OT - some useful info

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Cynthia

--==>> OFFICE WATCH <<==--

Your independent source for MS Office advice and news since 1996
"The Desktop Search Handbook" http://shop.office-watch.com/dsh/
8 June 2005 Vol 10 No 17


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Find stuff fast - don't wait for sluggish Windows search to crawl along -
choose a faster, free tool and get the most from it. From the people who
bring you this newsletter each week, check out the Desktop Search Handbook
http://shop.office-watch.com/dsh/

1. Office 12 moves to more XML
2. Desktop Search Handbook
3. Office Password Recovery
4. Outlook Picture Viewer
5. Easy Mail Merge
6. Licensing Microsoft fonts


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1. OFFICE 12 MOVES TO MORE XML
The news about the next version of Office, aka Office 12, continues even
though the release is probably a year away.

Unlike most of these announcements, this one has some substance and it looks
like good news. Therefore it deserves to get some coverage here in Office
Watch.

In Office 2003 you have the choice of a native document format for Word and
Excel - the .doc and .xls that we're long used to. There is also the little
used OfficeML formats - an XML version of the document formats.

In Office 12 those OfficeML formats will be revised to include ZIP
compression to make the documents smaller than the current OfficeML formats
and also the native formats. In theory this means you won't have to worry
about compressing a document before emailing it - the document itself will
already be compressed.

OfficeML in Office 12 will be the default document format. Of course you'll
be able to open documents created with earlier versions of Office and
Microsoft has said it will release a filter so Office 2003 and earlier
versions will be able to open the new OfficeML format.

For many people this change will go largely unnoticed unless you do a mass
conversion of existing documents and there is a significant disk space
saving.

But if OfficeML lives up to expectations (and that's always a big if with
Redmond product promises) then we could see a new range of document
extendibility and compatibility.

While I would not go so far as to say this is 'exciting' news (as Microsoft
is wont to say) it certainly is interesting for all sorts of reasons. So
much so that we'll devote much of an upcoming Office Watch to this
announcement. That's once we've read all the announcements in depth and
peppered Microsoft with questions <g>.

As always we welcome your comments and questions on this development
(e-mail address removed)


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2. DESKTOP SEARCH HANDBOOK

an Office Watch guide
http://shop.office-watch.com/dsh/

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o Tips on how to effectively index audio, video, OneNote, web caches and
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3. OFFICE PASSWORD RECOVERY
There's plenty of tools out there to unlock a password protected document
including the long-time Office Watch supporter http://www.lostpassword.com/
but it's always nice to see new players in a software market.

Intelore has a series of recovery tools for Word, Excel, Access and Outlook
plus Project and Outlook Express
http://www.intelore.com/password-recovery.php

Some passwords can be recovered quickly because they are not that well
stored but for Word and Excel it can take some time as the recovery program
goes through the millions of possible combinations.

Password recovery is a touchy subject with some people who think its main
purpose is to spy on others. While it's true such tools can be applied to
nefarious purposes, they are mostly used by the document's original owner.
Either the author has forgotten the password or has left the company leaving
documents behind that cannot be opened.

Our advice regards most security devices is that it stops "honest" people
from accessing things that they shouldn't. Those who are serious about
computer security don't rely solely on password-protecting documents, and
other measures need to be taken to prevent unauthorized access.


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Here's a list of Outlook add-ins that can save time and improve your
productivity:
* Attachment Save - automatically saves attachments to a Windows folder
* Contact Duplicates Eliminator - easily remove duplicate contacts
* Add Email Address - automatically add people you reply to as contacts
* Plus 27 other Outlook add-ins
http://www.SperrySoftware.com



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4. OUTLOOK PICTURE VIEWER
Microsoft adds a nuisance to Office and there's usually someone out there
ready to provide a solution ...

In Outlook you get an email with more than one image attachments - that's
fine except you have to open each one individually. You can't select more
than one attachment and open them all at once.

There is the option to save the images to a folder then open them but not to
do it directly from Outlook.

Outlook Picture Viewer http://www.outlookpictureviewer.com/ works by
intercepting the file association for image formats like JPG and GIF then
passing your viewing request along to the image viewer of your choice. As
long as that viewer has the ability to view more than one image (Windows
Picture viewer does but others like MS Picture Editor does not) you'll get a
single window open with all the selected images available.

It seems to work nicely and the FAQ covers the configuration options for
various incarnations of Office and Windows. $9.95 for the registered
version isn't a lot to ask if this is a particular nuisance for you. There
is a shareware trail version available.

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5. EASY MAIL MERGE
Word has had powerful mail merge facilities ever since Winword v1 - and
since then mail merge has become much easier to use with features like email
merging added as well.

But Word mail merge is still a rocky road for most people and there's
definitely a market for add-ons like Easy Mail Merge from DS Development.

Some of the listed features are in Word itself but others are welcome
improvements. The conditions options are much easier to understand than the
complex Word options.

With anti-spam provisions in place you have to be a little discreet about
sending out many emails at the one time. Easy Mail Merge gives you the
option to schedule an email run for a later time or spread the mailing out
over a period of time.

Sadly there's no trial version but you can check out the details at
http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/mail_merge.html


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6. LICENSING MICROSOFT FONTS
We all get the standard Microsoft fonts with Windows and Office with the
right to use them in our documents and emails. But developers cannot use
the same fonts in their applications without a special licence.

Ascender now has permission from Microsoft to license their high-quality
fonts to developers. This includes the MS Office fonts like Arial, Century
and Wingdings.

http://ascenderfonts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=AF&Affiliate=officewatch
 
I notice that although you posted 10 KB of copyrighted material in the NG,
you snipped the copyright notice. It would have been much more "useful" to
post a link to http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx, where
users can get the information "straight from the horse's mouth."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.
 
You know, it seems like Office Watch it has been reduced to a bunch of
advertising these days. Each time the latest copy arrives in my inbox
I can't help but say "ow!" after reading it. <grin>

I suspect Peter may appreciate the fact that someone is spamming the
newsgroups with his latest issue - it only helps him hock his products
under the guise of "useful information about Office "...
 
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