We could argue about the values of Word vs. Word Perfect all day. I’ve done it more than a few times. The Office Tips and Hints Blog has a post on the Word vs. Word Perfect shift.
There’s actually a WordPerfect vs Word website. Who knew! You can also checkout the WordPerfect article at Wickipedia.
There’s an interesting thread at Channel 9 about why you should get excited about Vista.
It’s mostly about security. While there are some cool pretty features currently, most of the really cool stuff will be released in later versions.
Links mentioned:
There’s a small snippet from the PC Magazine article “”It’s Impossible to Find Stuff”:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1842991,00.asp.”
Microsoft is even working on something called the brain interface, which uses your brain activity to mold a computer’s behavior to your particular needs. “We’re trying to detect motor cortex activation, when a user is reading, counting, etc.,” says lead group manager Mary Czerwinski. “When we can detect this kind of processing, perhaps [a PC] can present new content in a manner that won’t interfere with those activities.”
A machine that adjusts its behavior according to your thoughts? It doesn’t get any easier than that.
I really hope they get the BSOD fixed by then.
Google’s released beta 2 of the Google Desktop. It’s got a new nifty sidebar (which rjdohnert thinks is a “blatant ripoff” of the Longhorn sidebar), optional integration in Outlook, and more! It’s very spiffy.
Sidebar gives you one-glance access to all your personalized information:
* News: See the latest news headlines personalized to your interests
* Web Clips: Read RSS and Atom feeds from anywhere on the web
* Scratch Pad: Type and save notes for yourself
* Weather: Keep track of weather forecasts for multiple locations
* Photos: Watch a slideshow of photos from the web and on your computer
* Stocks: Keep track of up-to-the-minute prices for your favorite stocks
* Email: Read new email, including Outlook and Gmail, as you get it
* Quick View: Keep a list of frequently used web pages and files handy
There have been several great articles published recently about moving from VBA in Office to VSTO. Here’s a quick list:
Arpan Shaw’s announced the development of the SharePoint Portal Server Discovery Kit, to help customers and partners “understand the value that SharePoint Portal Server provides over Windows SharePoint Services”.
It will contain:
1) A very detailed build book to walk you through building a SPS server
2) A whitepaper and
3) 6 self-paced labs with detailed explanation
It’s not released just yet, though. UPDATE: It’s available for download now.
OfficeZealot has released Podcast #7 in which Chris Kunicki talks with SharePoint MVP Jan Tielens.
John Durant summarizes nicely:
1) A very brief intro to SharePoint
2) Description of what you need to get started with SharePoint development generally
3) Discussion of WebParts and the GAC; deployment issues
4) SmartParts
5) Security
6) Workflow
7) Community resources
8) The value of SharePoint Portal Server
Google’s released a plugin for Microsoft Word that allows users to compose and publish blog entries to a Blogger-powered blog. Now we can finally use all the text-editing goodness of Word to compose and publish blog entries. SO much easier than composing in Word, spell checking, copying the text, pasting it to a Blogger text-area field and publishing. The plugin adds buttons for Publish, Open Post, and Save As Draft. Download it from Blogger.com
ZyXEL’s announced the AG-225H, and boy is it cool! It’s a hotspot detector for 802.11 a/b/g, displays the SSID, signal strength, security and encryption information on its LCD display. As if that weren’t enough, it also doubles as a 802.11 a/b/g USB WiFi adapter with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. It’ll also turn your laptop into a wireless access point. It should be available in September.
Via Lockergnome via RealTechNews
Microsoft’s released five free applications for the Tablet PC. The Education Pack contains:
Most of the attention surrounding the upcoming Windows Vista has been on the sexy things like Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (formerly Avalon) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) (formerly Indigo). Vista goes much further and includes some new tools for IT departments. Anyone who’s dealt with imaging machines and Windows / Office Roll-outs know the pain involved and will appreciate some of these new technologies.
Vista comes with file-based disk imaging technology (see TechNet article for the specifics) It uses the new Microsoft Windows Imaging Format (WIM) image format. Unlike existing sector-based solutions, WIM is file-based. This change allows you to do some cool things.
Here are some of my favorites:
* “Hardware-agnostic.” You can use one image that will work on multiple computer hardware configurations. If you’re responsible for an environment with multiple computer versions and capabilities, this should banish the hassle of maintaining one image per configuration.
* Multiple image files in one WIM file. The WIM format supports multiple images in one actual file. You can have images with and without certain apps (e.g. Microsoft Access).
* Boot from the WIM file. You can specify one of the images as bootable and boot directly from that image.
* Compression and single instancing. If you have three images in the WIM file (image 1, image 2, image 3) that use file A, WIM stores file A once and points image 1, image 2, and image 3 to that single instance of file A.
* Edit the WIM file. As new patches or drivers are released, you can apply those changes to the WIM file (and the multiple image files within). That’s a heckuva lot easier than Window’s process of setting the image file, making sure the right settings are in the profile, using Sysprep, and then creating the image.
* Image partitions of any size. Sector-based imaging applications allow you to deploy the image to a partition that is at least the same size as the source partition. You can create an image on a 60 GB partition and deploy it to a partition of 6 GB.
* Non-destructive deployment. Applying the image doesn’t destroy the existing contents of the drive.
* Command line interface. The XImage application runs from the command line and is relatively straightforward.
* Script to your heart’s content. Use the scripting capabilities of Windows Vista to control the process.
There will probably be additional tools in the resource kit or other deployment packages.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a compound that gets 20% more water out of clothes during the spin cycle. The compound is a 5-to-1 of a particular detergent to softener. The research is sponsored by consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble, maker of Tide, Gain, Era, Downy, Bounce, and Cheer.
Via CNET
CNET reports the National Science Foundation (NSF) has given George Mason University a grant for $307,436 (what an odd number!) to develop a “prototype VoIP-tracing application to provide a ‘critical but currently missing capability in the fight on crime and terrorism.’” It’s already been demoed on Skype and the proxy service Findnot.com.
Savvy users can use an anonymizing or proxy service to conceal their location. Researchers discovered by embedding a unique, undetectable signature in Skype packets, they can identify that signature when they reached their destination. Unlike traditional wiretaps, this research shows the identities of the participants and not the content of their conversation.
I was looking more at the new XML format in Office 12 and what you can do with that. Web services can be huge and do a lot of cool document automation and generation. I came across this article at MSDN
I’m not a database or SQL guy, so my apologies if I butcher this. Here’s what I gleaned from what’s new in SQL Server 2005 as it relates to XML.
* There’s a new native datatype: XML
* XML values are stored in an internal format as large binary objects (BLOB) in order to support the XML model characteristics more faithfully such as document order and recursive structures.
* SQL Server 2005 provides XML schema collections as a way to manage W3C XML Schemas as metadata
* XML instances can be retrieved using the T-SQL SELECT statement. Five built-in methods on the XML data type are provided to query and modify XML instances.
* The XML data type methods accept XQuery and includes the navigational language XPath 2.0
* A mechanism for indexing XML columns is provided to speed up queries. (Query execution processes each XML instance at runtime; this becomes expensive whenever the XML value is large in size or the query is evaluated on a large number of rows in a table. )
* XML schema information is used in storage and query optimizations.
* Users can store both relational and XML data within the same database; the database engine knows how to honor the XML data model in addition to the relational data model.
* The existing FOR XML functionality has been enhanced in several ways. OpenXML’s (think: Office 12) functional enhancements consist of accepting XML data type in sp_preparedocument and generating XML and new SQL type columns in the rowset.
* Data is validated (against a XML schema) during insertion and modification according to the target namespace of each top-level element.
* During query compilation, XML schemas are used for type checking and static errors are issued for type mismatch. The query compiler also uses XML schemas for query optimizations.
* Almost all of the W3C XML Schema 1.0 specification is supported.
* You can create logical XML Views of your relational data using SQLXML mapping technology. An XML View, also referred to as a “mapping” or an “annotated schema,” is created by adding special annotations to a given XSD schema.
* Once you’ve created a XML View of your database, you can query that view as if it were an actual XML Document using the XPath query language.
* Two new ways to access SQLXML functionality have been added:
** SQLXML Managed Classes
** SQLXML Web Services
From the Conclusion:
* Server-side features include a native implementation for XML storage, indexing, and query processing.
* Existing features such as FOR XML and OpenXML have also been enhanced.
* Client-side support consists of enhancements to ADO.NET to support the XML data type and the SQLXML mapping technology Web release enhancements have now been incorporated into SQL Server 2005.
* The XML data type provides a simple mechanism of storing XML data by inserting XML data into an untyped XML column.
* XML data type preserves document order and is useful for applications such as document management.
** It can also handle recursive XML schemas.
I love FabriKam 3.1. I’ve always had a hard time finding the right user account to use, though. A lot of them are pretty locked down (which is a good thing). The solution? Use BrianC / P@ssw0rd. This is Tip number one from John Peltonen.
If you’re not familiar with FabriKam 3.1, it’s a Microsoft Office learning / testing / play virtual machine (it requires VirtualPC 2004 or Virtual Server 2005). It’s an instant working environment that includes Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2000, BizTalk Server 2004, Office 2003 Professional Edition, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, Visual Studio .NET 2003, and all of the custom solutions and components, and have an instant test environment for learning about these solutions and components.
It’s a free download if you’re a MSDN subscriber. If not, you can order it on DVD.
Time for another stroll down memory lane, this time from eWeek (and Microsoft Watch, also here)
MS Office 12’s Secrets Begin to Trickle Out
The release dates are way off (no surprises there). Here’s the list of confirmed and speculated servers:
I was poking around the archives for other nifty Office tidbits and rediscovered this article from CNET News.com:
Microsoft wants servers to drive Office sales
Here are the salient points:
“It’s been clear for a long time that they are really at a state of diminishing return when it comes to adding features,” DeGroot said—particularly when additions are not evident to the end user, he added.Adding features that depend on linkages between desktop and server software drives additional server revenue, particularly products such as Live Communications Server that are not widely used, he said. Richer features also allow Microsoft to continue offering an Office-centric alternative to Web-browser based client software, he added.
Office is “going to be a platform for applications. People are comfortable with Office in general so you can extend it a little bit and all of a sudden you have data flowing in and out. It’s not just a Word document any more,” Gerontianos said.
I think it more likely Microsoft wants Office to generate server sales, particularly the SharePoint Portal Server, Live Communications Server, InfoPath Forms Server and upcoming Office server(s). At the same time, with the move to Office Open XML and the release of the IBF 1.5, Microsoft is creating new playing fields for third-party applications and solutions. That always makes developers happy.
Microsoft has posted session abstracts for the 2005 Professional Developers Conference sessions.
Here are the Microsoft Office ones:
The Microsoft Office System gives developers the means to create solutions for communicating, collaborating, analyzing, authoring, and making decisions that leverage XML, Web services, and the .NET Framework. This track highlights the new investments in client programs, Windows SharePoint Services as the foundation for Office server products and client collaboration features, Visual Studio Tools for Office, and the wide array of server and client technologies that make up the next generation of the Microsoft Office System.
I posted earlier about the Microsoft Information Worker / Office 12 challenge. The deadline is November 1, which would suggest Beta 1 won’t be available until after that time.
Steve Ballmer’s said Microsoft will release high-end, higher-priced versions of Office and Windows starting with the next release (CNET News.com). Windows XP is an example of a “premium” version. There will also be an Enterprise edition released at some point (I’ve lost count of the number of Windows versions that might be available). Ballmer didn’t mention what features would be included in the premium versions.
There’s apparently an “Office Server that carries with it an additional fee for each computer that accesses the productivity software”. That would really allow Office to be a subscription service. In addition to the Office server, Ballmer’s said “we have servers people haven’t even written rumors about.”
I wonder, does the 64-bit version count as a “premium” edition?
If you’re a Microsoft Certified Parter and complete the Information Worker (IW) Solutions Competency by November 1, 2005, you’re eligible to receive Beta 1 of Office 12 (MS Website).
Microsoft Certified Partners and Gold Certified Partners who join the Microsoft Information Worker Solutions Competency gain access to special learning opportunities such as early access to software betas, guidance on deploying information worker solutions, access to relevant online partner resources, and invitations to solution-focused webcasts. Take advantage of the latest technologies and partner-exclusive trainings offered by Microsoft, and help gain better customer visibility through the numerous Web presence and marketing opportunities associated with membership.
[From TS Tidbits]
Microsoft released Messenger 5.0 for Mac. Download
They snuck in a bunch of stuff. Here are the highlights:
John Durant posts about WordProcessingML and support for CALS.
I’ll leave the real discussion to John. Here are some auxiliary links, though.
CALS stands for Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistic Support (from Tim Berners Lee proposal for the “Global Hypertext Project” in 1989 quoted on XML.com)
CALS definition from a post by Betty Harvey at XML.com:
The CALS initiative was a DoD initiative. The CALS standards were developed by tri-service working groups which included the Army, Navy and Air Force. The CALS table model was a result
the military standard of MIL-PRF-28001C. CALS table model was adopted by DOCBOOK, as well as TEI, ISO 12074, AECMA, ATA, etc. because it was the only comprehensive table model available universally.
Anil Dash wrote an article for SixApart last year about using Movable Type to create a Microsoft Word document via WordML (download the schema from Microsoft).
It looks like the template on the SixApart website went missing. You can download the wordml.xml file it references here.
Ed Bott has a post about XML support in Office 2003 vs. Office 12. Anil posted a comment about Movable Type’s ability to create Word documents.
Jerry Dunietz, an architect who worked on XPS, give a video demo of XPS. You can read more about it on Channel 9.
The product formerly code-named “Metro” is now the XML Paper Specification (XPS). You can read the Metro Specification and Reference Guide (ah, the good ol’ days when it was still “Metro”) and read about how it’s integrated in Windows Vista
To ensure cross-platform portability and device independence of XPS-based packages and XPS Documents, the XML Paper Specification is open and publicly available.
I love that. “So we can continue our quest of global domination, we’ll let you create documents using our specs and products that work with documents using our specs.”
It actually gets a little complex. There are both XPS Packages and XPS Documents. The “XPS packages are programmatically created and accessed through the packaging model.” Their physical format under Windows Vista is a ZIP file. XPS Packages also contain metadata, which “describes the content and use, and is discoverable (along with its package structure) through the XPS package APIs.” Sounds like a good place for “bad” (i.e. potentially sensitive) metadata to live.
The XPS Document is a “specific implementation of an XPS package designed to address the information worker’s requirements for distributing, archiving, rendering, and processing documents.” It is application independent and does not require the original program to view or print (like a PDF). It’s very, very integrated into Windows Vista:
Effectively, the XPS Document defines the default electronic paper object for Windows Vista, and is a native spool file format in the Windows Vista print architecture, as well as the native Windows Presentation Foundation print output.
(Windows Presentation Foundation was formerly known as “Avalon”.)
I don’t quite get this part:
The XPS Document uses a well-defined and fixed-format layout, including pagination for its content, while still allowing for forward- and backward-compatibility with versioning, or extensions for other value-added scenarios.
I’m fine with the “fixed-format layout” and pagination. I’m unsure what exactly the “versioning, or extensions for other value-added scenarios” entail. It’s backward-compatible with what exactly?
What’s lacking from all this is its impact on Office 12. Office 12 does not require Windows Vista to run. Will it be able to read/write XPS Documents?
This is totally random, but Microsoft has a website for Professional Photography with Windows XP. Cool.
Microsoft has released a new PowerToy, for Windows XP. The
SyncToy v1 Beta is available for download from Microsoft’s website (after you do the genuine Microsoft Windows test, of course).
Microsoft’s description:
SyncToy v1 Beta helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers quickly and easily.
Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve files. There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to move files from one place to another; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping a mental card catalog in their heads. Others use one or more applications of one sort or another to provide this functionality for them.
Now there is an easier way. SyncToy is a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without adding complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of directories at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.
System Requirements:
* Microsoft Windows XP SP2
* Microsoft .NET Frameworks V1.1
* 1GHz Intel P3 processor or equivalent
* 256MB RAM, 512MB RAM recommended
* 20MB free disk space
* Screen resolution set to 1024×768 or higher
I just stumbled upon this post by the InfoPath team.
Highlights:
Nifty!
Skype Voice Calls (as MP3), Instant Messages, Email, Appointments, Contacts all organized and under control in Outlook!
Skylook works in Outlook 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Microsoft has released a new Add-in for Office 2003, Outlook Calendar Views.
The Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Calendar Views Add-in makes it easy for you to view your Outlook Calendar appointments through a filter that is based on Outlook labels and categories. For example, you can create a view that shows you only the appointments on your calendar that are labeled Must Attend, or are categorized as Important.
You add filters by using the Calendar Views toolbar, which opens in your Outlook Calendar after you install the add-in.
One of the 30 new WSS Applications released by Microsoft is the Legal Document Review.
This application for Windows SharePoint Services is for company legal departments to post legal documents and templates, communicate requirements and processes, and provide contact information. It also features a legal document review tool for managing, prioritizing, and tracking employee requests to review contracts and documents.
A preview can be found here.
Microsoft has released 30 new WSS templates. Office Zealot has descriptions and download links. There’s also a website that shows off the new templates. So much easier than downloading, installing, testing, and then uninstalling the ones you don’t want!
Microsoft has a good document describing the differences between two similar VM technologies, Virtual PC and Virtual Server.
Brian Jones has posted an example Word document in the new XML format. Actually, he released a ZIP file with three formats of the same document. You can download the ZIP file here: http://jonesxml.com/resources/BasicDocument.zip Let’s look at the three files and their contents.
Basic Document.doc is the familiar legacy binary. We can see the text, formatting, hyperlink, and embedded image. This should be well in your comfort zone. You double-click; it opens in Word. If you open it in a text editor like notepad, you get the binary “gibberish.”
The Basic Document.xml is the same document in WordML (generated from Word 2003). Again, it’s pretty typical. We have the familiar WordML schema with all the relevant tags and the encoded binary (the picture). You double-click; it opens in Word (eventually; it probably has to go through IE first). If you open it in notepad, you get a legible XML document as you would expect.
Basic Document.docx is obviously the new Office 12 XML format (the .docx is a dead giveaway). Opening this file in notepad returns binary “gibberish.” The new Office 12 XML format is actually ZIPped XML. Open Basic Document.docx in WinZip. (You might need to rename it Basic Document.zip). You should see one XML file [Content_Types].xml, and three folders: “_rels”, “docProps”, and “word”.
Office uses the same ZIP conventions of the new Microsoft Metro Spec. [Content_Types].xml is kind of a “table of contents” for the ZIP file. It allows you to quickly see what’s in the file.
The _rels Folders tell you what the relationships are between the different document parts. (I’m going to leave the more technical explanation to Brian.)
docProps contains two XML files: App.xml and Core.xml, both of which contain what we consider to be metadata. App.xml contains the document properties such as attached template, number of pages, words, and characters in the document, etc. This is the equivalent of the “Statistics” tab on the Document Properties screen. (File | Properties)
Core.xml contains more of the document properties such as document title, subject, author, keywords, last editor, number of revisions, date created and date modified. These are basically the same fields as the “Summary” tab on the current Document Properties screen.
That certainly makes it much easier to see what metadata is in the document and presumably removing it, too.
The Word folder has all the good stuff. documentProperties.xml is a lot of the stuff from Tools | Options that gets saved with the document such as the view of the document (Normal view, Print Layout view, etc), the zoom setting, and the compatibility options.
I presume fontTable.xml it’s the font substitution table.
styles.xml contains all of the styles and style definitions in the document. I’m guessing it’s really the styles used or defined in the document. This document only has the Normal style, Heading1, DefaultParagraphFont, and Hyperlink styles defined.
wordDocument.xml is the document itself. It has all the text and basic layout info (paragraphs with their associated styles and direct formatting, where the picture goes and its properties, etc.)
This folder contains the embedded image as a standard jpg.
Of course, a lot can change between now and the actual release. We’ll have to wait for the first beta to be available or Brian to release more sample files to see what else is really going on.
Microsoft has released the Microsoft Office Word 2003 Redaction Add-in. Redaction is simply blacking out (not to be confused with legal blacklining) sensitive or confidential blocks of text in a document so it can be released. Unlike deleting the text, redacting retains the pagination and formatting of the original document.
Here’s how Microsoft describes it:
The Microsoft Office Word 2003 Redaction Add-in makes it easy for you to mark sections of a document for redaction. You can then redact the document so that the sections you specified are blacked out. You can either print the redacted document or use it electronically.
Sensitive government documents, confidential legal documents, insurance contracts, and other sensitive documents are often redacted before being made available to the public. With the Word 2003 Redaction Add-in, users of Microsoft Office Word 2003 now have an effective, user-friendly tool to help them redact confidential text in Word documents.
It allows you to show/hide the redacted portions in the original document so it can remain a live document. The document with the blacked out text is “published” as a new document. It’s great for created printed documents or PDF documents.
However, it does not remove metadata from the document. While the text is irrevocably “removed,” document statistics and other properties are carried over to the redacted document. If you want to distribute the redacted document in Word format, make sure you run it through your metadata removal tool!
I love Microsoft OneNote. It’s the one Office app I think is terribly underused, probably because it’s only sold separately. For those who do have OneNote and want to know how to really use it, Microsoft has an online training video.