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The Windows 7 browser ballot: what it looks like and how it works
For months now (since before the arrival of Windows 7) we've been hearing about the browser ballot screen. This is a piece of legal-technical jiggery-pokery under which the EU has been able to wheedle out of Microsoft an agreement that will allow users to choose what web browser they want to use. It's part of the continuing anti-trust process the EU has been undertaking against the software company.
Of course, the upshot is that the negotiations took so long (first they had to decide what kind of choice to give people, then they had to decide how to do it, then they had to decide which browsers to include, in which order and so on) that it's four months since Windows 7 started selling and the ballot screens are only now beginning to appear.
So if you see a strange Browser Choice icon on your screen, here's what it is and what to do with it.
The first we knew of it was when a new option appeared in Windows Update:
Once we'd restarted the computer, the above icon appeared on the desktop. Clicking it brings up the following screen:
Clicking takes the user to a screen with the various browsers. The first page is defined by the agreement between Microsoft and the EU - Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer will always appear first. Clicking the information button for any of them takes the user to a new window with, unsurprisingly, information about the browser in question.
You can see the page for yourself by clicking here.
After that are icons for Avant browser, K-meleon, Flock, Sleipnir, Green Browser, Maxthon and Flashpeak Slim Browser.
Frankly, the whole thing is a bit of a mess. Not only is it far too late, anyone whose browser suddenly disappears is going to be very confused. Speaking from a UK perspective, we've never heard of some of those browsers, which is again going to confuse people, whereas people in countries where they are popular will be frustrated that they're not on the first page.
AP Tuner
Getting an instrument in tune is often one of hardest things for beginners to learn. AP Tuner is a helpful program for beginners and experiences players alike.
It detects the note being played and shows how in tune it is. I’ve used it both with the microphone built into laptops or an instrument plugged directly into a device such as my Mobile Pre. The detection is fast and you can adjust how quickly it updates the needle.
The bar down the right-hand side of the window shows the instrument preset, in this case an ordinary six string guitar. There are other presets for a variety of other instruments including bass, violin, viola and cello. New presets can be created but the notes must be in pitch order, which is a minor irritation with instruments such as the ukulele.
Other tools include a harmonics graph and a basic recording facility.
AP Tuner is shareware, so although you can use it at no charge, the developer does ask that you pay for it. The cost is US$35, which seems a little expensive given that a dedicated electronic tuner can be bought for around £10 (the Qwik Tune QT11 from Dolphinmusic.co.uk for example) but it is certainly convenient.
Extending conditional formatting in Excel 2003
Excel 2003 is limited to three conditions for Conditional Formatting but it is possible to add more by using a macro instead. It’s a little harder than Excel 2007 but it is still possible.
The macro must be set to run every time the spreadsheet is updated so you can’t use the recorder. Our example uses a score sheet for the BBC Weekly Quiz.
Before we start writing any macros, though, we need to decide on the colours for the winner cell because the macro will refer to the colour by its number not the name. A list of the colours can be found at at mvps.org. I printed out the spreadsheet and wrote the numbers down as I found them.
Click on the Tools menu, Macro and then Visual Basic Editor. Alternatively you could press Alt and F11 as the keyboard shortcut to launch the Visual Basic Editor.
Double click on Sheet1(Sheet1) in the section VBAProject (7 days quiz.xls), where the text within the brackets is the name of the spreadsheet. Click on the drop down menu at the top of the right hand section of the window that says (General) and select Worksheet. Next select Change from the drop down menu on the right. Left-click in the gap above the first text [code]End Sub[/code].
Type [code]Dim winner As Range[/code], press Enter and then type [code]Set winner = Range(“E4”), where E4 is the cell with the winners name in. Press Enter and type [code] Dim winnerColor As Integer[/code], press enter twice, type [code]Select Case winner.Value[/code] and press enter.
The following section is where you enter the name of each entrant their colour. For example type [Case “Nick”[/code], press Enter, type [code]winnerColor = 3[/code] and press Enter. Repeat this for as many people are in the quiz.
When all the names are in the list, type [code]End Select[/code], press Enter and type [code]winner.Interior.ColorIndex = winnerColor[/code].
The completed code should look the screenshot on the right.
Click on the save icon in the toolbar at the top of the Visual Basic Editor to save the changes. Click on the Excel icon to the left of the Save icon to return to the spreadsheet. Try changing the scores to test that the correct colours are used.
Apart from having to use the Visual Basic Editor to add or change the entrants to the quiz, the only drawback with this solution is that Excel Macro Security must be set to Medium to allow the macro to run.
Download review TimeEdition
Tracking how much time you’ve spent on a task may not sound like fun, but it can be a helpful tool for staying on top of the todo list. I also find it helpful for staying focussed on a particular task.
TimeEdition is a time tracker that offers lots of advantages over trying to keep track of time with pen and paper. It divides time by client, project and task. If that sounds a bit corporate you could divide time up between Subject, Project and essay. All of these can be selected via the drop down menus and then started with the play button.
The link above is for the Windows version but there are Mac and Linux versions on the TimeEdition download page.
There are some helpful tools to make sure that it is as accurate as possible. It keeps an eye on the computer and will automatically stop if the computer is left idle for a certain length of time. Alternatively, the timer can be set to display a countdown to give a greater sense of urgency.
One disappointment with TimeEdition is that it has no way of keeping it on top other windows, so I found it easy to forget to start the timer again after getting a coffee or lunch.
TimeEdition is also very capable at exporting the information it gathers. Files can be created for Excel, CSV, iCal or XML. If you fancy being very open (and therefore scarily accountable) TimeEdition can create appointments in iCal, Outlook and Google Calendar based on the time spent of different projects.]
TimeEdition is open source, so there’s no charge for downloading or using it. Unlike far too many open source projects, there’s a well written manual, so there’s no need to mess about with settings getting your bearings.
I have to admit that I’m using Klok, an Adobe Air program for my own personal time tracking. This is mainly because it can show how the week has been spent and it has a simple system for making template projects. TimeEdition is a much better program if you want to charge for time spent on projects and the autopause avoids forgetting to stop the timer when nipping out for lunch or a coffee. TimeEdition also has the advantage that it is self contained in one folder, so you can run it from a USB memory key or from a folder synchronised online with a service like Dropbox.
Lindy XLR microphone to USB cable
The Lindy USB XLR Microphone cable may not have the EQ or pre-amp of my mixer, but it’s ideal for quick projects that only require a single mic, such as podcasts and screencasts.
Setup is laughably simple. Plug a microphone in one end (I used a Behringer Ultravoice XM8500) and plug the other end into a spare USB socket on the computer. Both Windows XP and Windows 7 on my test computers installed the drivers automatically and the microphone was ready to use. It should work with Macs as well.
The one limitation is that it cannot provide the phantom power (48v) required by some condenser microphones, though at this price it’s not an issue.
The sound quality was very good with little background noise.
The cable is 5 metres long and only costs £20, which should leave money left over to spend on a good microphone.
Be a Ribbon Hero!
As the comments on this blog have shown, the Office Ribbon has not met with universal approval. In a move to get people to explore the Ribbon the Office Labs has developed the Ribbon Hero
It appears in the Ribbon in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 and shows your current score out of a total of 420. With just 48 points I’ve still got some way to go. The scores don’t carry across the different programs so there’s plenty to learn.
Points are given for completing version tasks in three categories: Working with Text, Page Design and Layout and Getting Artistic. Up to 44 points are awarded for basic tasks when using the Ribbon.
It’s aware of some of the new tools in Office 2010 like Text Effects and screen shots. Challenges for all versions of Office include working with SmartArt, Charts, watermarks and line numbers.
Once the tasks have been completed you can share you score using Facebook.
Even if you’re not interested in proving your prowess with Office, the Ribbon Hero is a useful learning tool.
Office 2010 preview
I had a meeting with Microsoft to have a look at Office 2010 and some of the changes that are being made.
Sorry to disappoint those who don’t like the Ribbon, but it’s staying. Some consolation might be found in the fact that it can now be customised.
One change that had immediately caught my eye in the Technical Preview of Office 2010 is that the Office button has had a makeover. It’s no longer in the top left corner of the screen; instead it is slightly below with an old style program icon above. I still think that this is something of a step backwards in terms of User Interface design; corners are considered infinite in size (you can’t miss them) and the new one is also smaller.
Chris explained that the user feedback had shown that some people hadn’t even realised that it was a button and had contacted technical support asking how to print from documents. It’s a reasonable justification, but I still preferred the button from 2007.
There are some small changes to the file format but this shouldn’t give any problems to anyone using Office 2007. Chris followed up by saying “The compatibility pack for Office 2003 will be updated to support the version of Open XML supported by Office 2010. Office 2007 users should also update their installation with the latest updates to ensure their version is aware of the new formats in Office 2010. The delivery method of these updates has not yet been decided.”
Office Starter
Most of the computers we see arrive in the office have a trial copy of Office that lasts for 60 days, sometimes with a copy of Microsoft Works. Works is being retired in favour of Office Starter, limited versions of Word and Excel that should be enough to get by if someone sends you a docx or xlsx file. There’s a separate PowerPoint Viewer.
Microsoft has also made some effort to make getting started easier. Instead of having separate icons for the different Office programs in the Start menu when a new computer arrives, there is a single Office icon. Selecting this displays a window with the option of entering or buying an activation key for the full versions of Office or using the Starter versions.
I might have happy(ish) memories of using Works at university, but I think that this simplification is a great help.
Backstage
As well as changing the Office button the menu that appears has changed as well. Menu is selling it short slightly as it takes up the whole screen. Called Backstage it takes care of all the publishing tasks such as printing, saving or posting to blogs.
Multimedia
There are more tools for making presentations more exciting in PowerPoint with some basic video editing possible without having to use a separate program. These can be used to crop videos and are non-destructive for the most part so you can go back to the video later.
Given that this can lead to so fairly large presentations there are also tools for preparing the presentation for emailing. Depending on how aggressive you want to be, this can discard cropped sections of videos.
YouTube videos can be embedded into presentations but they’re not saved within them, so an internet connection is essential during the presentation. I wasn’t able to insert an flv file from my computer into a presentation in Powerpoint 2010 Beta.
Custom Ribbon
One of my frustrations with the Ribbon was that the layout in Office 2007 is completely fixed. I’d just created my own taskbar in Word 03 the week before I heard about the Ribbon so it felt like a step backwards. It is now possible create a tab in the Ribbon with your own selection of icons, along with macros.
Working together
Office Live is going to improved to make it easier for several people to work on a document at the same time. The ideal is to use the normal Office programs, and I found that they will open automatically when trying to edit a document online if available. The online versions won’t have all the functionality of their desktop equivalents. If there’s is a section of a document that cannot be changed with the online editor it will be left alone.
Microsoft has also acquired office.com so there’s no need to use office.microsoft.com.
Versions
More good news is in the simplification of the different versions of Office:
Office Home and Student: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote
Home and Business: All of the above with Outlook
Professional: All of the above with Access and Publisher
I predict some controversy over the end of upgrade versions although this may depend on the pricing of the full versions.
Overall
Office 2010 looks like it has some genuinely useful improvements on 2007, especially if you want to work on documents with other people and don’t have access to an Exchange server.
Browser design flaw? Or is it search engines?
I took call from a reader today who couldn't access a link in the magazine because they had entered it into the search engine box rather than the address bar of the browser. It's an easy mistake to make. After all, the search box is right in the middle of the screen.
It's not always a problem, type www.computeractive.co.uk into Google and the website is the first result in the list. But, type www.snipca.com/X911 (a shortened link to Windows Update) and there are no matches.
Surely it's not beyond the likes of Google to look through the search term and warn that it might be a link in the wrong place if www or http:// is found.
Clever idea for using a smartphone with a landline
Last year I took a look at the Fritzbox router. It’s expensive, but an incredibly versatile piece of kit and great for making calls over the internet using ordinary phones, either plugged into the back or wirelessly using DECT.
Now it looks like the final kind of phone in the home, the mobile, is going to be added to the Fritzbox fold. AVM has announced the Fritz!App (scroll down to the bottom), which will be available for iPhone and Android. It will allow the smartphone to connect to the router and then use the landline or access the built in answer phones. Incoming calls can also be routed to the smartphone.
All sounds quite impressive so I’m hoping that this will be available for current models like the 7270 and not just the new ones announced at Cebit.
