Showing posts with label quickly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quickly. Show all posts

Friday, April 12, 2013

Get organized quickly: saved by project Pro for Office 365

Save As in Project ProSuppose it is 14:00 on Friday afternoon to a planning meeting for big spring marketing blitz left on which your company, Coho Winery, its hopes on international expansion rests. Just a moment before, the team was scrolling my fist on the table haphazardly by a long task list table when your boss suggested and explained that a first class project management solution would have until Monday morning.

Yikes! This is a large task.

Since this project is so important, it is important that the solution sturdy and safe, at the same time gain as much efficiency as possible, so that the team can more work done and you get not buried the pursuit of everything. But at the same time, a huge budget for this is cost and time is critical.

With Microsoft Project Pro for Office 365 , choose communication combined with SharePoint online and Lync Onlinesubscription, so that teams can easily in real time of the Coho and cooperation to joint team sites. With subscriptions, pay as you never go, worried about the establishment of IT systems and can stream to make the rich project desktop client to your work quickly and easily.

A quick visit to the project site confirms your intuition that per project for Office 365 for Coho is the right solution. Click the link to login and a few moments later the account is set and ready to go.

You breathe out "Wow", "That was easy!"

Soon you will find out, that the rest of the process for project management the Coho are up and running is as easy as it was to subscribe to the service. There to configure easy steps of your organization.

Import options for users with a mass spreadsheet upload, it really starts to look like you could get out of the Office before 17:00.

A convenient table template shows you where you fill in the blanks for your team.

... ...und download they have in SharePoint created accounts automatically.

A quick check confirmed that each team member have imported correctly.

Breeze through the next steps in about two minutes, simply noting the passwords for each account generated and selection of the appropriate licenses and permissions for each person. Now it's time to painstakingly put together, hammered the project plan in the meeting that only a half-hour before left.

As a rock star project manager, you know that the first step is to stream an installation of the project desktop client. This is easy with Pro project for Office 365-just click on the Download link from your Office-365-admin page and fly these bits to see!

Seconds after you click on the Internet Explorer download prompt run, is the project desktop client on your PC streaming and already can you really earn your salary. But wait! You're pleasantly surprised to see that... integrates great templates directly on the home screen, and there is even one for a marketing plan campaign!

You start the template, some of the tasks of the team adapt agreed project plan and fill in resource allocations.

It takes half an hour or so from your tradecraft apply, until a good on the v1 project plan feeling and decide, it is synchronized with the SharePoint team Web site. This is as simple as pressing the button Save and paste in the Web address in your browser.

The project integration with Office 365 account service keeps safe from any unauthorized release on your site - your website and protects against accidentally synchronizing with the wrong site!

You hit update on the Coho Winery SharePoint team site to see your work on the life in the cloud, and can't help but smile, as the page loaded is a robust cloud-based project plan ready for wide cooperation, work Division and access from virtually anywhere. Nice.

The clock is ticking on your Office wall, 17:00, as a triumphant send met on an email that your boss kümmern-not insured - you have everything under control.


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Format and customize Excel 2013 charts quickly with the new Formatting Task pane

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The new Excel offers a rich set of charting capabilities that make creating and customizing charts simpler and more intuitive. One part of the fluid new experience is the Formatting Task pane.  

Until now, precise adjustments to chart elements were made in the Format dialog box. The box sometimes obscured a portion of the chart, changes entered in the box were not visible until you closed it, and you had to select the exact element on the chart in order to see the options that were the best fit for the job.

In the new Excel, the Format dialog box is replaced by the Formatting Task pane. The pane aligns neatly with the right or left side of the screen, so it's less likely to obscure the chart, and changes happen in real time, so you can immediately see how your choices affect the chart. The Formatting Task pane also offers an element selector so you can jump quickly between different elements without having to select one to modify.

The new Formatting Task pane is the single source for formatting--all of the different styling options are consolidated in one place. With this single task pane, you can modify not only charts, but also shapes and text in Excel.

The fastest way to open the Formatting Task pane is to double-click a chart element. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+1 while a chart element is selected. There are two other ways to open the task pane:

The first way: On a chart, select an element. On the Ribbon, select the Chart Tools Format tab, then click Format Selection.

The second way: On a chart, select an element. Right-click, then select Format where is the axis, series, legend, title, or area that was selected.

Once open, the Formatting Task pane remains available until you close it. Since it always stays on the right or left side of the screen, the pane remains unobtrusive as you concentrate on other tasks. The options in the Formatting Task pane will change based on which element is currently selected. For example, if you select a legend, the Formatting Task pane offers layout, fill, and effect options uniquely tailored to the legend element. With this more intuitive experience, you can feel free to leave the Formatting Task pane open while you format different elements of your chart.

The element selector in the Formatting Task pane allows you to jump quickly between different elements without selecting them in the chart itself. Since some chart elements are small and perhaps difficult to select, the element selector is a great alternative to the "hunt and peck" approach.

The element selector is in the top left of the Formatting Task pane. The selected element is displayed, along with a down arrow. Clicking the down arrow opens a dropdown menu that shows all elements of the selected chart. When you choose an element from this menu, the Formatting Task pane displays options uniquely tailored to this element, and it also selects this element in the chart.

You can also find the element selector on the Ribbon on the Chart Tools Format tab.

Chart options in the Formatting Task pane are in two categories: Size & Properties and element-specific.

Size & Properties deals with sizing, alignment, and miscellaneous properties such as alt text and locks.

The Chart Area element is unique in that its Size & Properties options affect the chart as a whole. Size, scale, and aspect ratio can be adjusted only on the Chart Area element, from which all other chart elements derive their inherent size and scale. The Chart Area element also controls the alt text of the chart, whether the chart moves and/or sizes with its underlying cells, and whether the chart is printable and locked.

Other chart elements can adjust their alignment from the Size & Properties options, which dictate vertical alignment, text direction and angle, and margins.

There are unique, element-specific options for axis, legends, and series:

Axis Options. Axis options allows you to adjust the axis bounds and units, the placement and interval of its labels, and other options including tick marks and number format.

Legend Options. Legend options allows you to specify the position of the legend, and whether or not it overlaps the chart.

Series Options. Series options allows you to specify whether the series should be plotted on the primary or secondary axis, the spacing and width of the columns on a bar or column chart, and the angle and explosion (separation) of the slices of a pie chart.

In addition to chart options, the Formatting Task pane allows you to fine-tune the visuals of each chart element by offering a multitude of line, fill, and effect styles. These styling options are available for shapes as well.

Line options allow you to adjust the styling of the lines and borders of each chart element. There are two line types: solid and gradient. A solid line uses one color throughout, while a gradient line changes smoothly from one color to another along its path. Regardless of the line type you choose, you can adjust a line's thickness, transparency, dash type, and endpoint settings.

Fill options allow you to choose how the inner portion of each chart element is filled. There are four fill types: solid, gradient, pattern, and picture. A solid fill uses only one color, while a gradient fill smoothly blends multiple colors along its filled region. A pattern fill tiles the inner fill region with preset imprints such as crosshatches and tiles, and a picture fill uses preset textures or a picture that you specify.

Please note that certain chart elements, such as the series of a Line Chart, do not have an inner fill region to color or tile. Fill options are disabled for these chart elements.

Effect options offer a powerful set of effects that add visual impact to your charts. Effects include shadows, glows, soft edges, and 3-D formatting.

Shadow. This effect adds a shadow either outside or inside the chart element.

3-D Formatting. This effect adds a bevel to the chart element to give it a 3-dimensional relief.

In addition to modifying the look and feel of charts and shapes, you can also style text inside these objects.

Text options are in the top right of the Formatting Task pane. Clicking Text Options toggles the task pane into text styling mode. You can toggle back to the former chart and shape styling mode at any time by clicking the element selector's title.

In text styling mode, you can modify the look and feel of your text using the same line, fill, and effect options that are available for charts and shapes.

The new Formatting Task pane is just one of many ways to customize and refine the look and feel of your charts. The on-object buttons featuring the new Chart Elements and Chart Styles provide quick access to the most common chart customizations, but when you need detail-level control, now you can get it with the Formatting Task pane. Please try it out, and give us your thoughts and feedback on the experience--we'd love to hear what you think!


View the original article here

Monday, February 25, 2013

"Camping with K" go: how we quickly organized a 20-people travel in the SkyDrive Web Excel,

This week we continue to new features that we have available published recently in Excel Web for all users on SkyDrive. This post is brought to you by Lee Bizek, Program Manager on the Excel team.

My wife and I go Korrin tents each year with our closest friends. Since she is not a fan of camping without running water or electricity, we provide all amenities of the normal life the hike over at a friend's chalet, where we have the term "Camping with a K."

This variety of camping requires a bit more orchestration, so every year we must organize, who will do it, when people come and go, those who cook the meal is and what "camping necessities" are bringing people to the hut. Not everyone has an Outlook Live or Hotmail e-Mail account so have we had to file, e-Mail information collect, update our master copy and then send a final version before the weekend of camping.

With the announcement of easier collaboration on SkyDrivehave things a WHOLE LOT easier! Now we can link with all our friends, which share a file and you can edit the workbook, even simultaneously log on without using a Microsoft account!

Here is how we'll do it.

We must first upload or create the file on SkyDrive. If the file exists, we can we can access SkyDrive, Web-Excel or even desktop Excel, the sharing dialog box, if you edit the file, of SkyDrive.

By SkyDrive:

Locate the Datei.Aktivieren check box in the upper right corner of the tile file. in the top menu, select sharing.

HowToShare_Skydrive

Note: Herefor more information about the release in SkyDrive.

From the Web-Excel:

There are two ways to get the dialog box 'share'. Here is one way:

Click the tab Start on the share - button. Select share with people.

HowToShare_Excel

Here is the second option:

The backstage access from the file menu.Select stock.People, click share with .

HowToShare_Excel2

In desktop Excel follow these steps:

The backstage access from the file menu.Select stock.

HowToShare_ExcelDesktop

There are a number of options that we can use, share the workbook.

SharingOptions

E-Mail: Can send an email directly from the dialog box. To do this, follow these steps:

In the to box , type the e-Mail addresses. Include an optional message. check the recipient can edit.Disable need everyone who report it accesses.

SendEmail

Post on Facebook or other social network: we do not use this option in our example do we link on certain people to send, because this option posts, so that the workbook anonymously edited all of your Facebook friends can be a link to the file on Facebook. Other social networks, like Twitter, are available via the drop down options for theServices Add.

Get a link / display and edit:Can you create a view and edit, which you can copy and paste in any form of communication, such as email, instant messaging or Word document.

ViewEdit

GetLink

By using the option send e-Mail , the e-Mail message is to look our friends:

EmailMessage

Anonymous edit links take you to view mode by default. To edit the document, click Edit IN BROWSER.

 EditWorkbook

SigninGuest

Note: The user who has clicked on the link not logged in and will work as a guest.

We are really looking forward to our camping trip this year especially now that it is easier to organize our trip!

If you, our file to be used as template for planning your own trip would with friends we have added it post this for you to download.

Learn more about the sharing, of SkyDrive here.

Happy to share!

--Lee Bizek, Excel program manager


View the original article here

Friday, February 22, 2013

"Camping with K" go: how we quickly organized a 20-people travel in the SkyDrive Web Excel,

This week we continue to new features that we have available published recently in Excel Web for all users on SkyDrive. This post is brought to you by Lee Bizek, Program Manager on the Excel team.

My wife and I go Korrin tents each year with our closest friends. Since she is not a fan of camping without running water or electricity, we provide all amenities of the normal life the hike over at a friend's chalet, where we have the term "Camping with a K."

This variety of camping requires a bit more orchestration, so every year we must organize, who will do it, when people come and go, those who cook the meal is and what "camping necessities" are bringing people to the hut. Not everyone has an Outlook Live or Hotmail e-Mail account so have we had to file, e-Mail information collect, update our master copy and then send a final version before the weekend of camping.

With the announcement of easier collaboration on SkyDrivehave things a WHOLE LOT easier! Now we can link with all our friends, which share a file and you can edit the workbook, even simultaneously log on without using a Microsoft account!

Here is how we'll do it.

We must first upload or create the file on SkyDrive. If the file exists, we can we can access SkyDrive, Web-Excel or even desktop Excel, the sharing dialog box, if you edit the file, of SkyDrive.

By SkyDrive:

Locate the Datei.Aktivieren check box in the upper right corner of the tile file. in the top menu, select sharing.

HowToShare_Skydrive

Note: Herefor more information about the release in SkyDrive.

From the Web-Excel:

There are two ways to get the dialog box 'share'. Here is one way:

Click the tab Start on the share - button. Select share with people.

HowToShare_Excel

Here is the second option:

The backstage access from the file menu.Select stock.People, click share with .

HowToShare_Excel2

In desktop Excel follow these steps:

The backstage access from the file menu.Select stock.

HowToShare_ExcelDesktop

There are a number of options that we can use, share the workbook.

SharingOptions

E-Mail: Can send an email directly from the dialog box. To do this, follow these steps:

In the to box , type the e-Mail addresses. Include an optional message. check the recipient can edit.Disable need everyone who report it accesses.

SendEmail

Post on Facebook or other social network: we do not use this option in our example do we link on certain people to send, because this option posts, so that the workbook anonymously edited all of your Facebook friends can be a link to the file on Facebook. Other social networks, like Twitter, are available via the drop down options for theServices Add.

Get a link / display and edit:Can you create a view and edit, which you can copy and paste in any form of communication, such as email, instant messaging or Word document.

ViewEdit

GetLink

By using the option send e-Mail , the e-Mail message is to look our friends:

EmailMessage

Anonymous edit links take you to view mode by default. To start editing the document, click Edit WORKBOOK and the Edit in Excel Web app.

EditWorkbook

SigninGuest

Note: The user who has clicked on the link not logged in and will work as a guest.

We are really looking forward to our camping trip this year especially now that it is easier to organize our trip!

If you, our file to be used as template for planning your own trip would with friends we have added it post this for you to download.

Learn more about the sharing, of SkyDrive here.

Happy to share!

--Lee Bizek, Excel program manager


View the original article here

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Webinar: Create business cards quickly in Word & Publisher

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AppId is over the quota

Need business cards right this minute? Whether you're forming a new start-up business or just need something in a pinch, Office has built-in business card templates to help. In this week's webinar, we'll show you how to create a business card in Word and Publisher at a moment's notice.

Can't see this video? It's also available at Microsoft Showcase. There is also a 30-second trailer.

What you will learn at Tuesday's webinar: 

Tips for making an effective business card Find the right template Design tips Smackdown: Publisher vs. Word (Bet on Publisher!)

References for this webinar:

Go to http://aka.ms/offweb for more information on how to join the series.

--Doug Thomas


View the original article here

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Create professional diagrams quickly with the new Visio

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When we started our planning process for this version of Visio, we made it a central goal that it would be easier, faster and more pleasant to create beautiful, professional looking diagrams. To achieve that, we made a host of improvements to the application – far too many for us to cover here. So, for this post, I’ll aim to give you an overview of all the changes we made and cover a few of the most highly requested new features. Later posts will cover everything here in much more detail.

Making diagrams that can effectively communicate information is the heart and soul of Visio. Polished, professional looking diagrams grab attention, inspire more confidence, communicate more effectively and reflect well on the people who made them. It’s always been possible to make good looking diagrams in Visio. This version we not only wanted to make it possible to create amazing looking ones, we wanted to make it startlingly simple. In fact, I might go as far as to say we wanted to make it hard to create bad looking diagrams in Visio (yes, yes – I am sure you could still do it if you tried!)

The foundation for great looking diagrams in the new Visio is the integration of the same rendering engine that PowerPoint uses. So, all the cool effects and UIs you’re familiar with from PowerPoint are now in Visio too!

Visio effects example

All that power is great, but it’s like having a jet fighter without a pilot. It’ll do amazing things, if only you could figure out which button to push! Fortunately, we weren’t just aiming for the fighter pilot demographic. To make it incredibly easy to use all that power to get the look you want, we dramatically overhauled our theming feature. You just need to pick from among over 25 brand new, amazing looking themes and Visio will go and update the formatting on all your shapes to match that style.

Theme gallery

Here’s an image of the same diagram in three different themes. You can change between the following diagrams in a single click, easily moving from simple to vibrant to informal:

Example 1: New themes in Visio

Example 2: New themes in Visio

Example 3: New themes in Visio

Of course, we’ve also made updates across huge swaths of our content to freshen up its look and to take advantage of all the power of our new effects and themes. I’ll call out a few of the templates we’ve updated down at the bottom of this post.

Using Visio has always been great. We love receiving feedback that starts with “I love this program” (and doesn’t follow that with ‘but’)! We wanted to keep pushing on making the program fantastic to use to ensure that people keep finding the experience of using Visio to be efficient, intuitive and even – perhaps – enjoyable!

To achieve this, we invested across the board in polishing the product. We streamlined the ribbon and made our contextual UIs much more complete and focused. More commands than ever are now available right at your fingertips, which helps keep you focused on building your diagram instead of searching through complex UI to find the command you want. Try collapsing your ribbon in the new version and see whether using the right click menus makes you more efficient!

Outside the command space, we fixed hundreds of little road bumps (bugs :) that folks told us about when using the product, and we built out several major features that customers have been craving for a while. We also dramatically simplified our application look, so that the diagrams you’re making will take center stage, instead of needing to compete with Visio’s UI. Lastly, we added a raft of smooth transitions, which make the program much easier to follow, as well as making it a lot more attractive to use.

All in all, we are tremendously excited about how great using the next version of Visio is and we’re thrilled that you all will finally get to give it a try.

Yeah – I’ve got examples. Now that you’ve got the summary, I’d like to dive into a few specifics here. We’ve got later blog posts planned that will cover theming, effects and the command improvements – so I’m going to hold off on them. However, I would like to talk a bit about some of the top requested customer features that we’ve built as well as walk through some examples of templates that we’ve updated.

Change shape is one of the most highly requested customer features we’ve ever had. It’s not hard to see why. How many times have you dropped a process shape and connected it up, realizing later it should have been a decision? Or, have you ever wanted to give your simple decision shape more impact by subbing in one of the cool Visio Workflow shapes?

Changing a shape is now as easy as clicking a button and picking the shape you want. You can change one shape at a time or change several multi-selected shapes at once. This makes it easy to rough in a diagram with temporary shapes and then change to better looking, more accurate, or more appropriate shapes when you are ready to finish the diagram. You don’t have to worry about losing connections, formatting or settings; Visio transfers all that over to the new shape automatically.

Change shape

If you don’t see the shape you want in the Shapes pane, you can use Search to find it and the search results appear in the Change Shape choices. To make changing the shape even quicker, you can use Change Shape from our right-click menu (we call it The Floatee).

Another highly request feature has been the ability to quickly duplicate a page. Right-clicking on the page tab and selecting Duplicate now creates a new page with all of the shapes, formatting and properties of the original. You can use this to quickly create variations of a diagram or to use a particular page as a starting template for many others or to simply explore different layouts – all without risking the contents on your original page. Combining Duplicate Page with Change shape also allows you to quickly try out using different shapes as well.

It’s now much easier to find the shape you want. Search has been updated with new keywords to give better results and the results are organized more clearly and grouped by stencil. You’re shown up to the first four relevant shapes in each stencil and when you find the shape you want you can add it to your diagram or add in the whole stencil to the Shapes Pane with one click.

Find shapes

If you prefer to browse for shapes, we’ve also updated the More Shapes menu to make it easier to preview stencils and let you add or remove multiple stencils at once.

As I mentioned, we’ve also updated a huge portion of our content this release. There’ll be a whole article detailing what we’ve done later, so I just want to give you a taste here to illustrate a few of the changes that we’ve made.

Org Chart has been reworked with 10 completely new styles, each with its own unique look. We’ve made the use of pictures super easy as well. The net result is that in a few clicks you can make org charts with incredibly varied styles that range from minimal to professional to hip to playful – whichever is appropriate for the personality of your team or organization.

Containers were already a powerful tool for diagram creation and they’re even better now. Not only are there new containers for you to use, we’ve also added the ability to format containers with a variety of new looks. Whether you want something purely functional or more stylistic, it’s easy to customize a container. Once you’ve selected a container style you want, you can change the heading style and use themes or quick styles to make it look just like you want.

Example 1: Containers in Visio

Example 2: Containers in Visio

Example 3: Containers in Visio

Like containers, new callouts give you options to give your diagrams a customized look. Callouts have been completely reworked to provide more choices and more formatting options. You can quickly integrate the look of your callouts to your diagram with Themes, or use Quick Styles to draw special attention to a specific callout.

New versions of these diagrams have updated shapes with a simple, modern look. In addition to making it easy to produce incredibly professional looking diagrams, these shapes are updated to include the newest hardware and concepts. We’ve also made the most important semantic details of the shapes more visually salient – making it easier to read large, complex diagrams.

There’s also a new version of the Workflow diagram that shares the modern look. Like the network shapes, you’ll find they can add flavor to other diagrams.

Don’t worry, though, the old 3D network and workflow shapes were so popular and iconic that we couldn’t take them out. So, you can still find them by searching or browsing through the template categories.

The Basic Diagram template is a great toolkit to start a generic diagram or to use in an existing one, and we’ve updated it to give you a wider variety of attractive and useful shapes. You’ll be able to use them to make quick drawings or add them to other diagrams to help illustrate your information. We’ve added lots of new shapes, including decorative shapes, arrow shapes, graph and math shapes.

And even with all that, we’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg on what the new Visio can offer. Check out our upcoming blog posts for deep dives on everything I touched on above.

We hope that you’ll find it easier, faster and more pleasant to create beautiful, professional looking diagrams in Visio than it has ever been before!

We would love to see your comments on this and other blog posts and if there are other topics you’d like to see us cover, let us know.


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