Microsoft Office

From the Threat Research & Response Blog via bhandler:
The Microsoft Security Response Center has released Advisory 969136 today about a vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint which is being exploited in the wild. Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Mac Office are vulnerable however the latest version, Office 2007, is not.

So far we’re aware of several distinct exploit files which have been used. They all seem to be used only in targeted attacks and therefore the number of affected customers is very low.
Some “workarounds” can be found here:

TechNet: Investigating the new PowerPoint issue

BOTTOM LINE: Don’t open a “joke” that comes in the form of a PowerPoint presentation - especially from people that don’t normally send you PowerPoint presentations?

New 0-day Exploits Using PowerPoint Files
The Microsoft Security Response Center has released Advisory 969136 today about a vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint which is being exploited in the wild. Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Mac Office are vulnerable however the latest version, Office 2007, is not. The Microsoft SRD blog provides more details about the how to protect your environment from the vulnerability.

So far we’re aware of several distinct exploit files which have been used. They all seem to be used only in targeted attacks and therefore the number of affected customers is very low. Here’s a diagram that demonstrates how such an attack happens:

We are also releasing today a generic signature to protect our customers against these exploits. Its name is Exploit:Win32/Apptom.gen. Basically, access to such exploit files is blocked if a Windows Live OneCare user or a Forefront Client Security user tries to open them. This new signature is included in definition update version 1.55.975.0 or higher.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/SearchResults.aspx?query=Exploit%3AWin32%2FApptom.gen

Microsoft is looking for their newest office (tentatively called Office 2010) to work with other Office programs

Microsoft engineers at the Redmond campus are busy at work with the next iteration of Microsoft Office, tentitively called “Office 2010″.

The hints, innuendos and rumors that have been posted all over the internet (as well as this site) is looking to be more true than not.

The three year wait between Office products is on schedule, according to Ina Fried’s article (link above). The new software is to work with open formerly rival office programs, such as Open Office, Google Docs and the like.

Microsoft is also working to make Office 14 (Office 2010) work with Microsoft phones (and phones in development) and the new up and coming Office Web Aps, that will include Word, Excel and Powerpoint (the Campus’ office mainstay programs). These are to be accessible online, either from their Cloud, including Live Mesh, Windows Live SkyDrive, and Office Live Workspace. Though, I have seen a rumor that Microsoft may combine all their workspaces into one online application. They are already making changes to their Office Live Small Business framework.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft combines Office 14 with web aps, fully compatible with Open Office, Google Docs and not only with Microsoft phones, but the iPhone, as was reported in the above article. As of now, there are compatibility issues with Microsoft Office 2007 and the above said issues, though Office 2007 Word does have a way to save in the 97-03 formats, I wonder if Office 2010 will have a similar venue, to ’save as’ OOo or google doc?

Valentines Card for your sweetie from Microsoft Office Templetes. Just download and print from your home office. There are several to choose from on their download site.

How about a special Powerpoint Valentine to share with your loved ones?

Throwing a Valentines Party? Send out E-Vites with this Microsoft invitation templete.

Make a Valentine’s Day card
Let’s create a card. There are a number of Valentine’s Day templates to choose from on Office Online. If you find one you like, you can print it, sign it, and, voilà — you’re done! You have an instant Valentine’s Day card, sure to be a pleaser.

But what if you want to make your own card with personal touches? Let’s make one from scratch in Publisher.

Step 1: Choose the predesigned publication and layout
Start Publisher. In the New Publication task pane, click Publications for Print, click Greeting Cards, and then click Valentine’s Day.
Scroll through the pre-designed greeting card publications on the right. Select any one you want, as we’ll soon customize it. In this example, we’re using Valentine’s Day Card 11.
In the Greeting Cards Options task pane, under Design, click the option that allows you to modify the layout and appearance of the original design. In this example, we’ll use Art Bit.
Note Some card designs, such as the Fading Frame and Tipped Title designs, are set up for only one layout option. If you choose one of these designs, the layout options displayed under Design in the Greeting Card Options task pane will not be available.

Click Page Options, and then choose the card size and fold style you want under Size and Fold.
Click Color Schemes, and then choose your color scheme.
Click Font Schemes, and then choose your font scheme.
When your greeting card looks the way you want, save the file.
Step 2: Choose the right clip art
Next, let’s change the clip art on this card. Nice heart, but let’s delete it and find another clip.

Step 3: Copy and paste clip art from the Web into your document
On the Clip Art and Media search results page, click on Copy to Clipboard for the clip you want to copy.
Go to your Publisher Valentine’s Day template. On the Edit menu, click Paste.

Give to your Favorite Valentine!

From the sharepoint blog: Like many who work inside of a large organization, I frequently find myself swamped in a deluge of PowerPoint files.

You, too, can create a Slide Library
Now let me get one thing clear up front: I’m not what you might call a “SharePoint savvy” guy. But the process for setting up a Slide Library on My Site was very straight-forward.

First, I opened up my profile on the corporate intranet. Then, I clicked Site Actions and then clicked Create.

Which then led me to this page …

On the New page, I entered in a name for the slide library, whether I want the link to this library to show up in Quick Launch, and if I want to keep a version of each slide after editing.
So now I have a blank Slide Library. Yay! But I hear some of you asking the obvious question “That’s great, but how do I populate the Slide Library with slides?”

Well never fear, because you have the option to either Upload slides directly to the Slide Library from the site (see the graphic above), or you can publish slides to your Slide Library from with PowerPoint.

To do that, open the presentation that you want to publish to your Slide Library in PowerPoint 2007. Click the Office Button in the top left corner, point to Publish, and click Publish Slides. You’ll then see the Publish Slides dialog box.

Select all the slides that you want in your Slide Library, and click Publish.

Then go to your Slide Library and you will see the slides you just added.

So now that you’ve created a Slide Library and added slides to it, it’s time to take it out for a test drive. Do you remember that Reuse Slides feature in PowerPoint that I mentioned earlier? That’s where we can access the Slide Library from inside PowerPoint.

To reuse slides from your Slide Library, on the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow button below New Slide, and select Reuse Slides. Then, in the Reuse Slides task pane, click Open a Slide Library, navigate to your Slide Library, and click Select.

pptPlex is a plug-in that explores an alternate method for presenting a PowerPoint slide deck. Using pptPlex, you can present your slides as a tour through a zoomable canvas instead of a series of linear slides.

Inside Office Onine, Nancy Buchanan, from Office at Work and Microsoft Office Labs bring you a new Microsoft Office Powerpoint plugin that will add pizzaz and jazz to your presentations.

As Nancy describes, pptPlex adds functionality to PowerPoint 2007 allowing you to deliver slides from a virtual canvas instead of one-after-the-other. Imagine that you were going over a presentation with a colleague and had all of your slides printed out and spread on a large table. With all of the slides visible at once you could easily pick up a slide so you could discuss its points, then put it down and grab another, or even hold 2 slides side-by-side so you could easily compare them. pptPlex gives PowerPoint this flexibility; you can move to and from slides easily with transitions so smooth that you can jump all over your presentation without ever getting lost. Learn more about pptPlex in this article, including where to get it and how I created a presentation about the planets in the solar system using it.

According to Office Online and Nancy, Bill Gates used pptPlex technology at the CEO Summit in May of 2008 on a huge touch screen computer. I’m not a CEO so wasn’t there in person, but have viewed the keynote online and can honestly say that with the exception of the huge touch screen, I was able to produce a very similar presentation with the same bells and whistles. You can too if you download the free pptPlex add-on. After you install pptPlex it adds a new tab to the Office ribbon.

If you use this, let us know how it worked for you. Even better, a linkk to the presentation would be great!

Robert Lane and Dr. Stephen Kosslyn posted an intriguing article on how to use brain research to built better powerpoint presentations. In you’re job or small business, you use Powerpoint, these are some great tips!

▪ Provide Detail: If showcasing a product, for example, have short video clips available that demonstrate its operations, along with pictures displaying various views, zooms, and environments. Obviously such imagery is especially helpful if the product is not available at the speaking location. Show and tell.

▪ Shape Emotions: You’ve been asked to give a talk about the dangers of tobacco use. A bullet list might do the job, but imagine the greater emotional impact provided by showing yellowed teeth, blackened lungs, and mouth cancers. Emotions can be powerful motivators and pictures tap directly into our emotions, at the deepest levels.

▪ Lay Down Context: You can provide a priceless benefit to audience members by grabbing a digital camera and documenting the environment and context surrounding your subject matter. Try to capture what you see through your eyes or imagine in your mind and bring that world to your audiences. They will relate to your topics and perspectives with greater ease.

▪ Simplify or Clarify Complexity: Those of you who present technical information are well aware of how confusing your specialty may be to people in related fields, or sometimes even to experts in your own field. Showing pictures, video, and animations to make topics more concrete will help viewers connect the concepts you express verbally with experiences they’ve already stored in memory.

▪ Give Examples: The phrase, “Here, let me show you what I mean”, is one of the most potent set of words you can utter as a speaker. It rivets attention in expectation of visual relevance, something the brain appreciates very much. Whether it’s warranted or not in this age of photoshopped illustrations, for most of us, seeing is believing.

(more…)

We learn best by examples. And the better the example, the better the results.

That’s why its a pleasure to point you to a new group of PowerPoint examples that are stunning, inventive, evocative… simply beautiful. Nice enough if it stops there, but each and every one of these examples includes very detailed instructions on how you can reconstruct the design, and learn how to apply the technique to your own work. Animation for graphics and text, static text effects, photographic effects, new background techniques, Smart Art and transition effects… this is a holiday present come early for PowerPoint users.

And they’re free! Go here to the templete site

Here’s what the designer’s website has to say:

PRESENTATIONS

…are a communication tool. Whether you are planning, reporting, motivating, or persuading, the success of your presentation depends on how well you communicate information to your audience.

Terberg Design can help you visualize words and ideas into clear, memorable concepts.

A presentation can be an important part of a first impression. Much like a corporate brochure or web site, the effort you put into your presentation says a lot about how much you value and respect your audience.

At Terberg Design, we have the experience and talent to develop professional, effective presentations. From concept through delivery, we help our clients communicate and connect with their audiences. We understand the presentation process, the environment, the pressure, and the deadlines. We listen carefully to all of your objectives, and work with you to develop the right solutions.

Our focus: successful presentations. Our passion: great design.

Let the experts at Terberg Design help you make the best impression.

Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

Overview
Users of the Microsoft Office XP and 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint—please install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074.

Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 to read or write documents containing complex scripts, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925451 for information to enable Word 2007 documents to be displayed correctly in your version of Word.

Administrators: The administrative template for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint converters contained within the Compatibility Pack is available for download.

System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2
Recommended Microsoft Office programs:

Microsoft Word 2000 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2000 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 with Service Pack 3

Microsoft Word 2002 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2002 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 with Service Pack 3

Microsoft Office Word 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 with at least Service Pack 1

Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003

Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003

Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003

Instructions
To install this download:

Ensure your system is up to date by installing all High-Priority/Required updates on Microsoft Update (required for Microsoft Office XP and 2003 users).

After installing all High-Priority/Required updates with Microsoft Update, download the Compatibility Pack by clicking the Download button above and saving the file to your hard disk.

Double-click the FileFormatConverters.exe program file on your hard disk to start the setup program.

Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

To remove this download:

On the Windows Start menu, click Control Panel.

Select Add/Remove Programs.

In the list of currently installed programs, select Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system and then click Remove or Add/Remove. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to remove the program.

Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 enables users to quickly create high-impact, dynamic presentations while integrating security-enhanced workflow and ways to easily share this information.

Here are the top 10 ways that Office PowerPoint 2007 helps users increase productivity and improve collaboration.

1. Get better results faster with the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface.
The redesigned look and feel of the Office Fluent user interface makes creating, presenting, and sharing presentations an easier and more intuitive experience. Rich features and capabilities are presented in a streamlined, uncluttered workspace that minimizes distraction and enables people to achieve the results they want more quickly and easily.

2. Create powerful, dynamic SmartArt diagrams.
Easily create high-impact and dynamic workflow, relationship, or hierarchy diagrams from within Office PowerPoint 2007. You can even convert a bulleted list into a SmartArt diagram, or modify and update existing diagrams. It’s easy for users to take advantage of rich formatting options with new contextual diagramming menus.

3. Easily reuse content with Office PowerPoint 2007 Slide Libraries.
Wish there was a better way to reuse content from one presentation to another? With PowerPoint Slide Libraries, you can store presentations as individual slides on a site supported by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and easily repurpose the content later within Office PowerPoint 2007. Not only does this cut down the time you spend creating presentations, but any slides you insert can remain synchronized with the server version, so your content is always up to date.

4. Communicate with users across platforms and devices.
Help ensure broad communication with your PowerPoint presentations by converting your files to XPS and PDF files for sharing with users on any platform.1

5. Use custom layouts to assemble presentations more quickly.
In Office PowerPoint 2007, you can define and save your own custom slide layouts so you no longer have to waste valuable time cutting and pasting your layouts onto new slides or deleting content on a slide with your desired layout. With PowerPoint Slide Libraries, it is easy to share these custom slides with others so that your presentations have a consistent and professional look and feel.

6. Accelerate your review processes using Office PowerPoint 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.
With built-in workflow capabilities in Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can initiate, manage, and track review and approval processes from within Office PowerPoint 2007, enabling people to accelerate presentation review cycles across the organization without requiring them to learn new tools.

7. Uniformly format your presentations with Document Themes.
Document Themes enable you to change the look and feel of your entire presentation with just one click. Changing the theme of your presentation not only changes the background color, but also the colors, styles, and fonts of the diagrams, tables, charts, shapes, and text within your presentation. By applying a theme, you can be confident that your entire presentation has a professional and consistent look and feel.

8. Dramatically modify shapes, text, and graphics with new SmartArt graphics tools and effects.
You can manipulate and work with your text, tables, charts, and other presentation elements in richer ways than ever before. Office PowerPoint 2007 makes these tools readily available through the streamlined user interface and contextual menus, so that in just a few clicks, your work can have greater impact.

9. Add more security to your PowerPoint presentations.
You can now add a digital signature to your PowerPoint presentations to help ensure their contents are not changed after they leave your hands, or you can mark a presentation as “final” to prevent inadvertent changes. Using content controls, you can create and deploy structured PowerPoint templates that guide users into entering the correct information, while helping to protect and preserve the information in the presentation that shouldn’t be changed.

10. Reduce your document sizes and improve file recovery at the same time.
The new, compressed Microsoft Office PowerPoint XML Format offers a dramatic reduction in file size while also offering an improvement in data recovery for damaged files. This new format provides a tremendous savings to storage and bandwidth requirements and reduces the burden on IT costs.

When you copy your Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation to a CD, a network, or a local disk drive on your computer, Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 and any linked files (such as movies or sounds) are copied as well. For information about Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007, see Install and run PowerPoint Viewer.

Office PowerPoint 2007 does not support the direct burning of content to any DVD formats. As an alternative, follow the steps below to copy your presentation to a folder, and then use DVD-burning software to import the content and create a DVD.

Important   Before you copy and distribute your presentation, inspect your presentation for hidden data and personal information (see step 10 below), and then decide whether it is appropriate to include this information in the copied presentation. Hidden information might include your name as the presentation’s creator, your company’s name, and other confidential information that you might not want outsiders to see. Also, check your presentation for objects or hidden slides that are formatted as invisible.

Note   This solution is a more convenient method that replaces the Pack and Go Wizard, which you may have used in earlier versions of PowerPoint.

Copy your presentation

1. Open the presentation that you want to copy, or, if you are working with a new presentation that has not been saved, save the presentation.
2. Do one of the following:
   • If you are copying your presentation to a network or to a local disk drive on your computer, go to step 3.
   • If you are copying your presentation to a CD, insert a CD into the CD drive.

       Notes 

     • You can copy to a blank recordable CD (CD-R), a blank rewritable CD (CD-RW), or a CD-RW that contains existing content that can be overwritten.
     • In PowerPoint, if you copy your presentation to a CD, make sure that you copy all of the files in a single operation. After the first set of files is copied, you cannot add any more files to the disc by using PowerPoint. However, you can use Windows Explorer to copy additional files to a CD-R or CD-RW that contains existing files. See Windows Help for more details.
3. On the Microsoft Office Button, point to the arrow next to Publish, and then click Package for CD.
4. In the Package for CD dialog box, in the Name the CD box, type a name for the CD or the folder that you want to copy your presentation to.
5. To choose the presentations that you want to copy and the order in which you want them to play, do the following:
   • To add a presentation, click Add Files, select the presentation that you want to add, and then click Add. Repeat this step for each presentation that you want to add.

     Note   If you want to add other related, non-PowerPoint files in the package, you can. These files will be copied, but Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 will not play them.

   • If you add more than one presentation, the presentations will play in the order in which they are listed in the Files to be copied list. To change the order, select a presentation that you want to move, and then click the arrow buttons to move the presentation up or down in the list.

     Note   The presentation that is currently open automatically appears in the Files to be copied list. Files that that you linked to the presentation are included automatically, but they do not appear in the Files to be copied list.

   • To remove a presentation or file from the Files to be copied list, select the presentation or file, and then click Remove.
6. Click Options.
7. Under Package type, do one of the following:
   • To specify how a presentation will play in the PowerPoint Viewer, click Viewer Package (update file formats to run in PowerPoint Viewer), and then select an option in the Select how presentations will play in the viewer list.
   • To make a package that you are certain viewers will view on a computer that has PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer installed, click Archive Package (do not update file formats).

     Note   Use this option when you want to package an Extensible Markup Language (Extensible Markup Language (XML): A condensed form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that enables developers to create customized tags that offer flexibility in organizing and presenting information.) presentation (and files linked to it) in its original file format to preserve fidelity and quality without saving it as a binary (binary: A file that contains encoded information that is interpreted according to the application that created it. In general, a binary file can be edited only by the application in which it was created.) file format.

8. Under Include these files, do one or both of the following:
   • To ensure that files that are linked to your presentation are included in the package, select the Linked files check box. Files that are linked to your presentation can include Microsoft Office Excel worksheets that are linked to charts, sound files, movie clips, and more.
   • To use embedded TrueType fonts , select the Embedded TrueType fonts check box.

       Notes 

     • If your presentation does not currently include embedded fonts, checking the Embedded TrueType fonts check box includes the fonts when packaged. The Embedded TrueType fonts check box applies to all presentations that are copied, including linked ones.
     • If your presentation already includes embedded fonts, PowerPoint automatically honors the setting of the presentation to include the embedded fonts.
9. To require other users to supply a password before they can open or edit any of the copied presentations, under Enhance security and Privacy, type the password or passwords that you want to require to open the presentation, edit it, or both.

   Passwords apply to .pptx, .ppt, .potx, .pot, .ppsx, .pps, .pptm, .ppa, .ppam, .mhtml, and .mht files that have been converted to .ppt files, in the copied presentations. If any of the files that you copy already have passwords assigned to them, PowerPoint prompts you to choose between keeping the previously assigned passwords for those files and overriding them with the new passwords. If you choose to override the previously assigned passwords, they are no longer accepted for the copied versions of the files. However, they are still accepted for the original versions.

10. To inspect your presentation for hidden data and personal information, select the Inspect presentations for inappropriate or private information check box.
11. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.
12. Do one of the following:
    • If you are copying your presentation to a network or to a local disk drive on your computer, click Copy to Folder, enter a folder name and location, and then click OK.
    • If you are copying your presentation to a CD, click Copy to CD.

Source

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