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What is that smudge on the Office Ribbon?

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

In the previous post we looked at Office 2007 and the “Mystery Tabs“. Today let’s look at the Ribbon and it’s secret feature.

First, a quick overview of “The Ribbon” – In 2007 the menus are gone and replaced with a tabbed “ribbon”.

The Ribbon is set up in Groups and are organized in families. Things that never lived together before are now all on the same ribbon. For example, in Word and Excel there is a Page Layout Tab that holds nearly everything you would want when thinking about your document layout.

On the Insert Tab, the products all have a “Illustrations” group. This didn’t exist before. It is the home of Clip Art, Pictures, Shapes (which is really the old Drawing Toolbar), and “Smart Art” (which will need to be another post – just remember, it’s all about the bullets), which is a new way of creating diagrams. The idea is that come of the useful, but buried features are being given a second chance to be used now that they can be easily found. In Excel many helpful features were extracted from the buried Auditing toolbar and moved out were they can be seen (and used).

In Office 2007 and 2010 click each tab and look along the bottom of the big, thick bar (Ribbon) for labels. These are the Groups. In the picture in this post (click on the image for a larger view) you’ll see “Adjust, Picture Styles, Arrange, and Size“. These are the Groups for this Tab, and they have a secret.

Secret?

There are lots of ways to modify the clip art on the page. You can add frames, change colors, and so on.. Somewhere on that tab however is a button that will give you the hidden options. You won’t find it unless you have pretty good vision though.

The features are under the “Dialog Box Launcher Button” (gack, what a name). Not every group has them, but the Size Group on the Picture Tools/Format Tab does. Note: if you don’t see that tab, click on the image. See that little grey smudge in the lower right corner of the group? It’s a grey box with a little arrow in it (and is really, really tiny). That’s the button you want. Fun, right?

So? What’s the problem?

Here’s my frustration with this button. Someone looking for hanging indents in Word (without using the ruler) can spend a long time digging around to get the 2003 dialog box to come out. It’s under the button on the Home Tab in the Font Group.

Once you find it you’re fine but it’s not exactly intuitive now is it?

Tags: Microsoft, Office
Posted in Microsoft, Software, Tutorials and Demos | No Comments »

Scooby-Doo and the Office 2007 Mystery Tabs

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

In the previous post, we looked at “The Office Button” briefly. Let’s take a quick look at another feature…

Scooby-doo mystery tabs

One of the biggest changes from a behavioral perspective in 2007′s Office Suite is the new “Contextual Tabs” – what I call Scooby-Doo Mystery Tabs. In short, you can’t see certain content from the main tabs.

If you want the see the details on manipulating a picture you must be touching the picture to get the options for it. If you click off the picture, the tab disappears.

In the screen capture you’ll see “Header and Footer Tools” in green. This is the tab you get when you insert a header or footer. When you click back into the document, the tab goes away. When you want the tab back you need to click into the header or footer.

It’s not a huge problem but it does take some getting used for for a lot of my students.

Just remember: Touch the content you want to change.

Tags: Microsoft, Office
Posted in Microsoft, Software, Tips for Trainers, Training | 1 Comment »

Quick Pro and Con list – Outlook 2011 for the Mac

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

I have been prepping a series of basic Outlook 2011 class that was scheduled to start the day after the software was released. I was lucky enough to be able to use a legal manufacturer copy on a client machine for a few weeks beforehand.

What I am listing here is the general information I’ve gotten from websites and my playing with the software. I have hopes that a few releases will make this into software I really like. As it is, it’s software I don’t actively hate. Much of the information here is loosely based on a wide comparison matrix- Outlook 2011 for Mac vs. Apple Mail, Entourage 2008, and Outlook 2010. Some of it is my opinion but most of it is from my searching other reviews.

If you are an Entourage 2008 user this will be less buggy, especially backups. It IS a 1.0 release so is NOT a fully ready version (no matter what the press releases say). Do I own it now? – Yes. Would I have bought it yet if I weren’t a trainer? – No. However, I expect that after a few of my heavy-duty issues are fixed I will move my home machines onto Outlook.

If you are thinking about switching to Outlook 2011 for the mac you should first do some searches and see what people are saying about the features you can’t live without. If you don’t find issues that affect you, have at it. I find there are so many issues that are missing or broken that I will describe it as a “not-ready-for-primetime” release – which can be said for most 1.0 releases. For me, the biggest issue is that I can’t work without my google calendar. Gmail, google cal, and dropbox are HUGE for me. As of this posting there is no iCal or Google calendar Sync. It is “planned for a future release”.

Pro

Not one Giant DB like Entourage – spotlight search works well. Time machine backups are much, much faster BUT getting a partial restore from a backup is a real pain
Faster than Entourage 2008
Import .pst file from Windows Outlook
Import Rules can be very buggy
It is really easy to add Exchange or POP/IMAP accounts
Has the Win 2007/2010 ribbon (is this a pro?)
Overlay Calendar when viewing multiple calendars
Shows calendar preview in Meeting Invites
Single Inbox option for multiple accounts
Quick Look preview of attachments
Imports International Holidays easily
Valid addresses are easier to see
HasEntourage’s My Day (a way of viewing tasks and some appointments when application is closed)
Scheduling and Mailing List Managers same as Entourage
Search Options are easy AFTER you give up on having separate filters (Filter creates search in the main window – they took away the separate filter/search window.
Redesigned AppleScript directory
On My Computer – Both Pro AND Con. What this means is you can turn on having a “On My Computer” option. This gives you a separate, local Inbox, Calendar, Contact Groups, Tasks, and Notes. This can be VERY confusing for people. If you are using Outlook Web Access then you should be careful. Anything saved to “On My Computer” is local only and will not be available from elsewhere
Meetings still in inbox and not replied to are faded out on mac and easy to spot, not like this on Windows
Better HTML mail then Entourage
Create Meeting from Message

Con

Default Compose setting cant be set at the account level (HTML vs plain)
No Read or Delivery receipts
Newsreader removed
No Plug-Ins
No Switch Identities
No More Favorites bar
No Ruler/Tab Management
No Custom Numbering Sequences
Can’t export .pst file only .olm – what does that mean? You can’t export your mail/calendar, etc for most uses
Smart Folders/Search Folders – folders is the WRONG NAME
No autoarchive, no mbox format
Outbox is temporary only. You can’t keep it on the screen.
Appends signature – does not replace it
Category rename makes duplicates
Recurring tasks and time zones is buggy
NO SYNC SERVICES
No resend
No Edit Message (remove html backrougnd or other garbage on received mail
No Cleanup Text
No Redirect
Send as attachment strips your signature
Autocomplete is buggy
NO Exchange server 2003 or earlier
No Outlook Social calendar
No backstage view (not a con in my view, but was for one source I list below)
No Kerberos
If choice between 2010 or 2011 – 2010 is MUCH better
Pricing is punishing multiple mac users – like me
Conversation View can confuse subjects and mix the view
No Task Status Reports
No Voting Buttons
NO PROJECTS like in Entourage
No Paste as Quotation
No Increase/Decrease Quotes
Filter and Search are the same – this is a loss of functionality from other products
This is HUGE for me – Date Navigator will not select custom days
OH.. and Diane Ross MVP in the forums? Rude.

I dug some of this out myself but the rest I got from the following sites:

TidBits
NetworkWorld
BoyGeniusReport
Addictive Tips
PC Mag
Mashable
NYT – David Pogue
Telegraph UK
Techworld
Macworld
Mac2Microsoft
OfficeForMac
Support.Microsoft
Mac.zicos
TechNightOwl
Liquida

Tags: Macintosh, Microsoft, Office, Outlook, Review
Posted in Microsoft, Software, Tips for Trainers | 1 Comment »