Here's another opportunity to flex your Microsoft Office muscle. Unlike the Access 101 Quiz, this one is a little tougher - so you gotta know your stuff.

But before you start, it's good to have an understanding of what makes up a database. Perhaps you feel like you already know. Well, here's a way to know for sure ... take a pop quiz! Dian Chapman, a long time Microsoft Word MVP, has created a 10 question quiz to test your basic knowledge of Microsoft Access databases.

Quiz: Word 201

If you already took the Access 101 Quiz, all you need is your login info and you're all set. If this is your first time taking one of their quizzes, you'll need to do is sign up as a FREE subscriber to her TechTrax community. Be sure to check out Dian's Microsoft Office resources for more expert advice. Good luck on the test!

And no ... I did not score 100 this time (that's what I get for second guessing myself.) 

Well … I finally took the plunge. About two weeks, I finally installed Microsoft Office 2007. Not that I scared to take the plunge, or that I was being "old school" and not willing to change; because I've been looking forward to checking it out for a while. It just wasn't time for me until now - I had other priorities that needed more of my attention (no big deal - love you, though.)

But now that the time has come, my first impressions are extremely good. The new interface looks so good, but it's so different - particularly the new ribbon bar. However, the bottom line is that I was able to take care of my tasks without much of a learning curve and just as fast as I would have with Office 2003. Not only is it comfortable, but it's a joy to use - even my wife likes to use it. As a software developer, it is hard to make software enjoyable to the user; in my opinion, Microsoft Office 2007 has accomplished that.

There's a lot of great new stuff that I'm looking forward to learning about. However, I will not submit a post on every single new feature offered (plenty of other sites already do that very well). Instead, I will continue to focus on the features that enhance the document process. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of features in Office 2007 that can be found in Office 2003; however, the improvement and placement of them make these features more accessible and easier to use - you will definitely hear more about these in the future.

Another new experience that I've already taken advantage of is using Microsoft Office OneNote. I already know that OneNote will single handedly change the way I organize all aspects of life. Everything on my desk, in my portfolio, and everywhere else I have important info will be reduced to my laptop. This will make my information easier to pull, and I'll be able to keep much more information much more effectively. 

I look forward to continuing to share my Office 2007 joy with you in the months to come. In the meantime, I encourage you to take the plunge and see for yourself.

If you haven't updated Microsoft Office on your machine in a while, this would be a good time to do so. Microsoft has posted several security updates in the last week alone.

The latest concerns applies to those that use Flash files in their Office documents. As reported by Joris Evers of CNet News.com, "flash files embedded in Office documents could run and execute code without any warning" and "a successful attack may allow attackers to access sensitive information and potentially execute malicious commands on a vulnerable computer".

Microsoft confirmed that this issue is an ActiveX flaw related to a Windows component called "hlink.dll".

I applaud the efforts of anyone taking a shot at creating their own logo, or creating one for someone else. Not you graphic artists that actually do this for a living; I'm talking to those of us that are the opposite trying to establish your own branding and save a little money at the same time. I'm very proud of the logo I created years ago, that I still use today and will continue to use for a long time. 

For those of you that fit this category, I have a public service announcement for you. Microsoft Office isn't the answer this time. It's great for creating all sorts of documents; but despite all of the graphical options that are available, it is not meant to be a graphics program.

I've seen two logos in the last week from those trying to create their own. I won't embarrass them by showing them to you, but both of them were very bad. It was obvious that they used MS Word, MS PowerPoint or MS Publisher, because they both used clipart that everyone has seen before. One of them even used WordArt with one of those weird AutoShapes.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is not how you want to portray yourself.

So you have two options. The first option is to take the time to learn how to use a real graphics program (i.e. Abode Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, Fireworks, etc.) so that your images look much cleaner and professional. You do not have to be a talented artist to be able to produce good looking graphics; you simply just have to know how to use the programs and become familiar what looks good. One of my favorite sites to get ideas on logos is CoolHomePages.com (be sure to check out the rest of the site for ideas on website layouts.)

If you don't want to do that, you probably know what the other option is ... that's right, hire a professional. For those of you that have tried to create a logo (or any graphic) in Microsoft Office, I would say that you're technical sound enough to learn how to use a graphics program and I would strongly encourage you to do. The skills you pick by doing so will come in handle for the rest of your life. Good luck.

In case you don't know, Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 is now available to download. This is a great opportunity to try it out for free and check out all the new features - and there's certainly a lot of them. Sure, there's still bugs to be fixed, but I promise it won't bite. Here's the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/

In addition to the download link, you'll want to check out this two posts from Jensen Harris that contain other links that will help us make a smooth transition.

Some of the Best Beta 2 Resources
Where Did That Feature Go?

Stay tuned for other news and resources about Office 2007 ... this thing is going to take the world by storm!

In case you haven't heard, there's a new virus exploiting Microsoft Word called the Zero-Day Attack. Here are some links to get you up-to-speed. Please read them and protect yourself!

Official Advisory from Microsoft
Beware of Word Attachments
Using Microsoft Word Safe Mode
Other Things You Can Do

Whether you're working a company, working for yourself, or just a home user - security should be a high priority for you. With computer crimes on a continual rise, security has become a top issue in every aspect of our computing. We have secure networks, secure e-mail, secure websites, secure hardware, secure software, and even secure mousepads (LOL - just jokin', but you know what I'm saying) all for the soul purpose of protecting our data from digital predators.

According to Darren Strange, 2007 Office Product Manager in the UK, states in his blog site Office Rocker! that Microsoft has made security "a key focus for every group", including Microsoft Office. Darren has an excellent post this topic, including security features in Office 2003 and in the upcoming version Office 2007.

If you want your Microsoft Office documents to be secure, this post will give you a good start in that direction. Afterwards, I encourage you to learn more about security in all aspects of your computing efforts (well, at least those you care about.)

Well ... not all of your annoyances, but at least some of your technical annoyances. O'Reilly Media, Inc., a leader in technical and computer book documentation (great books, I have several!) has published a series of books called the Annoyances books in which they present a wide range of things that annoy you about computer, software, the web, etc. and explain how to overcome them.

Today, I stubbled across the blog site that O'Reilly has put together that covers a lot of these topics called Annoyances Central, which include annoyances in Microsoft Office. One of the latest posts shows you what to do when Microsoft Word's Find feature can't spell.

I've added this to my blogroll (on the right) and will share with you content from it that I find helpful.

Google Trends is a brand new tool that gives you the chance to compare anything you want. For example, according to Google, I found out that the West coast is much more popular than the East coast. I simply typed "east coast, west coast" and it returned a trend graph showing actual stats from the Google search engine in a timeline, along with dates of important events related to the search criteria.

In the Micro Persuasion weblog, Steve Rebel list 25 things he learned from Google Trends - one of them being which Microsoft Office application was the most popular. I knew the answer already (I'm sure you do, too); but it was still interesting to see the numbers that support it.

Very cool tool. Google has done it again!

When I begin my IT career, I started out as a computer instructor. I learned a lot of different programs, and then I got to teach others how to use them. Some of them I already knew like the back of my hand ... WordPerfect. Back then, it was king of all word processing programs - whether you used WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, or old faithful WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.

But I was forced to also teach this new word processing program called Microsoft Word (perhaps you've heard of it.) There was resistance at first, being so used to WordPerfect. So I complained about subtle differences from the start, including how you couldn't see the "Reveal Codes" behind the document like you can in WordPerfect.

Despite my concerns, I was scheduled to teach it anyway. But then I began feeling comfortable using Microsoft Word. It was easier to use, so much so that I never needed to see Reveal Codes. This also made it easier to teach to others, which was good because we taught Microsoft Word about 5-7 times more than the WordPerfect class. Once it was packaged with Excel, PowerPoint and Access in Microsoft Office, I was hooked.

After my teaching days were over, I hardly ever used anything but Microsoft Office. But a few years ago, I was given a free copy of Corel WordPerfect. After trying it out, found WordPerfect to be as great a word processing program as ever. It still had all of the important features that you could find in Microsoft Word; but the fact remained that Microsoft Word was still easier to use.

Aside from that, QuattroPro was no match for the spreadsheet capabilities found in Microsoft Excel; and there's nothing out on the market to this day that can compete with Microsoft PowerPoint when it comes to creating presentations. Overall, I found it to be a solid office suite, and still is with its latest version Corel WordPerfect Office X3.

You can now get a 30-day free trial of the Standard Version when you register to their website. I'm pretty sure that I'll download later on and post a product review. It'll be interesting to see if Reveal Codes is still there, and more importantly if it's more user-friendly. However, I imagine it won't be enough to overcome my favoritism towards Microsoft Office 2007.

Ten years ago, who knew that there would be an office suite package that you can use on your web browser. But of course back then, the internet was used mainly to search for information - and still is. And though Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox, and others have made terrific advances in expanding their capabilities - web browsers are still very limited in its ability to create feature rich applications that you can create for your desktop ... or are they?

New technologies (like ASP.NET) and the use of advanced techniques (like AJAX) have made it possible to create web applications that actually behave like desktop applications, which has paved the way for all kinds of possibilities on web that were not imaginable before ... like web-based office suites.

I'm not talking about just online calendars and contact managers - there's a whole gob of those; I'm talking about web applications that provide the ability to create letters, spreadsheets, newsletters, brochures, etc. like you can in Microsoft Office. Googling the keyword "microsoft office alternatives web-based" will give a bunch of websites where you can research.

The one that I like the most so far is gOffice, that promises Microsoft Word import/export features in the near future; but for now, I love being able to produce the high quality PDFs from it. It also has a spreadsheet and desktop publishing programs that do the same, with other features coming soon. Other web applications, like ajaxWrite and Writely, only give you word processing capabilities. The fact the all of these offerings are FREE isn't bad, either.

But are web-based office suites good enough to replace old reliable desktop applications like Microsoft Office?" It's too soon to tell; but in order for them to a major player, there are still a lot of web browser limitations to overcome in order to provide anywhere near the amount of features that you'll find in Microsoft Office 2007. All the same, I applaud the progress we've made in creating feature rich web applications; and it'll be interesting to see how they can go in the future.

Jensen Harris shares with us a hidden trick (commonly known as a Easter Egg) in Microsoft Outlook that was previously only known by select company.  It's supposed to be available in our versions of Outlook, and has already been confirmed to be in Microsoft Office 2007. 

Very fun!

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/11/30/498364.aspx

My first look at OpenOffice.org was back in 2001, months after its first beta version. I wanted to see what the buzz was all about, and find out if there really is a free office suite comparable to Microsoft Office.  I installed it on my PC. Honestly, I was quite impressed with what I saw. It was easy to use, and I was able to create all of my day-to-day documents in OpenOffice just as proficiently as I did in Microsoft Office, including spreadsheets.

However, after about two weeks, I began to grow tired of reformatting every other document I created in Microsoft Office just so I could use it in OpenOffice - particularly any documents with tables and borders in it. I learned early not to even bother opening any complex documents in it.  But most of all, I missed the little things that I had grown accustomed to in Microsoft Office and had enough of continuing to learn where things were.

Truly, absence made my heart grow fonder of Microsoft Office; even though I liked what OpenOffice had to offer, the decision for me was clear.  I uninstalled it from my PC. But that doesn't make OpenOffice a loser in my book. I definitely see this office suite appealing to those that like "open source" applications (where you can "look under the hood" as they say). Certainly, any organization looking to save money should definitely give OpenOffice a strong look - it is FREE after all. And if you're someone who uses about 5% of the features in Microsoft Office, you'll find OpenOffice offers the exact same stuff.

As for me, "open source" applications aren't really that appealing to me, as long as it works. I know there are arguments both ways whether or not Microsoft Office (or any Microsoft software) does; there are bugs in OpenOffice, too, and being able to look at the code doesn't make it any better in my mind. Whether you like them or not, the truth is that Microsoft Office is a great office suite; and personally, I think it's the best and is worth the cost to have the advanced features that it offers. And Microsoft Office 2007 will continue that trend (which I will discuss in a future post).

I will say that I take great satisfaction in being able to bring a floppy of Word documents over to the computer at my church, that has no Internet connection, and to be able to edit and print them from there ... yes, using OpenOffice. No matter what you like, I think that's worth saluting; and I hope OpenOffice stays around for a long time.

Back when I was a kid, my brother and I played a lot of basketball in our backyard where we had a hoop. We loved basketball (still do)! And not to be haughty, we were pretty good ballas growing up; and sometimes our competition wasn't always equal to our abilities. In those cases, one of us would usually say something like, "Me and my brother will take on you three (or four)!" Stepping up to a challenge like that is a thrilling experience, and winning those challenges made it even better - which, by the way, we did more than we lost.

I think Microsoft Office finds itself in the same situation, only not by choice. You'll find several articles and blogs on the Internet preaching how the OpenOffice.org suite is just as good as MS Office, plus it's free. I've actually tried it, and I must say that it is a very good product; and I certainly would recommend ... but only if MS Office isn't an option for you. 

There are other very interesting alternatives challenging MS Office - like ajaxWrite, a free web-based application that functions just like MS Word. And if you Google the term "microsoft office alternatives", you'll find many more ways not to use MS Office. But in case you haven't figured out by now, I think MS Office reigns supreme as the best office productivity software on the planet. And after seeing a preview of Microsoft Office 2007 and reading up on it, there should be no question which office suite is the best.

In this series of posts, I will write about what the "MS Office haters" are saying and why I disagree, features of MS Office 2007, and mostly why the benefits of other alternatives aren't good enough to switch from MS Office. To be honest, I don't know how many parts this will take; I guess I'll stop when I think I've made my point.

See you on the court.

Back in 1997, I was contractor working as a help desk technician in network and desktop support.  Most days, I was bored out of my skull.  It was then that I decided to take a stab at creating a website. The application I used to build my first 5 or 6 websites was Microsoft FrontPage 98.

At the time, it was wonderful for me because it was just like working in Microsoft Word and I didn't have to learn HTML. But as time went on, it became much easier to make precise changes by editing the HTML directly. Once I left network support for my first web programming job, I abandoned FrontPage completely and created websites from scratch with straight HTML. Though I'd never back to FrontPage (or recommend it for several reasons), I was always grateful that it helped me to launch a successful career in web programming.

Therefore, you can understand my mixed emotions when I read on The Office Letter this week that in Feb 2006 Microsoft officially announced that it will not be included in Office 2007, which means that we've seen the last of FrontPage. It is being replaced with what Microsoft is dubbing as the Next Generation of Web Authoring: Microsoft Expression Web Designer (EWD), which also will not be a part of Office 2007.

EWD is currently in early beta; and when there's more information, you can expect that I will do a product review on it (just out of curiosity). But right now, I would like pay my respects to FrontPage. Though the web programming industry has passed it by, FrontPage had a very good run and is still has a loyal user base to this day because of how easy it is to use (I can only imagine how they're taking this news.) And even an old timer like me has to admit that it paved the way for all WYSIWYG editors out there.

Thank you, Microsoft FrontPage. This blog is for you.