Microsoft Office

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!

If you work with Project 2007, the Project Team blog posted a great article on how to more effectively use time sheets.

The functionality is so dramatically different that we changed the name to “Administrative Time”. The setup work requires:

Customers to create Administrative Categories
Each category must be marked as “Work” or “Non Work”
i) Non Working Time – Time scheduled as project calendar exceptions directly from the user without the need to involve Project Professional. While it still blocks the Project scheduling engine from assigning work to the individual during that time.

ii) Working Time – Time scheduled as virtual task assignments. These are virtual, since they do not reside in any true project file, instead they are simple records in the SQL database. This has the effect of allowing resources to be scheduled in excess of 100%.

Optionally categories can be set to require a manager’s approval
Optionally categories may be marked for “Always Display” which places a copy of that category on every timesheet that is used

HOW TO USE

Let’s now talk about how best to implement and use these options. To begin with I would like you to consider the term “Non Working” and “Working” as terms that mean “Block Scheduling” and “Allow Over Allocation” respectively. With that understood, the first rule to consider is:

Non Working work type should only be used on administrative categories that will be used to plan time off.

This is important since Project does not like to move actual work once established and calendar exceptions cannot allow work to exist during time periods which they are set to occupy. An example of what you should NOT do is as follows:

i) You create a category called “Sick time” and make that non working.

ii) A member of your team comes to work on Monday and works on a task that begins on Monday and goes for two days.

iii) The team member reports that the task is 50% complete. But then the employee goes home sick.

iv) At the end of the week the team member fills in his timesheet and reports 4 hours of sick time on Monday.

Result: Project took the 16 hour task and assigned 50% of the work as actual work reported by the team member on Monday. But the timesheet also wants to place a calendar exception for that day. The team member should only have been able to logically complete 25% of the work on the task. Below are screen shots of what happens:

16 hours of work on Wednesday and Thursday, auto imported from My Tasks, with 8 hours of “Dr. Appointment” (non working time) entered into the timesheet.

Click the blue link to see the solution!

Armelle O’Neal over on Microsoft at Work has listed some great ways to protect your data.

Back Up Your Data
In 2004, 59 percent of computer attacks in government agencies, corporations, and educational institutions in the United States were attributed to mobile PC theft.1 In the same year, mobile PC theft resulted in $6.7 million of losses.2 These statistics underscore the importance of regularly (optimally weekly, but at least monthly) archiving your documents, folders, and settings so that you can retrieve the data if your mobile PC is stolen or the hard disk drive fails. You can back up your data to a CD or DVD, to a USB flash card, or to another computer if your computer is on a network. To back up data, you can use the Backup utility in Microsoft Windows XP.

Encrypt Your Data
Data encryption provides a great line of defense against misuse of information if your mobile PC is stolen. Data encryption is the transcription of data from an intelligible format to an unintelligible, but decryptable, format. When encrypted, stolen data on a mobile PC is worthless.

You can encrypt a subset of files or folders or a full disk, in which case it protects the data stored in files and folders, the operating system, and any installed programs.

If you’re using Windows XP, you can use Encrypting File System (EFS) to encrypt your data, including Web folders and offline folders. EFS allows you to seamlessly encrypt your data. When you save data to the disk, it’s encrypted on the fly.

Important To use EFS, you must be using the NTFS file system. To find out the file system you’re using, click Start and point to My Computer. In the My Computer window, right-click the hard drive and check the File format field on the General tab of the Properties dialog box.

Use an Anti-Theft Device
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to secure your mobile PC is to use a security cable or lock, with or without an alarm, to attach your mobile PC to a stationery object. Most mobile PCs have security slots in the side or the back of their case.

Read the rest of this entry »

Slow down, freeze, crash, and security threats are over. Advanced SystemCare Free is a comprehensive PC care utility that takes a one-click approach to help protect, repair, and optimize your computer. It provides an all-in-one and super convenient solution for PC maintenance and protection. All work will be done with 1 click and 1 minute. Compared with its nearest competitor, Advanced SystemCare Free provides the more essential and practical formula for Windows: Removing Spyware and Adware, Preventing Security Threats, Privacy Protection, Fixing Registry Errors, Temporary Files Cleanup, Startup Cleanup, Repairing Windows, Speeding up System and 1-click Mechanism.

Version 3.1.2 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

This utility offers a one-stop-shop for cleaning and maintaining your computer for better overall system performance. The interface is very simple, featuring only a few buttons, which makes it easy to get down to cleaning immediately (in fact, it automatically runs on start-up) and doesn’t confuse you with multiple steps.

The Maintain Windows section focuses on four areas of maintenance: spyware removal, Registry cleaning, a privacy sweep, and deletion of junk files. The Diagnose System button provides system optimization tools, detects spyware, defragments your disk, and scans for hijacked Windows settings. In our tests the scan and clean for each of these areas took less than 10 minutes to complete. In many of these scans, it is difficult to tell what exactly is being accomplished by some of the tools, but we were able to test against other trusted apps, which confirmed Advanced SystemCare’s efficacy in those areas.

Under the utilities section you are given several tools, which are similar to plug-ins, for other areas of optimization and diagnostic tests. Overall, Advanced SystemCare Free is a good way to maintain your system’s speed and clear out junk files, but you’ll need to remember to run it regularly because scheduling of scans is only available in the paid Pro version.

From Access team blog: Access 2007 has a nifty feature that allows you to collect data via email. Recently, I got the following question from a user:

Is there any way to automate the creation, sending and receiving of Emails through the Data Collection capability of A07 using VBA? The wizard is too complex for the users I am working with.

Here is the reply we got from the developer—it isn’t for the faint at heart…

There isn’t a straight-forward way to do this and it isn’t officially supported. It’s possible if you don’t mind a little reverse engineering… The key is that there are two places Data Collection uses to do its work. One is in a system table inside Access used to store information about the action, and the other is an XML file that Outlook uses when mails are received to identify Data Collection mails and associated databases.

The system table is called MSysDataCollection. There’s one entry for each data collection action that’s created in the database. A quick rundown of the fields:

Active – Controls whether the current Data Collection action should be run.
BasedOnType – This marks whether the data collection is based on a query or a table
CreatedDate – When was the data collection action originally started.
ExternalID – A unique GUID to identify the Data Collection action
FormName – Name of the form; appears in the e-mail subject
InfoPathForm – True if we sent out an InfoPath form, false if it was HTML
Mapping – An XML chunk that defines how fields in the table/query map to fields in the form. Your best bet is to create a few Data Collection actions similar to ones your users might create, and mimic the XML. Here’s some of the interesting bits

stores most of the properties found in the Options dialog of the Data Collection Wizard

, despite the name, only supports one table. This section stores the database column name to the form field name mapping.

’s name attribute should always be “table1”, accessTable is the table name inside Access, and collectionType is either “insert” or “update”
points to where in the InfoPath/HTML form we’re looking for data (as opposed to formatting, etc.). This doesn’t change much.
There will be one
for each column in your form, including hidden fields. formNode is for the form, and is always “table1fieldX”, tableCell is for the Access table
The tag stores who we sent the mail to, in case we want to only accept certain people’s responses, or limit how many times, or what rows, they can update.

Read more by clicking link above.

Tell a great visual story about a memorable event or trip

What a memorable family holiday! What a special visit from your daughter and your new grandchild! Cool soccer party! Great vacation! Don’t you wish everyone could experience the most meaningful events in your life the way you did? Visual images can conjure up great experiences that you can share with others or revisit by yourself. This article shows you how to capture great photos that will help you to tell your story best.

That’s right, your family holiday, team party, or vacation is a story; each memorable experience has a beginning, middle, and an end. Taking photos in a way that tells the story is the first step in capturing the significant events in your life and sharing it with others.

Digital photography has dramatically changed the way you can share your experiences with others. It provides many new options for telling stories with images. For example:

• You can create a digital scrapbook or slide show to share with others.

• You might burn images to a CD and ship them to your parents or send them via e-mail to family and friends around the world.

• By combining Microsoft Pro Photo software Capture One and Expression Media, you can add stunning professional effects to your photos, and then easily publish, distribute, and archive them.

• With a program like Windows Movie Maker, you can even create a movie of your still images, complete with music, movement, and narration.

• Windows DVD Maker, available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate, enables you to create professional-looking video DVDs of your home movies and photos and then view them on your DVD players, regardless of geographical region codes.

• The new software AutoCollage enables you to create beautiful collages of your favorite pictures with a few mouse clicks. You can download AutoCollage and start creating your own collages within minutes, then share them with friends and the wider community.

• With the new program Photosynth, you can combine photos on a digital canvas and reconstruct a scene or object to achieve the cinematic quality of a movie and the detail of the real world. The program makes it easy to share your unique creations with others on the Web.

you run a typical business, you probably create certain publications — such as newsletters, flyers, postcards, and gift certificates — over and over again. Although each new version is unique, some elements remain consistent, like your company name and address.

In a monthly newsletter, for example, much of the layout stays the same, but the content of the newsletter changes for each version.

You can make a template from any publication by saving that publication as a Publisher template file. When you start a new publication by selecting a template, a copy of the template file opens, so that the original template isn’t altered by mistake. If you want to make changes to a template, you can open a copy of the template file, make the changes that you want, and then save it again as a template.

You can save time by designing a master publication that reflects your company brand and identity and then saving it as a template. Then, each time you want to create a new version, you can use the template and add only the information that is unique to that version. Using a template for a publication that you regularly produce not only saves time but also ensures quality and consistency.

There are many ways to create a publication in Publisher. Publisher offers designs with dynamic features that make it easy to change the design, layout, colors, and other elements.

Publisher is great for any business, small or large. See what Publisher can do for you and your business.

Fellow MOONies (MicrosOft OneNote), if you have OneNote Mobile installed and are having problems, try this.

Althought OneNote Mobile hasn’t been developed for Symbian (and my Nokia 9500), alot of you may have the application on your WINMos and iPhones, like this unfortunate man. John Guin over on the OneNote team blog has this great hint:

A quick “what to do” about dropping a phone with OneNote Mobile installed

“I have a Palm Pro which was syncing beautifully with OneNote on my PC. Then tragedy, my Palm was dropped. I received a new one and Active Sync restored everything. No matter what I try however I cannot get the info in OneNote on my PC to sync to the Palm.”

My first thought was to suggest he install OneNote Mobile on the device. It turns out he already had done that, and then mentioned that the replacement device came with OneNote mobile already installed.

A quick check with the ON Mobile team came up with these three steps:

1. Uninstall the OneNote Mobile version installed from PC since he already has one on his device. He can do this by going to Programs –> Remove programs. After uninstalling, he should only have one version of OneNote Mobile on his device.

2. Delete (all) Active Sync partnerships between this device and his PC.

3. Create new partnership and try syncing again.

This makes sense. I could see scenarios in which two different installations of ON Mobile on the device could be conflicting. Plus, deleting the Active Sync partnership would likely be necessary since he is using a new device at this point.

I forwarded these steps to the fellow and he replied that deleting the partnerships and recreating them worked fine. He can sync now and is back to using OneNote.

Nothing Earth shattering here. I liked the way this person explained the problem and mentioned what he had already tried in his attempts to get sync working again. That avoided problems with suggesting steps he had already taken and saved some email time back and forth.

This was a nice little fix for restoring sync and I figured I should pass it along.

From Amazon.com and Infopath Team Blog:

Product Description
Content types are a core concept used throughout the functionality and services offered in SharePoint 2007, and are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful manner. A content type is a reusable collection of settings users apply to a certain category of content in order to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way. If you have ever created or thought about creating document-centric SharePoint solutions, then this book is for you. It teaches power users, administrators, and developers how to use SharePoint content types and walks them through the process of creating one in a sample scenario. The first two chapters provide an overview of content types and can be read by anyone who has had experience with SharePoint. Chapters 3 through 8 are targeted at SharePoint power users and administrators, offering details about the components of document content types and walking readers through the process of creating a sample performance appraisal solution. The last two chapters are geared toward developers and describe how to programmatically manipulate the sample performance appraisal solution with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Topics covered include creating columns, associating document templates, customizing the Document Information Panel, adding workflows, defining an information management policy, reusing content types within a site collection, and programmatically manipulating a content type.

The Living in Outlook series is about sharing tips and workflows around real-world scenarios.

OUtlook Team Blog has this great tip for you:

Quick Parts exist both in Outlook and Word, and allow you to save pieces of content to easily re-use, like the introductory text at the beginning of the Living in Outlook series, as you see in this post. Personally I like to use Quick Parts for all those answers that I repeat over and over again, and am tired of re-typing. I also have a few Quick Parts that contain holiday messages and images that I like to reuse. So let’s get started!

Creating a Quick Part

1. Select the Content You Want to Save

The first step involves selecting the content that you have created and want to reuse. In this example I have selected a table that I fill out and send repeatedly.

2. Add the Selection to Quick Parts

Now that the content is selected click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and then click Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery….

3. Choose a Name for Your New Quick Part

Choose a name that you want for the Quick Part and press OK.

You’ve just created a Quick Part!

4. Use Your New Quick Part

Now that you have seen how easy it is to create Quick Parts, let’s look at how it’s even easier to use them. Whenever you want to insert your Quick Part click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and you will see a gallery with all your saved Quick Parts!

Clicking on the Quick Part will insert it at the current cursor position.

You can find more advanced options by right-clicking the desired Quick Part.