Will Kelly

WWD Post: Web Office Suites: Complementary and Coopetive Technologies

My recent post “5 Web Office Considerations: Beyond the Buzz” garnered some thought-provoking comments, which got me pondering on the proper place for the web office suite (whether it is ThinkFree, Zoho or Google Apps) in today’s world.

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WWD Post: 5 Web Office Considerations: Beyond the Buzz

Recently, we covered the release of the Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps Technical Preview. While it was great to get a first look at this release, it was even more interesting to pull back and read the flurry of blog postings, pundit pontifications, tweets and articles that were all over the web, ranging from those stating that this was the end of Microsoft Office, to those saying that Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps is going to wipe Google Apps and Zoho off the map.

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I am a regular user of Google Docs (in fact I wrote this WWD post in Google Docs) and have experience supporting the roll out of Microsoft Office in a major government agency. Additionally, throughout my career, I've had to resolve a number of document publishing issues rooted in Microsoft Word and templates.

Web Office suites do have their place and are examples of innovation in my opinion. However, organizations have a lot of things to consider before implementing a Web Office solution that is beyond the current buzz surrounding these services.

Recent Thoughts about Personal Information Management

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.

Secure Your Word 2007 Documents

Microsoft Word documents can often unintentionally contain confidential or embarrassing information, because the document metadata can include tracked changes, comments and author information that you don’t want clients and partners to see.

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My latest WebWorkerDaily post is now online.

Zoho Office for SharePoint Launches

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.

My SharePoint Site Pet Peeves

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.

Building the Better Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 Deployment

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.

Building The Better Office 2007 Migration

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.

Inheriting Microsoft Word Document Pet Peeves

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.

Perhaps I've been too dismissive of Google Docs

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.

Recession Proofing your Company's Technical Documentation

So you've outsourced your company's technical documentation to contractors and now you are facing a much tighter budget in 2009?

Kelly's Laws of Document Templates

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.

OneNote 2007 Rejoins my Professional Workflow

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.

Blogging from Word 2007

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.

Office 14 to hit Alpha: The Microsoft Office Juggernaut Continues

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.

When Google Apps Meets the Microft Office System

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.

Project 2003 versus Project 2007

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.

Upgrading to Office 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.

First Impressions Microsoft Office Live Workspace

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.

Microsoft's Office Live Workspace in a Web Office World

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.