Will Kelly

The Tools of My Trade: 2009 Edition

By tradition, at the end of every year, I take a look back both personally and professionally over the previous 12 months. This year—especially with 2009 being a challenging year—was no different. Part of this year’s review was taking a look at the tools I use on a daily basis to get my work done to make sure I had the right mix for productivity and hadn’t fallen into any of the latest fads or had software just idling away when I should really decommission it and streamline my workflow.

New WWD Post: Blogging With OneNote 2010 Beta

Now that Microsoft Office 2010 is in beta (as I noted here), I’ve been spending more time using the applications, especially OneNote 2010 beta. I have long used OneNote for capturing project information when I am working on one of my Windows machines, but its potential as a blogging tool has been on my mind recently.

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Apps I am watching in 2010

I get a lot of exposure to new applications writing for WebWorkerDaily and just plain being a technology early adopter. As 2009 is coming to a close, there are some applications that I plan to keep an eye on in 2010 both as a writer and future user.

Microsoft Office 2010. Through multiple lives as a computer book technical reviewer and later a technology writer, I've been tooling around with Microsoft Office Betas since Office 2000 and can say the stability, speed, and usability in the Office 2010 Technical Preview blows them all away and I look forward to seeing this latest version of the venerable Office suite go final.

Thoughts about Technical Editing and Reviewing

I would be the first person to describe myself as a blank pages kind of a technical writer  because I like writing documents from scratch and see it as one of my strengths (or at least I like to think so).

However, some current and recent projects have placed me more into a reviewer and editor role and has got me thinking about technical editing and reviewing including:

WWD Post: Microsoft Office 2010 Enters Beta

As of today, Microsoft Office 2010 has officially left Technical Preview and is now in public beta, meaning that anybody can download it and take it for a spin. I was able to get an early look at the beta and want to relay some of the changes you can expect in this upcoming release. Microsoft is really stepping up its game with this release, and even though there are scattered reports of performance issues, I am not seeing them on my Vista test machine.

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WWD Post: Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps Beta Available to SharePoint Users

To coincide with the release of the desktop Office 2010 beta, Microsoft is finally embracing the web office with today’s release of Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps beta, a web version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that augments or even replaces the desktop version of Microsoft Office.

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MS Word 2003 Error of the Day

 

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: Access Office Live Workspace or SharePoint from Office 2008 Mac

Microsoft collaboration software is the typical corporate tool of choice, which, by extension, means that the Windows version of Microsoft Office was the office productivity suite of choice. However, a recent update to Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac now enables Mac users to access both Microsoft SharePoint sites and Office Live Workspace.

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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.

WWD Post: Corporate Telecommuting: The H1N1 Virus Edition

News of a possible H1N1 virus, or “Swine Flu,” pandemic is causing many commercial firms and government agencies to examine their Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans so business can soldier on during the crisis. The threat of an H1N1 outbreak is even prompting the United States Centers for Disease Control to recommend that small businesses have telework and business continuity plans in place.

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My latest post to WebWorkerDaily was inspired by one too many discussions about how an organization can extend their infrastructure in short order to maintain a continuity of operations in the advent of an H1N1 virus outbreak.

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.

My Acrobat.com Wishlist: Buzzword, Create PDF and MyFiles Edition

I've been getting some use out of my Acrobat.com account as of late and regularly use Buzzword and MyFiles and had a minor let down with Acrobat.com's Create PDF features. Acrobat.com is a maturing service and I have some wishes for what I want to see in future iterations of Acrobat.com.

Buzzword and Acrobat.com Export Options

While I use Google Docs to draft blog posts and rough ideas because I can switch back and forth amongst my home office PCs, I am trying to do more with Buzzword and Acrobat.com.

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.