What we do matters

This is a great time to be working in technology. Instead of being the geek that works quietly on who-knows-what in the cubicle at the end of egghead row [yes, that's where my office was years ago :)], what we do on a daily basis helps connect people to disaster relief, enabling us to send donations--instantly--via text message, making collaboration possible on climate change, and much, much more.

I heard something on NPR this morning that shined a light on the importance of something very simple--like spell check. You can visit the NPR site for the full article, but this idea elicited a "wow" from me on my predawn drive taking my son to school:

One reason, State Department official Patrick Kennedy told the Senate Judiciary Committee, was because someone misspelled the suspect's name after his father reported concerns about his son to the U.S. Embassy. As a result, the concerns were not added to Abdulmutallab's visa information. Kennedy said the State Department now has a version of spell-check software available to check names after visas are granted."

Lives at risk because of a misspelling? That's what it sounds like. Thank goodness the plan was thwarted and people are now looking at the situation from all possible angles. It has become a teachable moment: a big one. But it does underscore the importance of the work we do on a daily basis and shows that even those tiny, seemingly unimportant details can make a much larger impact than we may know at the time. (The Word equivalent to a butterfly flapping it's wings in China, I guess.) Something to think about, at any rate. :)

Telling Word 2010 what to do

Okay, this is really cool. A few years ago Word promised speech recognition (I can't remember which release that was now...maybe Office XP) and, as those of us who tried it soon realized, we spent more time teaching Word how to recognize our voices than we actually spent accomplishing anything. Not too surprisingly, speech recognition as a feature within Word faded away with a subsequent release as "a good idea, but..."

Yesterday as I was working on a new chapter in the upcoming Microsoft Word 2010 Inside Out, I tried using Windows Speech Recognition in Windows 7. After a little tutorial and a couple of how-tos (a total of about 10 minutes), I was dictating content directly into my chapter. Very cool, and almost completely pain free. I won't dictate text as a matter of course (as a piano player, I like to type), but it was exciting to see the feature working so well. It's also a nice backup in case I wipe out on my cross-country skis sometime this winter and need to give a banged up wrist a little rest. :)

If you haven't yet tried speech recognition in Windows 7, give it a try. All you need is a suitable microphone, and Windows 7 does the rest. There's still some training involved, and every once in a while the thing won't know what to do with your words (the software still translates "as you can see" as "as you can C"), but the feature is worlds better than it was a couple of years ago. It just may save you a little time and trouble--and perhaps breathe some freshness and fun into that Word content you create day in and day out. :)

Download the (free) First Look Microsoft Office 2010 ebook

Houston, we have lift-off! :) I just got word that First Look Microsoft Office 2010 is live on the Microsoft Press blog. Please feel free to download and find out about the latest and greatest features in Office 2010.

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting a few pieces about favorite Office 2010 features. You may have heard about the video editing features in PowerPoint, sparklines in Excel, Artistic Effects throughout, the customizable Ribbon (wahoo), and much more. Good stuff! And I think the features will appeal both to new users and those who've been at this a while (and like their UI the way they like it).

Enjoy First Look Microsoft Office 2010, and if you haven't yet downloaded the beta, you can get it here.

Technology's getting smarter :)

Well, as you can probably imagine, I've been up to my eyeballs in Office 2010 for some time now. I love the new features--very smart, very flexible, and they make your work look better faster than ever before. I was always a big fan of the Ribbon (love the open, artsy changes) but this Office puts it a little more under our control. Nice. Plus a number of the features bring some big-impact effects directly into my favorite apps, which is a great perk and timesaver. If you've been on the fence about upgrading from Office 2003, take a close look when the public beta becomes available--the features here are smart, flexible, and freeing. (No kidding--I'm all about working on the fly so I can have free time when I want it.) :)

In the meantime, be sure to visit these blogs from the in-house folks at Microsoft. There's lots of good info on new features, both background and how-to:

• Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering (not as boring as it sounds)
  
• Word team blog
  
• Excel team blog
  
• Powerpoint team blog
  
• Publisher team blog
  
• Outlook team blog
  
• OneNote blog from David Rasmussen (tired yet? lol!)
  
• SharePoint Workspace team blog
  
• Access team blog
  
• Office Web Apps (oh yes they are!)

Enjoy the links and get a glimpse at the beta as soon as you can. It's worth a good solid test drive and a few trips around the block.

Wake up your folders!

I am working on something that is just too fun and creative for the boring folders I usually have littered all over my desktop for easy access. I know, I know--don't lecture me. :)

I decided to change out the folder icon to reflect something a little more lively. The project is called Kids Love the Earth, so I went looking for some kind of Earth image (and found one). Here's the process, in case you want to shake up your own ho-hum folders and make things a bit more interesting:

1. Right-click the folder you want to change.
2. Click Properties.
3. In the Properties box, click the Customize tab.
4. Click the Change Icon button toward the bottom of the box.
5. Scroll through the oh-so-colorful selection (much nicer than that boring folder icon, isn't it?) and choose the one you want.
6. Click Apply and then OK.

Now you're creativity is really going to ramp up. Be ready! :)

Where'd the styles go?

Have you ever started working on a new document (or one a colleague sent you), only to discover that some of the styles usually in the Styles gallery are missing? This is a simple fix--they are really still there, but they're hiding. Display them by following these steps:

1. Click the small extender button in the lower right corner of the Styles group (on the Home tab).

2. Click the Manage Styles button (the button on the far right at the bottom of the Styles palette).

3. In the Manage Styles dialog box, click the style you want to display, and click the Show button (toward the bottom of the dialog box), and click OK.

The style is now in the Styles gallery and will show up like normal for you when you need it. :)

Office 14 wish list item #23

It's possible that I'm a bit of a pushover, but I really do love Office 2007. I've worked with Office since Word was DOS-based (no kidding--and at the time I thought the Windows version would never catch on!) and Office 2007 really does live up to a lot of the promise we heard about when it first came out of the blocks.

But. I've been working on a presentation this morning (something I enjoy doing but don't get the chance very often) and I'm almost done, but the chart legend on a new custom chart I created is giving me fits. For all the easy, find-what-you-need context-driven features in Office 2007, the text controls for charts need to be welcomed into the new, inclusive Office UI. I'd rather not have to select each individual element and go through a different text process for changing and applying custom formats.

To get the kind of font change you want in the legend, for example, you have to right-click the text item (there's no Legend Text choice in the Format Legend dialog box, for some reason), choose Font, and then make your choices from an imposter Font dialog box. The whole thing just seems weird to me. And it wouldn't let me select all the legend items at once--I had to do it one at a time.

Yes, it may seem like small potatoes, but the process is clunky and counter-intuitive, and I just spent way too much time trying to get the chart legend to look the way I want (and now, complaining about it. LOL!)

Leaning into the next is an important part of human progress, though, so I guess it's time well spent. :)