September 3, 2010
ANNOYING CHECKBOXES
This week’s installment of Annoying Checkboxes is sponsored by Microsoft, which has already brought you the annoying checkbox to install the “Bing Toolbar” – the one that has to be unchecked every single time you install an update to Java. Since Java is updated approximately once every 72 hours, you’ve probably seen that annoying checkbox frequently. (If you open Internet Explorer and have a useless “Bing Toolbar” at the top of the screen, then you missed the checkbox.)
Now I’m training myself to watch out for a new Annoying Checkbox that turns up when Microsoft Office Home […] continued
September 1, 2010
DETAILS ABOUT MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES
Previously:
Fear of Exchange
Moving Mail Online With Microsoft Online Services
Small businesses should strongly consider having their Outlook mailboxes hosted on Exchange Servers run by Microsoft for a small monthly fee. I’m going to recommend this to a number of my clients and I encourage anyone interested to contact me to talk it through. I’d like anyone in a business with 2-20 employees to read this carefully!
For businesses currently running Exchange in an onsite server (usually as part of Small Business Server), the move to hosted services does not significantly change the experience of using […] continued
August 26, 2010
MOVING MAIL ONLINE WITH MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES
It feels as if the smartphone revolution has happened overnight. I am simply astonished at the number of business people and lawyers getting iPhones from AT&T and Android phones from Verizon. I rarely saw them in businesses a year ago – they were still perceived as gadgets, not serious business tools. Now it’s starting to seem unusual not to see them in everyone’s pocket.
The phones are capable of many wonderful tricks but almost everyone tries first to set up over-the-air sync of mail, contacts and calendar. It doesn’t always go well!
- Individuals who have fully
[…] continued
August 20, 2010
FEAR OF EXCHANGE
I’m strongly urging my clients running Small Business Server to move their mailboxes to online hosted Exchange servers. I’ll give you a bit of background and tell you an anecdote to explain why Exchange frightens me, then tell you more about Microsoft Online Services next week.
Microsoft released the first version of Small Business Server in 2000. It was updated in 2003 and 2008, and a new version is planned for next year. It is a customized collection of several Microsoft server products, bundled up to be installed on a single server. The products are the same […] continued
August 5, 2010
LAW OFFICE CASE MANAGEMENT IN THE CLOUD
Previously:
The Sad State Of Law Office Software
I’m going to work up to specific products, but let’s start with the concept of storing valuable, confidential data in the cloud, on servers run by some big company.
As a lawyer in a small firm, think of the scariest example you can imagine – say, your highly sensitive letter to a client outlining the risks in your litigation strategy, or notes on the phone conversation with a client where she confessed to killing Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick. Save the file as a Word document on […] continued
August 3, 2010
CRITICAL WINDOWS UPDATE
Microsoft released a patch yesterday that should be installed promptly on all Windows computers. Most of you will find that it was installed automatically on Monday night. If your computer restarted last night, you’re almost certainly fine – but be alert in case the Windows update icon is trying to get your attention from the lower right corner of your screen! If you want to make sure it was installed, look in the update history on your computer for KB2286198, the reference number for Microsoft’s security bulletin.
The patch fixes a particularly nasty vulnerability, yet another way that […] continued
July 25, 2010
ONENOTE 2010 – SYNCING AND SHARING
Previously:
OneNote 2010 – Introduction
OneNote 2010 – Outlook Integration
Stick with me. I’m going to describe the feature built into OneNote 2010 that works so well – quietly, seamlessly – that it deserves to be noticed, used, and celebrated.
OneNote 2010 is designed to be used on multiple computers. When you create a notebook, the first option is to store the notebook online. It’s not a requirement but it’s highly recommended.
It doesn’t change your use of OneNote. The program opens and you can use it, regardless of whether you’re online or offline.
But when you’re […] continued
July 22, 2010
ONENOTE 2010 – OUTLOOK INTEGRATION
Previously:
OneNote 2010 – Introduction
OneNote 2010 has been tightly integrated into Outlook, as well as Word, Powerpoint, and Internet Explorer. It opens up a completely new way to use OneNote – almost as an accessory to those programs rather than a standalone program, with all of OneNote’s power to hold different kinds of information (notes, pictures, links, screenshots) and link those notes to items in the other programs.
OUTLOOK
The easiest example: think about attending a meeting that’s on your Outlook calendar. When you highlight the appointment in your calendar, the ribbon bar includes a […] continued
July 20, 2010
ONENOTE 2010 – INTRODUCTION
Microsoft OneNote 2010 is the best reason to buy Microsoft Office 2010. It was already a hidden treasure in Office 2007, and the improvements in the new version take it to a new level. OneNote 2010 is so good that you should consider buying Office 2010 just to get it. Microsoft has demonstrated its faith in OneNote by including it in every version of the Office 2010 suite.
In the next couple of days, I’m going to highlight some of the new features in OneNote 2010 that make it so useful.
First, a brief introduction for those […] continued
July 13, 2010
WINDOWS LIVE SYNC AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Microsoft is finalizing a new version of Windows Live Sync, its free software for syncing files among different computers. The new version replaces the two overlapping programs available from Microsoft for the last few years, Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh, combining features from both of them.
This should be good news. Microsoft has declared that the entire resources of the company are being devoted to moving us to the cloud. The file syncing program could have been an important part of that transition to a new way of working with our files that is less tied to […] continued