California and Microsoft Sign CJIS Security Policy Agreement

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AppId is over the quota

As more and more state and local governments are looking to centralize and adopt cloud productivity solutions across their various agencies, including law enforcement, the need to meet unique requirements like the FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Security Policy become increasingly important. CJIS stands for Criminal Justice Information System. The CJIS Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation operates systems that provide state, local, and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies throughout the United States with access to critical criminal justice information including, personal information such as fingerprint records, criminal histories, and sex offender registrations.

A key requirement law enforcement agencies will place on their cloud service provider is signing the CJIS Security Addendum.  By signing the CJIS Security Addendum, the cloud service provider agrees to comply with the security policies required by the FBI. California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) recently determined that Microsoft Office 365 has implemented technologies and processes that will enable the agencies that use it to meet the latest FBI CJIS Security Policy requirements (CJIS Security Policy version 5.2). This means that government customers in the State of California such as City of San Diego, City of San Jose, City of Oakland, Santa Clara County, and San Mateo County can now have their law enforcement agencies use Office 365 as their cloud productivity solution and comply with CJIS. California becomes the fourth state after Texas, Illinois and New York where Microsoft has signed the CJIS Security addendum.

We are committed to investing in technology, processes and partnerships to win our customers' trust and help them comply with an evolving set of US and international standards which includes but isn't limited to ISO 27001, HIPAA, FISMA/FedRAMP, FERPA and EU Model Clauses. 

To learn more about Office 365 Security, Compliance and Privacy please see the Office 365 Security, Compliance and Privacy blog. You can also learn more about the California DOJ's decision by visiting the Microsoft in Government post.

View the original article here

Review: LibreOffice 4 liberates you from Microsoft Office

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AppId is over the quota
LibreOffice 4.0 If your needs don't include macro and programming compatibility, this office suite might just wean you away from Microsoft.

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If you're feeling like an overtaxed and unappreciated serf in Microsoft's kingdom, LibreOffice 4 might just offer the freedom you seek. An extremely capable office suite, LibreOffice 4 is also highly configurable, extensible, and cross-platform. It supports OS X and Linux in addition to all flavors of Windows. It's also free—not an insignificant attribute for most of us.

I'm writing this article using Writer and enjoying every moment of the process. For pure writing and editing, it's simply more in tune with my methods than anything else I've tried. I don't miss Microsoft Word's pitiable grammar checking one bit. Writer's grammar checker is better, and the spell checker and other tools are also top-notch.

Writer is enough like Word that the transitional learning curve is minimal, and I've yet to find an important feature missing. Indeed, it has some of its own, such as the predictive word assistance similar to the one Microsoft has on its phone software, but has never bothered to implement it in Word. It offers only one word—not a choice of several, as Microsoft's does—but it is handy on occasion.

LibreOffice Writer is a stellar word processor and highly compatible with Microsoft Word.

The one thing that's truly held me back from Office alternatives over the years was lack of support for Word's Track Changes feature, which is a mainstay for many writers and editors. Writer fully supports revisions and presents them in more tasteful default colors. One feature I do miss is the Word's formatting paintbrush, but I don't miss it enough to go back.

Bloggers and website writers take note: Writer supports HTML, and if your content management system supports the CMIS interoperability standard, you can user Writer to edit your CMS entries and articles as well.

Calc proved a very pleasant surprise by loading every Excel spreadsheet I have and mimicking the formatting perfectly. I'm heavy on the conditional formatting and Calc does it better than Excel, extending it and recalculating automatically when I copy in another row. Excel requires manual intervention.

The one disappointing area of Calc is macros. Calc has its own capable macro and programming language, but it's largely incompatible with Office's VBA, so I had to redo the range names and macros for my hardware ratings sheets. But from there it was easy to attach them to the button objects I employ for sorts and the like.

Note: Calc retains VBA macros when it saves files in Excel format, unless you tell it not to.

Base is capable enough that I'm seriously considering moving my invoicing system over to it from Access. It has all the basic features, including forms, reports, SQL, and relational multiple table support.

LibreOffice Base is a relational database.

It can connect to external databases, including those from Microsoft Access. Base doesn't import Access forms and reports, but its form design wizard and editor are good enough that recreating them is a not an unduly tedious task. Subforms are supported so you can display multiple tables in a single form.

LibreOffice Base easily connects to Access tables.

Base requires Java for its own databases. However, as a front end for external databases such as the Access database I used in my hands-on, Java is not required.

My test database had only about a thousand records, so I can't say how well Base scales. Feature-wise, it's strictly an end-user database. There are no means to make a database run as a standalone.

Impress didn't display some portions of PowerPoint presentations imported, so in that regard it was one of the less successful modules in LibreOffice.

LibreOffice Impress has impressive presentation creation capabilities, though PowerPoint compatibility isn't quite 100%.

However, Impress is quite facile at creating presentations, and it exports to PDF, which is the format I see most often these days. PDFs don't require proprietary software, namely PowerPoint, to render. A design wizard and a decent collection of nice-looking templates help to get you started.

Both the Math (formula rendering and shaping) and Draw applications are capable. I found the Draw program and its myriad shapes and objects particularly useful and easy. You can also use the Draw app to create presentations.

LibreOffice's interface is enough like Microsoft Office's that few users will have trouble adjusting to it. It also give you complete control over the contents of menus and toolbars, as well as the actions invoked by keyboard shortcuts. This makes it easy to emulate a program you might be more familiar with, or to streamline your workflow by hiding features you don't use. Personally, I decidedly do not miss Office 2010's window-obscuring menu, poor organization of options, and too-many-clicks interface.

The only time you'll see LibreOffice's launch app is when you first open it. Subsequently, you can open any module from within any other module by selecting New File.

As much as I like LibreOffice, I do have some minor gripes. I do not like the mixing of document types in the recent files list in all the modules. When I'm in Writer, I want to see Writer documents, not the database files and spreadsheets I've been working with. At the very least, they should be divided by type. On the other hand, I like it that LibreOffice provides other types of documents under the “New File” heading. Yes, some reviewers are just hard to please.

Note that the inline help is a separate download. There are also a lot of very nice guides available for download as well as extensions that add capabilities to all the modules.

Where Microsoft seems focused on changing the look of its products and optimizing them for tablets, LibreOffice is improving basic functionality and efficiency with an eye for the desktop. It's not perfect, but neither is the competition. Document compatibility with Office and just about every other standard is so good that the average user can make the switch without qualms in that regard.

On the downside, macro and programming incompatibilities in Base and Calc will be a problem for some, and there will undoubtedly be a feature missing here or there that some user just won't be able to live without.

But put aside those years of disappointing alternatives to Office and take a look at LibreOffice 4. Really. I mean really as in click on the download button and install it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

View the original article here

Microsoft turns Siri against Apple in hilarious new Windows 8 ad

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AppId is over the quota
Windows 8 Professional $200.00 Windows 8 isn't for everyone. If you're mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you're a mobile user who needs easy access to the...

After coming out swinging a few days back with a Surface ad that focused on Office, Microsoft has a new ad that confronts the iPad head-on. And here’s the crazy part: it’s surprisingly amusing.

The commercial is a takeoff of Apple’s iPad Mini piano commercial. In the Microsoft version—entitled “Windows 8: Less talking, more doing”—the company pokes fun at Apple’s personal digital assistant Siri, all the while showing off the advantages of a Windows 8 tablet over the iPad.

“Sorry, I don’t update like that,” Siri says when the disembodied hand often seen in Apple commercials tries to get Live Tile updates from the iPad’s grid of icons. “Sorry, I can only do one thing at a time,” Siri chimes in again while a Windows 8 tablet shows off the Snap feature that lets you view two apps at once.

Finally, in what sounds like a moment of digital exasperation, poor Siri says, “I guess PowerPoint isn't one of those things. Should we just play Chopsticks?” Fade to pricing. Hey look, the Windows 8 64GB tablet is $250 cheaper. The message is clear: The iPad is a child’s toy next to a full featured Windows 8 tablet running Microsoft Office; it’s cheaper and it’s better.

Now, forget all the things that are wrong with this ad. Even though Microsoft hasn’t released the oft-rumored Office for iOS yet, Apple offers its own presentation software—Keynote—that opens PPT files just fine, and the iPad can work with PowerPoint Web apps in a pinch.

Also, the iPad is certainly a lot more useful than Microsoft’s portrayal suggests, and it starts at $500, not the $699 mentioned in the ad. The 64GB version is $699, however, and that's how much storage the Asus tablet shown in the clip packs in.

But the commercial is amusing and informative about the advantages of Windows 8—and that’s what's effective in advertising.

Apple’s “Hi, I’m a Mac” ads portrayed the Windows PC as a product for pencil-pushing buffoons. It was a distortion, but it was amusing and it enumerated many of the Mac’s selling points over a Windows PC. Again, that’s what counts.

Microsoft may lose points on originality since this ad is a spoof, but the company’s latest run of commercials is impressive for a firm that has a terrible track record when it comes to marketing. Who can forget the completely meaningless Seinfeld ads that started in 2008 or the oh-so-lame I’m a PC campaign from 2009?

But this iPad vs. Windows 8 ad makes you wonder how long Microsoft plans to hype the iPad as an ‘Office-less’ device. After months of reported sightings and speculation, Office for iPad is rumored to show up in fall 2014, according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley. Is Microsoft just trying to get a few digs into its longtime rival before it’s too late, or does this ad suggest a change in tactic that may keep Office off of iOS indefinitely?

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Microsoft confirms Windows 8.1 (a.k.a "Blue") will be free

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AppId is over the quota
Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Microsoft tempts XP laggards with $84 upgrade discount

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AppId is over the quota
Windows 8 Professional $87.99 Windows 8 isn't for everyone. If you're mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you're a mobile user who needs easy access to the...

Microsoft kicked off a new promotion aimed at Windows XP customers, who have just one year to ditch the 12-year-old OS before it’s retired from support.

Small- and medium-sized businesses still running Windows XP and Office 2003—the latter also will be retired a year from Monday, on April 8, 2014—can purchase licenses to Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard at a 15 percent discount, Microsoft said on a promotional website.

Caveats apply: Customers must be running XP Professional, the Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard licenses must be purchased as a package via Microsoft’s Open License program, and the deal is capped at 100 licenses for each. The discount is good through June 30.

Microsoft pointed customers to a list of partners who will offer the Open License discounts.

On its Open License website, Microsoft quoted $188 for each Windows 8 Pro license, and $373 for each Office 2013 Standard license, for a total of $561. The 15 percent discount would lower each Windows-Office combo by $84 to $477.

Microsoft also again banged the XP retirement drum today in a pair of lengthly blog posts, which included links to documents and tools designed to assist migration. Those blogs also explained the impending end-of-life, and repeated well-rehearsed reasons why customers should make the move.

In those blogs, Microsoft also mentioned Windows 7 as a destination for XP users, tacitly acknowledging the reality that most firms have moved from XP to the proven Windows 7. Few companies, analysts have said, are interested in Windows 8, in part because they have either just wrapped up migrations to Windows 7 or are in the process of doing so.

But because Windows 8 Pro licenses include downgrade rights to earlier versions of the OS, including Windows 7, businesses that purchase the former can instead install the latter, assuming they have installation media or Windows 7 images at hand.

Microsoft faces a tough job as it tries to push customers off Windows XP. According to statistics from analytics company Net Applications, 39 percent of all personal computers, and 42 percent of all Windows PCs, ran XP last month.

The long decline in Windows XP’s usage share has also stalled since the first of the year, slowing to a fifth that of the past 12 months’ average.

Projections using Net Applications’ numbers now suggest that XP will still power a third of all Windows-based systems when the 2014 date ticks by.

After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will not supply Windows XP with security patches, putting PCs still running it at risk from attack. The only exception: Enterprises which have purchased custom support plans. However, Microsoft has boosted prices of those plans. Some corporations have been quoted $1 million for the first year of after-retirement support for 5,000 XP systems, $2 million for the second year and $5 million for the third.

View the original article here

Microsoft tried XP laggards with $84-upgrade-discount

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Windows 8 Professional $87.99 Windows 8 isn't for everyone. If you're mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you're a mobile user who needs easy access to the...

Microsoft kicked off a new promotion aimed at Windows XP customers, who have just one year to ditch the 12-year-old OS before it’s retired from support.

Small- and medium-sized businesses still running Windows XP and Office 2003—the latter also will be retired a year from Monday, on April 8, 2014—can purchase licenses to Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard at a 15 percent discount, Microsoft said on a promotional website.

Caveats apply: Customers must be running XP Professional, the Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard licenses must be purchased as a package via Microsoft’s Open License program, and the deal is capped at 100 licenses for each. The discount is good through June 30.

Microsoft pointed customers to a list of partners who will offer the Open License discounts.

On its Open License website, Microsoft quoted $188 for each Windows 8 Pro license, and $373 for each Office 2013 Standard license, for a total of $561. The 15 percent discount would lower each Windows-Office combo by $84 to $477.

Microsoft also again banged the XP retirement drum today in a pair of lengthly blog posts, which included links to documents and tools designed to assist migration. Those blogs also explained the impending end-of-life, and repeated well-rehearsed reasons why customers should make the move.

In those blogs, Microsoft also mentioned Windows 7 as a destination for XP users, tacitly acknowledging the reality that most firms have moved from XP to the proven Windows 7. Few companies, analysts have said, are interested in Windows 8, in part because they have either just wrapped up migrations to Windows 7 or are in the process of doing so.

But because Windows 8 Pro licenses include downgrade rights to earlier versions of the OS, including Windows 7, businesses that purchase the former can instead install the latter, assuming they have installation media or Windows 7 images at hand.

Microsoft faces a tough job as it tries to push customers off Windows XP. According to statistics from analytics company Net Applications, 39 percent of all personal computers, and 42 percent of all Windows PCs, ran XP last month.

The long decline in Windows XP’s usage share has also stalled since the first of the year, slowing to a fifth that of the past 12 months’ average.

Projections using Net Applications’ numbers now suggest that XP will still power a third of all Windows-based systems when the 2014 date ticks by.

After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will not supply Windows XP with security patches, putting PCs still running it at risk from attack. The only exception: Enterprises which have purchased custom support plans. However, Microsoft has boosted prices of those plans. Some corporations have been quoted $1 million for the first year of after-retirement support for 5,000 XP systems, $2 million for the second year and $5 million for the third.

View the original article here

Microsoft Office 2013 is here: Hands-on impressions and buying advice

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AppId is over the quota

The wait is over for Office 2013 and Office 365. Starting Tuesday, the latest version of Microsoft’s venerable productivity suite goes on sale to consumers and academics, both on Microsoft’s Office.com site and at retail outlets. You can buy the traditional stand-alone desktop software or, for the first time, consumers and students can buy Office as a subscription service that will make multiple installations cheaper.

Along with assorted new features and a design overhaul, Office 365 subscription services introduce the much-touted "Office on Demand" feature that allows subscribers to access full versions of Office applications on Web-connected PCs.

Windows users can still buy stand-alone versions of Office 2013 the old way (for prices ranging from $140 to $400). But if you need even the least-expensive edition on more than two or three computers in your household, you might wind up paying more than you would under the $100-a-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription plan (see our previous story on Office pricing), which covers up to five desktop installations (PC or Mac) versus a single installation for the stand-alone license.

Here's the Office 365 online hub.

For students, faculty members, and anyone else who qualifies for the Office 365 University license, the deal is even sweeter: Microsoft is charging a mere $80 for a four-year subscription that covers two desktop installations.

Note also that the subscription licenses give you all the major Office apps, including Outlook, Publisher, and Access. The $140 Home & Student desktop software does not include those three apps; the $220 Home & Business edition adds Outlook but not the other two. To get Outlook, Publisher, and Access as well as the core Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote programs as desktop software, you must pay $400 for Office 2013 Pro.

Mac users who sign up for Office 365 will get Office for Mac 2011. Office 2013 is PC only.

Click to zoom and view Office 2013: Your Buying Choices

Subscribers also get more SkyDrive storage space (20GB versus 5GB free) and 60 minutes each month of free Skype phone calls to 40 countries.

Businesses interested in the subscription service still have to wait: Microsoft says it will begin selling Office 365 Small Business Premium (which adds Microsoft’s Lync unified communications and InfoPath forms support) on February 27.

Streaming Office on Demand didn't work perfectly.

Office 2013 has been available to IT pros, enterprises, and developers (read our review) since late last year, and the desktop software hasn’t changed in the meantime. (Microsoft has, however, posted system requirements.) But the Office 365 subscription services introduce new features such as Office on Demand for Web-connected PCs. We've heard no word from Microsoft on when Office on Demand for Android or iOS users might be available.

Office on Demand has some system requirements: Windows 7 or 8 and a supported browser, namely Internet Explorer 9 or later, Mozilla Firefox 12 or later, Apple Safari 5 or later, or Google Chrome 18 or later. If you can’t run Office on Demand, you probably can still edit documents in Microsoft’s Web apps, which aren’t as full-featured but can certainly handle basic chores.

Your Microsoft ID is central to the new Office experience.

I tried Office on Demand by uninstalling Office completely on my laptop and setting up my Office 365 Home Premium subscription on Office.com. This process involves typing in a product key, much the way you would during the desktop-software installation, and linking it to a Microsoft account; I used my Windows Live account.

I then logged in via Office.com and immediately saw a My Office landing page that showed all my SkyDrive files as well as icons for accessing the on-demand apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher.

Clicking one of the application links first brings up a tooltip suggesting that you’ll be creating a new document, and then produces splash screens informing you that the application is being streamed to your browser (Google Chrome showed a pop-up with more detail about the add-on). The application took about a minute or so to launch—but when it did, it looked like the real deal.

Upgrading? Choose between 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Office.

Alternatively, you can click an existing document in SkyDrive and then click an Edit Document link, which gives you the choice of working in the Web app or accessing the full on-demand app. Regardless of how I opened a document, I noted a slight delay in saving to SkyDrive. At one point the app was unable to save to SkyDrive (it said it was disconnected from the server) and saved the document to my hard drive.

I also ran into an issue involving a conflict between a 64-bit installation of Office and a 32-bit version. Microsoft says an Office 365 license can cover a mix of 32- and 64-bit installations, but if you're upgrading from Office 2010, you cannot switch from the version of that installation. In other words, you can't upgrade the 32-bit version of Office 2010 to the 64-bit version of Office 365 and vice versa. If you don't have a previous version of Office installed, you can choose either version, but unless you frequently work with large data sets, Microsoft recommends using the 32-bit version, even if you're running a 64-bit version of Windows. 

The cloud-connected Office 365 is potentially a game changer for Microsoft's Office franchise. In its current incarnation, however, Office on Demand doesn't offer the type of flexibility and consistency you'd hope for with a Web-friendly version of Office. We are also still eagerly awaiting versions of Office that will work with an Android tablet and an iPad mini; be sure to read more about the many faces of Office, including details about what you can and can't get on mobile devices.

Contributing Editor Yardena (Denny) Arar is a San Francisco-based freelance writer, avid online shopper, media junkie, consummate foodie, and proud possessor of a private pilot's license.
More by Yardena Arar

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Hola, 感叹词, Bonjour, مرحبا: say hello with Microsoft translator

Did you direct it a translation function is integrated in your favorite Office applications? Whether you are working to spread teams around the world, check documents in other languages or talks eavesdrop Café, as you want to backpack across Europe, Microsoft translator is an easy way to translate words and phrases.

Microsoft translator is included under the tab, check in Word, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote, PowerPoint, Excel, and Visio.

Simply highlight the text that you want, click translate and translate selected text, translate.

 

Then voila!, the translation will be shown in the task pane on the right side of the screen, including an option to Insert or copy the text directly into the document.

Tell us in the comments, as you want to use Microsoft translator or versions of Office which would other translation functions, see future below.

View the original article here

Microsoft Office 2013 is here: Hands-on impressions and buying advice

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The wait is over for Office 2013 and Office 365. Starting Tuesday, the latest version of Microsoft’s venerable productivity suite goes on sale to consumers and academics, both on Microsoft’s Office.com site and at retail outlets. You can buy the traditional stand-alone desktop software or, for the first time, consumers and students can buy Office as a subscription service that will make multiple installations cheaper.

Along with assorted new features and a design overhaul, Office 365 subscription services introduce the much-touted "Office on Demand" feature that allows subscribers to access full versions of Office applications on Web-connected PCs.

Windows users can still buy stand-alone versions of Office 2013 the old way (for prices ranging from $140 to $400). But if you need even the least-expensive edition on more than two or three computers in your household, you might wind up paying more than you would under the $100-a-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription plan (see our previous story on Office pricing), which covers up to five desktop installations (PC or Mac) versus a single installation for the stand-alone license.

Here's the Office 365 online hub.

For students, faculty members, and anyone else who qualifies for the Office 365 University license, the deal is even sweeter: Microsoft is charging a mere $80 for a four-year subscription that covers two desktop installations.

Note also that the subscription licenses give you all the major Office apps, including Outlook, Publisher, and Access. The $140 Home & Student desktop software does not include those three apps; the $220 Home & Business edition adds Outlook but not the other two. To get Outlook, Publisher, and Access as well as the core Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote programs as desktop software, you must pay $400 for Office 2013 Pro.

Mac users who sign up for Office 365 will get Office for Mac 2011. Office 2013 is PC only.

Click to zoom and view Office 2013: Your Buying Choices

Subscribers also get more SkyDrive storage space (20GB versus 5GB free) and 60 minutes each month of free Skype phone calls to 40 countries.

Businesses interested in the subscription service still have to wait: Microsoft says it will begin selling Office 365 Small Business Premium (which adds Microsoft’s Lync unified communications and InfoPath forms support) on February 27.

Streaming Office on Demand didn't work perfectly.

Office 2013 has been available to IT pros, enterprises, and developers (read our review) since late last year, and the desktop software hasn’t changed in the meantime. (Microsoft has, however, posted system requirements.) But the Office 365 subscription services introduce new features such as Office on Demand for Web-connected PCs. We've heard no word from Microsoft on when Office on Demand for Android or iOS users might be available.

Office on Demand has some system requirements: Windows 7 or 8 and a supported browser, namely Internet Explorer 9 or later, Mozilla Firefox 12 or later, Apple Safari 5 or later, or Google Chrome 18 or later. If you can’t run Office on Demand, you probably can still edit documents in Microsoft’s Web apps, which aren’t as full-featured but can certainly handle basic chores.

Your Microsoft ID is central to the new Office experience.

I tried Office on Demand by uninstalling Office completely on my laptop and setting up my Office 365 Home Premium subscription on Office.com. This process involves typing in a product key, much the way you would during the desktop-software installation, and linking it to a Microsoft account; I used my Windows Live account.

I then logged in via Office.com and immediately saw a My Office landing page that showed all my SkyDrive files as well as icons for accessing the on-demand apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher.

Clicking one of the application links first brings up a tooltip suggesting that you’ll be creating a new document, and then produces splash screens informing you that the application is being streamed to your browser (Google Chrome showed a pop-up with more detail about the add-on). The application took about a minute or so to launch—but when it did, it looked like the real deal.

Upgrading? Choose between 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Office.

Alternatively, you can click an existing document in SkyDrive and then click an Edit Document link, which gives you the choice of working in the Web app or accessing the full on-demand app. Regardless of how I opened a document, I noted a slight delay in saving to SkyDrive. At one point the app was unable to save to SkyDrive (it said it was disconnected from the server) and saved the document to my hard drive.

I also ran into an issue involving a conflict between a 64-bit installation of Office and a 32-bit version. Microsoft says an Office 365 license can cover a mix of 32- and 64-bit installations, but if you're upgrading from Office 2010, you cannot switch from the version of that installation. In other words, you can't upgrade the 32-bit version of Office 2010 to the 64-bit version of Office 365 and vice versa. If you don't have a previous version of Office installed, you can choose either version, but unless you frequently work with large data sets, Microsoft recommends using the 32-bit version, even if you're running a 64-bit version of Windows. 

The cloud-connected Office 365 is potentially a game changer for Microsoft's Office franchise. In its current incarnation, however, Office on Demand doesn't offer the type of flexibility and consistency you'd hope for with a Web-friendly version of Office. We are also still eagerly awaiting versions of Office that will work with an Android tablet and an iPad mini; be sure to read more about the many faces of Office, including details about what you can and can't get on mobile devices.

Contributing Editor Yardena (Denny) Arar is a San Francisco-based freelance writer, avid online shopper, media junkie, consummate foodie, and proud possessor of a private pilot's license.
More by Yardena Arar

View the original article here

Download the free Microsoft Visio Viewer

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AppId is over the quota

The Microsoft Visio Viewer is a free download that lets anyone view Visio drawings without having Visio installed on their computer. If you have Visio, you can still benefit from the viewer because it allows you to preview drawings in both Outlook and the Windows Preview pane. We recommend that everyone with Windows 7 or Windows 8 download the latest viewer to get the best experience viewing drawings.

There are two notable changes to the new viewer.

The viewer allows you to view drawings saved to our new file format (as well as prior file formats). The viewer supports viewing our new shape effects, which are widely used by the new themes, variants and styles.

If you do not have the new Visio but want to view drawings created in the new Visio, you should download the new version of our free viewer.

If you don’t have Visio installed and don’t have access to Visio Services on SharePoint, viewing Visio drawings is still as simple as double-clicking the drawing in Windows Explorer. Internet Explorer will open, and the viewer will render the drawing in the browser. The viewer allows you to pan and zoom, navigate to different pages, see shape properties, and set different viewing options.

The Visio Viewer also allows users to preview Visio drawings in Microsoft Outlook. In Outlook, you can simply single-click on a Visio drawing sent as an attachment and the viewer will display it in Outlook. You can pan and zoom the drawing, and switch to different pages. Right-click on the preview image to see some of these options.

Even if you have Visio, this is a quick way to take a peek at the drawing without leaving Outlook.

You can also preview a Visio drawing directly in Windows. In Windows Explorer, click the View tab, select Preview pane, then single-click on a Visio drawing. The drawing will be displayed in the preview pane.

The options to pan, zoom and switch to different pages, and the right mouse menu are available in the Windows Explorer preview pane.

One of the top questions we get about the Visio Viewer is how it differs from Visio Services. These are both products available to view Visio drawings without having Visio installed, but they are very different!

To understand the differences, we have to stop and talk a moment about Visio Services. Visio Services is part of SharePoint and SharePoint Online in Office 365. You can upload a Visio file to SharePoint and then everyone else can view it. Nothing needs to be installed on the user’s computer, and, in fact, the file can be viewed from a wide variety of devices--desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, and it includes enhancements for touch and for mobile devices with smaller screens.

With Visio Services, users can also add comments to the drawing and, when a drawing is connected to data, Visio Services can refresh the data and update the shapes in the drawing that are linked to data. This makes Visio Services great for creating dashboards and keeping people up to date with the latest information.

In comparison, the Visio Viewer provides a static view of the drawing: users cannot add comments and the drawing does not update as data changes. The viewer is also something that you install on your computer. The viewer is very useful for viewing Visio drawings, especially when you don’t have Visio or Visio Services. Visio Services, however, is a much more powerful tool for interacting with Visio drawings.

We want to make it easy for everyone to view Visio drawings, especially the modern-looking and professional diagrams made in the new Visio. We recommend that you download new Visio Viewer to get the best viewing experience.

Please continue to let us know what you think by commenting below!

View the original article here

Welcome to the New Microsoft Office

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AppId is over the quota

Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview The next release brings the familiar Office applications to a range of devices, including the hottest new Windows 8 tablets. The new Office also has a fast and fluid design that works with touch, stylus, mouse, or keyboard. It's also social, and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note taking, meetings, and communications, all delivered through a personalized cloud service that's always up to date. For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/office/default.aspx.

View the original article here

Join the Microsoft Office Insiders Program!

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Do you use Microsoft Office in a unique and interesting way and want to tell the world about it?  Are you the 'tech savvy' person amongst your friends and family, and find yourself frequently using multiple devices to stay productive?  Were you one of the first to try Office Preview?  If so, you may be a great fit for the Microsoft Office Insiders Program.

Microsoft is looking for families, college students and small businesses (1-24 PCs) that use PCs, Macs, or mobile devices on a daily basis to participate in the Office Insiders Program.  If selected, you will get exclusive access to the team at Microsoft, with the latest information on upcoming releases, real time training and the possibility to participate in future marketing and PR events.

In order to be considered for the program, visit our Facebook Page and complete the seven-minute survey.  Hurry, space is limited!

Know someone else who may be interested? Be sure to tell your friends and family!

Related Information:

What is Office 365 Home Premium?

Try Office Preview for free 

 

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The new Microsoft Project

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Ludovic Hauduc, General Manager of Microsoft Project

Last week Microsoft announced availability of the Office Customer Preview for public download. And right alongside it, we released a preview of the new Microsoft Project with two options to try out the latest release for yourself:

Sign up for the Project Online Preview with Project Pro for Office 365Download Project Professional 2013 Preview & Project Server 2013 Preview

I'm proud of the work the team has put into this release and today, I'm also excited to finally share the new Project with all of you.

Now you can quickly get a portfolio view of all your projects and resources, prioritize initiatives, and deliver on them by leveraging the familiarity of SharePoint. Project Online makes it easy and fast to get up and running on a full range of project portfolio management (PPM) capabilities including portfolio selection, workflow, resource capacity planning, dashboards, and more.

Project Web App (PWA)

We wanted to make it easy for users to start managing projects with Project Online. The new PWA comes equipped with visual tiles to guide you through important steps in managing your projects and get started quickly to make the most of the flexible PPM capabilities in Project.

Collaborate using familiar tools

Collaboration starts with SharePoint and with this release, integration between Project and SharePoint is even better. The ease of use of SharePoint allows team members to jump right in and update their task status via team sites. These team sites centralize your unique project management needs storing relevant documents and a dedicated OneNote notebook to capture critical project details. With improved social capabilities in SharePoint, working together has never been easier.

All of your tasks, across multiple projects, surface up under My Tasks in the SharePoint Newsfeed hub. More and more users rely on their mobile devices, and with improved Exchange integration, you can now see these project related tasks on your Windows Phone or iOS device.

Best of all, Project Online allows your team to connect to a web-based mobile team site to stay up-to-date from virtually anywhere.

Industry-leading PPM for any organization

We believe any organization should be able to take advantage of the benefits of PPM. In both Project Online and the new Project Server 2013, we make it easy to build and customize workflows tailored to the processes of your organization by leveraging the simplicity of both SharePoint Designer and Visio. Unlock the rich project and resource data to create dashboards for real-time. Any user familiar with Excel can easily connect to Project Online to build custom reports and dashboards that can be published to PWA in the new Business Intelligence Center, which comes equipped with several popular reports right out of the box. 

Microsoft Project helps you easily collaborate with others to quickly start delivering winning projects. It's the only project management system designed to work seamlessly with other Microsoft applications and cloud services.

Get started quickly

We designed the new start experience with our users in mind. When you first launch Project, a simple "Getting Started" template walks you through the key features you need to start planning your project. Once you've got that down, tap into a variety of Project templates on Office.com from within Project to help you get started quickly. Even if you're working with someone else's project plan for the first time, Task Path highlighting in the Gantt Chart helps you understand how the tasks come together and identify which are the most critical to the project's success.

Communicate your plans like a pro

The new Project now brings reporting to the client with rich, out-of-the-box reporting tools within a familiar Office-like experience. These reports help you quickly and easily measure progress and resource allocation with just a click.

Project's timeline view helps you visualize your project to deliver stellar presentations to your team, executives, and stakeholders with easy sharing across Office applications like PowerPoint or Outlook. Do the same with the built in reports for a truly powerful presentation.

And did we mention the new Office Store? Apps for Office extend the functionality of Project to solve unique problems to meet your needs and the needs of your business.

Connect with your team

Once you've created the perfect project plan, share it with your team! Sync your project to any SharePoint site. We store your project file on site and create a Tasks List along with the timeline on the site. Your team can view and update project status in the same location where they can stay up-to-date with the site feed, store project documents, notes and more. Open any project plan from SharePoint in Project with one click.

Project integration with Office 365 enables you to send instant messages and kick off real-time conversations right from your project with Lync Online.

The experience of using Project alongside Office and Office 365 is better than ever, giving you a complete collaborative project management system.

Access the power of Project anywhere with Project Pro for Office 365

By trying Project Online, you'll also have the opportunity to run Project Pro for Office 365. Get your users up and running quickly with application streaming technology. Simplify your deployments by having the latest patches and updates installed automatically and benefit from integration with other Office 365 services, such as presence and IM integration through Lync or sharing to SharePoint.

Sometimes changes come up unexpectedly. Everyday demands including travel can keep you out of the office and away from your PC. In the past, you had few options when large changes had to be made and deadlines loomed over you. And sometimes, making a trip back to the office could actually hurt productivity. Project on Demand changes all that. With Project on Demand you have the option to install Project on multiple PCs including your home. Quickly resolve outstanding issues and focus on delivering your project...or better yet, enjoying that summer vacation.

Thanks for reading our first post on the new release. We hope you:

Try the new Project Online Preview. We welcome your comments and feedback.Register and attend SharePoint Conference 2012 (November 12 - 15) in Las Vegas, Nevada.Connect with Project.  Subscribe to the Project blog where we will post more details in the coming weeks with a deeper dive into the new release. Join the conversation on Facebook or ask questions on the Project forum. And finally, you can follow us on Twitter.

Ludo

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Update on BlackBerry Business cloud services for Microsoft Office 365

Research in motion (RIM) has today on the heels of October of the open beta BlackBerry ® Business cloud services for Microsoft Office 365--a new service for enterprise Microsoft Exchange online extension on BlackBerry ® smartphones. The service makes sure that people of the industry-leading enterprise collaboration tools for on the go.

Some of the key features include:

Integration in the Administrative Office 365 portal for easy ManagementWireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange online e-Mail, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry SmartphoneBlackBerry ® BalanceTM technology, unified view of the work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while preserving the content separately and SecureAn presented one intuitive, Web-based console for it administrators who block access to employee self-service-Smartphone security functions, so that users easily reset a device password or remotely deploying, managing and securing BlackBerry Smartphones from AnywhereOnline or wipe a device in the loss or TheftBlackBerry security and encryption and device manageability

The service is subscriber of Office 365 suite or standalone Exchange online no additional charge to current mid-sized or Enterprise available and works with BlackBerry smartphones to enterprise or consumer data plans.

Go to www.blackberry.com/cloudservices to get started!

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New Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK Coming Next Week!

Yesterday the Microsoft Surface Team announced that next week they will be releasing the Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK and other tools for developers to start developing Surface applications for the next generation Surface device – the Samsung SUR40. Starting on July 12th, the SDK will be available for download free to anyone who wants to start developing new Surface applications from the Microsoft Download Center (have you seen the new Microsoft Download Center by the way?).

Back at CES earlier this year, Mike Angiulo (Corporate Vice President of Windows Planning, Hardware, and PC Ecosystem) lifted the covers off of Microsoft Surface 2.0 during the keynote. Mike showed off the Samsung SUR40 which is a 4-inch thick 40-inch HD LCD screen with a Windows 7 PC built in. It can be used as a table or mounted to a wall.

One other cool thing about the Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK worth taking note of is that you can use it target apps for both Microsoft Surface hardware and Windows 7 touch-enabled PCs too!

For more on the new Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK, I suggest reading this blog post from Luis Cabrera-Cordón who is a Platform Program Manager on the Microsoft Surface Team.

Now I’m off to see whose car (or cars) I need to wash to get myself a Samsung SUR40!

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Office bloggers in the Microsoft store in Bellevue

This Wednesday, June 15, is the first anniversary of the release of Office 2010. To facilitate the celebration of authors from the Office-blogs and Office.com team will answer your questions and demonstrate the product in the Microsoft store in Bellevue square from 11 am to 1 pm. If you are in the area, swing by (map and directions). Yes, they do, can mix you out from time to time.

--Doug Thomas

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Enlarge the 1,400 good stories: Microsoft local impact map

If you know who can tell a great story? Can it an artistic quality in the way their words in your ear-settle, or maybe their thoughts jump right of the page (or screen) and captivate you. Well, how about 1,400 + stories of more than 100 countries distributed?

Which we is on as many stories, the new local impact mapcollected have, the Bing map that can explore and zoom to to discover projects underway of the wide range of Microsoft citizenship now.

These projects cover a wide range of technology donations to nonprofits to education and employment to help people. If the Microsoft corporate Citiczenship team wanted to tell these stories, the Local impact map (LIM) was born.

 

The local impact map is hosted on Bing maps. Silverlight deep zoom technology combined with rich search results pages and capabilities, so you can read all 1400 + stories about how we work with partners to help people and businesses around the world. They are to expand beyond their reach and reduce their costs inspirational, but also informative-- give us a deep look, how non-profits to use our products.

 

Here are three examples:

Microsoft Alliance with Ministry of Culture supports public libraries   In 2010, the Ministry of culture in Colombia of the national literature and libraries brought plan at the top of their efforts to improve the digital literacy of its citizens. Working in partnership with Microsoft Colombia, were built more than 1,000 public libraries in Windows 7 and Microsoft Office together with relevant training to support the Ministry efforts. Read more on the local impact map.

Technology contributes to improving the medical efficiency and patient experience  Access to good information and efficient communication play an important role in providing effective medical care. The Hematology and bone marrow transplantation Department at Szt. László hospital in Hungary is just one of many hospitals, are missing to keep the resources with growing demands on their services. Between Microsoft Windows Server and Office applications, we helped to find a way, benefit their operations to speed up staff and patients. Read more about the solution on the local impact map.

Boys & girls clubs offer storage technology and management   One of the many projects with young & girls Club of America, technology camps in North Carolina around the capabilities of the interest in the information technology (IT) information field 11th grader boost helped. Microsoft donated and 100 copies of Windows 7 and Office installed on laptops, the students. Read more about the technology and maintenance of camps here.

These are three of more than 1,400 stories that you can try on the local impact map. I invite you to discover what technology to people all over the world does. Let us know, what stories that inspire you!

For more stories from Microsoft citizenship you follow @ Msftcitizenship on Twitter or visit the Microsoft citizenship Facebook page.

--Tara Grumm, corporate citizenship team at Microsoft and Holly Thomas

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A secret ingredient of Microsoft store (video)

A cool part of the Microsoft store is a community space where events occur. It is where we set up shop, while Microsoft store videos celebrate the first anniversary of Office 2010. But local groups and organisations as a high-tech meeting area use the space. We languages with Chad Mack, the community development manager at the Bellevue Square store.

--Doug Thomas

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Is Microsoft OneNote kidnapping your print jobs?

While usually we not focus on technical support issues here on the blog Office (that's for the reply Microsoft forums are), you make me shine a fast light on a recurring problem, scratching your heads some of you and write about has caused.

In short, seems to be that OneNote 2010 (or OneNote 2007) captures all your print jobs when you try to use all information from your other programs the problem or send your Web browser to your loyal printer. While you admit to that a great way to paper save this and finally "go green," it no not him or her is laughing a printed report when your boss expects you to the hand and you seem to do.

Until recently, have you was always something from your computer to your printer can print. Now, your print jobs appear suddenly completely bypass your printer and go directly to Microsoft OneNote, where they displayed gescannte images. You really want to go back to things to how things were and have again your print jobs to your actual printer.

Microsoft OneNote has a nifty little utility called the sending to the OneNote printer driver. A printer driver is a small piece of software that guides from a computer to a printer. Usually controls the operating system software, so that it speaks like a computer with hardware devices such as a printer can monitor. In the case of OneNote a special printer driver is installed, allows you to send your print jobs as images in your OneNote notebooks.

The OneNote printer driver was not to override the printer settings and assume that you 2010 to send each print to OneNote. Instead has intended, in the wings, when you want to use it, and take a back seat again, when you're done wait a specific print job to OneNote available send.

However, the OneNote printer driver may have transported accidentally becoming the top dog in one of the following conditions:

Installation of OneNote 2010 or Office 2010 installed no physical printer or currently selected act caused the sending to the OneNote printer driver as the default printer (preferred).
You installed a new physical printer on your computer after installing OneNote 2010 or Office 2010, acts without support of the printer as the default printer.
You sharing your computer with someone else installed OneNote 2010 or Office 2010 and sending to the OneNote printer driver as the default printer to act.
Your printer software is not compatible with your version of the operating system and Windows was to send reset to the OneNote printer driver as the default printer.

Even if you are not really sure how it can be done, it is a simple solution.

If the send to OneNote 2010 print driver is marked as shown, print jobs are are sent as images to OneNote.
You have installed a real printer, right click the icon, and then click set as default printer on the shortcut menu.
Your printer is recognized as the preferred printer for future print jobs if it has the check mark icon next to it.

As follows you on any edition of Windows 7 before:

Click Start on the Windows taskbar, click the button.Click on the right side of the start menu click Control Panel.Open Control Panel, click on View devices and printers (if you are in category view), or click devices and printers (when in icon view).Right click the printer icon that represents your physical printer, and then click set as default printer on the shortcut menu.

If you are using Windows Vista, the steps are almost identical:

Click Start on the Windows taskbar, click the button.Click on the right side of the start menu click Control Panel.Open Control Panel, click Printers (if you are in category view), or click on the printer (if you are in the default view).Right click the printer icon that represents your physical printer, and then click set as default printer on the shortcut menu.

If you display an icon not for your actual printer, it is likely that your printer is not correctly installed. Check the website of your printer manufacturer for any updated drivers that are specific to your version of Windows (such as a 64-bit Edition of Windows) and make sure that the printer is properly connected to the computer.

Even if you had a bad impression of the OneNote printer driver all your print jobs in hardware, you are not too quick to dismiss it even after you demote it as standard "Printer". You might be surprised how useful it is to have the opportunity, print certain information directly in OneNote.

Although digital printouts in OneNote image files that you can edit, with the right mouse button, can such pictures in OneNote 2010 and extract the text from them with the command copy text from image . As long as the text in the image is large enough and readable, this works very well. You can then add and use the copied text in your notes or somewhere else in your work.

If you rightly the OneNote printer driver is introduced, a pretty cool feature!  ;-)

Thinking you because, whenever you have a problem technical support, head on over to Microsoft answers - the official support forums for OneNote and Office. It is daily through competent and helpful members monitors the Microsoft MVP community, Microsoft product support services and the Office product teams.

--Michael C. Oldenburg
 

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Get free technical support for your Microsoft software

The Microsoft answers community is to make the best choice for questions and get free help and technical support for your Microsoft products - including Office, Windows, Internet Explorer, Windows phone, Zune, and security-essentials.

The product forums on the website Microsoft answers user experience one much easier than ever before. Clean layout and improved search functionality makes it easy for you to questions, issues and specific content for the Microsoft products you are looking for is the Web site. An improved Reputation system, which prominently recognize the most active and helpful beigesteuert is implemented on the website. Users, who provide the most helpful tips and answers for others, as also those members of the identification are recognized the best and most valuable information on the website on the home page.

When you first visit a forum for a specific product, you can start as the questions that other visitors have previously posted. Very often, someone else has already into something that allows you to be executed, and one answer or solution may already be available. In each forum can be filtered and in a variety of ways, such as "answered," "Unanswered," "Useful", and so on sorted. If your question or problem is not already listed, you can book a specific question in this forum.

The website almost half a million daily visitors include prominent members of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community, Microsoft technical support professional, Microsoft employees from various product teams, technical enthusiasts from all over the world, and regular users, which their user community through the exchange of information with other users help enjoy.

If you have a response from a particular community member in the past has helped, you can easily all posts from that person to others see what else you can possibly learn from them. As well, if you find that this person is looking for an answer or solution itself, you can figures it forward all information and insights, you can have parts with them.

The site now give a try want? Here, the keyboard shortcuts for the U.S. are product forums:

If you live or work in another country, you can the region selection (in the vicinity of the upper-right corner of the homepage) before you begin with the website.

At present, free support is Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish in Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian.

Tip   Need help with the site itself, show that frequently asked questions.

Social networking we has to dramatically changed the manner in which with others interact. Whether you "like" something on Facebook or you book something on Twitter, tell to others, have most people the benefits our commitment in the close constant and positive information sharing how recognized. The way we help each other to find technical solutions and information designed to to.

Enter the next time you need support or have a question about your software, trying Microsoft answers . It's free, it's fast, and it is the best way, finding an expert, can help you by a binding.

--Michael C. Oldenburg

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