Microsoft Office

From Microsoft Inside Office Online: Theyhave created a new Office Online Career Center and partnered with Monster.com to make the entire job hunting process - from planning your strategy to polishing your resume and submitting it for a position - as painless as possible.

Check out the video, where they walk Seattle’s Alycia Delmore through the process and help her get ready for her next job. Download a resume template and update your own. Look for a job in your area, and post your resume. They’ve even linked to career advice from Monster’s career experts. It’s all there on the page, and broken down in even greater detail in this article.

They didn’t forget those employers who might have openings, because as difficult as it is to find the right job, they know it’s also challenging to find the right candidate for an open position.

Finally, they know their resume templates are among the most popular templates on our site. Our hope is that this new Career Center helps you do more and we wish you luck in your search for a job.

Here’s Microsoft’s Office Online Career Center:

Four Steps to Online Job Search:

1. Start with a strategy
You can avoid anxiety about your job search by starting with a strategy — and we can put you on the fast track with a strategy that’s ready for you now. Monster.com and Office Online are teaming up to make the whole job search process faster and easier.

2. Search for available jobs
What are you looking for?

On Monster.com, you can find information on what employers are looking for in your field, such as finance career tips or information for technology jobs. Go to the Advice home page, scroll down to the View Information by Category section, and click the industry you want to know more about.

If you need to brush up on some of your Office skills, you can find free, self-paced training courses on Office Online.

3. Write your resume
Now that you’ve found a job you want to apply for — or you’ve learned more about the industry where you want to work — it’s time to dust off and brush up your resume.

You want your resume to look professional and to stand out. And you want it to be returned in Search results — right in front of anyone looking for the perfect candidate (that’s you).

Submit!
You’re ready to start your search officially.

If you created your resume using a Word 2007, template, take a moment to save a copy of your resume in .doc format. That’s the copy that you’ll submit to Monster.

Click the Submit button to submit your resume to Monster.com. You can submit it specifically to that job you saw earlier, and you can submit it generally for employers to find in their searches.

Follow up
You can use the Job search log template or the Interview/Resume Follow-Up Log template on Office Online to keep track of where you’ve sent resumes and follow-up letters, and where you’ve interviewed, as well as tracking the thank you letters you send after those interviews.

For more details, click the blue link above to access Microsoft’s Career Planning site.

This is a great demo from Office Online, How to Brand your Business Documents

When your documents, presentations, and workbooks have a unified and polished appearance, they make a positive impression. Now you can “brand” your Microsoft Office documents quickly and easily by applying a document theme — a set of colors, fonts, and other formatting details that work together to give your documents a stylish, professional design. Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 offer a wide range of predefined document themes, and you can also create your own by customizing existing themes. Document themes are shared across the programs so that all your Office documents can have the same look. Watch this demo to see how easy it is to get great results.

You can quickly and easily format an entire document to give it a professional and modern look by applying a document theme. A document theme is a set of formatting choices that include a set of theme colors, a set of theme fonts (including heading and body text fonts), and a set of theme effects (including lines and fill effects).

Programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint provide several predefined document themes, but you can also create your own by customizing and then saving an existing document theme. Document themes are shared across Office programs so that all of your Office documents can have the same, uniform look. However, unlike Word and Excel, PowerPoint includes background style customization options. For information about adding and customizing backgrounds, see Add a background to your presentation.

Click the blue link above for more information.

Whether you’re on the road for business or pleasure—provided you’re not traveling by canoe in the Amazon jungle or dog sled in the arctic—there’s probably a way to stay in touch by e‑mail. With a little knowledge and advance planning, it’s easy to check your e‑mail from the road. Here are some tips to help you remain in contact with friends, family, and colleagues while you’re on the go.

1. Use web mail and travel light

If you use a web-based e‑mail service such as Windows Live Hotmail, you can send and receive e‑mail using someone else’s computer, without the need to carry around your own mobile PC while you travel.
2. Carry a laptop and use your own e‑mail program

If you’re traveling on business, chances are you’ll have your own mobile PC with you. In this case, you can use a more full-featured e‑mail program such as Windows Live Mail or Windows Mail.
3. Try doing e‑mail offline

Write messages when you’re inspired, not when you’re connected. If you have a laptop with you, take advantage of offline time to read messages you have already downloaded and compose replies and other new messages.
4. Hone your skills at finding Internet cafés

If you’re traveling without a mobile PC, train yourself to watch for Internet cafés and other places where you can rent a computer for a short period of time to check your e‑mail.
5. Look up Internet café locations before you go

If you want to be sure you can check your e‑mail from the road, make a list in advance of Internet cafés where you will be traveling. This can be important if you will be traveling in areas where Internet access is less likely to be available.

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From TipTalk: Certainly, today’s always-on-and-available-anywhere technology can lead to addictive work habits. We’ve all seen examples of that among friends and family.

But having a cheap, convenient, 24/7 global reach through technology can also efficiently enable you to live the life you’ve always wanted. The choice is yours.

Here are some affordable tools and ideas that harness technology’s power to save you time and money.

1. Use Voice-over-Internet protocol phone service (VoIP) to create a virtual office.

2. Use online services for office communications and banking.

3. Leverage the power of a professional Web site.

4. Use your site features to stay in touch with customers.

5. Use e-mail software to track schedules and tasks.

6. Stop thinking you must do everything yourself.

7. Create a sales contact database for your business.

8. Invest in e-mail marketing that yields results.

Great tips to help your small business or home life.

Create your own Mini-Me Smiley

Microsoft is offering a free program to make create a smiley in your own image!

The program is easy to understand, install and use. You choose from an array of options, from head, eyes, mouth, color for skin, eyes, hair, glasses, hats; most any combination you could ever want. I was looking for a quill and ink, being a writer, but can’t have everything, I guess.

The finished product can be loaded onto your Live Messenger program (add me bricko at lioneservices dot com), spaces, facebook or other social network site. The finished smiley is pretty good, with all the options they have to offer.

Create your own Mini-Me then add your friends to show off your handiwork.

Recycle, reduce and reuse are the hallmarks of the “Green Living” lifestyle and ecoists.

There are many useful and easy to embrace ideas in going “Green”. Such as recycling paper, metals, plastics from your life instead of throwing away to a landfill. Many cities (Seattle included) institute recycling programs for cardboard, some plastics, cans and bottles (but not, ironically, Green Bottles). Once the myriad rules and regulations are understood, it’s quite easy to recycle.

Reduce has become a buzzword these days, as in ‘reduce your carbon footprint’. Many people are forgoing their automobiles for cycling, walking and bussing, which is great news for the Puget Sound region. Fewer cars equal less emmissions (which also means less taxes and revenue for the city).

Reuse has garnered many new accolytes, as the recession grows deeper. Have clothing resown, cleaned and reworn, use newspaper for stuffing winter items, luggage and for drying shoes and boots in winter and rain. Reusing plastic grocery bags for shopping or trash bags is popular, as well as buying and using shopping bags (have three myself from a few fairs last summer–and awaiting to receive some that I ordered from my Freebies For Us blog).

Now, the Inside Office Online blog has showcased a developer, Ecofont, that has engineered a ‘Green Font’. This is a font that “By cleverly removing some of the spaces in the letters, the designers have reduced the amount of ink necessary for readable printing.” Very clever, as they admit. It will be interesting to see how fast this font catches on in the business world.

Is it impossible to retrieve your information afterward? Not 100 percent, but Lum says that unless the CIA is after you, you should be in the clear after using one of these disk-erasing tools that are available for download online:

Active KillDisk: This free hard-drive eraser overwrites data using zeros. You can upgrade to the professional version that conforms to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) standards.
Softpedia/DP Wiper: IT consultant Daniel Gresser recommends freeware programs from Softpedia, like DP Wipter, which overwrites in from one to 35 passes and has DOD-compliant wiping.
WipeDrive: WipeDrive overwrites your data as many times as you like and runs a verification test.
“Always keep a record of where all important files are stored,” says Gresser, who recommends deleting each file by dropping it into DP Wiper and selecting the type of wipe required.

Unless you take the hard drive out and keep it, to get a PC ready for sale, Gresser suggests that PC users delete the following using DP Wiper or a similar program:

Everything in My Documents folder.
All temporary Internet files.
All cookies.
All files relating to personal and financial matters that may have been stored in folders other than My Documents.
All e-mail: Outlook Express users need to search for and delete .dbx files and Outlook users need to search for and delete .pst files. This will send them to the recycle bin for secure deletion. Also, remember to remove all e-mail account settings and passwords.

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.

Low-cost and no-cost survival tactics require a “business-as-usual mindset.”

According to Rieva Lesonsky, former editor of Entrepreneur and blogger for Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://smallbusiness.officelive.com), entrepreneurs can use this time to cut back in certain areas and strategically invest in other areas, such as marketing. “It may seem counterintuitive, but increased marketing and sales activity can be an effective way to bolster your business and weather economic storms,” Lesonsky said. “In fact, marketing is a key component to your small business’ survival.”

So what should current and aspiring entrepreneurs do during these tough times? Lesonsky offers the following advice:

• Keep overhead low. Entrepreneurs should take a hard look at their expenses and scale back on nonessentials. Some big cost-cutting areas include business travel, labor and rent. For example: Entrepreneurs can try videoconferencing instead of traveling to a meeting; consider forgoing pricey office space and work from home instead; and re-examine their staffing plan to ensure they have the right amount of coverage for their current level of business, keeping overtime costs to a minimum.

• Make noise. In this economy, competitors are likely cutting back on marketing spending too. This provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get their marketing message out in a potentially less cluttered environment, and possibly at a better rate too. In addition to traditional forms of advertising, entrepreneurs can take advantage of low-cost digital marketing tactics, such as creating a blog, building an audience with Twitter, staying on top of their ratings through online review sites such as Yelp, and creating company pages on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

• Have a strong online presence. Increasingly, consumers are using the Web to find businesses of all sizes, so it’s really crucial that small businesses be visible online in order to compete. Today, there are a number of low- or no-cost options to help entrepreneurs establish a professional Web presence without the expense of hiring a designer or Web master. Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://smallbusiness.officelive.com) provides entrepreneurs with a free Web site and hosting, a custom domain name and business e-mail free for the first year, low-cost e-commerce and online marketing tools, and free business management tools.

• “Hire” customers. Entrepreneurs can turn satisfied customers into a word-of-mouth referral engine for their business. They can consider offering referral fees or free services to encourage customers to refer new clients. Entrepreneurs can also ask customers to provide testimonials that can be showcased on the company Web site and marketing materials.

• Always negotiate. Entrepreneurs should keep in mind that everything is negotiable. When other businesses are cutting back, entrepreneurs are in a better position to negotiate for lower rates, better ad placements, lower telephone rate plans or other discounts such as on office supplies.

These and other small-business tips from Lesonsky can be found on the Office Live Small Business blog at http://www.myofficelivecommunity.com.

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.