March 7, 2010
OFFICE 2010 TECHNOLOGY GUARANTEE
Microsoft Office 2010 will be available to consumers on June 15. There are new features focused on increasing the integration with online file storage and collaboration – plus a major redesign of Outlook, adding everything from a ribbon bar across the top to social networking links. There are some nice new things, although I haven’t seen anything yet that strikes me as a game-changer.
Starting now, if you buy Office 2007 or buy a new computer with Office 2007, you’ll get a free upgrade to Office 2010 when it’s released. The deal requires the usual work of filling […] continued
February 10, 2010
THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF LIVE MESH
Live Mesh is Microsoft’s program for syncing folders between multiple computers and online storage, making your files available to you wherever you are.
I think Live Mesh is dead, and I think I know why: Microsoft is deliberately cutting back on what it could have delivered to protect the revenue it wants from Office 2010.
Live Mesh was built on promising technology and it fulfills part of its promise: once it’s set up, it syncs files accurately and quietly.
Its quirks were easy to overlook – for a while. Two examples:
- There is nothing intuitive about setting up Mesh.
[…] continued
January 13, 2010
ACCESS ONLINE FILES WITH GOOGLE DOCS
Google announced today that you will soon be able to store any kind of file online in Google Docs, which until now has been basically limited to text and spreadsheets. Anyone with a Google Account will be able to store 1Gb of files online and access them from any computer.
If you’ve been following along, then this sounds like old news. Microsoft has let you store files online for free using Windows Live Skydrive since 2008, with a current storage limit of 25Gb, not a paltry 1Gb. There are some differences – Google will allow […] continued
December 10, 2009
WINDOWS 7 AND THE ALT KEY
The ALT key does a few useful things that you haven’t seen yet.
Internet Explorer 8 originally was installed with the menu turned off at the top. Few people use the menu and it takes up space onscreen. It’s easy to turn on by right-clicking on the toolbars and choosing “Menu Bar,” but Microsoft found people were confused when the menu was missing. At some point the installation was changed to show the menu by default. You might or might not have a menu at the top of Internet Explorer 8.
If the menu is not displayed, hitting the […] continued
September 28, 2009
THE FUTURE OF OFFICE WEB APPLICATIONS
Previously:
First Look At Office Web Applications
The Future Of Microsoft Online Files
Let’s see if we can put it all together. This is informed speculation about the way things might work for small businesses and law offices before long.
You sit at your office computer and open your Documents folder. You have a subfolder named Office Live Documents filled with everything that matters – documents, spreadsheets, OneNote notebooks, presentations, PDFs, whatever. You work and edit and organize and use Word/Excel/OneNote, exactly as you do right now.
You’re in a client’s office. You lean over her and […] continued
September 27, 2009
THE FUTURE OF MICROSOFT ONLINE FILES
Microsoft has several overlapping, confusing services. It’s no surprise that most of you have not started to store files online or share online folders.
Here’s a very brief description of the different ways available from Microsoft to move files around.
WINDOWS LIVE SKYDRIVE Free online storage of up to 25Gb of files. Accessible from web browser; no integrated access from Windows Explorer or Office programs. Web browser is used for all uploading and downloading of files and all file management. (Third party programs can be used for partial integration into Windows Explorer.) Files and folders in Skyrdrive are not
[…] continued
September 25, 2009
FIRST LOOK AT OFFICE WEB APPLICATIONS
Microsoft introduced a limited public look at Office Web Applications this week – a “Tech Preview” for a small group of testers of versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint designed to run in a web browser and open files stored online.
The bad news is that the preview is surprisingly weak. I thought Microsoft was far along in developing these services. I expected to see them in nearly final form, maybe released closely on the heels of Windows 7. Now I’m guessing it will be at least a few months before they’re ready for general release.
The good news […] continued
September 17, 2009
WINDOWS 7 FOR STUDENTS
Microsoft has had aggressive prices for college students for years. Today it announced that college students can buy Windows 7 Home Premium for $29.99.
It’s all part of the marketing that is ramping up for the Windows 7 launch on October 22. It’s probably not a coincidence that the deal for students was announced shortly after Apple picked the same price, $29, for the “Snow Leopard” service pack that was released with great fanfare three weeks ago. Windows 7 is getting a warm response from almost everyone who tries it; it may be a good […] continued
July 13, 2009
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010 – DETAILS HAZY, ASK AGAIN LATER
The bloggers were buzzing about Microsoft Office 2010 today, after Microsoft gave a nice presentation at a Partner Conference. The new Office suites won’t be on the market until early next year and there are some important questions that were not answered today, so most of the excitement is premature.
The most interesting new offering will be web-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote that look identical to the desktop versions. You’ll put in a Windows Live ID and have access to your files stored online, where you can work on them with programs that look just […] continued
July 13, 2009
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010: THE MOVIE
I’ll write about the features in Microsoft Office 2010 later. For the moment, take these two clips as evidence that Microsoft might actually be able to do cool advertisements. The first clip is a 30 second preview, the second is a longer trailer. Fun stuff!
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