July 13, 2009 in Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
I can’t wait to try this one out.
The web has been abuzz the past few weeks with chatter about Microsoft’s announcement today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans about the new version of Microsoft Office 2010. There’s even a mini-movie about its debut. Facing potential challenges from Google’s browser-based Apps products and its new Chrome OS, Microsoft has been touting its three screens strategy, which is the ability for products to synchronize across the phone, browser, and desktop, for some time now.
With the release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010, we finally see the implementation of Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s mantra. We had the opportunity to see an in-depth demo of the new suite of products from Microsoft’s Group Product Manager for Office 2010, Chris Bryant. Here’s a complete breakdown of all the functionality that has been added, including screenshots:
Most certainly a direct response to Google Apps, Microsoft is rolling out lightweight, FREE, Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. All based in the cloud, the web-based versions of these products have fewer features than their desktop cousins but still give users basic tools to edit and change documents.
Read the entire review here.
May 7, 2009 in Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
I’ve been using a beta release of Windows 7 for a few weeks, and I just installed the Release Candidate on another computer. It works great so far. Use the link below to see if you computer is compatible.
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta
April 3, 2009 in Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
That’s right…it’s now a free product. For those of you who have wanted an upgrade to FrontPage, this could be for you. Microsoft has discontinued FrontPage, so you might want to download SharePoint Desiger and give it a try.
And no…you don’t have to be running a SharePoint server in order to run this product. Any sites you’ve been editing with FrontPage can be edited with SharePoint Designer.
You will need to have a Windows Live, Hotmail, or Microsoft Messenger account, any of which are also free.
Get it here!
December 10, 2008 in Education, Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
I must admit that I have found myself using PowerPoint less and less these days. I doubt it will ever completely go away, but many people still don’t use it properly.
Last week an article appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald entitled Researcher points finger at PowerPoint generated quite a stir. The article highlighted findings by researchers from the University of New South Wales, including John Sweller who developed the Cognitive Load Theory back in the ’80s. One of the findings mentioned in the article: it is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you both verbally and in written form at the same time. Since people can not read and listen well at the same time, the reporter suggested, then this may mean “the death of the PowerPoint presentation.” The assumption being (apparently) that a presentation made with the aid of slideware such as PowerPoint or Keynote necessarily includes lines of text projected on a screen that mirror the spoken word of the presenter.
The article generated so much attention due in part to this quote by Professor Sweller:
“The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.”
— John Sweller
Read the rest here.
September 21, 2008 in Microsoft, Photography by Stephen
For all you serious or at least semi-serious photogs out there. I wish I had more time get semi-serious.
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, view and edit metadata, and more, leveraging the power of Windows and Microsoft Live Local.
Get Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2 Here
August 23, 2008 in Education, Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
If you’re a student, you qualify!
July 8, 2008 in Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
I often find myself needing to reinstall Windows XP or Vista, and finding the right drivers can sometimes be a pain. No longer!
DriverMax is a new tool that allows you to download the latest driver updates for your computer. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Just create a free account, log in, and start downloading the updates that you need.
You can also export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place!
Most of the situations when Windows is running slower are caused by faulty driver installations. Windows stores all versions of older drivers just in case you want to go back; sometimes it messes up older versions with more recent ones. The Export Wizard will only export the drivers you select by copying the needed files to a folder or a compressed ZIP file.
After reinstalling Windows all drivers will be back in place in less than 5 minutes – sparing you of searching, inserting disc after disk and losing precious time. The Import Drivers wizard allows you to install all the drivers that you exported earlier. The entire operation might take up to 5-10 minutes.
Check out DriverMax!
April 28, 2008 in Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
It hasn’t been made available for automatic downloads yet, but you can manually download it at the following link.
April 22, 2008 in Education, Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
Great move by the software giant.
The Microsoft DreamSpark student program makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Broad global coverage, as well as an expansion of the program to high school students around the world, potentially reaching up to 1 billion students worldwide, will continue throughout the next year.
Link to article
March 4, 2008 in Google, Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
I’ve been using Google Documents for a while now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently I tried Microsoft’s Office Live and I really like what I see so far. I could see both of these as quite useful for schools. The following link will give you a good comparison.
February 16, 2008 in Humor, Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
January 29, 2008 in Education, Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
I just got through doing two days of training with a school system on Microsoft SharePoint. Their staff was very eager to learn, and I have become a fast fan of the product since getting trained myself back in December. It seems like it has a lot of application for school districts with easy creation of collaborative sites like wikis and blogs. Also, the shared workspaces lend themselves to project-based learning.
How many of you out there are using SharePoint, or do you know of any school districts that are using it? Please leave me a comment or shoot me an E-Mail at stephenksu at gmail dot com.
October 27, 2007 in Apple, Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
In case you’ve missed it, Apple just released a new operating system called Leopard. Here is a good comparison of Leopard and Windows Vista.
September 18, 2007 in Google, Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
I’ve been eagerly anticipating this one for a while. Mashable already has a good comparison between Google’s new application and PowerPoint. Of course you’re going to get more features with PowerPoint, but Google still has a nice offering.
September 12, 2007 in Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
Now THIS is a great deal.
Office Ultimate 2007 includes the entire Microsoft Office toolset that students are accustomed to working with and more, including Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel(R) 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint(R) 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook(R) 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Access(TM) 2007, Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, Office OneNote 2007, Office Groove 2007 and Microsoft Office InfoPath(R) 2007. Students can find program details and see if they’re eligible at http://www.theultimatesteal.com.
The Ultimate Steal
August 29, 2007 in Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
This is really depressing. Autopatcher was a great site where you could download Windows updates. It was great because you could download an update file and then burn it to a CD or put it on a flash drive. If you needed to update multiple computers, this was an incredibly helpful tool. Well, Microsoft has ordered the site to be shut down after four great years. A sad day for techies, indeed.
August 3, 2007 in Blogs, Firefox, Google, Microsoft, RSS, Tech, Web, iPod by Stephen
Here are some pretty good recent finds. I usually put these in my shared blog, so you might want to take a look there. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for my shared items. If you have your own shared blog, let me know and I’ll check it out!
There. That helped to clean out some of my starred items. Hopefully some of those will help you in your quest to conquer the world.
August 2, 2007 in Microsoft, Tech by Stephen
Excel 2007 is an amazing piece of software, and a very good upgrade over the 2003 version. Here are some great charts to help you find your way in the new version.
May 8, 2007 in Microsoft, Tech, Web by Stephen
I’m sure you’re all aware that Microsoft has discontinued its popular web page editing program FrontPage. The replacement product is called Expression Web, and I have used it for about a week or so. I am pleased to report that it works very well on both XP and Vista. FrontPage was causing all sorts of problems on Vista, so I am very glad that is not a problem with Expression. The interface is very much like FrontPage, so you won’t any trouble transitioning if you choose to start using it.
Here is a very helpful white paper from Microsoft about making the transition. (word doc)
