using a ready-made template.

Courtesy of Nancy BuchananKnow the recipient
Chances are that if you are making a gift for a friend or loved one, you already know their favorite colors, hobbies, pets, and other interests. It is important to think through what it is that they like or don’t like before you dig into your gift idea. For my project, I wanted to put together several gifts for each of my 10 year old daughters. The gifts for my daughter Julia are shown above. They all incorporate her love of the color green, animals, and bright and cheerful images. Younger children might like to see more pictures of them, teenagers might want more humorous or irreverent gifts, and adults might want gifts that relate directly to their hobbies.

Create custom note cards
I always have a few boxes of blank note cards for my printer on hand. You can buy them at your local office supply store in a variety of colors and sizes. A stack of pre-made cards with designs the recipient loves can be an easy, inexpensive, and considerate gift.

Start at the Template Gallery on Office Online
Most note cards made for printing have a model number or template number on the package. I usually search for the template number on Office Online first to see if there are any templates already available for my note cards. For my daughter I used the Friendship Card. I printed the cards on blank note cards I purchased from Office Max.
Note If a template isn’t available specifically for the note card you have, look for one that is the same size. You can also look on the Web site for the maker of the note cards; they usually have templates for Microsoft Word available for download.

The template opens in the program for which it was created, such as Word.

Produce padded notepads
Padded notepads use special glue called padding compound to stick a stack of pages together on one edge. You can purchase padding compound at most office supply stores. For this project you can print sheets with a decorative heading on the top, then stack the pages up and apply padding compound on one end to bind the paper together yet make it easy to tear a sheet off. Here is how I created 4 pads of paper, each with 40 sheets:

In Word, start with a blank document and then change the orientation to be Landscape, the margins to be narrow, and to use 2 columns. You can download the document I created in Word 2007 for my daughters here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC300035581033.aspx.
: There are a few times in life when buying a gift at a store just won’t do, especially if it’s too late to get to a store. And it’s definitely time to make a gift at home when the gift recipient is important enough to create something truly unique and personal. Whatever your motives, here are a few ideas how you can create these unique gifts at home: custom note cards, padded notepads, stickers, and tee shirts.

Print 40 sheets of the document on your printer. You can use plain printer paper.
Note This can also be a great way to use recycled paper. Instead of printing on new paper, just print your design on the blank side of recycled paper.

Cut each sheet of paper into 4 equal pieces. For example, cut the paper in the middle lengthwise and then again widthwise. Now you have 160 smaller pieces of paper.
• Divide the pieces of paper into 4 stacks of 40 pieces and then follow the padding compound’s instructions to pad one edge of the pieces of paper. I purchased padding compound from GreenLightOffice.com.
Note My padding compound’s instructions said to use a vice to hold the pages together while you paint on the compound. I didn’t have a vice handy so just stacked the pages between books with the end being padded sticking out far enough for me to paint it.

at Microsoft 2008 Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum: From 64 countries around the world, 250 teachers, school administrators and education policymakers meet to reward educator excellence.

Today in Hong Kong, teachers were recognized for their creativity and innovation in the classroom as part of Microsoft Corp.’s 2008 Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum (ITF). Now in its fourth year, the Worldwide ITF rewards outstanding teachers who practice exceptional 21st century learning and incorporate the creative use of technology in their classrooms.

At the forum, a panel of distinguished education leaders from around the world selected a handful of educators as Innovative Teachers of the Year for creating solutions that improve and extend the way students learn using technology, in the following categories:

Innovation in Community

• First place: New Zealand – Nathan Kerr, Collaboration and Digital Learning Projects within a Multi-Cultural School

• Second place: Uganda – Ronald Ddungu, Education for Sustainability

• Third place: Brazil/Portugal – Emilia Miranda, Marise Brandao and Marli Fiorentin, Flight BPF

Innovation in Collaboration

• First place: Australia – Andrew Douch, Anywhere Anytime Biology Class

• Second place: South Africa – Sarietje Musgrave, Spread the Sunshine

• Third place: Germany/Austria – Elke Mayer, Gabriele Jauck, Together in a World of Learning

Innovation in Content

• First place: India – Parambir Singh Kathait, Let’s Explore the Universe

• Second place: Senegal – Ousmane Diouf, Electronic Alarm

• Third place: United Kingdom – Dan Roberts, Recharge the Battery
Ireland – Kate O’Connell, Flying High Exploring Aviation

Educator’s Choice

• First place: El Salvador – Mariella Paz, Business Game

• Second place: Singapore – Fong Yin Kuan, Digital Story Telling @ Beacon

• Third place: Thailand – Pongpanote Phongpanngam, Instructional Games for Kids by Kids

“It is an inspiration to see teachers from 64 countries around the world collaborate together and show how they are using technology in innovative ways to change the way their students learn,” said Ralph Young, vice president of Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft, during the ITF awards ceremony. “At the heart of the Innovative Teachers Forum is the belief that teachers from all over the world are transforming education and using innovative learning methods to empower their students and prepare them for the 21st century.”

The ITF is part of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning program, a global initiative under the Unlimited Potential commitment designed to help increase technology access for schools, foster innovative approaches to education, and provide educators with the tools to manage and implement change. Since its inception in 2003, the Partners in Learning program has reached more than 123 million teachers and students in 103 countries. With five years of continued financial support so far, Microsoft’s 10-year investment in the initiative is nearly $500 million (U.S.), underscoring the company’s commitment to making technology more relevant and accessible for everyone through affordable licensing programs, training and partnerships.

In Hong Kong, Partners in Learning has reached over 11,000 education leaders and teachers and engaged over 80,000 students, bringing the benefits of innovation and technology to education.

“The use of computers is no longer confined to the science or IT lab at schools —computers and devices are becoming central to our lives and are shaping how we learn and access information,” said Hoihung Ma, Hong Kong’s Microsoft Innovative Teacher of the Year. “Computers are not only a dynamic way to deliver interactive educational resources, but also the first line in teaching children fundamental information and communication technology skills that will help them develop and become more competitive when they enter the work force.”

Erik Westrum, an Innovative Teacher from Norway, believes the Innovative Teachers Forum provides a unique opportunity for teachers from all over the world to share experiences and improve teaching methods with technology in schools.

“Often, teachers are hesitant to adopt technology into their curriculum until they get a chance to experience firsthand the benefits and possibilities for their students,” Westrum said. “Discussing with my peers how technology has transformed their students’ learning environment is very inspiring and reminds me of why I began teaching — to share my love of learning new things.”

More information about the Innovative Teachers Forum is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwteachersforum.

From the Access Team Blog: Today’s guest writer is Liam Cavanagh from the Sync Framework and SQL Services team. They are doing some cool stuff that allows Access developers to store their app and data in the cloud using SQL Server Data Services. Liam is looking for people that want to beta test an upcoming release early next year. –Clint

Today at PDC we are announcing Codename “Huron”, a set of synchronization experiences built on top of the sync functionality in SQL Data Services’ cloud database and the Microsoft Sync Framework to provide business database sharing. Business database sharing offers a simple way to scale data to large numbers of users while not parting from the investment made in current technologies. It also enables users to subscribe and then edit the data locally in the format of their choice whether that is Office Access, SQL Server Express or SQL Server Compact and then push changes into SQL Data Services. The first end-to-end experience we will provide is for Office Access and will allow users to:

Publish databases to the cloud along with reports, forms and objects
Subscribe to published data and automatically configure the local database for sync
Make online changes through SQL Data Services and propagate those changes to subscribed users once they connect
Enable scheduled and background synchronization of data changes through SQL Data Services and then on to other subscribed users
Backup and restore of database applications to the cloud
If you are interested in joining our early beta, please email DataLabs@Microsoft.com with “Huron beta” in the subject. For more information on Codename “Huron”, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/sync

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform that enables collaboration and offline access for applications, services and devices. It features technologies and tools that enable roaming, sharing, and taking data offline. Using Microsoft Sync Framework, developers can build sync ecosystems that integrate any application, with any data from any store using any protocol over any network.

A key aspect of the Microsoft Sync Framework is the ability to create custom synchronization providers. A provider is a software component that represents a replica for synchronization. A replica is a particular repository of information to be synchronized, such as a file system on a handheld device. When representing a data source, a provider enumerates changes from its replica. When representing a destination, a provider applies changes to its replica. If the data at the source and destination differ in type or schema, each provider performs any necessary mapping or transformation.

Courtesy of Rieva: Like many of you, I get inspired hearing about other entrepreneurs and how they became successful. But there’s also a lot we can learn from the challenges our fellow business owners go through. Take a look at what Christopher Hazlett has been through

Hazlett faced every entrepreneur’s nightmare last year, as this New York Times article reports. When the stock market began wobbling last January, almost all of his big corporate clients walked out on their contracts — taking his Hoboken, N.J., software design firm, Integrate Consulting LLC, from six figures in projected revenues to nearly nothing in just two weeks.

After spending four months searching for new clients in vain, Hazlett didn’t give up. Instead, he changed his focus — from making software for Fortune 100 companies to developing event-planning software for small and midsize organizations including businesses and churches. Although he just introduced his new product — smack in the midst of an economic meltdown — he’s still optimistic.

What can we learn from Hazlett?

First, don’t put your eggs in too few baskets. Hazlett admits he was uneasy about relying so heavily on large corporations as clients. That’s risky, even in the best of times. So when the economy turned ugly and big companies cut their costs, his company lost out.
Don’t be afraid to change course if you need to. One of your advantages as a very small business is being able to turn on a dime. Since corporate cost-cutting was what hurt Hazlett, he is now promoting his new product, Event Clipboard, as a way to help organizations save money. The reaction of beta testers has been positive, and he hopes to have 250 accounts by the end of 2009.
Don’t overspend. Hazlett never used outside financing, never took on debt, and never even had an office, so he was able to regroup rather than fold his business.

Stay positive. “I’m exuberant,” says Hazlett, who saw his business as having only two choices: “Change, or close my doors for good.” Which one would you choose?

How has your business or personal life changed since the Nation’s financial crisis?

Microsoft Announces Global Anti-Piracy Day to Highlight Collaborative Efforts to Protect Customers and Partners Around the World From Software Piracy and Counterfeiting

Microsoft Corp. today announced Global Anti-Piracy Day, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the sophisticated, illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software. The programs announced today include intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partner businesses, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates.

Microsoft is taking these steps as part of its commitment to working with communities, national governments and local law enforcement agencies around the world to help protect its customers and partners and promote the value of intellectual property as a driver of innovation. An interactive map detailing specific legal actions and education efforts being announced today can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/antipiracy.

“Software piracy and counterfeiting is a sophisticated, global trade with a damaging impact on consumers, businesses and economies, and Microsoft is committed to working with others around the world to stay a step ahead of this illegal industry,” said David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft. “In partnership with national governments, local law enforcement agencies, and our customer and partner communities, Microsoft is driving anti-piracy efforts across countries and continents through an equally sophisticated system of business intelligence, forensics and education. Together, we are working to identify international connection points between software pirates and counterfeiters, to help stop them in their tracks and protect consumers and legitimate businesses from this illegal trade.”

“The global trade in fakes threatens consumers, businesses and the economy,” said Guy Sebban, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce. “It will only be possible to halt counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale through this kind of collaboration between governments and the private sector — both to educate people about the value of intellectual property and to take action against trade in illicit products.”

Global Anti-Piracy Day provides a 24-hour snapshot of the range of education initiatives and legal actions that take place on an ongoing basis in local markets around the world. For example, Microsoft today announced that it had partnered with the American Chamber of Commerce in Brazil to launch a new blog to raise awareness among educators about the importance of teaching young people about innovation and the high cost of piracy. In Turkey, Microsoft announced it is providing the country’s Ministry of Justice with training sessions on cyber crimes and their impact and has launched a Get Genuine campaign to teach customers how to confirm that their Microsoft software is genuine. In addition, Microsoft commended the Chinese government for its recent sentencing of two illegal operators found guilty of manipulating the Microsoft Open License program and selling unlicensed software to unsuspecting customers. In Italy, Microsoft began an employee anti-piracy ambassador program to educate family and friends through informal social networks. And in the United States, Microsoft took action to protect its customers and partners by filing 20 civil lawsuits in federal court in nine states against resellers alleged to be selling computers with preloaded unlicensed and/or counterfeit Microsoft Windows XP Professional and multiple versions of Microsoft Office software.

Office Podcasts: A podcast directory with podcasts about everything from Office products to office politics.

From Inside Office Online Blog: I like to think of the new Office Podcasts as a cross between The Office (read: Steve Carell) and my office … or, maybe your office.

When I need a break, I can hang with the humor crowd and subscribe to David Salaguinto’s Office OFFline podcast or listen to a great customer interview with Steven Thomas and Cancer Lifeline.

If work prevails (how often does THAT happen!), I can find presentation tips at Ric Bretschneider’s Presentations Roundtable, or a demo with a face (thanks, Bob). And, if I’m having a day, which never happens, I might check out Melanie Jordan’s tips for creating my own job.

Check it out! Listen to or watch a podcast right now, or download podcasts to your mobile device. Subscribe to a podcast feed, and don’t forget to give us your feedback.

We’ll update Office Podcasts regularly as new episodes and new podcast series are available. And, if you have a podcast you’d like to see on Office Podcasts, leave them a link. You might just find your podcast featured on Office Podcasts!

Happy podcasting!

What do I need to play Office podcasts?

All of the podcasts offered here on Office Online are free. You can download them directly to your computer with your Web browser, or subscribe to any podcast series by adding its feed to your RSS reader. For more information about RSS feeds and readers, see RSS feeds and Office podcasts.

To download any Office podcast that interests you, simply click any of the corresponding icons in your Web browser:

The icon denotes an audio-only podcast that you can listen to in your favorite media player on your computer or on a portable device.

The icon denotes a video podcast that you can watch in your favorite media player on your computer or on a portable device.

The icon denotes a podcast that is available from the Zune Marketplace. Connect your Zune device to your computer and sign in to Zune Marketplace to be taken to an even larger catalog of available podcasts. For more information, visit the Zune home page.

The icon denotes a podcast that is available from the iTunes directory. Connect your iTunes-compatible mobile device to your computer and sign in to iTunes to be taken to an even larger catalog of available podcasts. For more information, visit the iTunes home page.

The icon denotes an available RSS subscription for a particular podcast (or podcast series).

bThis is the first community prototype from Office Labs. Community prototypes are projects Microsoft employees work on in their spare time. Speed Launch’s goal is to let you get to the stuff you use faster and with less frustration.

Why do I need Speed Launch?
Work faster and with less frustration. Speed Launch gives you lightning quick access to all the documents, files, and websites you use often. In the past when you used something a lot you might have created a desktop shortcut, added it to your IE favorites, or placed it on your quick launch bar. Speed Launch allows you to create centralized shortcuts to all the stuff you need and allows you to access them effortlessly.

What is Speed Launch?
Speed Launch is an application launcher that extends the functionality and usability of Microsoft Windows. With Speed Launch, users can select their own words to open frequently used websites, documents, and applications. The most compelling feature of Speed launch is the use of a drag and drop interaction model to make this advanced functionality more intuitive to novice computer users.

How is it used? How does it work with Windows?
Speed Launch is a downloadable program available at www.officelabs.com. After you’ve download Speed Launch, simply drag the file, document, or website url onto the Speed Launch bull’s-eye to create a Speed Launch shortcut. From then on, any time you need to access that file, document, or website, just hit “Windows+C”, type the shortcut name, and what you need will immediately appear.

Is there a shortcut key to open the launcher?
Yes. Use “Windows+C”.

How do I use Speed Launch to open multiple things?
Drag the first item on to the bull’s-eye and give it a name. Next, drag the second item on to the bull’s-eye and give it the same name. When you do this, Speed Launch will give you the option to replace or merge the two items, choose merge. Now, hit “Windows+C” and type the name. Speed Launch will open both items.

Is there a limit to how many items a single Speed Launch shortcut can open?
Not that we know of

I notice that Speed Launch comes with some shortcuts that allow me to search websites. How do I use them?
Speed Launch comes preloaded with a few useful fucntions. For example, to search Wikipedia just type “Wikipedia Search” and hit enter. Next, type what you want to search for in the new window and hit enter. Speed Launch will open the related Wikipedia page.

Cool! Can I create my own “functions”?
Yes… but it’s a little tricky. You can watch the video below for a walk through (and some good music). In short, go to the results page (e.g., search for the information you are looking for) and, if the search term appears in the URL, you can drag it on to the bullseye to create a function. Name it with a period (e.g., “MySearch.”) which tells Speed Launch you want a function, and follow the prompts. We will make this easier in the future, but our current focus is in making the basics as easy as possible.