Yammer Moments: Work in the open and start making an impact

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AppId is over the quota

Yammer's private, secure enterprise social network is transforming the way employees work together in today's rapidly changing business environment.

Imagine a new kind of workplace, where ideas are shared, information flows freely and every moment is a chance to make an impact. When you work openly with Yammer, this type of transparency and collaboration is possible every day. Working socially doesn't just allow companies to be more responsive, it also enables individuals to find their voices, expand their areas of expertise and reinvent the way they work.

Visit the Moments site to learn more about the ways our customers are using Yammer to make a difference at work. Have a Yammer moment of your own? Tweet with the hashtag #yammermoments to share your story today. 

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Over 25 million active Outlook.com users, and today we’re making it even easier for Gmail users to switch

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"The best reason yet to ditch Gmail" - Farhad Manjoo, Slate.com

Since the new Outlook.com launched in July, the positive feedback has been overwhelming.  Outlook.com was recently named one of Time Magazine's "50 Best Websites of 2012", won PC Magazine's Best Software and Internet Web App awards and has received a number of other accolades around the world.  To date, over 25 million of you are already actively using the new Outlook.com:

We found that about a third of Outlook.com users are active Gmail users trying Outlook.com for the first time.  We wanted to learn more, so we hired a research firm to recruit hundreds of Gmail users - people that use Gmail as their primary email service - and asked them to try Outlook.com.  We asked the Gmail users to sign-up for Outlook.com addresses, forward email from Gmail to Outlook.com, and try Outlook.com's best features.  The Gmail users loved it.  Specifically, they shared the following opinions with us:

They prefer Outlook.com's clean user designOutlook.com does a better job of blocking spam and it outperforms Gmail when it comes to helping manage unwanted messages like newsletters and daily dealsOutlook.com makes it easier to share photos and Office documents

The best part was, after spending just five days with it, 4 out of 5 of these Gmail users said they would switch to Outlook.com.

As millions of people have made the switch to Outlook.com, they've told us about the features that made the transition easier:

Keyboard Shortcuts: customers can choose to set up keyboard shortcuts in Outlook.com to mirror the shortcuts in the Outlook desktop app, Gmail and others.Quick access to search operators: quickly find mail by clicking "/" and then using "To:", "Subj:", etc. Tab/Send: rapidly send messages by clicking the "tab" key from the compose window to automatically shifts focus to the "Send" button Conversation threading: you can also optionally turn on conversation threading (i.e. the ability to see all responses in a conversation via just one view).

But it's still early days.  We continue to listen to feedback on what enthusiasts want next - including making the switch from Gmail even easier - and build those features.  So over the next few weeks, Outlook.com users will start to see these new features in their inboxes:

One-click Archive: from the inbox, select messages and click the Archive button to move the selected messages to the Archive folder (or any other folder of your choice). It's a fast and simple way to move messages out of your inbox to find later.

More and more keyboard shortcuts: Outlook.com has dozens of keyboard shortcuts and we're adding even more. And better yet, we don't need to list them all in this post because you can now find all available keyboard shortcuts by simply typing a question mark when you're in your inbox.

More customization of your inbox: we added several new ways to make your inbox look and work the way you want.

   We added more color themes:

 

We added the ability to toggle between "Reply" and "Reply All" as the default option.  We also heard that, after deleting a message, some people want to return to their inbox and others want to see the next     message. Now you can set that default option, too.  Both options are available via the Options page. 

Outlook app for Android: Many of us use Outlook.com as much on our phones as we do on a PC. For devices like Windows Phone and iPhone that support Exchange ActiveSync, you have built-in support for Outlook.com - no download necessary. Android devices aren't consistent in their native support for Exchange ActiveSync, so starting today you can install an Outlook.com for Android on your mobile phone. The new app is free and works on all Android 2.x devices and higher.

If you're one of the tens of millions of people that have made the switch to Outlook.com, we thank you.  We're committed to making Outlook.com the best email service and we appreciate the feedback you continue to provide. 

If you are a Gmail user and are still on the fence, take a look at our new features and give Outlook.com a try with just a few simple steps. 

Thanks again for using Outlook and, as always, keep the feedback coming.

David Law--Director, Product Management, Outlook.com

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'Tis the Season for Making 2013 Photo Calendars

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AppId is over the quota

Guest blogger Cynthia Hartwig, co-owner of Two Pens (@twopens2), teaches business people how to write social media content from both sides of the brain.)

In the midst of shopping, tree trimming, cookie baking, and a whirlwind of holiday parties, who has time to build a 2013 calendar?

(To download the calendar, click to Word document "Rowing Club Annual Calendar Template" at the bottom of the post.)

I was recently "volunteered" by my rowing pals to make a 2013 calendar to keep our important Conibear Rowing Club regatta dates. You want it when? January 1, of course!

After taking a deep Lamaze-type breath, I turned to the Word' templates on office.com and soon found this beautiful picture-rich 12-month calendar template. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. (You can find lots of other calendar templates on office.com, too.)

The most time consuming part of building my calendar turned out to be picking great photos. I like rowing and photography a lot, so theoretically I had a huge number of photo files to plow through. To save time and sanity, I decided to only look at the photos I had starred for each month of the past year. That way, I narrowed my search down to 12 of my best photos and then chose the images that had something to do with rowing in that month.

During February, for example, a month of rain, wind, and wet in the Northwest, I picked a shot of two of our water soaked rowing rats at the Lake Stevens regatta.

 

In June, Conibear always competes in the Regional Masters competition. Voila! Here's our winning quad yukking it up after their race.

 

All the Word calendar templates come with a pre-ordained space to insert your photos. It'll make your life easier if you check the size of the template's photo box and match your crop size to it. Select your photo, then go to the Format tab on the Ribbon, and select Size.  If you are going to print the calendar, crop to the Absolute size. This template calls for photos with an Absolute height of 8.64" and a width of 7.69"; images this large will print beautifully. If you're not printing your calendar and just plan to share it online, you can select the actual image size shown at the bottom of the box. This will keep your file size smaller.

When you're ready to crop, click Format Pictures and set the size of the crop box to the size the template calls for. Then go through and crop every photo with this setting. My cropping tip is to cut out unimportant information around the edges of your photos. See my post on Word's Picture effects for more tips on this surprisingly robust feature in Word.

In this silhouette shot of early morning rowing, I cropped in to emphasize the water droplets, for example.

Use the Insert from File command to select each month's photo and drop them into the image boxes on the template. If you've cropped at the Absolute size, the photos will drop into the box, easy-peasy. If you've opted for smaller image files, you will have to adjust the size of the image in the space.

Word calendar templates let you replace example text on the days of the month by simply typing in your text. If there's no example text, you can also just start typing on any day. I added important rowing work out and regatta dates.

You can also have fun with trivia or, as I did, with work out tips.

If you are super time-challenged, as I was, you can share your Word calendar at this point and ask for help with the details. I sent mine to our coaches and asked them to plug in regatta dates for me. You could assign someone in your group to come up with all the tips. Spread the joy, I say.

Once all the data is in place, make sure you proof your calendar for errors. Then send it out to your favorite local printer or pick one of the many online printing choices that are both cheap and fast.

A calendar task I thought was going to be complicated and arduous took me a little less than three hours. You may do it in less. And you don't even have to share the fact that Word online templates saved your bacon. Let me know how you think my quickie Conibear Rowing Club calendar turned out in the comments. I'm open to suggestions for who to "volunteer" next year.

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The Making Of A Music Video

Especially with the support of seasoned educators, youth media producers grow and expand their acumen. Youth media isn’t about the absence of adult input, but rather strong behind-the-scenes presence of a facilitator, who empowers youth to make their own artistic choices.

This philosophy drives the work of people like Peter Pheap, an Adobe Youth Voices trainer, educator, and mentor, who facilitates media making at Boys and Girls Clubs in northern California. Peter took a break from his regular gig to lead a one-day workshop at the Adobe Youth Voices Summit 2009. His task was to guide an international group of youth in making a music video. Given the time constraints, good facilitation would be key.

He came prepared – “I brought a few beats with me that some of the youths from my clubhouse made, to see which ones might work best.”

And, as much as possible, he built in opportunities for the youth to make different choices and take ownership of the piece. “I left it up to the teens to come up with their style – whether that is singing, rapping, or spoken words – because I knew that if they couldn’t sing or rap they could at least talk into a mic and read their poem over some music.”

By setting the project up this way, he notes, “the youths felt really comfortable knowing that if they weren’t musically inclined they could still participate.”

“I formed three groups and made sure they took turns videotaping while switching roles so they each had a chance to be the director, cameraman, audio, and talent,” Peter goes on to explain.

To supply a common frame of reference and orient them to the project, Peter showed the students a couple music videos in the styles that his groups have done in the past. He explained the steps of the production process and talked about basic song structure. To “help me facilitate and coach some of the other teens on song structure and writing lyrics,” Peter brought along a young person from his program who he’s worked with many times.

Providing adequate support and advising on the scope of a project are important functions of a facilitator. Given only one day to complete the piece, Peter had to structure the work so that the tasks were achievable, while still very much a youth production. He recalls, “I decided to go with a slower instrumental; it would be easier for the youths who never wrote a song before to catch on and sing or rap to the beat. If I had more time, we probably would have been able to compose and produce the beat during the sessions.”

Also as part of the pre-planning, Peter came up with the topic of “identity” for the music video, which he figured would be accessible but open-ended – and provide the structure they needed to move quickly through the production steps. Each person contributed lyrics for 4 measures, or 8 if they liked.

Individuals in the group had the opportunity to express themselves not only through their lyrics, but also in how they appeared on screen. “I made sure they taped themselves multiple times,” explains Peter, “using the different types of shots that I was asking for, such as close-up, medium shots, long shots, and b-roll.” As facilitator, he endeavored to give them a range of opportunities to shape the final media work. He adds, “once they had their own footage, they were able to edit their part of the music video, and I just pieced them all together.”

When young people have the responsibility to edit their parts, to make choices about their work, it enhances their sense of ownership – and investment in the project. Whether it’s a collaborative music video created in one day (i.e., “Identity”), or a media work months in the making (i.e., “I Am the Difference”), facilitation makes a difference.

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“Making of” einer Photoshop Direkt Folge

“Making of” einer Photoshop Direkt Folge « Photoshop Direkt function clearSearch() {document.search_form.s.value = "";} .fancybox-hidden{display:none}adobe.com      Photoshop Direkt / “Making of” einer Photoshop Direkt Folgeby SvenStaffel 1 (2)  

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Adobe and Dell: Making it Easier for Businesses to Accelerate Sales with eSignatures

Adobe and Dell: Making it Easier for Businesses to Accelerate Sales with eSignatures « Acrobat Blog function clearSearch() {document.search_form.s.value = "";} adobe.com      Acrobat BlogInsights, trends, news and highlights on all things AcrobatAcrobat (51)Adobe (66)Dell (1)Echosign (14)  

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Making Valentine's Day Cards with Word

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AppId is over the quota

I want my Valentine's Day card to be as special as the special someone I'm giving it to, and I'm not so good with scissors and glue. So I'm going to start with a template from Office.com, and then I'm going to customize my card, make it more personal.

First, I find a template. I've decided on this half-fold Valentine's Day card.

But I want it to be redder, so I click the Page Layout tab, and in the Themes group, I click Theme Colors, and then I choose a new color theme.

Next, I want to change the photograph. I don't have any pictures of me that I like, so I look for some clip art on Office.com. I find two that I think will work.

I right-click the existing photograph, and then I click Change Picture.

 

I click the picture that I want to try, and then I click Insert.

Now, the picture doesn't quite fit, and it's in a Picture content control, so I can't make the picture larger than the control. My quick fix is to copy the picture, delete the control, and paste the picture back into my template.

But it moved!

I click the Picture Tools Format tab, click Position (in the Arrange group), and then choose the bottom right option. From here, I can move it up or over so that it's just where I want it. And I can click those little hearts in the corner, click the Drawing Tools tab, and in the Arrange group, click Bring Forward, and then click Bring to Front.

You might be thinking this sounds like a lot of work. I think it's more work to describe it than to do it--and I want this Valentine's Day card to be really lovely. And I'm having a good time.

But this heart made of rose petals is not the right color. I click the picture to select it, click the Picture Tools Format tab, and in the Adjust group, I click Color, and then I choose a different color saturation setting (I choose 66%). Now, my background doesn't look quite right. I click the Page Layout tab again, I click Color Themes in the Themes group, and this time I click Create New Theme Colors. Here's the result:

(You can do this, too--although there are other, better options ahead, which is why I'm glossing over the details. Feel free to skip this part.)

Next, I select the text. On the Home tab, in the Font group, I click the Font Dialog Box launcher, and then I change the font to Gabriola and I bump the size up to 72. And I change what it says.

It's time for the inside of the card. I want the text to match, so I copy the text that I just changed, and I paste it in the text box on page 2 of my template. Then I select it, and I type what I want the inside to say.

 

My card is looking pretty good, but…

I click the background on page 1, click the Drawing Tools Format tab, click Fill Colors, click Texture, and I find a nice pinkish texture to click. But against the new texture, the white text box is a little too bright, so I click it to select it, click Format Shape, and then I set the transparency to 100%. (Note that if you've already saved your document, you might not be able to format the text box.)

Now, I save my document, and my card is ready to print.

It's time to shop for chocolate!

-- Joannie Stangeland

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Making a good first impression

Mind what it was like on the first day of work? For many knowledge workers a new job means endless training to learn new software and a great Lernkurve as they come up to speed on the company computer system. Complicated processes can use unnecessary downtime and lost revenue - and make a good impression not exactly on the talent you have worked so hard to win.

An important advantage of the Microsoft Office 365 is that it simply, new employees makes it on board. No longer must IT administrators to install and configure software on each new employee workstation. Because Office 365 in Microsoft data centers in the cloud is hosted, administrators simply can go to the "Admin Overview" page and add the new user to their Office 365 subscription. It's so easy! Employees can then login to their account and work. What's more is they can do this with minimal training as they use productivity software most of the staff already are familiar.

Among the companies that have improved their onboarding process with Office 365 is Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a / s, a leading provider of image information products. The company, which rely on Lotus Notes, had significant monetary and time costs were preparing new workstations for staff arise. For each new employee spent IT staff of three to five hours to install software and configure systems. Total spent that establish IT Department over 80 hours per month and how to troubleshoot local systems.

These challenges not only in the company's profitability cut; You also frustrated employees. "We offer annual employee satisfaction and our results in the"Very satisfied"category - only about 50 percent, were not what we wanted," says Sune t. Perlman, IT Manager for Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a / s.

To improve the efficiency, Konica Minolta Microsoft Exchange Server implements for advanced e-Mail access together with Microsoft Office 365 for improved communication, exchange of knowledge and remote access.

With Office 365, new employees simply login to your account and work. The only training staff now offer it a short, one hour orientation session on a new user account set up. "We spend up to five hours each employee laptop, set up" said Perlman. "With Office 365 is setup in less than an hour." The staff simply logs in and everything is ready for use.

By moving in Office 365, 80 percent of IT administrators have reduced the it spend, configure and troubleshoot local hardware and software. What's more, the staff are prices satisfaction improvement. "Employees are the backbone of our economy and happy employees mean a better, more profitable business," Perlman said.

To learn more, please consult the full case study of Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark . Also, please share your experience. Has Office 365 improved onboarding experience for your organization? If so, how?

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3 Tips for making powerful presentations of the Government

This contribution to the presentation of Government and other authorities is the second in a series of occasional contributions from guest expert Mike Parkinson's to use PowerPoint in different sectors and for different target groups. Mike is an internationally recognized visual communications experts, multi-published author and partner at 24 hour company, a premier proposal and presentation graphics company. 2 Steps to change the world with PowerPointis titled his first post for the PowerPoint blog.

I am not the only person who grow my business to help with PowerPoint. The Government often requires PowerPoint presentations that can win organization best suited to contracts with a value of millions or even billions of dollars. Many government officers procurement tell me that PowerPoint makes it easier to understand, solutions. In contrast to written proposals Government judges the speaker questions can questions about their solutions and answers immediately during the presentation. Plus they refer graphics, and notes often on slide in their handouts for greater clarification.

PowerPoint makes it easy to use visuals, the learning and retention and also increase the likelihood that the audience with the leader agreed solution and choose there are proven. Often, the profit of the company's solution, people and livelihoods impacts all over the world. I have designed and worked closely in many presentations to the Government, proposing solutions to difficult challenges such as hunger, disease control and the provision of medical aid. Accompanied by well-designed and presents PowerPoint slides, a company's oral proposal evaluators educates on breakthrough solutions and thousands of jobs (opening a new Centre) create, saves lives (assistance to countries in need, first responder solutions, military protection), and help our world be a better place (NASA, NOAA, etc.).

Here are three tips for the presentation of Government and other authorities:

Reflect your audience in your presentation. People are drawn known colors, images, words, and so on. In the following you will find two slides from a presentation in the United States Army. A slide used army images and colors. The balls are focused on their relationship with the army. Slide b uses the Corporation colours and shows business images. The spheres mentioned not the army. The film would be einprägsameren to the audience?

Use a template. Before I create all of the design work on a presentation for a Government proposal, I have a template slide with graphics and text style guides, colors and sample images. For more details, the better. Continue to add icons and update the styles as necessary. Often, I work with a team of designers on a proposal from a fast turnaround. Using a template races helps to consistency and consistency to ensure trust. Choose colors and images that reflect your audience or its goals again, if possible. (White and blue in the title bar below the band-in red, notice.) (Government respond reviewers well to patriotic symbols like the flag, the Eagles, military personnel, etc., so long, how it relates to your topic.)

Make your film profit driven. Close features or content to a specific benefit to your audience a reason, listen and care. Their audience research to find out your film needs to address, what questions. Security their priority, is if built up a new network for remote offices? Cost or schedule the most important factor in providing a new u-boot? Be civilians or military use the product or service? Below is a sample graphic from a presentation to a government agency. We highlighted our functions to facilitate advantages and discriminator, to understand why our solution is the best for our audience.

--Mike Parkinson

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Make the Fun Photos with Adobe Photoshop

We have all been there... you look at your friend holiday photos and you feel you fall asleep of pure boredom. Fortunately Adobe Photoshop can take these dull photos and create some animated shows. You can even take these photos that everyone yawns at and create some amazing gifts that people will certainly love.

While Photoshop has long been regarded as the tool for photographers Professional only one can be surprised that if you take a little time to learn the program you will be quickly able to turn your photos into masterpieces. While learning the most difficult tools, you can always count on the tools more easy, fun to offer what you need to modify your photos.

Photoshop comes with hundreds of tools that allow you to edit and manipulate your photos, here are a few examples of what you can expect to find. Therefore, at the present time, the best solution to discover the most important tools to begin with, is to make learning by viewing the Adobe Photoshop video tutorials

Have you ever wondered why all professional models look so great? Photoshop comes with warping of the tools that allow you to manipulate your photos and, once it is mastered, enables you to add or subtract weights of your subjects, among other things. If you want 12-pack abs, but you do not want to go to the gym all that you need to do is to find this incredible tool and you fool even your mother.

Another tool often used by professional photographers is the finger tool. You want flawless skin? If you have a photo of your face or any face closely, and there are imperfections in the face such as scars, buttons and wrinkles, you can remove them with the smudge tool. This will make watching the subject also younger and smoother face.

If you want to delete objects in your picture or replace origins? The lasso tool to select part of the image and then delete it. For example, if you are standing in your garden you can use the lasso tool to easily select your whole body and cutting of the photo. Then you can paste the object that you cut in another context, such as behind the Arc de triomphe behind windmills or France famous in the Netherlands.

You want to transform your photo into a watercolor? All you need to do is use animations built in filters and your photo instantly transforms in that you choose. Some of the options include watercolour, charcoal drawing, sketch, etc.

Easily insert text or captions on your photos using the text tool. Now that you will never forget who was standing next to you during your degree College or the portion of retirement. Recently divorced but do not want to stir your photos through the window? Easily remove unwanted objects and you will be able to keep all the pictures, less unwanted objects or individuals.

It is only a small part of the amazing things you can do with Adobe Photoshop. Once that you master the basics and dive deeper in the program, you will see that I have only scraped the surface of this powerful program. Take your time and learn how you can transform your ordinary photos into extraordinary works of art.

Have you found this article useful? Curious to learn the basics of Photoshop? Well now you can watch this video Photoshop... What are you waiting? Grab your free video tutorials Adobe Photoshop for beginners today!