Office 2007 Beta 2 is now available!

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

It's the moment we've all been waiting for

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx

Additionally, Beta of Small Business Accounting 2007 is also now available.
Check the SBA group for details.

Enjoy!

 

[Guest]

I'm trying to digest BCM 3. Before I ask a lot of inane questions, I have to
say that it's head and shoulders above every BCM released to date.

There are betas and there are betas...this might be stable enough for daily
use, and MS's stated goal is to get its users to crash it and send the bug
reports. Time and testing will tell. My migration from Outlook 2003 was: DL
Office Pro Plus. DL OL w/BCM. Install both programs. Open Outlook 2007.
Done.

The Outlook contacts database is still split between .pst and .bcm (or
..bcmx) files. But at least there is a new file extension. They really got
the message about customizing fields...every pick list has an 'edit this
list' option.

About the only thing I see at first that I would add is in the Business
Contact, right field under 'Classification', check box on the right for
"Lead" could also be "Prospect". I'm sure there's an appropriate beta forum
for feedback somewhere. But now I think I can get some work done with
this puppy. BCM mports Quickbooks IIF files...If you use Quicken Home &
Business, you can find a free converter to translate data from QIF to IIF and
import it into BCM.

I'm definitely tranferring my business contacts into BCM.

Neal

 

[Guest]

BCM 3's database is called COMPUTERNAME\MSSMLBIZ.

the previous MICROSOFTSMLBIZ has not been uninstalled., but the program
advises the user to disable it for 'security'. SQL Server 2005 Express is
installed, and if the program already exists, a new MSSQL profile is created.
You might go find SQL Server Management Studio Express as a free download to
help mangage the databases.

 

[Guest]

Whoo-hoo! Thank you for posting the link, I'm on to this like syrup on
pancakes.
S

 

[Guest]

There is a little toolbar for outlook which you can use it to import your
contacts from quickbooks directly to your address book. It is an add-on from
quickbooks website.
I have it and it works great but I did not try it with outlook business
manager.

 

[JDJ]

My migration from Outlook 2003 was: DL
Office Pro Plus. DL OL w/BCM. Install both programs. Open Outlook 2007.
Done.

But did you install it...

1) on top of Outlook 2003?
2) side by side with Outlook 2003?
3) uninstall Outlook 2003 first then install Outlook 2007 & BCM?

My primary motivation for the beta is to evaluate Outlook 2007 &
Business Contact Manager 3.

Based on that, if you were me, would you bother installing the rest of
Office 2007? I.E. is it pretty stable?

 

[Guest]

First, you can install Office 2007 to a different directory or a different
drive. You HAVE to install the main office suite, Office Pro Plus, disk 1
before installing BCM. By default, you cannot have more than one active
version of Outlook on your machine, so if you do install, be aware that the
mapi.dll for OL2003 is disabled. OL 2007 still uses a .pst file, which for
now is compatible with your previous version. You can continue to use your
previous versions of Word and Excel, etc. and simply open your existing .pst
with OL07. I hope it's backwards compatible.

Second, if you want to install BCM, it's a separate download and install.
It did not allow me to choose a different directory or drive. It left my
previous database intact, but uninstalled the previous version of BCM and
installed a new SQL based database. BCM uses the .bcm or XML-based .bcmx
extension for individual items. These are still a different format from the
Outlook contacts.

AFAICT it's still not possible to make subfolders of BCM contacts or leads.
Anyone been able to?

I've also had monkey trouble trying to import a .csv file into BCM. It'
won't accept the tab delimited format. Also, the csv fields are nothing like
matching fields in Outlook--it's an obtuse drill-down through an alphabetized
list of all possible fields with no correspondence to the source fields.
Then after I did match them up, it told me it' couldn't open the .csv anyway!

Again, this product LOOKS great...at least this one s identified as a beta.

Neal

 

[JDJ]

First, you can install Office 2007 to a different directory or a different
drive. You HAVE to install the main office suite, Office Pro Plus, disk 1
before installing BCM.

Really?

And does the Office 2007 install allow you to deselect modules you
don't want to install (e.g. everything but Outlook)?

Second, if you want to install BCM, it's a separate download and install.

This I know, but you are saying either the doc's or your personal
experience will not allow me to install that download without first
installing the other (the suite).

I've also had monkey trouble trying to import a .csv file into BCM. It'
won't accept the tab delimited format.

Well just guessing, but .CSV the file extension, or at least the
letters CSV, stand for Comma Separated Value, which is not at all the
same thing as tab separated / delimited.

Perhaps there was another choice "tab delimited" file.

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

Really?

And does the Office 2007 install allow you to deselect modules you
don't want to install (e.g. everything but Outlook)?


This I know, but you are saying either the doc's or your personal
experience will not allow me to install that download without first
installing the other (the suite).




Well just guessing, but .CSV the file extension, or at least the
letters CSV, stand for Comma Separated Value, which is not at all the
same thing as tab separated / delimited.

Perhaps there was another choice "tab delimited" file.
--

You can choose not to install other apps if I remember correctly. That would
be not a good idea. The new apps are easier to use and look prettier. I
always install the entire suite to be done with it. You basically have the
option to upgrade or to do a new install. I think an upgrade by default
ugprades everything you have and the new install will give you more options.

I always wind up asking clients for the Office CD when I start teaching them
some advanced stuff and find the typical components I expect to be on the
system as not installed.

There are lots of tricks with CSV files. Try opening it with Excel and see
what it really looks like. A properly formatted CSV will get recognized by
Excel as such and auto-populate the workbook. If anything, I am sure
Microsoft would be interested in your feedback on how to improve the CSV
import feature. I can think of too many ways to do it.

 

[Guest]

Really?

And does the Office 2007 install allow you to deselect modules you
don't want to install (e.g. everything but Outlook)?

Yes when you choose custom install mode. Deselect everything within pro
plus you don't want or need. Choose a different directory, even a different
drive. Trust me, I tried to install the BCM first, but it wouldn't take-it
referred me back to disk 1. And unfortunately again, there is no choice in
where to install BCM-the 'choose directory' button is grayed out.

I've also had monkey trouble trying to import a .csv file into BCM. It'

Well just guessing, but .CSV the file extension, or at least the
letters CSV, stand for Comma Separated Value, which is not at all the
same thing as tab separated / delimited.

Perhaps there was another choice "tab delimited" file.

I'll bet it's coming, but this is beta. I prefer Windows tab delimited
text files, but I sure couldn't see it as an option, and the BCM only
recognized the csv.

But did you install it...

1) on top of Outlook 2003?
2) side by side with Outlook 2003?
3) uninstall Outlook 2003 first then install Outlook 2007 & BCM?

My primary motivation for the beta is to evaluate Outlook 2007 &
Business Contact Manager 3.

Based on that, if you were me, would you bother installing the rest of
Office 2007? I.E. is it pretty stable?
--

I installed mine to another drive with the exception of BCM that gave no
choice. If you have an exchange client configured, you might want to
uninstall OL first because that's where the problems seem to be happening.
based on the reports I've read.

As soon as I installed OL07, it deactivated my mapi.dll for OL03. But 07
opened for me without a flaw, and aside from the initial delay in getting the
product activated, the most I find is a little latency and lag at some
windows.

You might want to use tweakxp to reaarrange your places bar to take 'my
recent documents' off the top spot. It hangs on sorting my recent docs more
than I like.

I gotta say, it's a nice interface, but Word is a high learning curve at
first. Outlook is not so different. I find it stable, worth a try, and you
can still keep everything else but OL and BCM.

neal

 

[Guest]

Thanks Leonid, I got the csv to open just great in XL07. Unfortunately...I
never saw the data in OL. So, what to do?

First: Import the tab delimited text file into an Outlook contacts folder.
The fields are all lined up for a zip-zam-zowie transfer. One then has so
many new OL contacts segregated into a new Contacts folder.

Next: In Outlook, click on the BCM folder, and then go up to the main OL
menu and click File, Import and Export, Business Contact Manager.

Then: Import a file, and navigate to the folder in question. Finish. Your
contacts import. (First time I did this, I navigated to a different pst file
that was open in my list of folders, but it defaulted back to my mail
delivery pst and grabbed my main contacts instead. But the next time, it
worked properly.) Now if I can just get my flags and actions to come along...

I think all actions and Journal entries don't import, so it's better to
import new leads into BCM and build the history of calls, emails, etc. there.

Neal

 

[JDJ]

There are lots of tricks with CSV files. Try opening it with Excel and see
what it really looks like.

Actually what you see in Excel is I think NOT what a .CSV file
actually looks like. Its just that Excel can READ a .CSV file and
display it in an Excel like manner.

I have more of a database than a spread sheet background and lots of
experience importing & exporting .CSV files.

CSV stands for Comma Separated Value.

John,Jackson,Montgomery,Alabama
Fred,Smith,Dallas,Texas

is a 2 record CSV file with values for FirstName, LastName, City,
State separated by commas.

Sometimes the character fields are surrounded by quotes inside the
commas, to distinguish them from numeric fields.

A Tab Delimited File is also common in database import export.

John Jackson Montgomery Alabama
Fred Smith Dallas Texas

I can't remember if it is common to create Tab Delimited files and
give them the .CSV extension.

I both cases the files are really nothing but text files.