Gadgetopia

Creating Your Own Research Service for the Microsoft Office 2003 Research Library: Office 2003 has an enterprise search engine built into the apps. Microsoft Office 2003 Editions add a powerful new tool to the Office task pane: the Research Library.By default, the Research Library allows you to type in a ...

Microsoft Revamps Mac Office Packages: "The company this month will ship a 'Student and Teacher' version [of Office] as well as a Professional release that includes Virtual PC."

Microsoft to sell Office, security software subscription for $70 a year: This has been rumored for years. I think it s a response to the growing competition from things like OpenOffice, Google Docs, and the general lagging need for a productivity suite anymore. Office used to be simply required for a ...

Microsoft: Legit Windows or no updates: I found this via Techdirt which comes to the same conclusion I have: the more Microsoft does things like this to prevent piracy, the more Microsoft alternatives will thrive. Aiming to crack down on counterfeit software, Microsoft plans later this year to require customers ...

Microsoft's Mac Hebrew snub prompts Israeli AntiTrust complaint: It seems like a small thing, but this has resulted in a suspension of Microsoft contracts with the Israeli government through the end of next year. "Microsoft's refusal to provide Hebrew support in its Macintosh Internet Explorer browser or Office suite has ...

I'm on one of my "shiny object" tangents lately. The latest thing is non-Microsoft software. I don't know why, but I suddenly feel the need to be all counter-culture-ish and find alternatives to the standbys. I've been browsing with Mozilla all week, and I don't think I'll go back to ...

Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System: No more research for creating bibliographies or footnotes. The Amazon Research Pane download for Microsoft Office 2003 allows you to search for Amazon products from within Microsoft Word or Excel documents, and to insert product information and footnotes into documents and spreadsheets. The ...

Microsoft to debut updated Office program in 2006: I haven't upgraded since Office 2000. Jeff Raikes, the senior vice president in charge of the Office division at Microsoft, said that the trial, or beta, version of Office 12 would be ready by the end of this year, followed by the ...

It's possible to ditch Microsoft Office: I actually used OpenOffice (used as opposed to played with, which I've done a number of times) the other day to write a document. It was fantastic. In many respects, better than Word. I'll admit that a lot of my desire to use Linux ...

Microsoft claims software like Linux violates its patents: I thought Microsoft was trying to bridge the gap to the open-source world lately? This is a really horrific idea. Did the SCO fiasco not warn them off a plan like this? [ ] there s a shadow hanging over Linux and other free ...

Microsoft, eBay hook up software and auction data: Not a bad idea, I suppose. Developers can tap into eBay's data and offer them directly to Microsoft's programs, such as Excel and FrontPage, without having to go through a Web browser. Under the joint effort between Microsoft and Ebay, both companies ...

Microsoft Office 12 Beta 1 Is Out: Slashdot links to all sorts of good information about the next version of Office. The screenshots look good.

Office hunts for new niches: This is an interesting trend for Microsoft, and one we ve written about before. It involves add-ons that customize a product for a certain vertical. The first seven products from the Accelerator Program will focus on specific business segments and tasks: sales proposals, personnel recruiting, quality-management ...

One of the things that drives me nuts about Microsoft is the licensing. The other day, I found myself wishing for a book or a class on Microsoft licensing so I could understand it...then I realized how utterly absurd that was. Understanding licensing should not be a core competency of ...

Microsoft tries free office suite: Utterly fascinating in the crack that it opens in Microsoft s business model. It ll be interesting to see where this goes. Free copies of some of Microsoft s office software will soon be available. The software giant said it would make ad-supported copies of the Works package ...

Good article on CNET on how Microsoft is under pressure in the Asian market. Microsoft has always maintained a 'one-price' policy, meaning Windows costs the same no matter where you go, regardless of local currency or economic conditions. This makes Microsoft products very expensive in some nations. Now, with more ...

German city picks Linux over Microsoft: We've known about this deal for a while, but what's interesting is the lengths Microsoft went to win and was still rebuffed. Microsoft offered last-minute concessions that would have made Windows and Office cheaper than switching. USA TODAY obtained city records that revealed Microsoft: ...

I wonder how long it will before Web-based Office apps trump client-based apps in intranet environments. Slowly but surely, Google Docs has become my default choice when I have to write a document or a spreadsheet. How long before this infiltrates the enterprise? I got to thinking about this when ...

Bye-bye, FrontPage in New Office, Says Microsoft: Could it be? I hope so. Long live Contribute. Microsoft will close the book on its FrontPage Web-design program with the release of Office 2007, formerly known as Office 12, late this year.

Microsoft Office Real-Time Communications Server 2003: Behold Microsoft's new corporate instant messaging platform. "RTC Server enables an enterprise to deploy a managed IM solution with functionality including logging, archiving, file transfer, audio/video conferencing, and application sharing."

Q&A: Microsoft Accelerator Boosts Six Sigma Practices: Microsoft is pushing a set of add-ons for Office and Project that make the software play nice within a Six Sigma methodology framework. For instance: A lot of Six Sigma teams spend an inordinate amount of time creating Microsoft PowerPoint reports, such as ...

Microsoft, Apple Sign 5-Year Software Pact: Some interesting news out of MacWorld. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines ...

BW Online | Apple's Real Worry Isn't the Loss of IE: Good article on the future of the Mac and how it's tied in with Microsoft. "...far more daunting is the prospect of Microsoft abandoning the Mac version of its popular Office software. That's because Apple hasn't yet shown it ...

Tipping the Microsoft Cash Cow Could Be Adobe s Next Move: Apple users will flock to this like they flocked to Safari for two reasons: (1) it s a chance to screw Microsoft, and (2) anything that sets them apart from the unwashed masses is, by definition, better. [ ] the stage is ...

Developers Developers Developers Developers: This is one area where Microsoft has excelled: getting people to build software for its operating system. I have worked in an IT shop with the subscriptions Joel details below. It's overwhelming to have that much software. "If you're a software company willing to commit to ...

OutlookSpy - the Ultimate Outlook Developer Tool: A phenomenal tool if you ever do Outlook / Exchange / CDO programming. This guy also built OfficeSpy if you do Microsoft Office VBA programming. My days of hardcore Exchange programming are behind me, but I so wish they had this tool back ...

7 Reasons Why Microsoft is DOOMED!: I don t normally post things like this, but I read it, and somehow I can t argue with the guy s logic. Name one area where Microsoft is really innovating anymore. The Zune was a bust; the XBox is getting beaten by the Wii on price, ...

Microsoft Millionaires Grapple With Wealth: Apparently those Microsofties that got rich in the boom are having problems "dealing with their wealth." Consider this guy who was a gofer at age 27 and hated his job. Ten years later... "...Thatcher joined one of the iconic clubs of the 20th century. He ...

Microsoft to Acquire Groove Networks, Combining Talents to Create Anytime, Anywhere Collaboration Products and Services: This is kind of a no-brainer. Micrsoft owned 25% of Groove, and it was only a matter of time until Groove got built into Windows. Microsoft Corp. announced today that it will acquire Groove Networks ...

Authenticity of new Bush military papers questioned: The question of whether the damaging military records on President Bush are accurate or not is coming down to a Word formatting question. Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft ...

From Christian Science Monitor: Deciding what kind of software Massachusetts wants to load on some 50,000 state computers may sound like something of interest only to uber-geeks. But that decision could spark a revolution in how software is developed and sold. The Commonwealth wants to adopt an "open document" standard ...

Jon Udell: Exploring Office 2003: Here are some screencaps of the XML capabilities of Word and Excel in Office 2003. The mind reels at the possibilities. Here's something a little more in-depth on the topic from MSDN: Importing XML Maps, XML Lists, and Dynamic Chart Sources in Excel 2003: "Excel ...

On Piracy, or, Nick Bradbury is an Amazing Idiot: This was written in response to Nick Bradbury's bit about piracy from yesterday. ...most people who pirate his software probably would never use it anyway, so they aren't costing him any money and they're providing him with free advertising. This is ...

R.I.P. WYSIWYG - Results-Oriented UI Coming: Interesting post on the future of UI. For the last twenty-five years, one user interface style has reigned supreme: the Macintosh-style graphical user interface. It's now reached its limits, however, and will be replaced by a style that partly reverses some of its most ...

Office 2000 HTML Filter 2.0: This is a handy little tool. Once you have completed editing an HTML document in Word 2000 or Excel 2000, you can use the Office HTML Filter to remove the Office-specific markup tags from the final copy of the HTML document. I took a 45-page ...

Users Blast Microsoft Over Worm Response: Bill's not making any friends in the security community...again. "Widespread problems with the Blaster patch, issues with the Microsoft-supplied workaround, and a general dissatisfaction with the way the vendor handles updates have led administrators and security experts to lay much of the blame for ...

Bookshelf Symbol 7 Font Removal Tool: Do you want to get the swastikas out of Office? Here's the tool. This utility removes the bssym7.ttf font included in Microsoft Office System 2003, which has been found to contain unacceptable symbols.

Microsoft to roll out online versions of Windows, Office: This is apparently a very big deal, but I can't figure out why. I went to the site -- there's nothing really available yet. Windows Live will be offered for free and try to make money from the rapidly expanding online ...

Instant messengers take corporate world by storm: A quick look at IM in the enterprise. This has been talked about a lot, but I've never seen it actually take off anywhere. "...many are awaiting the entry of Microsoft. The software giant already offers consumer-grade IM and included a corporate messaging ...

Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent: It looks like the W3C's trip to the patent office may have paid off. "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has stepped squarely into a fight roiling the Web by agreeing to re-examine the Eolas patent for a browser plug-in, a development likely to ...

City of Austin pilot proves OpenOffice.org works: This is really great news. I'd love to see OpenOffice get more saturation. ...uninstalling MS Office and putting OpenOffice.org in its place on about 300 desktops. The city has more than 5,000 desktops in total. He also pointed out that not everyone can ...

Is Microsoft bribing schools to focus on its software? Interesting Washington Post article on the subject. No one can dispute Microsoft's dominance in the classroom and elsewhere, but that dominance certainly didn't result from quality software. Tobacco companies have been criticized for marketing their wares to hook kids; is Microsoft's ...

Computer makers face slowdown, firm predicts: Gartner is saying that three of the Top 10 computer manufacturers will be gone in two years. I pick Gateway as one of them, given that its workforce has been cut 92% in the last three years. Three of the nation's top 10 personal ...

Patent central to Microsoft case invalidated: And in a complete reversal... The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated a claim to Web browser technology central to a case against Microsoft, a move that could spare the software giant from paying more than half a billion dollars in damages... This ...

What a great idea; from CNET News: A new policy from China's governing body states that all government ministries must buy only locally produced software at the next upgrade cycle. The State Council's move, aimed at breaking the dominance of Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft's Windows operating system ...

Blogger: Download Blogger for Word: I knew this would happen sooner or later. Now you can use Blogger right within Microsoft Word. Just download and install the Blogger for Word add-in and a Blogger toolbar will be added to Word allowing you to: Publish to your blog, save drafts, edit ...

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Microsoft Office Word 2003 Preview: A look at new features in Word 2003 from the perspective of an average user, not geeks like us.

Bullfighter: Stripping The Bull Out Of Business: Too much 1999-ish Internet crap-speak in your documents? This little add-on will give you a "Bull Index" for your documents, so you know just how much crap you're spewing. Bullfighter is software that runs in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, within Microsoft Office 2000 ...

Sun's Mad Hatter takes crack at desktop Windows: They demoed this a LinuxWorld today, so it's back in the news. "Mad Hatter, which Sun first disclosed a year ago, is Sun's effort to dislodge Microsoft and its Windows/Office combination from the desktop PC. Like StarOffice, Mad Hatter will include a ...

Microsoft gets Vista launch off the ground: My prediction is that the world will let out a big, collective yawn over this. The biggest, and broadest, product launch in Microsoft's 32-year history started Tuesday. And the near-term success of the world's largest software maker will greatly be determined on how ...

Worksheet-Server: Run and Consolidate your Spreadsheets over the Web (Excel, OpenOffice, Lotus, Star Office): Now this is something to behold. Build a spreadsheet with all the business formulas and logic you need, then upload it to this server it will be converted to a Web app. Check out the demo ...

One of our clients has started working with some software that uses the MSDE -- the Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine. This is a stripped down, black-box version of SQL Server for people that need a database server but don't want to pay for SQL Server nor need all its super-powers. ...

Essentials : Mark Pilgrim has listed his "essential" software tools for doing his job. I always like to see these the absolute, "can't live without" tools of people who do the same work as me. As the risk of being self-indulgent, here's mine: Email: Thunderbird or Mozilla Mail via ...

Our company is sort of in the market for office space. We have an office now, but we're casually looking for something we'd feel a little more at home in. We've been talking about it, and all of us want the same thing: something very hip, very cool, like...oh, I ...

PureText Home Page: This is a wicked handy. Microsoft Office includes a "Paste Text Only" option between Office applications, but it's really handy to have this system-wide. Have you ever copied some text from a web page, a word document, help, etc., and wanted to paste it as simple text ...

What a great problem to have. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast. My guess is it's not on a PC or Mac. Read more here. ...

Convert PDF, HTML, DOC, TIFF and more: So, your office needs to produce simple PDFs, but you don't want to pay $450 for a retail copy of Acrobat? First, of all, don't pay it because their are a number of alternatives like RoboPDF that are so much cheaper. They don't ...

The Justice Department is moving to block Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft, I suppose arguing that it would create a sort of CRM monopoly. Charles Cooper seems to think Larry Ellison is reaping what he's sown: Setting aside the question of whether Uncle Sam has a case or not, Gates surely ...

I was doing something for my church last night when I came face-to-face with ADO's great support for extracting data from Excel files. So I got to thinking...how about Excel as a content storage system? Let's face facts, offices love Excel. Go to any office, and I promise you they're ...

OpenOffice gets programming kit | CNET News.com: This is really great news. I love OpenOffice, but one of the big strengths of Microsoft Office is that it has VBA, whereby you can change, extend, and essentially re-program the entire application. I'm excited to see OpenOffice go in that same direction. ...

I've waxed poetic about the joys of OpenOffice here before, but here's a really neat trick. Create a "Word" document in OpenOffice Writer, then save it. Now, using an archive tool like WinZip, open it -- unzip it just like it was a zip archive. You should find the following ...

Everything s Coming Up Milhouse: Some great commentary on the state of the Mac. Even though I m generally a Mac hater, I don t disgaree with anything written here. The Mac has never experienced sustained growth at this sort of pace. Breaking this quarterly sales record isn’t a fluke — it’s part ...

Korea launches a switch to open source: They may seem like strange bedfellows, but two announcements this week strengthen open-source in government IT structures: "Thousands of computers in ministries, government-linked organizations and universities in South Korea will replace Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite with open-source alternatives under ...

Let me play industry analyst for a second and explain why I think computer manufacturers are in deep kimshee: Hardware has vastly out-paced software. Besides gaming, there's no compelling reason to upgrade your computer. I'm still running on a 1GHz/384MB machine I had built for me two years ago. I ...

I thought this was interesting... I just wanted to tell you about a hack I experimented on my PC (I didn't really know what to do with it since I bought a Power Mac). It was surprisingly simple: I installed OSX86 and then Darwine. These are both simple operations. Now ...

Grand Theft Auto seen breaking games sales record: Lots of big new gaming titles are going to hit the market in the next month, starting with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas today. At about $50 each, first-week sales of 4.5 million units would equal about $225 million. Should it reach ...

Google takes 'beta' off desktop search: What? A Google tool coming out of beta? How unlike them. The SDK sounds very, very promising. Google on Monday plans to introduce a full version of its desktop-search software, with a developer's kit and support for Firefox and Netscape Web browsers. The Mountain ...

FTC clamps down on stealth pop-ups: I still remember the first time I got one of these. I screen capped it and sent it to my buddies with a note that said, "You won't believe this..." Now it's so common that I shut off the Messenger service on all the ...

Brazil Leans Away From Microsoft: First China, then Korea and Boston, now Brazil. "We have some islands in the federal government using open-source, but we want to create a continent," said Amadeu, a former economics professor who gained fame before joining Silva's team by launching a network of free computer ...

The Development Abstraction Layer: There's a big quote here, but it's worth reading, as it the entire article. This is why I want to work at Fog Creek. A programmer is most productive with a quiet private office, a great computer, unlimited beverages, an ambient temperature between 68 and 72 ...

Here's a thought: there's big money in collaboration apps. Not building new ones, but instead training and motivating people to use the ones they have. Is this a problem in your office? You get Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes or Groove or a packaged Intranet...then no one uses it. You ...

New XML Features in Microsoft Office Access 2003: I've talked before about how Access would make a handy client-side publishing tool, a la Radio or CityDesk. Just this week, I've been doing some Access user interface programming, and I've been impressed with how good it is in that regard. However, ...

Word docs from Movable Type: I have to say that Microsoft is doing some great things with the new underlying XML format in Office 2003 and up. Using that functionality, the guys at Movable Type's Pronet published a simple template that outputs Word ML, and thus creates what's essentially a ...

Onfolio: An interesting new app for organizing information you find online. It'd be better, I think, as a Web-based app rather than a client tool. Watch the Flash presentation here for the quick skinny. My question is, is there a need for this product? In the end, this seems like ...

Can we finally admit that the FrontPage experiment has failed? You know -- the promise that FrontPage will allow novice Web authors to create and maintain (especially maintain) good, solid Web sites? Can we finally admit that this just isn't going to happen? How many people know someone that is ...

I'm a little frustrated with Microsoft and a couple computer manufacturers tonight. You see, I'm owed an operating system, and these companies are conspiring to prevent me from collecting. I had an NT4 server. It was an old machine, and we replaced it earlier this year with a very fast ...

Let's face a fact: computer manufacturers don't "make" anything. They assemble parts they purchased from somewhere else. This being the case, what makes a "good" computer? What's the differentiator between purchasing your computer from HP or Dell? Compaq or Gateway? I've come up with a short list, along with my ...

It's time we extend the robots.txt concept to information about businesses. First, let's take a quick detour into robots.txt for a second In order to tell a search engine how to spider a Web site (or not), webmasters can stick a text file called "robots.txt" in their root directory ...

I changed the URL scheme of this Web site over the weekend. I had been meaning to do it for a while, but some problems with Movable Type 3.2 kind of forced the issue. (I have got to stop rushing into every beta that presents itself...) To make everything backwards ...