Microsoft Office

Apologies for no new posts the past two days, the 451 Press Servers were offline due to a glitch. The little hamsters that power the wheels took a rest and are now fully charged and ready to go.

This time has given me pause to thank all my readers during 2008 and promise to continue to post quality information each day. Bringing you quality information has been a pleasure and will continue to be. There is a dearth of great information out in the great world wide web and it is my pleasure to bring it to you. I try to bring you information I think that is relevant to you and that you can use in your everyday lives. During this time, and ongoing, I hope you will search the archives for timely information that will help you.

Let me know what areas you would like to see covered here, either in the comments or by shooting me an email. Any posts you like and would love to see again or more? Any posts that outraged you or thought irrelevant? Would you like to see this site on a social network, like facebook, twitter, linkedin, digg, and/or newsvine?

Thank you again, for sticking with me during 2008 and 2009 promises to be even better.

From the Office Hours Blog: Next time you’re in a meeting listening to a manager who looks younger than your cat detail your role in your company’s Social Media Future (aka Web 2.0), consider this: Never before has the workforce spanned such a crazy range of technological backgrounds. However you draw the lines, those of us who generate paychecks break into distinctly different groups depending on when we grew up:

* Before computers Mimeographed homework assignments. Account ledgers. Manual typewriters. Steno pools. Back when “cc” meant actual carbon copies and paper reigned.
* Before PCs Humming mainframe systems the size of Cadillacs, rack after rack of data stored on spools of tape, punch cards by the fistful, zigzag paper printouts.
* Before the internet Snail mail was the only kind, newspapers thrived, and hard-bound encyclopedias hogged library shelves (until Encarta came along — remember Encarta?)
* Before social media Before MySpace and Facebook, Twitter, Digg, RSS feeds, blogs, and wikis. Friends were almost always people you actually, like, knew.
* Now The first generation for whom text messaging is almost as natural as speaking, and to whom online privacy matters less than constant presence in a plugged-in world.

(more…)

From Office Hours Blog: These are the days of 2.0. By 2.0, I mean the social, interactive, connected, communicative, feedback-oriented nature of the Web nowadays. But it goes beyond the Web; it’s the 2.0 life.

What’s the 2.0 life?
To me, these are the hallmarks of the 2.0 life: it’s participatory, it’s instantaneous, it’s diffuse. It changes how the game is played. If my Inbox is a giant catcher’s mitt, then the 2.0 life is a vast cocktail party, without the fancy clothes. The conversations are everywhere, all the time.

If you’re like me, you probably wonder where people find the time to follow so many bloggers, subscribe to so many feeds, watch so many videos, and blog about their profession and their latest vacation — complete with photos, which other people tag with metadata. And they’re doing all this while they’re Twittering, IM-ing, and writing on the walls of their friends. They have lots of friends.

It seems to me that these people not only read every page on the Web, they post comments about what they read. Inexplicably, they even have time to read BOOKS (an antiquated technology), and then they post reviews. Then they rate the reviews that others post. Oh, and they’re still sending as much e-mail as ever. Some of it even lands in my Inbox.

Is anyone getting any work done?

Retooling for 2.0
The 2.0 life is all about making connections: connecting people with each other, with information, and with goods and services. The technology of 2.0 — the RSS feeds, wikis, instant messaging, blogs, social networking sites — all these things clamor for my attention and burden me with information overload. Yet, these things are also the tools that today’s information workers need to do their jobs.

SharePoint is for blogging
I’m in the infancy of my 2.0 life. When I stumble upon a great idea, I still fire off e-mail to my immediate colleagues. Then I remember our team has an Idea Exchange blog, and the next time I have an idea I post it there instead.

Most of us spend a third of our day at the office — and that’s not counting the commute. Apply these energy-saving tips in the workplace to reduce stress on yourselves and on the planet.

1. Turn off the lights. Remember to hit the switch on your way out for that well- deserved lunch break. The energy savings from 10 million employees turning off unneeded lights for 30 minutes a day is enough to illuminate 50 million square feet of office space.

2. Get off mailing lists. The last thing you need is another office supply catalog or credit card offer on your desk. Before tossing out junk mail, call the company’s toll- free service number and ask that your name be removed from the mailing list. Have online retailers e-mail you instead. Almost half of all catalogs are never opened, yet nearly 62 million trees are destroyed and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce them every year.

3. Put your monitor to sleep. Whether it shows off your vacation photos or a cool 3D animation, a computer screen saver is not at all designed for energy efficiency. It’s intended to save your screen from “burn in,” not to save energy. Because monitors are responsible for more than one-third of a computer’s energy consumption — even with screen savers — the best way to conserve energy is to set the monitor to sleep or power off when you’re away for an extended period. If you’re gone for 5-10 minutes, enjoy one of CI’s screen savers. Any longer than that, put the monitor to sleep.

4. Use the stairs. Your brain gets exercise all day, why not exercise your body? Get your heart pumping by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It’s good for your health, and it saves electricity.

5. Make your printer’s toner last. Being cheap is a first date no-no, but it’s okay to be frugal at the office. When printing rough drafts or documents for internal purposes, change the printer’s settings to economy mode and avoid color if possible. Econo-mode uses up to 50 percent less toner and prints twice as many pages as other higher quality settings. Duplex printing also uses half the amount of paper.

6. Provide incentives for commuters. Free food and a year-end bonus are nice perks, but to really make workers happy, help ease their daily commute. The government rewards businesses that encourage their staff to carpool, bicycle, or walk to work under the Commuter Choice Program. Telecommuting and flexible work hours can also save employers by reducing absences and job retention costs.

7. Recycle and reuse paper. Americans toss out about 35 million tons of paper each year. Buck the trend and start recycling — not only standard white printer paper, but all of the magazines, manila folders, and colored post-it notes that decorate your space. If it tears, it can be recycled. Recycled paper manufacturing generates 74 percent less air pollution, and saves trees, water, and energy. To salvage papers that are printed on one side only, flip them over and use for incoming faxes.

8. Purchase 100 percent post-consumer waste, chlorine-free paper. Take note when buying paper — the higher the percentage of post-consumer waste, the larger the amount of recycled material is contained in the paper stock. This means that 100 percent post-consumer waste paper is made entirely from recycled products. Also, chlorine used for bleaching is one of the biggest polluters in the paper-making process. Choose non-chlorinated paper, which has the same quality as the bleached variety.

9. Recycle and reuse office supplies. Do as Mom says and clean your plate, literally. Washing and reusing the plastic dishes and cutlery you get with take-away food is an easy way to cut down on waste at work. Better yet, pack your lunch in reusable containers and pocket your hard-earned dollars! Skip the paper (or worse, Styrofoam) cups and refill your travel mug at the nearby coffee shop instead. It may even get you a discount. Besides aluminum cans and glass bottles, there are many other supplies stashed in and around your desk that are recyclable, such as batteries, printer cartridges, DVDs, CDs, and more.

10. Curb phantom electricity. Many appliances still consume energy even when turned off. Items left plugged into the wall, such as a cell phone charger or laptop adapter, can leak more than 20 watts of power. In the United States alone, “phantom electricity” emits roughly 12 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Avoid this by plugging office equipment into a power strip and turning it off at night and on weekends.

Since resumes are among our most popular template downloads on Office Online, we thought it might be worthwhile to offer you job seekers even more assistance as you start the journey of finding that perfect position. So, it just made sense to go directly to the source - our own human resources department - to glean some sage advice.

1. Know what you want: if you’re going to invest your time and energy in a job search, you owe it to yourself to first identify what want to do. What’s your passion? Why are you looking for a new role? What makes you happy? Keep these things top of mind, and it will not only be good to keep yourself honest, but keep you focused. That energy will exude well when talking to future employers.

2. Keep it short and sweet (K.I.S.S.): many of you may remember that phrase from your teacher or career counselor in school – well guess what, those are great words to live by! Employers aren’t so hard and fast about 1 page resumes, but be sure to compose your resume with experiences that are relevant to what you’re looking for. Your resume tells a story and should have a flow of related/transferrable experiences. Keeping it succinct listing examples is a great way to lay that out and will also give you guiding points for you to elaborate in an interview.

3. Do your homework: with a healthy and competitive job market you should remind yourself that there will always be more candidates than job openings. That said, getting ahead of the pack is key. What can you do? – great question….here are some basic pointers:

a. Tailor your resume to the position you are applying for.

b. review the job description – focus in on the key things that is referenced in the position

c. research the company/product/service/business model/team

d. come up w/ key examples of skills/experiences that you have that transfer to what is being asked

e. prepare a set of critical questions you want to ask - think about what’s most important to you at the end of the day

4. What do recruiters look for? That’s always top of mind with candidates. Disclaimer - different companies have different sets of requirements for their respective positions. From my perspective as a Staffing Consultant at Microsoft, I tend to look for 3 core things in all candidates:

a. Functional aptitude: the related skills, experience, and aptitude that are transferrable to the function or role itself (for instance, for a software development role – things like industry software development experience).

b. Technical aptitude (if applicable): the technical skills, experiences that are relevant for the role (for instance, software development/programming, working with specific technologies in a particular domain). A candidate may also be probed regarding what they have worked with, and how have they used the technologies – what have they done with it, their depth of knowledge/experience, etc.

c. “Core Competencies”: competencies are a set of behaviors that differentiate outstanding performance from typical performance in a profession or path. They are linked to critical business needs that will enable our success today and in the future. To put in other words, it’s the “how” that elaborates on the “what”. For instance, what is equally important to answering an interview question right or wrong, is how does the person come up with the solution – what is their thought process?, drive for results?, are they thinking about the different stakeholders/users?, do they need to think globally (different cultures, languages, characters)?, etc.

5. Follow up: these days there are so many different ways to connect with job opportunities – through the Internet, your contacts, company website/job posting, recruiting events, career fairs, etc., etc, so keeping your name top of mind with the employer is key, so do your part and follow up. Contacts are typically available to you, especially when companies have open positions – they try to make it as easy as possible to reach them. Be sure to ask for a contact just in case and follow up within 1 week of your last contact with them. Keep in mind that you may also be doing a favor to the recruiting contact since they may be overwhelmed with the number of responses.

In March, Microsoft launched its Document Interoperability Initiative (DII), a program aimed at promoting user choice among document formats and expanded opportunity for developers, partners, and competitors.

The program was part of Redmond’s promise to abide to interoperability principles it set out for itself in February. Today, the software giant is boasting about three interoperability solutions that have come to fruition thanks to the DII:

Open XML Document Viewer: a customer technology preview for Firefox on both Windows and Linux platforms, which provides direct interoperability from Open Extensible Markup Language (XML) to HTML formats, has been released. Open XML documents can now be viewed within the browser without the need to install Microsoft Office or other office suites.

Open XML/ODF Translators: version 2.5 is now available. This add-in provides interoperability between ODF and Open XML for Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007. Some of the improvements in version 2.5 include a set of ODF 1.1- compatible templates optimized for greater fidelity through the translation process, chart-related enhancements in spreadsheets, an enhanced installation experience, and greater reliability.

Apache POI Java SDK for Open XML: Java developers interested in working with Open XML documents should find this software development kit (SDK) useful. The Apache POI project, which provides pure Java libraries for reading and writing files in formats used by Microsoft Office and other productivity products, launched in June 2007.

It took the software giant a very long while to admit that it needed to change its stance on supporting file formats from its competitors, but it is good to see that the company is finally taking the steps to make many people’s lives and jobs easier.

From the Microsoft Office Sharepoint Blog: So here it goes…. I’ll summarize four very different SharePoint offerings, some of them you probably weren’t even aware were based on SharePoint. Just for fun, I’ll call them Mini, Small, Medium, and Large-SharePoint.

Mini-SharePoint

Office Live Workspace, believe it or not, is built on SharePoint but highly customized and simplified for the end user. The idea is simple – create a workspace (which is like a folder), add files to it, then share it with others. Create and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, pictures, notes, and custom lists with anyone you want. Or use it to share files between work and home, which is a lot easier than emailing files back and forth.

I’ve created one workspace to share files with colleagues, another workspace to share photos with family, and a third workspace to organize forms and schedules for my vanpool.

Find out more at http://workspace.officelive.com

Small-SharePoint

Office Live Small Business is also built on SharePoint but highly customized with Web features, Web applications, and Web site tools. It includes a Web site, multiple email accounts, and Web applications ideal for the small business with up to 10 employees. The Web site features allow you to create a site without knowing a thing about HTML, Web design, or Web creation software. Use the included Web applications to manage and communicate with employees and customers. For simple file sharing, use the Office Live Workspace included with your account.

My goal this year is to move my mom’s real estate practice to the Web using this service.

Find out more at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com

Medium-SharePoint

SharePoint Online, along with Exchange Online, Communications Online, and Live Meeting make up the new Microsoft Online Services. Rather than installing and maintaining SharePoint Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, and other server software in your office, just sign up for this business hosting solution and let Microsoft do the heavy IT lifting for you. The service can handle up to 500 individual PC users. Just launch a Web browser, and you have immediate access to your entire business environment.

I would highly recommend this service to any small business that has outgrown Office Live Small Business but is too small to manage a SharePoint deployment.

Find out more at http://www.microsoft.com/online

Large-SharePoint

SharePoint Server (Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server). Last but not least, we have the actual SharePoint software in the box. For the large and enterprise organizations looking to deploy a completely customized and integrated content management solution across the organization, this is what you need. With SharePoint running on your corporate servers, you have complete control over your corporate Intranet, Extranet, and Internet presence, and you can build on the existing collaboration tools, managed business processes, and integration with Microsoft Office client applications.

This is what I use at work every day to communicate with colleagues, collaborate on projects, find critical business data, and actively monitor projects in my department and other departments.

Find out more at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

I hope this clarifies the various SharePoint offerings that you or your business can choose from.

Symptoms
Materials that you print do not look the same when you print them as they do on your computer screen.

Resolutions

You may get different information on the screen than what’s printed because of settings on the printer itself. If you change the margin settings on your printer, Microsoft Office Project 2007 may not override those settings. For example, if you set the margins on the printer at 1 inch and the margins in Office Project 2007 at 0.5 inch, then part of each page may be cut off when you print your project.
If you have borders on the screen but they don’t print, try increasing the page margins to 0.5 inch or more (on the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Margins tab).
When you preview a view (click Print Preview on the File menu), you may see blank pages that are unavailable. To print blank pages, click Page Setup on the File menu, click the View tab, and then select the Print blank pages check box.
If Gantt bars (Gantt bar: A graphical element on the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view representing the duration of a task.) or Network Diagram (Network Diagram: A diagram that shows dependencies between project tasks. Tasks are represented by boxes, or nodes, and task dependencies are represented by lines that connect the boxes. In Project, the Network Diagram view is a network diagram.) boxes do not print the way they appear on the screen, check the printer’s properties.
If the legend does not print as it appears on the screen, check the printer or plotter drivers.

It takes too long to print my project

Symptoms
Printing your project takes longer than you want it to.

Cause
The amount of time it takes for a project to print depends on two basic factors: the speed of the printer and the size (and complexity) of your project. Printer speed is not solely a factor of how many pages a printer prints per minute. The number of people using the printer (if it is on a network), the amount of RAM in the printer and your computer, and the network settings for the printer all factor into printer speed.

Large and complex projects take longer to print. Even a small project can take a long time to print if you insert graphics into the workspace (workspace: Files and settings you can save and reopen by opening a single workspace file. Workspace files have the .mpw extension. When you create a workspace file, Project creates lists of the current settings, open projects, views, and so on.), header (header: Text that appears at the top of a printed page. A header typically contains information such as the project or company name and the project start and finish dates.), or footer (footer: Text that appears at the bottom of a printed page. A footer typically contains information such as page number, total page count, and date.).

Quirky Thanksgiving trivia:

In 1953, someone at Swanson severely overestimated the amount of turkey Americans would consume that Thanksgiving. With 260 tons of frozen birds to get rid of, a company salesman named Gerry Thomas ordered 5,000 aluminum trays, recruited an assembly line of women armed with spatulas and ice-cream scoops and began creating mini-feasts of turkey, corn-bread dressing, peas and sweet potatoes — creating the first-ever TV dinner. Thomas later said he got the idea from neatly packaged airplane food.

Football & Feastin’

Thanksgiving is ruled by two very powerful f-words: “food” and “football.” Nearly as old as the sport itself, the tradition of watching football on Thanksgiving began in 1876, when the newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game. Less than a decade later, more than 5,000 club, college and high school football teams held games on Thanksgiving, with match-ups between Princeton and Yale drawing more than 40,000 fans out from their dining rooms. 1934 marked the first NFL game held on Thanksgiving when the Detroit Lions took on the Chicago Bears. The Lions have played on Thanksgiving ever since — except, of course, when the team was called away to serve during World War II.

Franksgiving

FDR learned the hard way not to mess with some traditions. In 1939, the President declared that Americans should celebrate the annual feast one week early, hoping the decision would spur retail sales during the Great Depression. But Americans did not react kindly to the New Deal meal. Some took to the streets while others took to name-calling; the mayor of Atlantic City solved the controversy by declaring his residents would simply enjoy two meals — Thanksgiving and “Franksgiving.” After two years of squabbling (or gobbling, as it were), Congress adopted a resolution in 1941 setting the fourth Thursday of November as the legal holiday

Mary Had a Little Thanksgiving Obession

The woman who wrote the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” also played an integral role in making Thanksgiving a national holiday. After a 17-year letter-writing campaign, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale finally convinced President Abraham Lincoln to issue an 1863 decree recognizing the historic tradition.

Americans at the Abbey

In 1942, London’s Westminster Abbey held Thanksgiving services for U.S. troops stationed in England. More than 3,500 soldiers filled the church’s pews to sing America, the Beautiful and The Star-Spangled Banner — the first time in the church’s 900-year history that a foreign army was invited to take over the grounds. It was an ironic gesture given the holiday’s origins as a festival for pilgrims fleeing religious tyranny in Britain.

Read more by clicking above. Happy Thanksgiving!

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!