BlogOffice

2008-10-20T12:43:00.002-05:00

Wanted: Tech Support Grins & Groaners

Do friends and family call you regularly for help with tech support issues? Do you have funny stories or timely tips that can help new users avoid trouble spots? I'm writing a new book for Microsoft Press that includes real-world stories (and fun stuff) for experienced computer users who find themselves supporting others in their world (or office). If you have a story, tip, or head-thumper to share, leave a comment or e-mail me. If I use your tip or story I'll quote you directly and include your name & business, if you like. This is a fun (and practical, and timely) book. No wonder I love what I do. :)

2008-10-14T10:40:00.002-05:00

Another Formatting Headache Solved

Omigosh, I have been using Word for about a gazillion years and I just spent 10 frustrating minutes trying to figure out why the bullet lists in a document my colleague sent me wouldn't reformat. I changed spacing half a dozen times, doctoring this and tweaking that, and nothing I did made any difference (including setting the After spacing to 18 points!).

Then something caught me eye. Wait a minute, I thought--I don't remember ever seeing that option before. The Don't Add Space Between Paragraphs of the Same Style checkbox was selected. How strange! I've never noticed it before and obviously don't use it. Don't do me any favors, Word--I like to control the spacing of my paragraph, thank you very much.

So if you have formats that aren't working properly and Word seems to ignore you when you make spacing changes, check to make sure that dastardly checkbox isn't checked. :)

2008-09-07T09:47:00.003-05:00

Top Three Reasons I use Office Live Workspaces

Okay, so Office Live Workspaces contines to win me over. At first I was a bit skeptical--I wondered whether I'd use it, I wasn't sure I'd trust it, and I thought maybe it would be just another thing I'd have to remember to update. None of my hesitancies proved true. :)

I'm glad I use Office Live Workspaces because...

1. It reminds me when I forget.

2. It makes transferring files easy.

3. It's easy, even for people who aren't too keen on the whole workspace scene.

If you haven't tried Office Live Workspaces yet and have a need for easy-to-access file storage; simplified collaboration; and flexible design and organization (oh, I didn't even mention that part), check it out. It's free, and all you have to lose is a few minutes online. And you may just find something that really helps streamline your document-and-group-management tasks.

2008-08-20T09:15:00.003-05:00

Disappearing Fonts?

If you work collaboratively and find that the beautifully formatted document you created, complete with all its custom Quick Styles and building block content, goes kablooey (that's a technical term) when your coworker opens the file on her computer, here's a sanity-saving tip for you: Embed the fonts.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open the document on your system, and click the Microsoft Office button.

2. Choose Word Options and click Save.

3. In the Preserve Fidelity When Sharing This Document area, click Embed Fonts in This File.

4. Click the down-arrow and choose whether you want to embed fonts for all new documents or the currently open document.

5. Click OK, and save the document.

Now you can share the document's beauty without worrying that your Calibri gets changed to Times Roman. :)

2008-08-13T09:30:00.002-05:00

Help Your Readers Help You

I've been up to my eyeballs in SharePoint 3.1 this week (and I'm loving it). I'm designing a new comprehensive site for the pilot of a new program our nonprofit is launching later this month. SharePoint 3.1 is even more flexible than previous versions, and I'm looking forward to really putting the data list capabilities to work and integrating them seamlessly with reporting and analysis in the Office aps. (It's nice to be in a place where I can building solutions that incorporate so many aspects of the technology I write about. Fascinating!)

This is a tiny tip but cool and flexible. If you are adding contact threads to a site and want to know in advance what types of messages you're receiving from your site visitors, customize the mailto line by adding the following info:

?subject=

If you have a dozen reasons customers and vendors will be contacting you, identify who wants what by preloading your Subject line helps you prioritize and respond quickly to that barrage of incoming messages.

That's it for now--back to work for me. Kind regards,

Kathy

2008-07-27T09:04:00.002-05:00

RSS Feeds in Outlook

For some reason my RSS feeds jumped from one place to another recently and made the feeds on a couple of my blogs null and void. (I think this was due to a folder reorg on my server, but oh well.) I was sleuthing out the problem and trying to get everything working again and realized I hadn't yet added a couple of my blogs to Outlook 2007. It's pretty simple but to save you the trouble of looking for it, here's the process:

You can make sure your RSS feeds in Outlook 2007 contine to be sychronized with your Common Feeds List by choosing Tools > Options > Other > Advanced Options. In the General Settings area, make sure the option Sync RSS Feeds to the Common Feed List is checked. (If not, click to select it.) Click OK to save your settings.

Now all your favorite posts will come directly to your Inbox, ready for you to scan at your leisure. Nice. :)

2008-07-25T09:57:00.003-05:00

Solving the Gray Column Mystery

I am currently working on preparing a curriculum that brings together the work of university faculty from all across the country. The breadth of thought is fascinating and I'm loving it. But, like anything in life, it's the little things that can hang us up. I just spent about 30 minutes trying to get rid of a mysterious gray column that appeared along the right side of the document whenever I copied one person's work into the master document I'm using for the curriculum draft. I tried adding content a paragraph at a time and all would be going well until...there's that dratted column again! It appeared in Print Preview and Print Layout view.

Through trial and error, I discovered the culprit. Buried deep within the hundred-page document was one tiny little comment, and that created the gray column throughout the entire file.

If you want to do away with balloon comments so that gray column never appears, click the Review tab and click the Balloons arrow. Choose Show All Revisions Inline. Now you can display the comment by hovering the mouse pointer over it; or you can display comments and changes in the Reviewing Pane, which you can display at the bottom of along the right side of your document.

There. Now I can get back to being productive again.

Have a good weekend!

2008-05-27T14:40:00.002-05:00

Adding the Path to Your Filenames

If you work with content development team like I do, chances are that you are continually sharing versions of files and improving on each other's work. Content management at its best enables you to all work with a single document without duplicating or accidentally replacing or losing earlier changes. One simple way to manage versions is to ensure that everyone is drawing their file from the same place. (Yes, there are more sophisticated ways of doing this, including using Office Live Workspaces or SharePoint to check files in and out, but when you work in an office that is slowly deploying and warming to high-end features, sometimes simple is best.)

Here's a simple little technique that has saved us a lot of hassle. Add the file path to the filename in the footer of your document. That way you can ensure that people are using the same file and any stray versions can be weeded out. Here are the steps:

There. Now you're one step closer to that smooth content development process you've been dreaming about. :)

2008-05-14T07:53:00.002-05:00

Single Labels in Word 2007

Here's a super simple tip, just in case you're getting ready to do one-off labels in Word 2007. When I opened the label template yesterday, Word 2007 shows me a blank screen. Oh great, I thought. How do I tell where one label area stops and another starts?

Suddenly a little whisper of intuition said, "Turn on paragraph marks."

So I clicked the Show/Hide tool in the Paragraph group on the Home tab, and clicked inside the little label marker (after the open bracket and before the end-of-paragraph mark) and typed the data for the label. All things should be so easy!

2008-05-13T12:25:00.002-05:00

Fresh Out of Properties

As the managing editor for a professional journal, I work with lots of versions of manuscripts in all sorts of states. Early submissions, revisions, reviewer copies, and so forth. I need to be able to easily discern which versions are which. Although our numbering system is reliable and effective, I always want to double-check versions before they go out to reviewers. Today I went to do that second look and had to go on an adventure hunt to find Properties. Just in case you're wondering where they went too, here you go:

The Properties header appears so that you can find things like author, title, location, and so forth. But if, like me, you want to check the creation date. You have one more step. Click Document Properties at the top of the Properties header area and choose Advanced Properties. This pops open the old-fashioned Properties dialog box so that you can get the rest of the story.

2008-04-13T15:15:00.003-05:00

Think Convergence

I knew if I just continued to write about technology long enough it would move in a graceful way into the whole rest of my life. In 20 years, computers have gone from these big clunky gray boxes that covered half the desktop to slick little fit-in-your-pocket (sometimes) items that enable you to stay connected to people anywhere in the world. And connected how? Through email, phone, instant messaging, gaming--almost anything.

I've just finished writing a new book for Microsoft Press called Take Your Business Online and it's about Office Live Small Business, a completely Web-based set of tools that helps you create, post, and manage a Web site (free!); organize all sorts of contacts, projects, and relationships; use search advertising, shopping carts, and more. It's really a slick set of utilities--and most of it is free. You pay only for the search advertising (and you can set your own budget, whether you want to spend $30 or $3,000 a month in web ads) and the Store Manager feature, which enables you to create product listings and sell, track, and report on your sales on your Office Live Small Business site or on eBay.

Another piece to this great convergence puzzle is Office Live Workspaces, now in beta from Microsoft. This is also a free, web-based utility that enables you to create a shared workspace for all sorts of groups and projects. And it plugs right into Office Live Small Business without any action from you, so you can move seamlessly back and forth, using your 2007 Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents with everything you need for your business.

So technology has done wonders (so far) in bringing us convenience, efficiency, and flexibility. Now if only it could make Spring arrive a little faster...

2007-11-04T11:16:00.000-06:00

Want to be interviewed (again)?

Thanks to those of you who helped out with the first set of interview questions for my new book on the dynamics of conversation! Here's the link to the second (and final) set of survey questions: Conversations survey, part 2

I appreciate your help! :) k

2007-10-21T13:13:00.001-05:00

Want to be interviewed?

Hi! I'm beginning to research a new project on the dynamics and effects of conversation. I've created a simple survey--would you be willing to participate? It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so. All responses are confidential (I don't ask anything scary, anyway) and if I choose to quote you, I'll send you an e-mail message asking your permission first.

Here's the link, and thanks for helping!

Click here to take the Conversation survey

2007-08-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

Customize your QAT

Okay, well, the tech editor on my last book suggested I not use that term, but I think it's kind of hip. [Sorry, Richard. :)] Just in case you don't know, the QAT is the Quick Access Toolbar, that friendly little collection of common tools that appears just to the right of the Microsoft Office Button (formerly known as the File menu).

That little shelf of goodies can really be a great time-saver. Not only can you add your own tools to the QAT, but you can also customize it for specific documents. This means that if you've got to go through a 100-page document today to fix all the formatting that somebody else messed up, you can easily add the formatting tools (Font, Size, Style, Indents, what-have-you) to the QAT for this document only. That saves you who knows how many clicks of various tabs and command groups. Very cool.

Here's how to do it:

1. Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button to the right of the toolbar and click More Commands.

2. Click the arrow on the Customize Quick Access Toolbar control at the top of the right panel.

3. Choose the name of the file you want to add the tools to.

4. Click a tool on the left and click Add to add it to your customized QAT. Repeat as needed.

5. Click OK to save the new toolbar.

Now, start planning the fun thing you're going to do when you're done with that file, because you'll be done in no time. :)

2007-07-19T09:49:00.001-05:00

Changing the Color of Table Lines

The new Table Styles gallery in Word 2007 is great--easy to use, simple to modify, nearly effortless. Even so, I am rarely satisfied with applying only one special effect to a table (don't ask me why--as soon as I apply a Table Style, some little voice in my head says, "But wouldn't it look even better if...?"). If you decide to add column and row divider lines to your table after the fact, those blasted things are going to show up by default as black lines, which may totally clash with the great colors you've used for the table.

To change the color of the divider lines after the fact, follow these steps:

The color of the table lines changes to reflect the new color choice. See? That wasn't so bad. Hmmm...I think this table would look even better if I rotated the column heads... :)

2007-07-04T10:43:00.000-05:00

Freedom and Word

Today's July 4 here in the U.S. and I've got freedom on my mind. I was wondering how Microsoft Word frees us up in ways we might not have considered. Here are a few things I've come up with:

Freedom from endless nested dialog boxes. It's true--the new UI really does bring you the tools you need when you need them. And the new minitool bar literally brings design tools to the mouse pointer whenever you highlight text. You don't have to spend wasted clicks navigating to a dialog box that is four layers deep.
Freedom from design panic. If you aren't naturally gifted with a sense of document style (don't feel bad--few people are), you will appreciate the Themes explosion in Word 2007. Themes existed in Word 2003 in a basic way--they weren't very exciting and (you guessed it) buried deep in the UI. Now every document you create in Word 2007 is automatically assigned a theme (which includes the font, color, and effects for headings, body content, and special elements on your page). This means that you can change theme as often as you change your mood, simply by clicking a new look in the Themes gallery. (Not sure whether you're in blue mood or a brown mood? Use Live Preview by positioning the pointer over the gallery image.)
Freedom from repetition. The new Building Blocks feature (also shown as Quick Parts on the Ribbon, which still confuses me) enables you to create once and use many times repeated elements in your documents. You can create your own library of often-used pieces (for example, your mission statement, copyright notice, disclaimer, staff and department list, what-have-you) and then insert them at the appropriate point in your documents by simply choosing them from the gallery. Nice.
Freedom from retyping. Because Word 2007 is built for XML from the ground up, you really can use the data in your document seamlessly with other XML applications. For example, you can use the new content controls to connect your document to a data file, displaying the names and email addresses of those who've signed off on the document; populating a form with a list of classes a student can sign up for; or letting an instructor know how many students have signed up for her course. In order words, the data can flow seamlessly from the document to the data file (called a data store, actually) and back again, without rekeying--or worse, printing and then rekeying--from you.

This is just the beginning. There's also freedom from outsourcing costs for graphic designers; freedom from worry about non-secure files; freedom from mail merge frustration; freedom from boring pictures. I'm sure there are many more I haven't thought of yet (feel free to add a comment if you've got a good one).

But this is the best of all: Freedom from Clippit! LOL!

Happy Fourth, wherever you are. :)

2007-06-28T08:31:00.001-05:00

Word Stuffs

Well, wait til you see Microsoft Office Word 2007 Inside Out! After many moons (and moons and moons), the book is on its way to bookstores near you. I think this is the best version of the book yet, packed with lots of information, tips, application ideas, and more. And there's a CD in the back of the book full of resources to support your Wording.

Also, I've started writing a column for CNET's Tech Republic. Here are the first two articles they've published:

10 Word Features You Can Skip

10 Ways You Can Tweak Word to Fit Your Working Style

2007-03-08T08:09:00.000-06:00

Great Feature in IE7

Okay, this doesn't have anything to do with Office 2007, but it's something I discovered in IE7 this morning and I have to share it. I've been longing for this feature for a long time. My pet peeve with previous versions of IE was that it limited me to only one open web page at a time, unless I wanted to have a bunch of open brower windows while I worked. IE7 fixes that with the advent of tabbed browsing (which I love). With tabbed browsing, you can have multiple pages open in a single browser window and easily move between them by clicking the tab you want (which is handy when you're researching a complex topic and working with lots of resources). Cool feature--one I already knew about.

I was still disgrunted, though, because there was still a lot of clicking and selecting required. I wanted my favorite sites (especially the ones I use to get blogging news first thing in the morning) to open right up without a lot of effort on my part. Guess what? IE7 has said, "You wish is my command!" Just this morning I found that you can actually set up multiple home pages so that all the sites you want open automatically as tabbed pages in your IE7 browser window as soon as you fire up the browser in the morning. What a great little feature! And it's been right under my nose for months and I hadn't even noticed it. Enjoy! :)

2007-03-07T07:56:00.000-06:00

Free e-book produced in Word 2007

Well, in case I haven't raved enough about Word 2007, let me tell you how I spent a few blissful hours yesterday. Several years back, I researched and wrote a detailed book for the parents of teenagers who were feeling at a loss about how to handle all the changes going on in their teenagers' lives. The changes might be outward things, like green hair and piercings, or attitude changes (like, "yesterday my child thought I was smart, and today apparently I'm an idiot!"), or inward changes in how the teenager sees, makes sense of, and engages the world (or not).

Yesterday I felt a bolt of inspiration and found the old Word files I'd originally used to write the book. I opened the master copy in Word 2007 and scanned the file. It was a boring, text-only document, one that at the time I had used as the text source for the final files I composed in InDesign.

I paged quickly through the document, doing a few edits, updating some info and examples, and doing a search-and-replace for the title of the book. I added a cover page and some up-front content; and then tried on a few themes (by choosing Themes in the Page Layout tab). After I found one I liked, I used the Styles in the Home tab to apply different styles to the special elements--tips, tables, and more--throughout the book. I added a TOC and a footer; I checked the citations. I then created a PDF of the file (by clicking the Microsoft Office button and choosing PDF or XPS in the Save As list) and uploaded the file to my server space.

The result--a totally updated, revised, and reformatted 200-page book in less than three hours! If that's not convincing evidence that the new themes and styles features in Word dramatically simplify life, I don't know what is. :)

By the way, please feel free to download the book and share it with anyone you know who might be interested.

2007-03-03T18:13:00.000-06:00

Help with Deployment

I was online tonight researching something entirely different and found this Office 2007 Deployment Wiki, hosted by Channel9. Click here to check it out. There are deployment guides for both Office 2007 and Office 2003, and it could serve as a handy resource when you begin to roll out the new software. :)

2007-02-28T16:58:00.000-06:00

Word 2007 Add-In: Getting Started Tab

Here's another good resource for those of you who are responsible for deploying Office 2007 and want to cut down on the frantic, what-do-I-do-next? phone calls you may receive from confused end users. The Getting Started Tab is a downloadable Word 2007 add-in that adds a Getting Started tab to the Ribbon, listing links to online articles, videos, and more users can use to find additional help on common tasks. Click here to go to the download page.

2007-02-19T10:43:00.000-06:00

PC User's Toolkit

I saw this article on the front page of MSN.com this morning: 35 Things Every PC User Needs To Know. It's a good resource if you're not particularly tech-savvy yourself or you provide support for people who aren't. It's worth keeping in a Favorites folder somewhere. Enjoy. :)

2007-02-01T10:52:00.000-06:00

Free Office 2007 online courses

There's an article in InfoWorld this morning that quotes Chris Capossela, VP of Microsoft's Business Division, as saying that the fears that Office 2007 training will be difficult are unfounded. Although I agree that Office 2007 is ultimately easier to use, more efficient, and a smarter way to create and publish documents (meaning with an eye toward reusability), I also think businesses would be smart to think through their training plans carefully and make sure employees have the time and support they need as they learn the new program.

Here's a link to some of the free Office 2007 courses that are available online now. I'm not sure how long these courses will be free, so if you're responsible for deploying Office 2007 and training your staff, check these out--the sooner, the better!

2007-01-29T21:09:00.000-06:00

Office 2007 launches tonight!

Well, the festivities in New York City have begun, and culminating at midnight tonight, Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office System will be available for general release. You'll be able to get these two products everywhere--amazon.com, all your favorite electronics/software stores, but most importantly (and more easily), you can download them directly from Microsoft's Windows Marketplace! I'm sure the items won't go on sale til midnight, but we're getting close now.

If you'd like to see Bill Gates unveil the products in Times Square, catch the keynote, or see photos from the events, click here.

2007-01-23T15:23:00.000-06:00

The BlogOffice Channel: Word 2007 Document Makeovers!

Are you wondering how Word 2007 will be able to help you pep up dreary documents, save you time and effort, and just in general make your work look a whole lot better than it does now? I invite you to send in a tired, overworked document (nothing confidential or proprietary, please) and treat it to a Word 2007 makeover. I'll use the documents I receive as case studies and post the before and after here, along with the steps in the makeover process.

Just click add a comment on this post telling me you have a document you'd like to send in, and I'll email you the directions. Fun stuff!