Should you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010 now?

You use it just about every day, and you suspect you’ll upgrade to the latest version sooner or later.

Whether you do so sooner hinges on whether the changes and new features in Microsoft Office 2010 will make a difference in your law practice.

Faced with a changing world order in which Microsoft’s dominance of the office software market continues to ebb, the Redmond, Wash.-based giant is going on the offensive to reclaim market share. It now competes with free office suites like OpenOffice.org and online alternatives like Google Docs, entering their markets with offerings designed to make “defectors” look again at Office, perhaps even luring them back to the full, installed package.

Microsoft’s biggest competitor, though, may be prior versions of Office which, for many people, are good enough.

In the recently released Office 2010 for Windows (the Mac version will arrive in the second half of the year), Microsoft has not only kept the ribbon from Office 2007 but also put it in all other components of the Office suite, including Outlook.

Do you still use Office 2003 and wonder what the ribbon is? “It’s a sort of ‘super toolbar’ that sits at the top of the window,” explains Matthew MacDonald, the Toronto-based author of Excel 2010: The Missing Manual and Access 2010: The Missing Manual, both for the Pogue imprint of O’Reilly. “Most people find it eventually makes them more productive, but it takes some getting used to.”
MacDonald didn’t mention criticisms of Office’s 2007 look. Microsoft did listen to those criticisms, particularly regarding the “disappearance” of the File menu in Office 2007, which led Microsoft to redo that part of the interface.

“There’s a new ‘backstage view’ where you can take care of file management tasks like opening a recent file, saving or uploading a file, printing, and so on,” says MacDonald.

Jason Brommet, Microsoft Canada’s senior product manager for Office, explains the name. “If your Office document is your movie, Backstage is for the directors, sound crew and so forth.”

It’s also where Office keeps the metadata toolbox, and that irks Dominic Jaar. “I would have hoped Microsoft would understand that metadata is important, it should be up front,” says the Office 2010 beta user and CEO of Montreal-based Ledjit Consulting Inc. “Now it’s even further back.”

Microsoft created new Office gadgetry meant to help people handle media, like photos and videos, within a given Office document. “You can clip two minutes out of a ten-minute video inside Office instead of using a third-party tool,” Brommet offers by way of example.

Outlook has become a hub of sorts, where people can monitor not just email but also Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and other social networks.

E-mail can now appear ordered by conversation, similar to threads used in Gmail or Mac Mail. This feature may help people deal with piles of email on a given topic in less time by helping them focus on said topic.

Jaar isn’t too impressed with this effort, though. “Outlook organizes messages by subject, not a deeper analysis of the message,” he says. “Conversations aren’t ready for prime time.”

Since large numbers of people work in online office suites like Google Docs, Microsoft also offers pared-down versions of its Office applications via the web. This marks a departure for Microsoft in that it will let people view and edit Office documents on computers that don’t have Office installed, and it’s providing this set of tools for free.

“The free Office Web Apps will meet the requirements of people who have modest collaboration needs,” MacDonald says. “But in a professional environment, people usually choose something like SharePoint for document tracking, revisions, change management, workflow, and so on.”

Another possible strike against Office web apps: they store files on the Internet rather than a person’s computer. Canadian lawyers may be wary of web-based applications that make their data vulnerable to a U.S. Patriot Act-based search.

Jaar does use Google Docs for non-confidential information, “but unless the client agrees, I’m not comfortable suggesting people move to the cloud unless the cloud they use is in Canada, where at least they’ll be compliant.”

Whether Microsoft creates smartphone clients matters little. Third-party software developers have offered applications for reading and editing Office documents on handhelds since the early days of Palm, and such tools are still popular.

One ongoing criticism Office continues to suffer stems from its complexity. “There are no macro problems,” Jaar says, “just little glitches that you can turn off. But the switches are hidden deep in the software, so you have to search in help and on forums to find them.”

“It’s the downside of having tons of features, unlike more user-friendly stuff that has fewer features.”

To help anybody who has ever been stymied by the number of versions of Office Microsoft will offer, Brommet advocates lawyers get the Pro Plus package for its interaction between Office client applications and Microsoft’s various servers (like Office Communicator) as well as the information rights management it affords (like defining policies around individual documents or e-mails).

Another server, SharePoint 2010, features Workspace (formerly known as Groove). This feature lets people create offline “workspaces” on their computers consisting of documents (and libraries) that reside in SharePoint.

People can also set up ad hoc workspaces and include collaborators outside a corporate network without calling on IT or requesting a VPN for said outsiders.

Microsoft claims Workspace allows for “real-time” collaboration. The term evokes visions of Google Docs-like editing of a given document by two or more people at exactly the same time, but Jaar disagrees with that perception.

“Contrary to Google, you don’t see the changes live,” Jaar explains. “It’s still like SharePoint, with locked documents. It isn’t yet a true collaborative platform?—?it’s a first-generation attempt.”

Still, Jaar favours Office 2010, if for selfish reasons. “I hope everybody migrates to 2010 since it makes me sick to convert my documents to Office 2003 formats when I collaborate with my colleagues,” he says.

Source: lawyersweekly.ca

How to put music in Power Point Presentation?

Thinking of making Power Point presentation more attractive. why don't you try something new. what about to add some music into it. what say? Strange but yes you can put music into your presentation.

Follow the steps to make your presentation more attractive by putting music on it:

• Choose music file you would like to use. If they are not MP3 file you may use an online music file converter. The speed of this depends on your computer storage and such.

• Open your previously made Microsoft Office Power point presentation. Go to the slide where you want to start playing the music from and select Insert> Movies and Sounds> Sound from a file.

• Search for the music file you would like to use for your power point presentation. You will then see a Pop Up of playing options. Choose the playing option that best suits your Microsoft Office Power point presentation.

• Make a right click on the music icon and select 'Custom Animation'

• Right click the name of your song and select 'Effect Options'. There you may choose what best suits you for the starting and stopping of your song.

• Proceed to tab called 'Sound Settings'. There you select the box that says "Hide Icon During Show". Your Microsoft Office Powerpoint presentation is now ready for showing.

Microsoft Disputes Google's Claim That Office 2010 Lacks Collaboration

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has responded to Google's claims that Office 2010 and Web Apps lack the cloud-based collaboration capabilities available in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Apps and Google Docs.

But Google contends that Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft's updated productivity application suite, and Web Apps, the cloud-based components of Office that features cloud versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, offer only limited real-time collaboration capabilities in the cloud. Most collaborative functions, Google said, are only available via the desktop versions of Office 2010 applications.

Microsoft, however, disagreed, highlighting some of the "co-authoring" capabilities of Office 2010, but stopped short of highlighting its collaborative features.

The Office 2010 represents a significant leap forward, a fact that the 8.6 million users who have downloaded the beta agree with."

Google also took issue with Microsoft Office 2010's pricing, noting that Google Apps Enterprise Edition runs $50 per user per year and includes Google Docs, while Google said Office Professional 2010 runs $499, but there are a host of other added costs like SharePoint 2010 software, client access licenses and other hardware. Vander Mey called Office 2010 costs "complicated" and "obtuse."

Microsoft on Tuesday wouldn’t disclose the pricing for business customers of Office 2010, noting that each Enterprise Agreement is different, but said Office Business 2010 runs $199, while Office Professional runs $349 to $499.

The back and forth between Google and Microsoft comes as the two tech powerhouses battle in the cloud. Google was first to fire, calling into question Office 2010's collaborative capabilities and urging Office 2007 users to upgrade to Google Apps and Google Docs instead of Office 2010. Google also highlighted its acquisition of DocVerse, a plug-in that enables Web-based collaboration within Microsoft Office desktop applications.

Meanwhile, Microsoft dismissed Google's claims that it can seamlessly integrate Microsoft Office documents with Google Docs.

Source: crn.com

Microsoft launches updated version of Office

Microsoft Corp launches an updated version of its Office software on Wednesday, aiming to keep its grip on the hugely profitable business application market while countering the challenge of free online alternatives from Google Inc.

The world's largest software company is upgrading its popular Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint applications, and rolling out its own online versions to keep up with the new class of mobile, web-connected users that have emerged since the last upgrade in 2006.

Most are expecting the Office franchise -- which Microsoft says has 500 million users -- to retain its dominance in the business world. But Office could be facing the beginning of an erosion of its "must-have" status.

"Every time Microsoft releases a new version of Office, they get a bump up in revenue," said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar. "But how big of an upgrade is this? They might have a harder time getting people to update."

Microsoft is expected to trumpet a list of improvements on Wednesday, such as editing photos in Word, using video in PowerPoint, collaborating on documents and managing e-mail conversations in new ways.

But the most interesting facet is Microsoft's move into the "cloud" -- allowing users to manipulate documents stored on remote servers from anywhere -- where Google has been setting the pace.

"They're coming into our playing field," said Dave Girouard, the Google executive leading the company's charge into business applications. "They (Microsoft) have conceded that this is the future and now we think our products and services will get a lot more consideration."

Google Docs -- stripped down versions of Microsoft's core programs -- are available over the Internet with no need to download software. They are free for personal users and $50-per-user per year for companies. Google says it has picked up 25 million users since launching almost four years ago.

That is only a fraction of Microsoft's 500 million, but is growing quickly.

"Word and Excel are pretty secure -- Excel is embedded in an uncountable number of business processes, so that would be pretty hard to rip out," said Tran.

But Microsoft faces more pressure in email and calendar programs, the areas most amenable to online and mobile use, where Google already has a strong foothold.

"Google has made a lot of inroads there. Microsoft is going to face pressure there over time. They are probably going to have to cut prices to some extent," said Tran.

That could put the brakes on one of Microsoft's most formidable profit engines.

Microsoft's business division -- which gets 90 per cent of its sales from Office -- averages around $2.8 billion profit per quarter. That is 47 per cent of Microsoft's total profit so far this fiscal year, second only to Microsoft's core Windows franchise.

Businesses account for the vast majority of that. According to the latest data from tech research firm Forrester, 81 per cent of companies are running Office 2007, compared with only 4 per cent using Google's online equivalent.

A Forrester poll indicates almost a third of existing Office users plan to upgrade to Office 2010 -- which will be available to them from Wednesday -- within 12 months.

Ordinary consumers get the chance to buy Office 2010 next month, at prices ranging from $119 to $499, depending on the level of sophistication.

It will take at least a year before it is clear whether Microsoft has a winner and the extent to which customers are migrating to online versions and lessening reliance on installed software.

"Google is not the threat that it will be once the 'virtual desktop' becomes a no-brainer," said Richard Williams, an analyst at Cross Research, referring to the practice of accessing software over the Web. "That's the time Microsoft really has to worry about."


Source: news.yahoo.com

Windows 7 with Anti-Virus Program

An anti-virus program or software is a critical part of any Microsoft operating system that interacts with other systems, especially if it is connected to the Internet and works with browser, email, or instant messenger traffic. It looks like everyone has his or her favorite anti-virus solution and it is different from everyone else’s. For personal desktop systems, however, there are some rules of thumb that seem to be fairly universal among security experts:

Don’t run two anti-virus programs- Running two anti-virus applications at the same time is just asking for trouble. Whether it is because their real-time scanners fight over access and between the two of them can slow your PC to a crawl, or because one might misidentify virus signature files maintained by the other as actual virus infections, many problems can crop up that make using two desktop anti-virus programs effectively incompatible with each other.
Scan the entire Windows 7 PC- A real-time scanner is not enough. You should also make sure you perform full-system scans frequently, and automate the process with a scheduled nightly scan if possible. Real-time scanners only finds an incoming virus before it infects your PC if it happens to pass through a point of access that the scanner can effectively protect, and even then sometimes something might get through before there is a virus signature available for your Anti-Virus program.
Get Anti-Virus with a real-time scanner- You require an on-access, real-time scanner to ensure that some of the most common infection vectors for viruses and worms are checked live, to prevent an infection from spreading when your system first encounters the virus or worm. Real-time scanning can be a real burden on system performance, and there may be times when you would want to disable it to increase your performance, but you need to be very careful about that. Surfing the Web and checking email are not the times to turn off your anti-virus real-time scanner for extra performance.

Install your Anti-Virus program before connecting to the Internet- Any Microsoft Windows system should have anti-virus program installed before connecting to the Internet. We have seen malware insinuate itself onto a computer in less time than it took to download anti-virus software to use on the system. If you have not seen that, and you use that as evidence you do not need to worry about anti-virus until after you have opened a browser and visited to a Website where you can download Anti-virus software.

Don't trust default Anti-Virus program- Norton and McAfee, once among the most trusted anti-virus programs for Windows users. Now a days, most home desktop security experts recommend that any system that comes with any default anti-virus program get something else installed instead, as quickly as possible.
Other factors can play a vital role in protecting against virus infection, of course. A good firewall good user practices when browsing the Web, checking email, or downloading files and even Microsoft Windows 7 User Account Control can help sometimes.

Spyware Removal without deploying Antispyware Software on your PC

Spyware is basically a software program with an ability to monitor your keystrokes, collect confidential personal information, etc. without your knowledge.
Keeping that notion in my head, I did a little more research and zeroed in on a few symptoms that could easily let me know when my system could be infected with spyware.
• Firstly, pop-up advertisements when browsing through the Internet
• Change in Home Page or search page settings without my knowledge with no option to modify them.
• System running at a slow speed
These symptoms are an indication that my system is infected with spyware. And there is certainly no time for me to ponder or fret over it; I need to get immediate solutions! I generally use a Windows Defender to get rid of this nasty problem. With experience, I have realized that Windows Defender is a good and efficient tool to remove spyware.
Features
What makes Windows Defender my first choice? A couple of reasons, for starters Defender by-default is integrated with all versions of Windows Vista and is also available to download for Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later versions. Even more, it can be downloaded with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later versions as well. Over time, this software has protected my computer from pop-ups and other security threats, eliminated the chances of a slow running system etc. caused by spyware programs by detecting and removing spywares from my PC.
The USP of Windows Defender is a monitoring system known as Real-Time Protection.
Usability
I have used other products in the past but I remain steadfast to Windows Defender because it is user-friendly and is a no-nonsense program. I can schedule the scanning time at my own discretion and yeah, most importantly, if I remove some program unintentionally by mistake, I can always easily retrieve it back. I also like the way the software program continuously runs in the background to safeguard my PC and check for spyware penetration when I am working on something important and don’t have time to continuously keep a check on it. Windows Defender runs automatically in the background.
Limitations
However, Windows Defender might be quite a problem at times because it does not install in every Windows operating systems. It has to be compatible with certain specific hardware configurations and depends on the Windows operating system running in a PC.

Get Latest Laptops and Enjoy Computing

Acer offers a wide range of laptops, notebooks, and desktops and satiates the requirements of both the professionals as well as homer users.
Features:
The latest laptop series- Acer Aspire 8940G comes with dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM support, Dolby optimized Acer CineSurround sound system, Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, etc. This laptop is integrated with Acer Instant On Arcade, Acer Bio-Protection, Acer Crystal Eye, Acer Launch Manager, Acer eRecovery Management, Adobe Reader, NTI Media Maker, etc.
Usability:
With the use of Acer Aspire 8940G, you can get exciting entertainment experience due to the Blu-ray optical technology. You can easily connect with anyone, because of its built-in webcam, stereo microphones, and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Limitations:
While working with the Acer laptop, you can face any technical issue like, blue screen error, system crash, hard disk failure, driver conflict, etc. In such a condition, you should go for Acer support provider, so that, your system can become fit and healthy once again.
In case, you face any technical issue with your Acer laptop, you can contact any service provider for assistance. Many technical service providers offer remote support for all Acer laptops. Services offered through remote support are enlisted as:
• Installation, re-installation, and un-installation of software
• Troubleshooting software errors
• Configuring settings for Office suite, Internet, e-mail, etc.
• PC Optimization
• Data backup
• Virus and spyware removal
All the above services are offered through remote connection. While accessing online support for your Acer laptop, tech expert will access your system via online and will diagnose your system. Thereafter, they will perform the necessary steps to resolve your technical issues related to Acer laptop.

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Antivirus Support
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