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Office Genuine Advantage comes to Firefox
There are some situations when Firefox struggles to replace Internet Explorer. Windows Update is one, as was validating Windows for Microsoft updates.
At least until recently in order to validate Windows or Office for a download you had to download a small program which would then give out a special code identifying whether or not the download was allowed.
Internet Explorer had an ActiveX plug in, making the process even simpler as there was no intervention required. It either gave you the download or not.
Now that's true for Firefox as well as there is now a Genuine Advantage plug-in for Firefox as the grab below shows.
It does suggest a certain acceptance for Firefox, not least because Silverlight is also available for it now.
Chandler organisation software released
There are all kinds of programs around designed to help you stay organised no matter how busy you are. The best known is without doubt Outlook, but there are alternatives.
One worth looking at is Chandler, not least because it takes a very different approach. It's also open source so there's no charge to download or use. There are
Rather than organise by tasks, events and contacts, Chandler organises by projects, bringing all three together into one place. It makes a certain amount of sense especially when dealing with different groups of people.
One of the things that excites me about Chandler is the online synchronisation. Not only does this allow you to access the same account from several computers, and keep them all up date, but there is a web interface for working on a shared computer.
It is possible to run a server for a Chandler account yourself, assuming that you have a computer connected to the internet running Java. Personally, I have signed up for an account with Chandler Hub to keep life simple for the moment. There's even a Chandler widget for an iGoogle page to quickly add note to a Chandler account.
Definitely worth taking a look if you want to improve your organisation.
If Chandler interests you, I can recommend the book charting it's inception, Dreaming in Code (on Amazon UK). As well as a fascinating insight into the way software is designed, it shows the problems of trying to decide how to organise large amounts of data. And it gets even harder when they try to give people the freedom to organise themselves the way they want to. I read this book over Christmas and thought it was very good.
Excel can be exciting
Few people can get really excited about Excel given that it is dedicated to number crunching. I've been known to (indeed have a reputation for) rave about the ability to create your own functions or the improved conditional formatting in Excel 2007 but I'm conscious it puts me in a small minority.
If you find getting other people interested in Excel spreadsheets, the 15 tips over at Pointy Haired Dilbert should prove useful.
The formatting options in Excel (The grabs suggest 2003 and later) are pretty good and are an effective, but often forgotten way of drawing attention to figures. I've been guilty of only thinking of myself when creating spreadsheets, and have then paid the price of indifference and boredom later on.
Edit the Office 2007 Ribbon
Although in the main, I'm in favour of the Office 2007 ribbon, it can be frustrating to have lost control over how the toolbars work*.
There is more scope for customisation than first appears and it is possible to create tabs for the Ribbon. A video on editing the Ribbon can be found on the MSDN Office Developer Centre in various video formats along with all of the code used, so there's no need to type it all by hand.
It is rather techie, and you will need a copy of Visual Studio to edit the code (sadly the Express Editions of Visual Basic or C# don't appear to be enough - I'd love to be proved wrong if I've missed something). But even if you don't want to get your hands dirty, it's a fascinating insight into the way that Office works.
Editing toolbars in Word 2003
* For example I spent a few minutes removing the icons and toolbars I never use and adding in some that I wanted. For example, there was no point having icons for copy and paste because I always use the keyboard shortcuts. On the other hand I do need the word count box so that in. The rulers were also turned off because I rarely have to pay attention to layout, only the content. This is what I came up with.
Sun pushing OpenOffice even harder
I've got used to Java updates asking me to install OpenOffice, the open source office suite produced by Sun. It's preaching to the converted as I already have it but that doesn't stop it.
Installing the latest version of Java this morning revealed that they are going one step further than a simple request. Now it is offering to include the OpenOffice installer and the option is selected by default. I do wish companies would stop doing this, especially given that OpenOffice is not a small download. Offer it as an option but don't expect me to want it.
Having said that, I would still strongly urge you to give OpenOffice a try. Just on your own terms that is.
Congratulations to Notepad++
After looking around for a more capable (and free) text editor to replace Notepad, I've been using Notepad++ for some time now, and it has become indispensable.
So I'm rather pleased to see that it has won a Sourceforge Community Award for 'Best Tool or Utility for Developers', although not being a Developer myself I think the title sells it short a little.
Congratulations are also in order for OpenOffice, which won three titles: Best Project, Best Project for the Enterprise and Best Project for Educators.
It's interesting to note that Microsoft was a Diamond sponsor of the awards.
A more effective Desktop
No matter what you do, there will always be some icons on the Desktop. I know mine is particularly cluttered but that's because it offers a good place for jogging my memory.
Rather than try and avoid icons on the desktop, Gabriel Radic has created a wallpaper that helps organise them, and it's available on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Link via Lifehacker.com
Tutorials for the Gimp image editing software
I'm a big fan of the GIMP image editor, it's free and open source and available for all operating systems. Like many opensource projects, it can be a little hard to get started with. Beyond the daily tips there are few wizards or other means to help guide a new user.
So it's worth spending some time with the list of Gimp tutorials listed on Techzilla.
Microsoft tries software as a service for home users
An intriguing hint of what might be to come here. Microsoft has launched a bundle of Office Home and Student 2007 and Live OneCare for $70 a year. Like the normal version of Home and Student the license is good for three computers, ideal for the home.
It doesn't sound like it's available in the UK yet so it'll be very interesting to see how it's received.
My gut feeling is that I'm less prepared to pay for a time limited version of a program than the full version. Then again, this subscription works out as £35 a year for both programs.
£17.50 a year for Office is very competitive, a one off cost version would be the same as nearly 7 years (assuming paying the full price of £120). The subscription would also offer the chance to stop paying if something better appears. Or cheaper <cough>OpenOffice</cough>.
OpenOffice update and support
There's an update for OpenOffice that has just been released, 2.4.1. It's a good idea to install this as it does include a security fix.
The easiest way to do this is to click on the small icon with a green arrow point down at the top right of the screen.
This starts the update wizard, which is easier than checking for versions. Alternatively you could jump straight to the OpenOffice download page.
The other thing in the email that caught my eye was the information about professional support for OpenOffice. It costs $20 per incident but given that OpenOffice is free in the first place it's still a good deal.
