Microsoft Office

If your business focuses on consumer products or services, you’re probably wondering what kind of marketing message will work right now. With consumers tightening their belts and feeling nervous and uncertain about the future, how do you get them to open their wallets?

When the future is worrisome, people retreat to comfort — and that means home, family, and friends. In the coming months, more Americans will be spending their leisure time at home rather than going out. Fortunately, there are ways almost every entrepreneur can take advantage of this trend.

Can your product or service help people spend more time with their friends and families, or make that time a better experience?

If you sell housewares, for instance, marketing messages that show your products being used by a happy family playing board games or watching movies at home together can make your product more appealing.

If you own a housecleaning service, your ads should convey how spending a little bit of money on your company’s services gives parents time to spend on what’s really important — family time.

If you own a catering service, maybe now is the time to focus less on corporate events and more on intimate affairs. Use your marketing materials to show how your company can make that family gathering truly special.

If you own a beauty salon, offer a mother-daughter special. Mom’s more likely to get that pedicure if she feels like it’s also a bonding experience with her teenager.

Whatever your business, consider offering family discounts, or four items for the price of three, or “bring a friend” specials. If customers feel like your company offers a way to give their family or friends a hard-earned treat, you’ll assuage a little of their guilt about spending money — and they’re more likely to spend it with you.

From the Access Blog: A new hotfix for Access 2007 is now available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957690.

Issues fixed:
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When you open a form by using a macro, the form opens in a small reduced mode. You will see this behavior when you create a form by:

1. Specifying the following property values on the form: Property
Value

Modal
Yes

Pop Up
Yes

Auto Resize
No

2. Opening, updating, and saving the record source of the form. When you open the form by using a macro, the form opens in a small reduced mode.

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When you export a report to an .rft file format in Access 2007, the export process is very slow compared to the same process in Access 2003.

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You create a macro by specifying the RunMacro action in Access 2007. You specify the Repeat Expression parameter of the RunMacro action to run a second macro at least two times. The second macro contains the StopMacro action. When you run the macro and the second macro stops running because of the StopMacro action, the macro also stops running, even if the expression evaluates to True. However, in Access 2003, the macro stops for the current iteration, and then continues to run until the expression evaluates to False.

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You have a text file that contains a column of date values that are not delimited. When you try to link to the text file or import the column from Access 2007, you encounter the following problems:

· If you link to the text file by specifying the column as the Date/Time data type, the column values are displayed as #Num! in Access 2007.

· If you import the column by specifying the column as the Date/Time data type, the column values are not imported. In the ImportErrors table, you receive the following error message on the Error column:

Type Conversion Failure

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Subforms based on a parameter value do not refresh to reflect the data in the parameter. You create a form in Access 2007. You also create two subforms that are bound to Access queries or to stored procedures in Microsoft SQL Server. Additionally, Access 2007 populates data into the subforms by using parameter values. The first subform also sets the parameter value of the second subform. You update the first subform. In this scenario, the second subform does not update.
Note This problem does not occur in Access 2003.

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You create linked tables in an Access 2007 database. Additionally, you create a form and add controls that display data from the linked tables. When you operate on these controls, you experience very slow performance compared to Access 2003.
Note This problem does not occur if you use imported tables.

BY MELISSA NEWMAN

EVERY YEAR, AMID the excitement of Halloween-related fun, conversations commonly turn toward scary and unnerving talk of the mysterious world of paranormal and supernatural phenomena.Unlike the entertaining “safe scares” that Halloween brings, for those who encounter “real paranormal phenomena,” the encounters can be truly terrifying and even life-changing. And while these otherworldly phenomena have been a part of the human experience since the dawn of humankind – and, incidentally, is where Halloween originates – not even western society’s modern-day cynical culture of scientific analysis could dismiss and suppress the existence of these elusive phenomena. On the contrary, whether you are a believer or a hardened skeptic, an avalanche of experiences involving paranormal and supernatural phenomena continues to be reported worldwide.

According to several polls and surveys conducted around the world, belief in the paranormal and supernatural is at an all time high and shows no evidence of decline. In the U.S. alone, a recent Gallop poll showed that 75% of Americans have some sort of paranormal belief; a Harris poll showed that half of Americans believe in ghosts; a CBS poll showed that one in five Americans have seen or physically encountered a ghost; and still another survey taken from more than 400 college students with the highest GPAs found seniors and grad students more likely to believe in the paranormal then their “uneducated” freshman counterparts. Paranormal beliefs include such phenomena as extraterrestrial and UFO close encounters, all types of psychic phenomena, miracles and demonic possession, ghosts and poltergeists, witchcraft and metaphysics, and encounters with extraordinary life forms, including Bigfoot and the notorious chupacabra.

HALLOWEEN ORIGINS

Whether one is a believer or a skeptic, Halloween in the U.S. might be the one time of the year that both stand united in simply having a good time in the shadow of such reported phenomena. The origins of Halloween itself lay in supernatural beliefs and an ancient Celtic festival that dates back some 2,000 years. Originally called Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the festival originated amidst the region now known as the United Kingdom and celebrated the one night each year that the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became indistinguishable. On this night, the Celts believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth for good or for bad and allowed Druid priests to additionally interact with them for the wellbeing of them all.

Over the course of hundreds of years, early Christianity would attempt to suppress and replace the Celtic festival with All Saints’ Day, which was celebrated on November 1, a holy day of obligation to honor saints and martyrs in the Christian faith. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. But even the powerful influence of the church was unable to squelch the supernatural festival, and Halloween endured and flourished over the centuries to become the sensationalistic celebration it is today in the U.S.

While Halloween is still mostly an American commercial phenomenon, little by little every year, evidence that the spooky holiday is being embraced globally is being seen more and more. UNICEF itself has a special “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” program aimed to empower kids, not just in the U.S., but in other countries as well, by trick-or-treating for donations to help their counter-parts in need all over the world. The reluctance to embrace Halloween in other countries has been primarily due to the seriousness that the supernatural and paranormal is taken in other cultures. While the western world can make light of beliefs, both religious and metaphysical, other old-world cultures are very sensitive to and deeply immersed in their beliefs and find such playfulness like the Amercanized version of Halloween to be considered as taboo and, in some cultures, even sacrilegious.

Enjoy your Halloween!

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.

Vern Yip, a former “Trading Spaces” interior designer whose work is now featured on HGTV’s “Design Star” and “Deserving Design,” offers tips for good home office design.

 Pick a space with good natural light
- Good lighting, in a home or business, is one of those things that goes unnoticed — if it’s done well. You only notice the lighting of a room if it’s too bright or too dim, not if it’s just right.
- You can add variety by using different types of fixtures and having illumination flow in different directions.
 Determine your design style
- Determine how you want your home office to look and how you want to feel while you are in your space.
- Accessories are a great way to showcase your personality and individuality.
 Use natural colors and textures
- Coordinate the finishes of materials.
- Balance the visual weight of pieces with the size and height of the room. Strong, simple fabrics and large pieces of art also anchor a room without adding visual clutter.
 A little technology goes a long way - Look at digital solutions for scanning in receipts, keeping notes and managing information instead of having boxes of paperwork and notebooks lying around.
- Find technology that helps your business look more professional and get great results faster.
 Make the space work for you- A clear desk is directly related to your productivity. Clutter free = stress free!
- Whenever possible, store regularly used items where you use them most.
- Choose furnishings for function as well as beauty.
 Place something organic in your space
- Bring something from nature indoors. Live plants go a long way toward making a space more inviting, natural and homey.
- There are plants that can live in virtually any environment — ferns can thrive in low light, orchids bloom for up to eight weeks and can go two weeks without watering, for example.
 Always place imagery that inspires you
- Whether it’s family photos, pictures of your friends, trips or pets, make sure to be surrounded by what matters to you most.
 Work in colors that stimulate you
- Choosing the right color is important — people react to colors differently — some people are energized by red, some people find it relaxing.
- Nothing changes the look and feel of a room as dramatically as color, so updating the walls can make a big change to any room.

Microsoft works collaboratively with educators across Higher Education and K-12 to provide software plus services aimed at enhancing the learning environment and streamlining the operations of institutions.

This site is your resource for webcasts, podcasts, and other valuable information to gain insights into how Microsoft and Microsoft Partner solutions can help enable learning in the 21st century.

What’s coming up:

Are you up to date on US Education Market Trends and Microsofts EDU Priorities and Vision?

Live Oct 3 10:00AM-11:00AM Pacific Time

Education is the foundation for success and the link between employability and economic output. Public education is under much pressure for change in order to deliver a 21st Century Workforce able to flourish in the global economy. These trends are driving Microsofts education focus and business opportunities in key areas. This webcast launches our Partner Webinar Series and sets the stage for all future webcasts. In this session, we will scratch the surface on trends Microsoft is seeing and that research groups (e.g., Center for Digital Education) have confirmed. These trends represent the drivers behind substantial business opportunities we see for Microsoft-based solutions and they have played a role in the development of Microsofts education marketing campaigns that will help support the business.

Speakers:
Mary Cullinane—Director, Innovation and Business Development
Anthony Salcito—General Manager

Live@edu Overview
Live Oct 6 9:00AM-10:00AM Pacific Time
Looking for innovative solutions for keeping your students and alumni connected? Learn about Live@edu, Microsoft’s newest platform for delivering student and alumni email, communication and collaboration services. Join us for this one hour presentation on Microsoft’s Live @ EDU offering that offers:

The Apps students want

A co-branded email inbox students can use as their primary account, with additional services like Office Live Workspace, Windows Live SkyDrive, and more of things that encourage collaboration.

Integration with what you have in place

Live@edu works with the devices your students already use, and integrates with the infrastructure you already have.

Reliable Infrastructure

Outsource the time and cost of spam-filtering, server uptime and ongoing maintenance to Microsofts enterprise-class infrastructure.

Safety and Privacy

Keep your students data private and help keep them safer online. All for free to your institution!

Speakers:
Jonny Chambers—Senior Solution Specialist - Live@Edu

From Microsoft Outlook Team Blog: You’ve seen several posts on the Outlook Team Blog focused on ways to help you more effectively manage your incoming e-mails and appointments in Outlook. Office Labs has also been exploring some innovative methods to help people manage the vast amounts of information they receive on a daily basis.

To help alleviate this information overload, Microsoft Office Labs released Email Prioritizer last week on www.officelabs.com. The prototype – inspired by Microsoft Research’s “Priorities” project – is an add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 that was built by the Office Labs development team here in Redmond. Email Prioritizer provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival from ten minutes up to four hours. Email Prioritizer will also assign priority ratings of 0 to 3 stars to incoming mail to help users focus their attention on the most important email messages.

While we encourage you to test out our prototypes, they are unsupported concepts with no plans for inclusion in any products. Please direct any feedback you have on Email Prioritizer to Office Labs at emailpfb@microsoft.com.

Thanks!

* Email Prioritizer is a plug-in for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (running on Exchange Server) that helps you manage email overload. This concept test provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system. We hope this prototype helps you focus on the emails that are most important to you.

hot fixes the Accesscommunity might find useful. Hot fixes are now available for the following Microsoft Office Access issues:

Access 2003

An Access 2003 project (.adp) stops responding when in table Datasheet view, you delete all child rows from a parent row and then delete the parent row. This issue applies only to an Access 2003 project.
A database in .mdb format in Access 2003 SP3 stops responding when you try to delete a parent record from a table in Datasheet view and the Datasheet view uses a sub-datasheet that is expanded to show the related child records.
The hot fix for these Access 2003 issues can be obtained through the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956722

Access 2007

In Access 2007, you create a query that does not contain a parameter. When you export the query to a Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet, the Enter Parameter Value dialog box opens.
When you open a chart object in Access 2007 on a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you see a blank chart.
After you upgrade Access 2003 to Access 2007, operations on existing forms have slow performance.
You cannot use the SetValue macro in the click events of a Button control to set the Locked property of a Check Box control in Access 2007.
You have a printer that has a staple feature. When you print an object in multiple copies in Access 2007, all the copies are stapled as one unit. However, you expect that each copy is stapled individually.
The hot fix for these Access 2007 issues can be obtained through the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956054

What’s that thing on your to-do list that just stays there? That task you know needs to get done, but it’s just out of your comfort zone or just nags at you.

Or perhaps you want to provide your services for some $$$ to those folks who need some help.

It could be something small like:

Translate a letter
Copyedit that report
Research a company
Re-design your stationary
Update a Web site
Something else……?

With Microsoft’s new Task Market, you can find folks who would be happy to take those assignments on.

How Task Market Works :

Poster: Post a Task
It’s free! Describe your task by filling out a simple form.

Solver: Get Started
Create a profile to describe what you can do. Subscribe to e-mail alerts to get notified when new tasks are posted.

Poster: Find a Match
Review profiles of interested freelancers and give your favorites permission to match with you. The first one to commit starts work.

Solver: Find a Match
When you’re found an interesting task, request the poster’s permission to learn more and work on it. When you want to commit, “Take the task” to begin work.

Poster: Review Solutions
Communicate privately to collaborate on solutions. Pay only when you’re satisfied.

Solver: Solve the Task
Upload solutions and discuss them privately with the poster.

Poster: Make Payment
Pay your Task Solver via PayPal, the most trusted name in web transactions.

Solver: Get Paid
Set up a PayPal Business Account and get paid when the poster accepts your solution.

About Task Market
Microsoft Task Market connects small businesses with skilled freelancers for marketing and other document help such as graphic design, writing and editing, document translation, and creating or enhancing presentations and spreadsheets. By focusing on tasks accomplished using applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and Access, Task Market makes it quicker and easier for small businesses to get their task done.
Task Market is a “tech preview”, which means the site is in its infancy and still evolving. If you have feedback or suggestions, we would love to hear what you have to say. Send us an e-mail with your thoughts!

Microsoft Task Market Tech Preview does not charge to use the site. Posting a task is free. Task Market also does not charge freelancers who solve tasks; however, PayPal does charge a fee for transactions to their Business Accounts. When you receive money through the Task Market site, you may be subject to PayPal’s fee.

Registration Information
Creating an account on Task Market allows you to post tasks, solve tasks, create a public profile, and subscribe to e-mail notifications to find out about newly-posted tasks. Registering is free and easy, and requires signing into the site with a Live ID account. You will also be asked to choose a username and supply an e-mail address to receive task updates.

Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, also available as part of Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 and Microsoft Office Professional 2007, makes it easy for business users to create and distribute impressive marketing materials in-house. Here are the top 10 ways Office Publisher 2007 can help your business connect with customers.

1. Efficiently create high-quality publications that reflect your brand identity.
The new Getting Started experience provides dynamic previews so you can easily create and apply your brand elements to all Office Publisher 2007 templates. First develop your brand identity using custom color schemes, font schemes, your logo, and your business information. Then apply your branding with one click by choosing from an extensive library of customizable design templates or blank publications, including newsletters, brochures, flyers, postcards, Web sites, and e-mail formats.

2. Preview and access high-quality Microsoft Office Online templates from within Office Publisher 2007.
Get more Office Publisher 2007 templates free from Office Online. New capabilities in Office Publisher 2007 help you easily locate, preview, open, and save Publisher templates from Office Online right within the Publisher Catalog. View Office Online templates from within Office Publisher 2007 categories, or use the new Search tool to find just the right template quickly, whether it’s located on Office Online or included in Office Publisher 2007. You can also efficiently categorize, preview, open, and save your templates within My Templates for fast retrieval.

3. Connect with customers by personalizing your publications.
Use enhanced Mail Merge, Catalog Merge, and new E-Mail Merge to create personalized publications for print or e-mail distribution. Merge task pane options guide you through the process of selecting lists, adding text and image fields and personalized hyperlinks, or previewing and completing your mailing. Improvements in e-mail distribution and viewing, including support for sending multipage publications as a single page message, make it easier than ever to create and send publications as e-mail messages. Learn more about the enhanced Mail Merge features of Office Publisher 2007.

4. Convert your publications to PDF or XPS format.
Convert your publication to Portable Document Format (PDF) or XML Paper Specification (XPS) format.1 With Office Publisher 2007 you can share and print publications in PDF and XPS without additional third-party tools. PDF settings within Office Publisher 2007 include options for creating PDF documents suitable for online viewing, desktop printing, and commercial press.

5. Simplify the process of creating publications with Office Publisher Tasks
Get assistance with common Publisher procedures and simplify the process of creating and distributing publications and marketing materials using new Publisher Tasks. Publisher Tasks include tips for personalizing your publication, preparing your mailing lists, preparing publications for commercial printing, reusing content, working with images, and more.

6. Combine lists within Office Publisher 2007 for targeted mailings.
Using improved Mail Merge, you can create, manage, and store a single customer list in Office Publisher 2007 by combining and editing customer lists from multiple sources, including Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Access, and more.

7. Save time by reusing your work.
Several new and improved features help you make the most of the time you invest in your work. Save time and effort by storing frequently used text and graphics in the new Content Library to use in other Publisher publications. Or, quickly reuse content from one publication type, such as a multipage newsletter, by placing it into an e-mail template or Web layout for online distribution. Use the improved Save as Picture feature to save publication elements for reuse in other programs. You can also insert your existing text and graphics from other programs into your Publisher publications.

8. Build custom publications from a database.
Use the improved Catalog Merge to automatically build a publication by merging pictures and text from a data source (such as Excel or Access). Create custom publications of varying complexity, ranging from a datasheet to a sophisticated catalog.

9. Fine-tune your publications with powerful, intuitive design tools.
Whether you’re starting from a template or a blank publication, you can further customize and refine your publication using the rich collection of intuitive design, layout, typography, and graphics tools available in Office Publisher 2007. You can adjust tracking and kerning, create and apply multiple master pages, adjust grids and guides, use baseline alignment, insert images from a scanner or digital camera, recolor and crop images, and more. Before printing, publishing, or distributing your publications, be sure to run the improved Design Checker to quickly identify and correct potential commercial printing, Web, or e-mail problems.

10. Effectively manage and track your marketing campaigns.
Improved Office Publisher 2007 integration with Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager (available in Office Small Business 2007 and Office Professional 2007) provides new tools for managing and tracking Marketing Campaigns. Create your print or e-mail collateral in Office Publisher 2007 and use Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to easily track marketing materials you send and the responses you receive. Learn more about Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.