It's been a little under a month since I launched the new BetterDocuments site, and so far it's been an enjoyable, trouble-free experience. I have a long way from where I want to be; but having a weblog site has proved to be an effective medium for me to accomplish what I've set out to do.

The "trouble-free" part of my experience is mostly due to the blog software that I selected to build my site. I wanted something low-cost (free is always good), easy to install, with a lot of features, and built on the .NET framework (being a .NET programmer myself.) After a week long search, I was very pleased to find every single that I was looking for in DasBlog, built by newtelligence.

I was able to submit a post after about 15 minutes of installation and configuration; and even though it comes with 16 site templates (themes) ready to go, I created my own theme in about a day's work - which I strongly recommend. Maintaining this site has been incredibly easy. DasBlog is very well put together technically using C#, storing all data in XML so that you don't need a database. I was also able add additional functionality of my own, all thanks to good documentation.

I wish to thank Scott Hanselman and Omar Shahine for their continued work on a great weblog engine. You also find other tips, add-ons, and kudos by searching for "dasblog" in Google. Needless to say, I am now a big fan of DasBlog, so much so that I'm going to use it for all of my blogsites ... including new personal site (coming soon!)

Most of you have probably never even asked yourself this question, simply because it didn't really matter. In many cases, it's simply a virus that you're trying to get rid of; even Microsoft Word and Excel warn you when they encounter one. Below is a link to the article I wrote that explains what a macro is, what they were used for, and why it doesn't matter:

What Is A Macro? Does Anyone Really Care?

But as I state in the article, macros were quite useful before Microsoft Windows came along. That was when we used DOS instead of Windows, no mouse (that's right) and relied heavily on keystrokes to save time. In those days, WordPerfect 5.1 was the undisputed heavyweight champion of word processing programs and basically put macros on the map (man, I've really dated myself, haven't I?)

Needless to say, word processing applications (along with all office suite packages) have involved quite nicely since then - so much so that saving time isn't really an issue anymore. This makes the use of macros just about useless, with the exception to mostly programmers. In Microsoft Office Word 2007, you have to save your document as a DOCM in order to even have your document macro-enabled.

So my answer to the original question is this ... unless you're just curious, don't worry about what a macro is. Of course, I'm sure some of you are asking yourselves "DOS? What in the world is DOS?" My answer to that question is the same.

Maybe it's the little kid in me, but I always enjoy the chance to add colors to anything that I'm working - whether its Word documents, websites, walls, or even my mailbox garden. With so many colors to choose from, it's a great way to express your personality; but it's also easy to get carried away and to be irresponsible in your color selection, which results in a loss of effectiveness in what you’re doing.

It's probably the reason why I end up correcting the same mistakes whenever I look at someone's brochure, a flyer, a newsletter, or any document that has color text. The following article represents the basic guidelines I follow in regard to color documents:

The Right Way to Use Text Colors

When I wrote this article, I was tempted to add one more guideline in relation to color selection; but I decided not to at the last second. In my many years of using colors on the computer, it seems that there are certain colors that I stay away from simply because they never work in any of the documents I create; but that doesn't mean that they won't work for other documents, so I left that part out.

I sure I could submit a post on someday; for now, I think it's important to point out that just because you like a particular color that doesn't mean it's going to work for a document. As I've mentioned before (and will again), the goal is to make it work for the reader, not you. Keeping this in mind should lead you to the color scheme that's right. That, my friend, is what it means to be responsible in your document design.

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.

Well, alright, that's not fair. Of course you can touch the spacebar; we all need it to insert spaces between words when we type sentences. But that's where I draw the line! If you're using the spacebar for anything else other than that, this post has your name written all over it.  You know who you are! The ones that are still using spaces to line up your text in your documents.

If this is you, then I strongly suggest that you either take a Microsoft Word class, or buy a Microsoft Word book and learn it on your own - it's definitely worth the time. However, to address your spacebar problem immediately, I'd like for you to read this article:

Why Using Spaces To Line Up Text Is A Bad Idea

Those of you that have this habit, don't despair - you're in good company! I was inspired to write this article by someone with the same habit ... my wife. For as long as we've been married, I've been the proofreader of her documents. Spaces everywhere! After about five years of replacing her unnecessary spaces with tabs or tables, I finally had enough.

So I began teaching her how to fish, instead of always giving it to her. At first, it was a tough adjustment, as I kept finding spaces where they didn't belong; but with time, that occurred less and less. Not only has she broken the habit, and she has become to be very proficient in Microsoft Word - creating her own flyers, calendar, forms, and all sorts of things.

The moral of the story (and the article) is that learning the proper way to use Microsoft Word will lead to better document design and will open the door to accomplish more with your documents. There's a lot you miss out on if you don't know how to use what you have, which applies to just about anything.

Enjoy the article (I hope it's helpful!)

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.

The Document Gallery will soon have many more documents available for anyone to download. Admittedly, this will be a slow, gradual process; but my goal is to provide hundreds of document templates and samples, including hard-to-find documents from other websites that you might be able to use. For now, I'm going to start simple, with mostly MS Word documents; but later you'll be able to find speadsheet & presentations, also.

Here are some simple office templates for your business:

• Letter Template
• Letterhead Template
• Memo Template
• Press Release Template

If there's a document that you need, leave a comment on this post and let me know and I'll see what I can do (or maybe someone else can help). 

Enjoy!

I can't stand Times New Roman! There, I said it. I hate Times New Roman ... habitually. I'm a habitual Times New Roman hater!

Don't get me wrong, I respect Times New Roman as a good basic font that's been around a long time; but the truth is that it's time to move on to something else. So why haven't we? Maybe because it's easier to stay with what worked in the past. The problem is ... if we stick with the past, we can never embrace the future. This article I wrote years ago attempts to address this problem:

Picking the Right Font Face for your Document

One font that has grown in popularity since I wrote this article in both documents and websites is the Georgia font. In fact, I predict that it will become the new default font. Until then, it is my new recommendation for anyone who wants there documents to stand out amongst the others.

But if you decide not to use the Georgia font to replace Times New Roman, please ... replace Times New Roman with something.

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.

One of the best ways that I learn how to do something is by observing what not to do.  Years ago, I attended a programmers' conference in Arizona where I went to several one hour classes. The conference was good, but what bothered me were the presenters in most of the classes.  Most of them had no clue how to use a Powerpoint presentation. That experience resulted into this article I wrote as soon as I returned:

The Bad Side of a Slide Presentation

The main point I make in the article is that Powerpoint presentations are not supposed to be your actual presentation. The purpose of them are to enhance your ability to present by providing visual aids and/or an outline. So if you have poor oral communication skills (which is natural for a presenter who's a programmer) or you are unprepared for your class, reading your entire presentation from the screen is not an acceptable substitution.

In the last two days of that conference, I ended up walking out of any class of a presenter that was unprepared or was reading their presentation off the screen. There were only 4 out of dozens of presenters that I thought were good enough for me to stick around for and actually learn something from. Needless to say, it was a great lesson for the rest of my life on how to present anything to anyone ... and of course, how not to.

When it comes to prospective clients, I believe the second most important document they will see is ... your website (yes, it is a document - I will address this in another post).  However, the most important document they will see from your business is your proposal. For that reason, you will find many products and resources dedicated to making good proposals.

There are two approaches you can take: 1) Use a software package (like Proposal Kit - which I highly recommend); or 2) Create your own.  I would say that using software is for those that have never done a proposal before and need more help than normal; but I suggest creating one from scratch for those that have the experience, time and resources to gain the advantages of it being custom and (in most cases) a lot more direct. I have added a sample of proposal template that I've used successfully for a long time:

Proposal Template

You will find it very straight forward, clean in design, and easy to modify in Microsoft Word for your own use.  Feel free to download it anytime and let me know what you think about it.

When it comes to offering help on documents, advice and suggestions are always good to have; but nothing beats actually having samples of what you're talking about.  I'm excited about bringing back the ability to download free Microsoft Office documents (and other form and publication samples that you can actually use to create your own.

Therefore, I have added this entry where anyone could post a comment expressing what types of documents they would like to see available in the Document Gallery.  This will be a great benefit for me to know how I can best serve those that visit BetterDocuments.

I look forward to seeing an ever-growing wishlist of documents that will help all of us for years to come.

As I was digging through my web archives, I found a link to an article I found years ago that explains how to create a tri-fold brochure using Microsoft Word. However, the article is no longer found on ZDNet's website. Luckily, my web archive still had the text for it, and is now available here:

Creating A Tri-Fold Brochure In Word

There are other desktop publishing applications (like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe Pagemaker) that makes these type of publications easier to make. But if you don't have any of them, create a tri-fold brochure is now well within your reach. Furthermore, the principles taught in this article can also help you to create other types of publications and business forms in Microsoft Word.  In fact, it could end up being easier using Microsoft Word than learning how to use another desktop publishing application.

Microsoft Word can certainly do a lot more than most people think.

Another article that has been viewed quite a bit on BetterDocuments is about a Microsoft Word feature that I believe is still declining in popularity. Perhaps the fact that this article is viewed a lot is an indictor that we all need to be reminded to use it:

Thesaurus: One of the Greatest Tools Rarely Used

Two reasons come to mind that may explain the decline in use. First of all, what would you use to look up synonyms when you're not using Microsoft Word (or any word processing application?) My kids always use Thesaurus.com, or other websites with a thesaurus. Why? Because the Internet is first place we look to find anything - so why would we bother with Microsoft Word for a synonym?

The second reason has to do with not needing a thesaurus (even online) as much. You don't usually worry about how you sound in a personal e-mail message or text message, or when you're using instant messengers, chat rooms, etc. I believe this proclivity is prickling into the way we write all the time(see, doesn't that just roll off the tongue?)

I don't think it matters what thesaurus you use, even if you do it the old fashion way ... a book (yes, Roget's Thesaurus back in the day was just a book.) The point here is that there are still very appropriate and useful opportunities to take advantage of them to make our documents even better.

Luxuriate in the article!

For those of you that are job searching, you’re probably running into a high level of competition for every job you apply for.  This means that you can’t afford for your resume to be lost in the shuffle because it doesn’t grab a recruiter’s attention … it has to stand out from the crowd.  To help your resume rise above the stack, read this article I received in my inbox today:

Is Your Resume Recruiter Friendly?

Deborah Walker is a nationally known Certified Career Management Coach (CCMC), resume writer, and has experience as a corporate recruiter.  She also has resumes and an employment proposal sample that definitely worth taking a look at.  The samples are all very clean, easy to ready, and have great text examples to help improve any resume. Good luck!

I never used to think that you could possibly go overboard when designing a document? I don't think it's too much to ask for a heading on page 3 to look the same as it does on page 26? Isn't it unacceptable to have a .25" top margin for a document that only takes up half a page? I always thought so; so when I see things that I feel are unexceptable, I feel it my duty to correct them ... everytime ... like clock work.

But an experience I had this morning makes me wonder when it become obsessive? In my company, I attend a developers meeting every week. One of my co-workers has created an agenda document that we've used the entire time that I've worked here. It is not an attractive agenda document at all; but since I wasn't in charge of it, I didn't worry about. Well, wouldn't you know it - he's on vacation for the next three weeks, and guess who got asked to be in charge of the agenda while he was gone?

I couldn't wait to open it! I changed the .25" top margin to 1" (yes, it was him!) I quickly removed the underline from the main title. Soon after, the font for the entire document was the same ... Arial - not Arial AND Times New Roman. I then proceeded to delete all the unnecessary spaces & returns, I fixed the table to look better, and I did a few other things to make the document look better. I spend about 5-7 minutes total on it. Once I was satisfied with the agenda document, I asked myself ... what all that really necessary? Is it going to make your developers meeting any better? Was that obsessive of me?

As I wrote previously, the important thing is that your collegues get the information that they need; but is that an excuse not to put forth a small amount of effort for a document? My mom always used to say "sometimes it's not value, it's the principle." The interesting thing about my co-worker is that he does the same thing with the applications; he's a good coder, but our testers always have to point out inconsistencies in his formatting. It's obviously not important to him; but that doesn't make him a bad person (the fact is that he's become a very good friend of mine). However it's important to me, and for now I consider it an asset.

So is it obsessive? Maybe, maybe not; but I don't think it ever hurts  anymore than someone who washes their hands over and over because of germs. I'm sure there's a technical term for it, a "phobia" for poorly designed documents even. Perhaps someone could enlighten me on what that word is; better yet, maybe we can come up with a new one!

Over the next few weeks, I will be submitting entries regarding the articles that I've written in the past that are included on this website (see the Articles link at the top.) I begin with the article that is by far the most viewed on this website and that has been reprinted the most on other websites: 

Characteristics of a Good Company Report

Most of the advice I give in this article is as true today than it was 5 years ago. The one exception would be the last paragraph that talks about making the report look good.  Don't get me wrong, the pointers I give in that paragraph will definitely make your report look good; I'm just not sure anymore that it's necessary to create a good report. 

The older I get, the more I realize that what they say is true: "Content is King!" And though this is commonly spoken of when it comes to creating websites, it most certainly applies to creating documents.  With the right software (like Microsoft Word), you'd have to put forth a lot of effort to make a document look ugly; and as long as you don't do that, the main thing to focus on is providing good information that your collegues can use (and actually providing it.)  Fortunately, the rest of the article will give you good suggestions on accomplishing that.

I'd love to hear any other suggestions or comments you might have on creating a good company report.  Don't be shy - you might save someone's job!