Don't Look Now, Here Comes Office 2013

As soon as we become comfortable with technology, we are probably behind. For example, many of you at Passaic and Bergen have just received training in the state of the art Office 2010. The biggest feature that will take some retraining is the touch-screen support. Windows 8 and Office 2013 will support touch-screen input, so if you have a touch-screen, you can use that instead of a mouse.

I am interested in seeing the changes they have made, so I will be downloading the free consumer preview and seeing how I like the changes.

Anyone can download and try out the consumer preview for free:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en

If you already have Office, I would not recommend removing your old version, as preview versions expire eventually. However, if you don't have Office at all and would like to play with it, or if you are a little more tech-savvy, here is your chance to be the first kid on the block to try it out.

That is my plan for Tuesday!

Productivity Software and Being Productive

Programs in Microsoft Office generally fall in to a category of software called productivity software. The idea behind this is that users should be able to use the tools to save a company time, and hence money. Programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are tools many companies view as useful.

However, I hear that many companies are not impressed with the technology skills of students graduating college, and that seems counter intuitive at first. I think the issue is only partially technology-related. For example, I am in the process of teaching PowerPoint to my 101 class. I try to make the comparison between the things businesses like students to know and the things students want to know how to do. The things students like to do in PowerPoint include animations, slide transitions, and sounds. However, in a business environment, those things are generally not used. As a matter of fact, in many medium to large sized companies, employees will be using a standard company template and just adding the data they would like to the slide.

What a company would look for is certainly part technology, but also part English. A company would expect a new hire to be able to take a paper and summarize it in to a presentation. This involves very little technical know-how. If a new hire takes that paper and types in complete sentences on the slides, or spends a lot of time playing with animations, the company will not be impressed. I try to get across a few key pieces of information, for example, don't write in complete sentences on each slide, summarize data and try to use the 7x7 rule (no more than  words per line, and 7 lines per slide), and use the notes pane, especially if you plan on sending a presentation out via email (this will allow a blind user's screen reader to give a blind user a similar experience to a non-blind user).  As you can see, those are less technology issues and more using the technology to achieve a task.

Similarly, I see a disconnect between the technical aspects of Excel and the application. Every semester, I put the percentages for each component of a grade on the syllabus. Let's say tests are 40%, lab projects are 40%, and the final is 20%. With that information and knowledge of what grades the student has received, this spreadsheet should be pretty easy. However, I find most students seem to have no sense for how they are doing in a class unless I tell them.

In a business environment, this is the type of problem a new hire may be presented with. Given a certain situation you should create the formulas to get an answer. If a new hire can't figure out how to do that, is that a logic problem or technology problem? I'd argue logic problem, providing they know how to enter formulas.

Companies expect new hires to really understand the technology. It isn't just remembering every point and click, because even I forget specific tasks sometimes and have to Google it. It is also understanding the capabilities of each tool and being able to apply it to the tasks you face.

My last job before I started teaching full-time was at a highly technical company. People did amazing things with programming, but they were still doing really silly things like using a paper log book to keep track of problems. If one wanted to log something, one had to go to a specific person's cubicle and write it down on paper. I made the suggestion that we create an Excel spreadsheet and just put it on the network (in a configuration management system - don't worry about the details). Of course, I didn't try to force it on people, because that never works. I made a suggestion to my manager, and he asked me to create a prototype. He loved it and made it policy. Soon people were asking me how we could generate reports to show only open problems...show ones that were more than a month old...replace a text column with a pull-down menu...validate data...etc. This little spreadsheet took on a life of its own, but made a lot of information available to management, things they would otherwise have had to have someone tabulate by hand. It also helped reduce mistakes. This was me applying technology to an existing situation, and this was something that helped me stand out. In a very technical company, I got promotions and gained the faith of management because I could not only use Excel, but also because I had the vision to see where it could make things more efficient. I did a lot of things that helped streamline processes, and was on the fast track as a result

I think many students have a built-in understanding of computers that people thirty years older than them do, but they don't always know how to apply the tools to real-world problems. If you can do so, you will do well in the real world.

Metadata and You

I first encountered the word metadata back when I started creating Web pages in the mid 1990's. Programs called "search engines", like Webcrawler and Altavista, would automatically find your page and make it available for the world to find. They did have issues adequately describing your page, so as a Web developer adding "meta tags" was critical. It was a way of adding text that did not show up in the Web browser, but allowed search engines to find information about your site.

Metadata is something that is used today in many areas, from computer forensics to corporate espionage. I will give you a regular example first. As a professor, there are times when I think something might be an exact copy of someone else's file. The first thing I will do is take a look at the file properties. In Office 2010, I would go to the File tab and select "Info". On the right side are properties. I can see very easily the name of the person who created the file. In a computer lab, most people probably have the same user name, so that may not tell me anything. However, if you created it at home and gave it to a friend, there is pretty damning evidence since your friend has handed in a file with your name in it. Other ways include "date created" - this tells me the day and time the file was created. I am of course not opening up my whole bag of tricks here, but these are two ways to investigate a file further.

In terms of corporate espionage and hacking...many times, the metadata in programs such as Word (and most of the rest of Office) includes data like username, company name and a file path. If this file was created on a network drive, I now know the name of one of your company's internal servers and possibly your username. This information is valuable for hackers!

If you are distributing a file from Office, also be aware if your company uses tracking changes, revisions, comments, or hidden text, that information can be included in a file you distribute. If a member of a company's staff left a comment in the file, there is a good chance it could be found. You can use the Office 2010 Prepare for Sharing options to minimize this risk, though once again, most people do not realize this.

Even programs like Photoshop can cause metadata issues. Let's say you have an image, and you choose to blur out bits of it. Photoshop will save a thumbnail as part of the file, to make it quicker for the operating system to give users a preview. Therefore, a smart hacker may be able to see your original image using some advanced techniques. Programs such as jStrip will help minimize this risk, but many people don't realize it is a risk.

Like many other technology issues, the only way people know about this generally seems to be if they are burned by it.

Learning Technology

One of the problems with teaching technology is that everything changes.  Many times, people just sort of stick with the features they know and just look for the spot where that same feature is, rather than learning the new features of a program.

The most recent example I can come up with is Office 2007.  People got very frustrated with a new interface, even if it is a simpler interface.  One company even created a program to make Office 2007 look like Office 2003, and charges $30 for it.  People will pay $30 to stick with the old interface!  (To be fair, businesses don't like dealing with retraining, because it costs money).

This does go beyond new versions of software.  I remember when I was in college, we were being taught the C programming language (something we computer people use to actually create computer programs).  The college upgraded to a newer version of the language called C++, and I did not bother to take advantage of the new features.  For those who know programming, C is designed to be procedure-oriented, while C++ is designed to be object-oriented.  It took me years to gradually accept the object-oriented programming method.


The reason this is on my mind is because I went to a conference in the city last week, and they included a demonstration of Windows 7.  I have had Windows 7 for a while at home as my primary operating system.  I didn't realize how many features I haven't been using, because much like the programming days in college, I have been using Windows 7 like it was still Windows XP.  I am planning on spending some time playing around with the new features this weekend and re-learning my behaviors a bit, because that's what a technology person should be doing, right?

10 for 2010 (Technology Predictions)

I was thinking about what we are going to see in 2010, and here are some things that came to mind.

1. Standard DVD Format Gets Phased Out - Blu-Ray will become the dominant DVD media, and as a result prices will fall on these devices.  I wouldn't be surprised to see some low end Blu-Ray players going for $100 this Black Friday.  Since Blu-Ray players can play your old DVDs, people will be less resistant than they were when VHS was replaced by DVD players.
   
2. Standard Internet Sales Tax - Some smart politician somewhere will author a bill that will come up with a solution to the whole Internet sales tax issue.  Too many states (Rhode Island, North Carolina) are fighting legal battles with vendors (Amazon) over laws that were originally written in 1887 (really), and e-commerce has become so large that someone is going to fight this battle.
   
3. Office 2010 Will Disappoint - If one looks at the specifications, Office 2010 seems to do some clever things.  Microsoft Works is being phased out and there will be new tools "Word Starter" and "Excel Starter".  These will be the cheaper versions of the tools, and this is great because no one seems to be able to differentiate between "Works" and "Word".  The Ribbon interface will find its way in to Publisher, Visio, and the rest of the tools that it wasn't integrated into previously.  Microsoft will also introduce Web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that will allow people to use the tools online for free, much like Google Docs.  With all that said, I just wonder if Microsoft may be overly ambitious, and cut some corners with the release of Office 2010.  I also feel like the operating system release followed by the Office release will split the focus of the company, and they are more likely to pour resources in to any Windows 7 problems that arise, following the debacle that was Windows Vista.  This would obviously take away from other projects in the company (such as Office 2010).
   
4. eBooks Take Off - eBook readers (such as the Amazon Kindle) will become more popular.  As demand goes up, prices will fall, and this will make these devices available to many people.  College students will be driven by lower prices (for example, my Internet/E-Commerce class textbook goes for $113 new, but the eBook version is $57 for a 6 month subscription), and the ability to electronically mark up your book without having to worry about ruining the resale value.
5. Netbooks Emerge - Netbooks will take off and become a popular alternative to a laptop for people that just want a basic portable machine.  As we see with cell phones, people don't always want all the stuff you get with a PC, they just want something to do the basics on, and Netbooks will fill that void. 
   
6. eNews - More newspapers and magazines will work towards making a digital model work.  According to an article linked from Magazine Death Pool, 367 magazines ceased printing in 2009 (and another 64 went online only).  This industry HAS to adapt, because times are changing.  To be quite honest, the only reason I get my paper is for the Sunday coupons, and the rest of the paper is immediately recycled.  If advertisers decide that online is where the money is, print media will have to follow.  They are also competing for advertising dollars with radio stations (both local stations like 1010 Wins and national stations like NPR) and with TV stations (again, both local news outlets like News 12 and global stations such as CNN). 
   
7. New Careers - Careers with titles like "Medical Informatics" will start to arise.  There is a need for people who have knowledge of both medical and technological concepts, and this seems like an area that will start to grow.  For example, insurance companies may not want to pay for a full-time nurse for someone, but instead have someone monitor remotely.  That person would need to interpret the results and know things like blood pressure and O2 saturation...but also be able to troubleshoot the technology if there are problems.  NJIT is one local institution that has already created a degree program for this.
8. Bing Takes Off - Bing will start to do what Microsoft Live Search didn't do: take away market share from Google.  Not a huge percentage, mind you, but it will start to make headway that other search engines could not.
   
9. Skype Makes a Comeback - Free from eBay's control, Skype will find direction and challenge VoIP providers.  Technology like a Wireless Bluetooth Headset for the PC (i.e. this one: AmbiCom SKYHS-KIT) will attract people who want the freedom to roam their apartment while making calls. 
10. The Mets Win! - The Mets will win the World Series.  (Hey, a guy can dream, right?)  I doubt even the guys at metsblog.com will be predicting this one.
    

I hope you are enjoying your 2010.

How readable is your Word document

Most programs have features that people don't use. As a matter of fact, I read a few years back that Microsoft estimates that people use less than 20% of the features in their tools. For example, in Word, things like file comparison, commenting and change tracking, mail merge, tables of contents, and many more go unused as people do things in a much slower and much less efficient way. As someone who uses these programs to a very high level, I rarely run across something I didn't know.

Earlier this semester, our internship coordinator was showing me a tool that will check how readable a document is. There is apparently something called the Flesch-Kincaid model, which analyzes word usage and will figure out what grade level and how easy to read your document is.

Out of curiosity, I just ran this on a recent assignment I gave in the class, and here are the grade levels:

• 14.6 (like a college sophomore level)
• 14.2 (same)
• 12.1 (just above a high school senior)
• 10.0 (high school junior)
• 8.0 (eighth grade)

You can do this yourself. Basically, you enable this option, and after you run a spelling and grammar check, it will show you the statistics. This is a pretty cool option, and if you find your paper is at a lower level, you can always improve it by doing a little editing. Try it out on your papers today!

Link to instructions

Office 2007 for $59.95

This is a repost from an earlier blog, but worth it, especially if you want a great deal on Office 2007 software.

Microsoft has done something really really good at the moment, especially as far as the students of PCCC are concerned. Microsoft is making the Ultimate version of their Office 2007 software - which includes not only Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but also Publisher, Outlook, Access, and a few others - available at a low price.

The retail price is around $600 - and for students at schools including ours, the price is $59.95, for a legal, full copy of Office 2007. Compare this to the Student and Home edition of Office 2007, which only has Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and goes for $150 retail.

The site linked below does not list how long this offer is good for, but if you were considering buying a copy of Office 2007, here is the best (legal) deal you will ever find.

Web Link:
ultimatesteal.com
(Note that even though this is not at Microsoft.com, it redirects immediately to a Microsoft Web site - and I did get a letter directly from Microsoft about this, so I trust it)

Opening Office 2007 files in older Office versions

I posted this last semester, but this seems to be worth a re-post.

PCCC has made it the "standard" that we are using Office 2007. This presents some issues that we haven't seen in years, the issue of backwards compatibility. In other words, let's say you are running Office 2003 at home. If I mail you a Microsoft Word document in Office 2007 format, you are basically out of luck.

...that is, without an extra piece of free software from Microsoft.

If you are running Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, and can not open Office 2007 files (they have slightly different extensions, such as .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx), the free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack program will allow you to open these files.

I would highly recommend that you download this and install it, especially if you are a PCCC student. If you do classwork on campus computers, you'd have to otherwise remember to "Save as" an older format in order to work seamlessly between campus and home, and that's really not all that seamless, is it?

PC Users: Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

One problem that someone verbally asked me about - this does NOT help with Access files. If you have Access 2003 and someone sends you a database in Access 2007 format, you're out out luck, even after installing this.

Now, why they haven't pushed this out as part of their Microsoft Update, I can not tell you.

---

Mac users only
If you are a Office for Macintosh 2004 or Office for Macintosh X user, you will need to go through a different process. You need to download a free tool called "Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0". Yeah, that's easy to figure out.
Macintosh Users Download Here

Office 2007 Ultimate

When Microsoft does something stupid, I am not afraid to call them out on it.

However, they've done something really really good at the moment, especially as far as the students of PCCC are concerned. Microsoft is making the Ultimate version of their Office 2007 software - which includes not only Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but also Publisher, Outlook, Access, and a few others - available at a low price.

The retail price is around $600 - and for students at schools including ours, the price is $59.95, for a legal, full copy of Office 2007. Compare this to the Student and Home edition of Office 2007, which only has Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and goes for $150 retail.

The site linked below does not list how long this offer is good for, but if you were considering buying a copy of Office 2007, here is the best (legal) deal you will ever find.

Web Link:

• ultimatesteal.com
  (Note that even though this is not at Microsoft.com, it redirects immediately to a Microsoft Web site - and I did get a letter directly from Microsoft about this, so I trust it)
  

Free Trial of Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft is giving out a fully functional 60 day/2 month free trial of Office 2007 Professional. If you don't have Office on your computer, this is a chance to try the new version for free.

Note that since this is the trial version of Office Professional, not only do you get Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you also get Publisher and Access, two other very nice tools, and a few other tools. For free, it's definitely worth a try.

If you were interested in simply purchasing it, there is a "Home and Student" version, which is designed for home users that will be doing common school related tasks. The "Home and Student" version includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This is much cheaper than the standard versions of Office, with a retail price of $150.

At this point, it is a little over $100 to purchase it on Amazon. I'll link to that below.

Web Links:

• Office 2007 Home and Student version on Amazon (PC Version)
  
  
• Link to free trial download page
  (Note that even though this is not from "Microsoft.com", it is what Microsoft links you to. I checked)

Office 2007 Shortcut Keys

One of the best ways to be a little more productive is to learn the hotkeys of a program. Also known as "shortcut keys" or "keyboard shortcuts", keyboard shortcuts are the way of using the keyboard to do things that you would otherwise do with the mouse. For example, a common hotkey in Microsoft Office is to hold down the control key and hit the P key. This will allow you to print without clicking around to do so.

Now there is no way that you're going to memorize them all, but what I think is efficient is to figure out something you're doing often, and to look up the hotkeys for that feature.


No, not THAT type of hotkey.

I've blogged in the past about some of these hot keys, but in the process of updating Microsoft Office, they've removed some of the hotkeys that I personally was used to, which makes me sad, but they've also added some, which is nice.

Where do you look those up? Well, if you Google it, you'll get a list, but at this point, you're dealing with a lot of people who have the Office 2003 lists up. You would figure that there's a comprehensive list for each of the programs on Microsoft's site ... but you'd be wrong. As far as I can find, they only have a set of Office 2003 shortcut keys on the site, not the Office 2007 ones.

One site that I've used for this purpose in the past is keyxl.com and they've done an excellent job of laying out shortcuts for the major Office tools at the links below. Definitely worth a look if you're wondering something like "How do I start a slide show from this slide instead of slide one?"**

Web Links

• Microsoft Word 2007 hotkeys
• Microsoft Excel 2007 hotkeys
• Microsoft Access 2007 hotkeys
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 hotkeys

** Answer - hold shift and hit f5