Archive for office application
Remove Duplicate Outlook Contacts
Posted by: | CommentsI recently decided to sign up for Plaxo (still don’t know if that was a good idea). Plaxo is yet another social networking site that will take you away from doing real work 
. After signing up, you can then sync your Outlook address book with the on-line Plaxo address book to have ‘in the clouds’ access anywhere. So I chose to do this and then when I went back to my Outlook contacts, wa la, I had two of everybody in there. Great.
Of course, I googled my problem and after sifting through many results, I found the below which worked like a charm. Many thanks and please go to Tech Recipe for graphics and the step-by-step instructions. Instructions without graphics are below.
Another way to find and eliminate duplicates is to export your contacts into a .csv file, open them in excel and do a sort by name. I like this method when I know I have several contacts with the same name, but with different information in them. It’s a bit easier for me to consolidate all the entries into one while looking at them in excel. When you’re finished, simply import them back into Outlook.
Directions
1. Open your Outlook contacts
2. Click View, mouse over Current View and select Phone List. This will create a list of all of your contacts in a column based view.
3. Right-click a column header and select Field Chooser from the resulting menu.
4. In the Field Chooser box, use the dropdown and select All Contact fields.
5. Select Created.
6. Drag Created to the Column Headers to add it to the list. Close the Field Chooser box.
7. Now click on the newly added column header (Created). This will sort all of your items by the date that they were added to your Contacts.
8. Scroll down to the first contact in the list that is to be deleted and select it.
9. Scroll down to the last contact that is to be deleted. Hold down the Shift key and select this contact. This will highlight all of the contacts that you are going to remove.
10. Press the Delete key. The duplicate contacts will be removed.
11. Click View, mouse over Current View and select the view you normally use for your contacts (such as Business Cards).
12. Your Contacts should not display any duplicates.
Tree Style Tab-Organize Your Browser
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I’m doing research or work for clients, I often have a need to open many browser windows. I would find the more windows I had open, the less productive and more scattered I felt.
I just recently heard about this great add-on from Firefox called Tree Style Tabs. If you’re not using Firefox, this is a great reason to do so.
Here’s what it does:
- tabs are neatly organized along the left side of the screen and are readable (you can also opt to have tabs displayed on the right, top or bottom)
- If you click on a link within a site, the new tab opens up right underneath the first site tab. It’s slightly indented, showing you it’s related to the one above.
- Groups of tabs can be expanded or collapsed as you wish
- Easily drag and drop tabs to organize them
- You can choose to hide your tab sidebar
- Easily organize multiple projects by grouping tabs together
- no more rows of cluttered tabs at the top of your screen
I’ve been using it for about a week now and my desktop seems much more uncluttered and organized now. I especially enjoy how readable my tabs are and how multiple pages from one site are grouped together so neatly.
Tree Style Tabs does work best if you have a wide-screen monitor. I installed it on my husband’s computer, but he quickly complained it took up too much real estate on his monitor, so I simply changed the tabs to appear at the top.
If you want to see a quick look at the tabs in action, here’s a minute & a half video that will give you a tour.
The New Facebook Pages
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve been hearing about the changes coming to Facebook and now they’re here! Those of us having both a personal profile and a Business Page had a double whammy trying to figure out what happened and where things went.
This post will focus on what’s new with Facebook Pages. I’ll first go through the various new features and explain what they are and how to find and use them. Then, I have some great links further down from the Duct Tape Marketer and Mashable as well as a link to a Business Pages guide Facebook has published you can download.
Key New Features
- Enhanced Wall – this is a huge change and makes Facebook more ‘twitter-like’, according to many bloggers. This is the place you can post pithy & pertinent updates about what’s happening with your business. Big take-away: These messages are then streamed to your fan’s newsfeeds which means your messages and updates will be viewed by your fans without them having to visit your page. You can direct someone to click on a particular tab at your site to read about an upcoming event or special promotion you have.
- Tabs have been added – similar to the personal side of Facebook. Use them to organize and customize your site It’s rather like a mini-website. Have a video, picture, notes, events tab and keep content fresh. I believe sometime in the future, you will have the ability to name your tabs.
- Boxes – think of this as your very own customizable module. You can activate ‘Facebook Static FBML app, or use your own html skills here. You can add up to 10 boxes and use them for designing your own forms, etc. The boxes section also contains a Discussion area and Reviews – where your fans can post comments about a product, your site, or whatever. Your Favorites (pages you are a fan of), are also in this section.
- Stats for your review – Facebook gives you a page of stats relating to number of visits, people who have come and gone as a fan from your site.
- Facebook Pages are searchable and are indexed by search engines. Pages are also viewable without having to be logged into Facebook, but to interact with a page, you do need to be logged in. This isn’t a new feature, but worth noting.
Where Are the Pages?
You’re logged into Facebook and you want to find someone’s page (or even your own page)—but how do you get to them? I’ve seen several ask this question – both before and after the update. Here’s how:
Click on Public Profiles
- Type the name of the page you’re looking for in the search box
- If you are a fan of a page already, you will see the Public Profiles flag under your news feed from your home page. Click on that to be taken to the pages you are a fan of.
- If You have a page either published or in the editing process, look down at the lower left hand corner when you’re logged into Facebook and click on the little facebook icon to be taken to your page for editing/updating, etc.
click the little icon
Conclusion
I keep hearing stats—175 million on Facebook. When someone’s logged in, they spend an average of 20 minutes on the site. Why not build a page for your business and let your friends know about it?
If you decide to build or enhance your current page, you will be challenged. Things to think about include:
- how to keep your page fresh. It’s rather disappointing to visit a page that hasn’t been updated for months
- how to update your wall (and feed your friends and fan newsfeeds), without becoming annoying
- how to adjust page settings to allow for just the right amount of fan interaction
Resources
While researching this article, I came across two great articles and a guide by Facebook that you’ll want to read for yourself.
Duct Tape Marketing – Informative Blog article on Facebook pages
Mashable – great summary of what’s new with the Facebook pages
Facebook – I was excited to find this 10-page guide published by Facebook in pdf format. Feel free to download or share
Please post any tips or insights you’ve found while using Facebook pages!
Microsoft Small Business Live – Open, Share & Save Documents From Your Computer
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Microsoft has been refining and upgrading their ‘Live’ series of offerings the last few months. This article will focus on recently revamped ‘Microsoft Office Live – Small Business’. Just visit the Office Live site and you’ll be introduced to a cornucopia of options. You can set up a website, set up an e-commerce store, purchase a domain name and then set up various e-mail accounts using the new domain name. There is a contact manager, an e-mail marketing feature and newsletter creation and mailing (paid subscription for these).
We will focus on a free and very useful function I found while exploring this site—the ‘Share Documents’ feature. Looks like Microsoft is competing with Google here as they are offering a place to store, share and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents. From the above menu of items, click on the ‘Share Documents’ and you’ll be taken to your Workspace site where you can upload documents for sharing, collaboration or storage. Check this out for full details on everything you can do with your workspace.
I liked the fact that I can upload multiple documents at once by clicking one file, holding the shift and selecting consecutive files. It does not upload folders, however. Once I’ve gotten my documents uploaded, I can create different workspaces to share with different groups (or just a single person). It’s easy to move my documents to new workspaces and flag documents for sharing. As you’re setting up to share, you decide if the recipient will be an owner, editor or viewer. I really like the choice I have to send my invitation to someone and they don’t have to sign in or create an account to view the documents. Don’t you just hate getting something from someone and in order to see it, you have to get your own account!
I like this interface much better than Google Docs. It seems to be more intuitive and just makes more sense, at least to me. Over on the right side of the document screen, you can check out the activity in your space. You can see who has made changes or uploaded any more documents – very handy. Click on the ‘Comment’ box and leave a note for a co-worker.
Microsoft has a collaboration feature they call ‘Shared View’. You can read more about this application, which you can download and use without using the Live Small Business site. Click on the ‘Share’ button and select the option to share your screen with someone. You’ll have to have the app installed on your computer—you’ll be prompted for what to do. After it’s installed, you can initiate a sharing session with anyone right from Word, Excel or PowerPoint – nice.
I’m saving the best for last! The coolest feature and a huge timesaver is that you can save a document directly to your on-line live workspace right from your local Microsoft Office application. This means when you’re working on a document in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, click the save button and you’ll have the option to save either to your local drive or your small business live workspace in the clouds. You do have to install this add-in to be able to do this. It works with Office 2003 & 2007. It’s really great – can’t do that with Google Docs!
I first set up a Windows Live Account before I set up the Small Business portion and I was pleased to discover that I can access either of these areas by going to http://home.live.com/ and signing in. I did notice once I get into the Small Business section and I’m in the documents section, I don’t find a way to navigate myself back to my top level, or home page. This is annoying. I wish they would have some menu items at the top to get me where I want to be!
Next week, we’ll look at the ‘Outlook Connector’ and what that can do.
Microsoft Outlook Mail Tools- Back-up & Repair PST/OST Files
Posted by: | CommentsSince I’m using Outlook all day, everyday, it seems inevitable that things will go wrong from time to time. Here are two tools I use to help keep things running smoothly and to back up my mail files:
Microsoft Back-up Tool
Microsoft In-Box Repair Tool
First, we’ll talk about the Back-up tool. I don’t know why Microsoft doesn’t include this tool when Outlook is installed (works with 2002, 2003 & 2007), but it doesn’t. So go here read through the brief instruction set and download and install the program.
Before getting the backup file download, you may have to install the anti-piracy plug-in (office genuine advantage tool), so Microsoft can assure themselves you aren’t a pirate.
After the download is complete, close Outlook and install the software. Then, after opening Outlook, go to the File menu and you’ll see a new menu item called “backup”.
Click on it and you’ll see the below box.
Here you can choose to backup your main pst file, your archive files and whatever other mail files you may have. You can choose how often to backup and where the backup will be stored. I would strongly suggest you backup these important files in a couple of places (using Carbonite, Mozy, or an external hard drive). If your hard drive goes down and that’s where your backup is, it won’t do you much good! Another thing to remember – the backup tool won’t
run unless you exit Outlook. So, if like me, you hardly ever close your Outlook, set a reminder to do so regularly so a backup can be made.
Microsoft In-Box Repair Tool
This second tool will scan and repair your mail file. Ever go to open Outlook and it just won’t open! It’s happened to me and it created quite a bit of anxiety! Whenever I get these lovely cryptic messages from Microsoft, I google them to see if anyone else out there has had the same problem and I can usually find the answer from a fellow blogger.
This tool does come installed with Outlook (2002, 2003, 2007), but is buried deep within your folder structure (see below for location). To use this tool, you will again have Outlook closed and then navigate to the correct folder and double click on either the application .ost or .pst to scan the file type you wish. Then, you’ll need to navigate to where your mail files resides and select that and then click ‘start’. The tool will begin running and go through the check. When it’s through it will let you know how many errors (if any), were found and then you have the option to back up your file before it does its repair. After the repair process is complete, start Outlook and see if your file will open.
I hope you’ll give these tools a workout. I’ve found them to come in pretty handy. It’s worth noting that if you don’t have a pst file that represents your outlook file, you won’t be able to restore your mail files. So it’s important to have regular mail backups in place. In addition to using the back-up tool, I use the free and popular Gmail IMAP feature so I can access my Outlook from either the web interface or my desktop client. I blogged about it here. Redundancy is good.
Below are detailed instructions on how to use the In-Box Repair tool (from Microsoft).
Quit Microsoft Outlook if it’s running.
Run the Inbox Repair Tool
1. Click Start and point to Find, or Search, depending upon your operating system.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type scanpst.exe.
3. Double click the Scanpst.exe file to open the program.
4. Type the path and file name of the pst file, or click Browse to locate the file using the windows file system.
5. Click Start.
Sometimes many errors will be found and you’ll have the option to back-up your file before repairing. After the repair process (usually very fast), start Outlook again and hopefully, your file will open for you.
At the Microsoft link given above, continue reading for instructions and information on more detailed information if you need to do additional repair work on your mail file.
Outlook Tips – Customizing Views and Message Folder Count
Posted by: | CommentsI use Outlook 2007 and really like the upgraded look and what it can do for me. It can be a powerful allay in getting and keeping me organized. I have a huge book on my desk I refer to called, “Outlook 2007 Inside Out” by Jim Boyce, Beth Sheresh & Doug Sheresh. It seems a week doesn’t go by that I need to refer to it because a client has an outlook issue going on.
Most of us are comfortable with the default layout of Outlook, but there are many customizable views you can set up. For example, I have mine set up with no auto-preview, but I have a a right-side autopane view turned on. So when I’m at my in-box and have my curser on a message, I can view it on the right side. This is but one way to customize your view. Play around with it – here’s how to do it:
Go to View>current view>define views. A table will open and from there you can click and customize how your message will appear. To dig deeper in this menu path, click on the ‘modify’ button and then ‘other settings’ – from there you can set the font size for viewing your emails (make it easy on your eyes!). There are options for the reading pane, auto-preview, setting column widths, etc.
If you need to make a quick setting adjustment –say you want to quickly see all the messages you haven’t read do this: View>current view>unread messages. Other choices from here include:
Autopreview
Last 7 days
Sent to
Message timeline (this puts all your message horizontally by date – looks impressive!)
Define views – more customization features here!
How many emails do I have in this folder?
Do you want to know how many emails are contained in each of your folders? Here’s how to do it:
Right-click on the folder and go to properties. You’ll see two radio buttons – one choice is to show the number of all items in the folder. The other is to show unread items in the folder. Select one and then you will see a number next to each folder you do this to. From this screen, you can also check on folder size –you don’t want them getting too bloated.
OpenOffice
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I’ve been playing with my EEE this past week and I mentioned in last week’s blog posting that I was going to try out OpenOffice to check out its features. That kind of fell by the wayside as I was checking out the features of the computer instead! So I’ve been looking at other blogs and reading what others are saying about it. Below are a couple of places that I’ve explored and they have some great observations and comments – so check it out.
This one talks about the upcoming 3.0 release and there are quite a few comments highlighting both the pros and cons of OpenOffice v. Microsoft office. These mainly focus on the Writer app within OpenOffice.
http://www.oooninja.com/2008/03/openofficeorg-30-new-features.html
This link takes you directly to the OpenOffice site where they have links to discuss the features of all the apps. Now this is for release 1.0, (version 2.4 was just released), but I found it a great starting place to get acquainted with all the products.
OpenOffice.org vs. Google Apps
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I blogged way last summer about Microsoft Office type replacements (see May & June, 2007 posts). Back then we discussed ThinkFree and Google Apps. Now I have a reason to really look at OpenOffice.org. I just ordered the extremely small and sweet Asus EEE computer and it comes loaded with OpenOffice.org. I’m very happy to be ‘forced’ to use both Linux and OpenOffice software! Now Microsoft still has a place in my life – on my business laptop!
Version 2.4 was released just last week and offers many enhancements to make working in the OpenOffice.org environment more robust and well, more Microsoft-y! You can read the release notes here: Reading through them, it seems that if you are a pretty experienced Office user (as I am), then you may think to yourself, “well, that’s nice that they’ve added a page down feature from within the print preview menu, but I think I’d expect that”. I’m not trying to belittle the enhancements – I’m sure my perspective would be different without my Microsoft background.
Since OpenOffice.org has been around for about 20 years now, there is an extensive and comprehensive help section complete with forums and user manuals. If you’re a group, you can even talk to them about coming to train your people.
Thinking of some differences between Google and Openoffice:
- Google apps is on-line – Openoffice isn’t. Advantage OpenOffice! (footnote:Google just announced they will have a way for users to download and work on documents offline. Only for docs – not the other apps)
- There’s a lag time when opening docs on-line vs. on your hard drive. Advantage OpenOffice
- Google docs are great for uploading and sharing in real time with someone else – not OpenOffice. Advantage Google Apps
- Google docs are available to you anywhere you have an internet connection. Not so for OpenOffice (unless you have off-site storage)
Suite Features:
OpenOffice Google Apps
Writer Docs
Calc Spreadsheet
Impress Presenter
Draw (drawings, flowcharts, etc.)
Base (database program)
There are so many comparisons that could be made. It comes down to what it is YOU need. If you don’t collaborate, you probably don’t need Google Apps. If you have some old computers around and would like to be able to do some word processing or calculating, OpenOffice.org would be perfect for that. OpenOffice also has a couple more packages than Google. However, neither of them have calendaring/email built right in and all in the same place.
I’ll post more after I get my EEE computer!
Computer Security – Protect Your Computer
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So you’ve got a new computer and are wondering what you need to do to be secure while on-line. Computer security is a Big Thing – there’s lots of ‘bad guys’ out there trying to get in your computer, infect it or make it part of a bot-net.
Here’s what to do – in order:
1. Run Microsoft Update on a new or newly acquired computer – you want to be sure to have all the latest patches and fixes. Then turn on automatic updates.
2. You need a firewall. Vista has a pretty good one – turn it on. XP’s isn’t as robust. You could download the free version of Zonealarm and install it. I’ve used it and found it does interfere quite a bit with going about my normal business.
3. Next, install an Antivirus program. I strongly discourage Norton and McAfee. Although they have a strong brand reputation, they are memory and resource hogs and will gradually choke your system down to a crawl. I’d go with the free Microsoft Security Essentials or Nod32 from Eset (costs around $30). They do a great job and aren’t resource-hungry. Remember to install only ONE Antivirus program as they don’t play well together.
4. Then you’ll need some Anti Spyware protection. Again, there are many great free programs out there. It is OK to install more than one of these programs. I recommend and use Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad Aware. When you do your searches for these, make sure you select the listed programs. There are other programs with similar names that are out there.
5. Secure your network. If you’re wireless, be sure to set up WPA or WPA2 encryption. WEP is worthless. Directions should be with your router, or check out www.komando.com for great step-by-step information on this topic.
What’s REALLY On Your Computer – Belarc will tell you!
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Wondering what’s lurking on your computer’s hard drive? Had your computer for awhile and it’s getting hardening of the arteries? Do you do computer troubleshooting and need to know what’s on that machine without having to sift through all the folders within windows explorer?
I’ve got to look at a friend’s computer this weekend. I’m going to download the free program from Belarc at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
I’ve used it with my own systems and found it a great resource. Here’s what it’ll tell you:
- all software programs installed – including your windows system PLUS it gives you your product key (very useful!)
- status of your windows updates and anti-virus status
- details of your CD/DVD drives
- motherboard, processor, graphics system & memory details
The program is downloadable (and FREE). Install and run it and it will post the results in a web page for easy viewing and printing. Try it today!
