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".

A couple of weeks back, I received my invite to test Google Spreadsheets and have since maintained a few files that I use for personal reasons. And as promised in my previous post about it, it's time to start letting you know my thoughts on it. You can probably tell by my tone that my first impression is leaning towards unfavorable, but not totally.

Now don't get me wrong, it would be unfair to expect a lot of advanced and intermediate features from this product, I know that. I also know that it'll get better with time and more feedback. In the meantime, there are just a few simple things that I think would enhance my experience with it and would encourage me to use it more.

• Charts. How can you not have the ability to create a chart in your first release? I realize it's not that simple, but there's a whole slue of online graphing components that would easily accommodate this. It would be in there best interest to have this added sooner than later.
• Auto-Fill. If you can't get us a handle on the bottom right of the cell that we can grab to auto-fill a formula, that's fine; but there has to be a better way than copying and pasting cells.
• Click & Drag Cells. It's just nice to be able to highlight a range of cells and click & drag them wherever I want. If I'm working with a large spreadsheet with several sections, copy/paste just isn't fast enough for me.
• Format Painter. I miss my Format Painter. I use it all the time, seriously. Google needs to provide a way to copy/paste just the formatting of a cell.

I agree that these things are petty. Yes, Microsoft has spoiled me; but it is what it is and I make no apologies for it. The hard truth is that little things like this have become a part of my user experience and what makes me productive.

As I eluded to before, making your "day-to-day job easier" is what helps you master your productivity. And though I think being able to share a Google spreadsheet online (a lot!), it is harder to use than Microsoft Excel and a lot of other products like it. An "even easier to use" Microsoft Excel 2007 will only make this worse.

"They killed the File menu, along with all the other menus. They added a giant, weird circular target up in the corner. They actually use part of the title bar as a menu sometimes. They even changed the default font in all the apps. What's amazing is not just that it works, but that it works so well"

I believe that the key to being proficient using any software is not being afraid of it. In other words, you need to take the time to learn what an application has inside and how to use those features effectively. Microsoft Office is not exception. Here's what Stuart J. Stuple said about it in his post called "Ten Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Word" found on the Joe Friend blog:

"Mastering Word isn’t about understanding the architecture or the intent of the designers; it’s about finding the features and shortcuts that make your day-to-day job easier."

The only one I don't agree with is #9 "Show or hide the gridlines for tables." I don't believe knowing about this adds anything important to your reportoire. It's nice to know you can hide gridlines, but you can also use Print Preview to see how a table looks without them, too.

But definitely pay attention to the other nine things he list. If you don't already know about them, you will find yourself more productive by adding them to your Word game.

I'm sure most of you have seen this sentence before: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Some of you may be wondering why it's special. The reason for it's popularity is because it's one of a few unique sentences that uses every letter of the alphabet, which is called a pangram.

In addition to a brief history on pangrams, Jensen Harris shares with us a cool trick in Microsoft Word to automatically generate this pangram in a sample paragraph by typing "=rand()" and pressing Enter.  Check out this post about this trick and to read more about pangrams.

Those of you that have searched online for help on weight loss know that there's are thousands of websites that are more than happy to help you. And for a small fee, most of them offer access to a sophisticated online system that encourages and tracks your weight loss. The truth is that the same tracking system can be generated using Microsoft Excel.

Below is an entry posted by Jeremy Zawodny, who shares a spreadsheet that he used to lose 50 pounds in one year.

Diet Tips or How To Lose Weight with a Spreadsheet and a Web Site

The file is complete with a graph that charts your weight loss, just like the fancy websites. Jeremy also shares with us the simple diet plan he used in conjunction with this spreadsheet that lead to his weight loss.

More often than not, your kids' homework is nowhere close to the kind that you used to get. My kids are no exception; in fact, it got so bad when my oldest son started middle school that we had to get him his own computer. I read an interesting article from an English teacher in Philly.com who says this:

"Students today are a product of an instant-gratification society. Writing a quality paper takes time, and most teenagers aren't willing to make that sacrifice. Like steroids in major-league baseball, technology has become a way for students to cheat - to bypass hard work and cut right to the end result."

I personally think his opinion is a bit general. Besides, in order for this to be true, all schools in our country would have to educate kids that all have easy access to a computer (which I don't think is the case just yet). However, I do believe that the possibility is great if teachers and parents aren't careful. I believe half the battle is staying involved in your child's education - which is no different than 100 years ago; the only difference is that we have the opportunity to use computers as a supplement. 

The word "cheat" is a harsh word for this teacher to use in my view. Most of the time, the child simply needs to be taught how to use a computer properly - like reminding them to use a spell checker, or teaching them the difference between typing a paper for school versus typing an e-mail to a friend. I've made my children retype and edit their schoolwork many times (much to their dismay) because it was sloppy and incomplete. On the flipside, I've been able to teach my children how to make their homework better than it would have been without a computer.

Quite frankly, I think the teacher that wrote this article is a bit too "old school" and needs a lesson on how computers have and will continue to improve our way of life, especially in the classroom. Computers are here to stay; and if we keep looking back to the past, the future will leave us behind. And I'm pretty sure you don't want your chid left behind. I know I don't!

You may or may not have notice new links inside some of my blogs with the dotted underline. If you have noticed them, you may also have noticed that they don't really do anything yet.

We are experimenting with what's called in-text advertising (by Kontera) that adds extra links to other sites automatically based on the site content. I'm trying them out to see how much value they add to my blog site (including revenue). And since my Kontera account was activated just last night, they currently don't do anything. In about a week or so, these links should give us something - hopefully interesting for us.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.

It looks like Google is jockeying for position to make a "go" at Microsoft Office. First, they acquire the online word processing application called Writely in March 2006, then they roll out Google Calendar shortly after that. Now they've introduced Google Spreadsheets in what they call Limited Test, which means that you can sign up to test the beta when it becomes available.

In addition to signing up for a limited test, there's a small tour available to check out some of the features; but it's still too soon to see how it compares to Microsoft Excel. However, I would imagine that the advanced features would be limited but that the basics are good enough for most people. I've signed up, so I'll let you know how I like it as soon as I can.

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.