One of the great things
about writing for
WebWorkerDaily
is the exposure I get to the latest technologies and thoughts about Web
2.0, productivity, and web working. Professionally, it has helped me
think deeper into some of my own personal information management issues
and approaches.
Growing up with dyslexia
always made personal organization a challenge for me. Also, I found out
years ago that I am better organized electronically than I am in a
traditional paper and filing cabinet method.
Continue reading "Recent Thoughts about Personal Information Management" »
Zoho recently made a very strategic move by launching Zoho Office for SharePoint
because of SharePoint's growing dominance in the enterprise. It seems
everybody I am speaking to about potential projects these days is using
Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 for secure document
collaboration inside their firewall.
Continue reading "Zoho Office for SharePoint Launches" »
Through some previous contracts
I've gained experience interacting with an administering SharePoint sites including
managing document libraries, user access, creating lists and other site
elements. In fact, I believe that today's technical writer needs to be
fluent in SharePoint site administration.
During this time, I've inherited some SharePoint sites that made my job harder versus making me more productive.
Continue reading "My SharePoint Site Pet Peeves" »
During
recent job interviews and meetings with prospective clients, the topic
of my SharePoint experience came up more than once. While I am a big
proponent of Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 in the
enterprise, I am the first to admit that you shouldn't downplay the
initial deployment because it can be a game changer and have a definite
impact on business processes.
Continue reading "Building the Better Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 Deployment" »
The
Microsoft Office 2007 system seems to be catching on in my marketplace.
During recent interviews and meetings with prospective clients, the
topic of Microsoft Office 2007 and its many new features has been
raised more than once. A lot of the Microsoft Office 2007 questions I've heard also deal with Microsoft interaction with Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007.
Organizations
planning a migration from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office
2007 shouldn't take the migration lightly. While it is easy to dismiss
Microsoft Office as just Microsoft Office, it needs to be known that Microsoft Office can be the center of an end user's primary work and business processes.
Continue reading "Building The Better Office 2007 Migration" »
It is safe to say
that while Microsoft Word and Word documents (*.doc) have the crown as
the most used business word processor and document format in today's
business world there are usage problems that still linger.
However,
despite the wide spread use of Microsoft Word there is a whole lot of
document butchering going on that can make it painful to inherit a Word
document from a previous author.
Continue reading "Inheriting Microsoft Word Document Pet Peeves" »
While I am a believer of the Web Office suite concept, but I always deemed Google Docs a little behind the curve from the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite .
Through
the course of some personal writing projects, Google Docs has been my
word processor of choice because I can access my personal writing from
multiple PCs.
Continue reading "Perhaps I've been too dismissive of Google Docs" »
So you've outsourced your company's technical documentation to contractors and now you are facing a much tighter budget in 2009?
Continue reading "Recession Proofing your Company's Technical Documentation" »
I still see a lot of value in standardizing even though I've left technical writing and consulting. Document templates make the writer's life easier and help give a consistent and professional look to an organization's internal and external documents.
Continue reading "Kelly's Laws of Document Templates" »
I've always been a fan of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 and moving into my new role as a director of product management meant I had to collect new ideas and organize projects to a scale I never had to as a writer. OneNote 2007 is now a central collection point for my ideas and questions as they relate to new product management processes, initiatives, and product offerings.
Continue reading "OneNote 2007 Rejoins my Professional Workflow" »
While my new job offers me plenty of opportunities to write, when I left writing, I made a promise to myself to write for myself more often.
Continue reading "Blogging from Word 2007" »
Update: Microsoft to alpha test Office 14 before end of year (from InfoWorld)
Microsoft will begin alpha testing the next version of Office in
November or December, according to a blog posting by a Microsoft
employee that was later pulled from the Web.
Even if the 2007 Microsoft Office system has yet to hit a corporate enterprise near you there is no stopping Microsoft to roll out a new version of their ubiquitous Office suite.
Continue reading "Office 14 to hit Alpha: The Microsoft Office Juggernaut Continues" »
Google Apps for Domains, Google Apps Team Edition, and Google Apps Premier Edition
($50.00 per user per year) have been stealing headlines as many critics and
pundits see the venerable Microsoft Office suite under siege. One of the
beauties of the Web Office is the fact that you can access the applications
from anywhere on any platform from the comfort of your Web browser.
However, the light of today’s geographically disparate
workforce shows that Google Apps and other Web Office suites are going to
complement Microsoft Office versus wiping the venerable Office suite off the
Windows desktop all the while helping organizations of all sizes save on
security, messaging, and infrastructure costs.
Continue reading "When Google Apps Meets the Microft Office System" »
The releases of Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007
Microsoft Office system saw some of the greatest changes in the venerable
Office suite. This evolution was good news to Microsoft Project because
Microsoft began focusing on making Microsoft Project more usable and
their output more accessible to non-project managers.
One of the drawbacks of project management applications like Microsoft Project is
the fact that their output only makes sense within the cubicle walls of a
project manager and venture outside to developers, engineers, and the rest of
the project team.
Continue reading "Project 2003 versus Project 2007" »
I finally made the upgrade to Office 2007 on my primary
home office Windows XP desktop due to some client requirements and I find myself really enjoying the upgrade. Here are some highlights from my upgrade experience:
- The Outlook 2007 interface is a major improvement to the venerable Outlook user experience.
- The integration with Microsoft Office Live Workspace is superior to the integration between Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office Live Workspace. Microsoft's newest extension to Microsoft Office has entered my workflow as I need an online archive of project files as I switch between my home office and time on client sites.
- The new *.docx format was a bit problematic for me at first when I was sending files to another PC using Word 2003. The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats crashed on me the first few tries and performed slowly when opening a *.docx document in Microsoft Word 2003.
- The ribbon interface took a while to master but the transition was by and large a painless experience.
- The integration with Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 was a step above the integration between Office 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 8.
- The new Google Calendar Sync addin seems to crash Outlook 2007 -- I hope Google remedies this issue in future versions because I use Google Calendar frequently.
Continue reading "Upgrading to Office 2007" »
I got my beta invite for Microsoft Office Live Workspace last week and immediately went to kick the tires on it. My initial impressions of the service are favorable including the fact that it is Mac friendly.
While many pundits, analysts, and bloggers ponder the victory of the Web Office over the venerable Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft has yet to offer a full Web version of their Office suite. Nor have many third parties comes to terms with the retraining required to migrate users from the venerable Microsoft Office to a Web Office suite.
Microsoft Office Live Workspace extends Microsoft Office to the Web --the middle ground I find myself subscribing more and more based upon my work as a technical writer and my experience with today's leading Web Office products.
Continue reading "First Impressions Microsoft Office Live Workspace" »
Microsoft's Office Live Workspace (from news.com)
I've been following the latest Web Office developments on two levels. I've been writing and thinking a lot about the subject due to some upcoming articles in the pipeline. And, as a technical writer, I recognized the value of the Web for technical communications when I saw the Web for the first time way back in 1994.
Continue reading "Microsoft's Office Live Workspace in a Web Office World" »
Recent Comments