bruceb news

Microsoft Word saves “metadata” along with a document – extra information ranging from identification of authors and reviewers of a document to all text added and deleted in prior versions and revisions of the document. This assists in collaboration, but it can have unexpected side effects.

Here’s an article about a draft letter circulated by the California Attorney General proposing a new legal theory for attacking file sharing software. The letter proposes an unprecedented legal theory – characterizing file sharing software as a “dangerous product” and suggesting that developers should be subject to liability for deceptive trade practices because the software does not contain warnings that it can be used to violate the law. […] continued

Microsoft Office 2003 has arrived in the stores. The “Basic Edition” includes Word, Excel, and Outlook. The “Standard Edition” adds Powerpoint. There’s increasing interest in Powerpoint – think about it before you decide which version to buy or order with a new computer!

The same software is packaged as “Office 2003 Standard for Students and Teachers” – again including Powerpoint, and selling for $130-150. The license is valid for families with kids or students as well as teachers – and nobody checks to see if you qualify (note from Microsoft to thrifty businesses: wink wink!). Each copy of the Student edition can be installed on three different computers. […] continued

Microsoft Office 2003 goes on sale this week.

If you’re using Office 2000 or Office 97, there are improvements throughout the programs in the suite that make upgrading worthwhile. And Outlook 2003 has significant changes that deserve a look regardless of what version of Office you’re using. Here’s an article about the new features and changes in Microsoft Outlook 2003.

I’ve seen several articles praising the spam filter built in to Outlook 2003, like the article linked above. And the screen is laid out differently – a jarring change at first, but I’m coming to appreciate it as I get used to it. […] continued

Microsoft has quietly set the stage for a revolutionary change in pricing for Microsoft Office for individuals and small businesses.

Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) has traditionally been so expensive that most people used the version that shipped with their new computer, and never upgraded it. Many of you have never seen Office XP/2002, the current version – which has many nice improvements, especially in Outlook, but which isn’t worth the upgrade cost for most people.

Last year Microsoft started selling the “Students and Teachers Edition” of Office XP in normal retail outlets – exactly the same suite of programs but at a steeply discounted price. […] continued

Microsoft Word is full of tricks. On this page, I described one simple trick to customize the way addresses appear when you drop them in from Microsoft Outlook.

A client told me about how to make Word print out customized return addresses on envelopes – special font layouts, or inserted graphics. Create the perfect return address on a blank page in Word, highlight it, and click on Insert / AutoText / New. Name it EnvelopeExtra1. Now Word will automatically print that as your return address when you create an envelope with the Envelopes And Labels tool. Cool, eh? […] continued

Costco has been carrying Sylvania conventional and flat screen monitors for a while now – and they’re perfectly good, in my experience. Today, though, the 17” monitors in stock were manufactured by Princeton Graphics – with fabulous specs, and on sale dirt-cheap at $129.99. And they’re black, so they color-coordinate with your new Dell or Gateway. A particularly good buy if you need a new monitor.

Also don’t forget the student edition of Microsoft Office XP Standard, available at Costco for $127.99 and at Office Depot and CompUSA for slightly more. It’s the full Office suite, with Word, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint, at a significant discount from the usual price of $300 or more. […] continued

Now that Windows XP Service Pack 1 is out the door, almost everybody should be installing one of the recent updates. Although the service packs fix a slew of bugs, their primary purpose these days is security, plugging the various ways people have found to break into your computer.

You won’t notice very much of a difference from any of the service packs, but under the hood your system is strengthened in meaningful ways. These are all worth installing. Current updates:

Windows XP Service Pack 1

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (cumulative – includes prior service packs)

Office XP Service Pack 1 & 2 (SP1 must be installed before SP2)

Office 2000 Service Pack 1 & 2 (SP1 must be installed before SP2)

These are big downloads. […] continued

“The Microsoft Word 2002 Legal User’s Guide is a reference for legal professionals that describes Word 2002 features useful to the legal industry. Features explored in this document include: digital signatures; legal numbering; header and footer formatting; footnotes; table of contents creation; and Smart Tags.” Download it here.

Microsoft Office XP struck me initially as a minor upgrade from Office 2000, but I keep running across new features that are changing my mind.

WORD Word 2002 has a feature called “Reveal Formatting.” It displays all of the formatting codes in effect at the cursor, or for the highlighted text, and allows you to change them directly. You can also compare the formatting at two different places in the document and immediately spot any differences. WordPerfect users are accustomed to dismissing Word because Word doesn’t have WP’s “reveal codes” feature. But Word’s “reveal formatting” strikes me immediately as being even more powerful and easier to use. […] continued

Microsoft has always had “student editions” of the Office suite – same software, lower price, for full-time students and educators. In the past it’s only been available in settings where there was some small amount of control over the purchasers – campus bookstores, for example, where a student ID has to be shown at the cash register.

For some reason, Microsoft has now flooded the regular retail channels with student editions of Office XP standard – the full suite, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint. If you can find it at Costco (look for a little card, instead of the big empty boxes), it’s $129; at Best Buy, Staples, WalMart, and a few others it will be $149. […] continued