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  • Need to buy a copy of Windows 7 or Office 2007 for someone in education - get an educational discount

    HI, I've been asked this many times, so I thought I would blog on it.  Microsoft offers great discounts for people in education (beyond those who work in education).  The best options are: For university students: http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-uk/default.aspx - – Office £38.95, Windows 7 Pro - £30 For any age group in education - Office 2007 for around £39- £52 depending on which edition (Standard to Enterprise) and Windows 7 upgrades for £40-56 depending on the edition http://www.software4students.co.uk/ http://www.rm.com/shops/thebasement/Range.aspx?nguid=480909c5-102c-4700-8739-f3feedbb6a6d http://www.rm.com/shops/thebasement/Range.aspx?nguid=59137e0c-6185-4d95-a360-a680d60636ea     There are obviously some conditions you have to meet to qualify to use these products and each site has information about them.  If you are in full time education or a parent of someone who is then you likely qualify.  To learn more about Microsoft and education in...

  • OFF TOPIC - Feel the force - See Star Wars Lego II - The Original Trilogy Game - AWESOME

    As some of you may know, I am a true Star Wars Geek. I love all 6 films - yes, even Jar Jar. I had heard about the 2nd game - me & Molly are loving the 1st game and then I saw this on MSN Video - amazing! Cool features - all the characters, the ability to go off piste with any vehicle and the ability to take characters apart and create new ones - just like you would with Lego Pieces :-) ttfn David

  • Collaboration (working together) using Infopath and SharePoint - Job Aids (tools to help you do your job) from Microsoft

    Collaboration Discover tools for managing information and collaborating with others. · Collaboration Selection Guide SharePoint · Collaborating with SharePoint Server 2007 Overview · SharePoint Server 2007 Sites & Workspaces Selection Guide · SharePoint Server 2007 Document Collaboration Get Started · SharePoint Server 2007 Team Sites Get Started · Customizing a SharePoint Server 2007 Site Get Started · SharePoint Server 2007 Web Parts Learn More · SharePoint Server 2007 Meeting Workspaces Get Started · SharePoint Server 2007 My Sites Get Started · SharePoint Server 2007 Site Access and Storage Learn More · SharePoint Server 2007 Surveys Get Started · Outlook 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007 Integration Overview · Outlook 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007 Integration Get Started · Using InfoPath 2007 Forms on a SharePoint Server 2007 Site ttfn David Technorati tags: Office 2007 , Collaboration , Job Aids

  • Are you finding Outlook Web Access (OWA or e-mail from Remote Web Workplace) is showing errors or "image not found" red crosses when accessed from Vista? Another catch by Kevin at Neoblog

    I'm beginning to think I need a subscription from Neoblog to appear higher in my list. I have not tested this, so let me know if there are any issues, but here is the information he has posted. OWA and Vista Posted on February 14th, 2007 by Kevin Higerty If you use Outlook Web Access and have recently upgraded to Vista you will find that you can’t reply or do any action on an email, typically the edit area shows a ‘image not found’ red x in the corner. This is because Windows Vista no longer includes support for the ActiveX control that is used for HTML editing in Outlook Web Access, you need to apply a hotfix to Exchange. Source, more details and the link to the fix: neoblog » OWA and Vista ttfn David Technorati tags: Windows Vista , Vista , Exchange 2003 , SBS 2003 R2 , SBS 2003 , Small Business Server 2003 , Outlook Web Access , OWA

  • If you have upgraded your SBS WSSv2 Companyweb site to WSS v3, there is hope to fix it

    Technorati tags: WSS , Companyweb , Windows SharePoint Services , SBS 2003 R2 , sbs 2003 I have seen two entries on this today that need flagging. The 1st is the re-iteration by Susan Bradley that everything works baring e-mail in a WSS v3 site - providing you are not upgrading a WSSv2 site on SBS. Side-by-side installs work with this exception. It is still vital that you read this document before you do the upgrade. However, I have had several people mail me asking how to recover. I asked the same question inside Microsoft and was told that a potential solution has been documented in a blog - http://blogs.technet.com/edwalt/archive/2006/11/29/removing-wss-3-0-companyweb-upgrade-restoring-wss-2-0-on-sbs-2003.aspx . This is almost certainly great news for those who ruin their site. There is a word of warning - you need a backup of your WSS v3 companyweb database. ttfn David

  • Setting up Yahoo Mail Plus (the paid for service) for Pop3 download into Outlook 2007

    I have had someone ask me about POP3 mail and Outlook 2007 wiht Yahoo mail, so here is a walk through. Go to the tools menu and select Account Settings. press New selected the top option filled in my details and clicked next let it finish processing job done Going back to Account settings screen I see that the settings are not quite the same as the details at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/mailplus/pop/pop-36.html Clicking More Settings the last tab needed some changing from the screen on the left to the screen on the right that is it - SSL based login and e-mail working ttfn David Technorati tags: yahoo mail , Outlook 2007

  • How to open Office 2007 (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007) files on Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003 by downloading the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for File Formats

    I get asked this question quite often, so I thought I would point out the download location for the tool to make files work between Office 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. Just to cover off some details - Office 2007 can save in Office 97-2003 file format as well as the new Open XML and PDF file formats. Using this download, files can be opened and saved in Office 2007 format in Office 2000 and later. Of special note is that if you are using Microsoft Office XP or 2003 you MUST install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack . Also, if you don't have those Office programs, but you have the viewers (Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003) then you can use the pack to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074 . Also Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 to read or write documents containing complex scripts, please see http://support...

  • How to do mail merge letters and labels in Office 2007

    I got a mail on this today, so thought I had better drop a quick note. The Office 2007 web site has a great search system that got me an answer straight away that includes screen shots to make it real simple. (I searched on the site for mail merge and then picked Word 2007 from the product picker). Please note that you can also e-mail merge to result in a number of e-mails being sent (perhaps with a newsletter) and that if you use publisher then you can also do things like put in place web links that have a unique identifier so you can tell who clicked on them. The answers can be found at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word/HA100819761033.aspx?pid=CH100626281033 for the letters http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word/HA101091611033.aspx?pid=CH100626261033 for the labels ttfn David Technorati tags: mail merge , word 2007 , Office 2007

  • How to connect to and import data from an XML Web Service into Excel 2007

    I have been wondering how to do this recently for one of my own projects and then the subject came up internally. A very unassuming Hovsep then wrote up the answer, so as a tip here it is - if you follow the link at the bottom you will see a step by step process with screen shots to help you along the way. Excel 2007 - How to connect to and import data from an XML Web Service Many organizations have adopted a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the architecture of choice. SOA allows a company to expose its services and data in a manner that is compliant with industry standards. SOA is the buzzword these days. Down the wire of SOA is XML data that is exchanged between entities. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 has built-in features that allow a user to connect to and consume XML data. Such data can be stored in an XML file on the local hard drive, shared in a portal or returned from an XML Web Service. If you’d like to use Excel to import XML data from a Web Service, follow these step-by-step guidelines. For the...

  • Updating to SharePoint Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR)

    Downloads (MOSS - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) MOSS 2007 Beta 2 to B2TR Patching Procedure (with screenshots) http://blog.funknstyle.com/?p=542 WSS 3.0 Beta 2 to B2TR Patching Procedure (with screenshots) http://blog.funknstyle.com/?p=545 MOSS 2007 B2+B2TR Slipstream Clean Installation Procedure http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/12210/download.aspx MOSS 2007 B2+B2TR Slipstream Clean Installation Procedure (screencast; in Flash format) http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/12212/download.aspx WSS 3.0 B2+B2TR Slipstream Clean Installation Procedure (with screenshots) http://jopx.blogspot.com/2006/09/installing-wss-30-beta2-tr-slipstream.html Still Using Office 2003? Make Sure You're Compatible Are you still using Office 2003? Make sure you can open and edit the documents sent to you by colleagues who are using the 2007 Office system. Keep your installation updated and install the Compatibility Pack, and you can ensure that the new Open XML Formats of the 2007 Office system don't cause you compatibility...

  • Tech days 2010 – UK, covering Virtualisation, Office 2010, Windows 7, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio, the Essential Mix, Rich Client and Windows Phone

    Registration for UK Tech Days events from 12 th to 16 th April is open!. UK Tech Days 2010 is a week-long series of free events run by Microsoft and technical communities to celebrate and inspire developers, IT professionals and IT Managers to get more from Microsoft technology.  Our day events in London will cover the latest technology releases including Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft Office 2010, Virtualisation, Silverlight, Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 plus events focusing on deployment and an IT Manager day. Please visit our website for full details: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/techdays and follow what’s happening @uktechdays   The agenda looks like this: Monday 12th April Tuesday 13th Wednesday 14th Thursday 15th Friday 16th IT Pro Days Virtualization Summit Office 2010 - the next wave Windows 7 - Deployment SQL Server 2008 R2 - The Platform Raising the profile of IT Dev Days Visual Studio 2010 Launch Visual Studio 2010 and .NET The Essential MIX Rich Client Windows...

  • Lots of OneNote PowerToys (file and data importers, Outlook tools, table sums, word count, tools to subpage a page or merge pages, copy to mobile device, template maker, favourites, table of contents and even CRM)

    Many people out there love OneNote. Lots of people have it and don't use it - shame on you - try it, but also try the tutorial so you stand a better chance of "getting" this note taking tool. Anyway, I saw a mail by John listing some of the items posted about by him. It is an impressive list. Here's the list, broken down by area: Migrating to OneNote: 1. Journal import https://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/12/21/journal-to-onenote-importer.aspx 2. Text File Importer: https://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/04/30/customer-feedback-results-in-another-powertoy.aspx 3. Export Outlook Notes to OneNote: https://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archive/2007/02/14/export-your-outlook-notes-to-onenote.aspx 4. Import books from Project Gutenberg: https://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/05/31/a-tool-to-import-texts-from-project-gutenberg.aspx Outlook Addins: 5. Outlook Email to OneNote: https://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archive/2007/02/06/powertoy-outlook-to-onenote-addin.aspx 6. Task Request https...

  • Recovering files from sharepoint databases without all the hassle - or ever wondered where the files were in the SQL database anyway

    I found this at the Official SBS blog and while this is not a supported tool, it is an amazing piece of information to have. A quick snippet from the article states : [Today's tip comes to us courtesy of Ed Walters .] Administrators often need to extract a small number of files or even a single file from a SharePoint database, and may not necessarily want to go through the process of an entire disaster recovery to retrieve them. SharePoint Database Explorer can be useful in cases where you have the database files, but it is inconvenient (or impossible) to restore them to a SharePoint site. Common scenarios we've seen are: A customer has overwritten an important document in SharePoint and no local copy is available; document versioning has not been enabled for the library. The customer does not want to force users to log off the server during normal business hours. In this case, you would simply restore the database files from backup, mount them, and retrieve the documents. During disaster recovery, if no backups...

  • Office 2007 and Vista coming in January Action Pack

    [updated - see the FAQ at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/02/12/windows-vista-windows-xp-office-2003-and-office-2007-action-pack-update-my-faq.aspx for more information on the benefits of the Action Pack and in answer to the questions raised in the comments] One of the most asked questions I get is "When will it ship in the action pack". Well, the January Action pack starts shiping in the 2nd week on January, so before General Availability Launch (GA). This is what it will contain: Software Included software in January 2007 MAPS: • Windows Vista Business • Microsoft® Office Enterprise 2007 • Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 • Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager • Microsoft Office Visio® 2007 • Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 • Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 • Microsoft Expression® Web Because Action pack is for business use, you are not getting Vista Ultimate, but we are working on a special partner rate to upgrade to Ultimate - more news in...

  • Getting started with Word, including Word 2007 training, tools to make moving from Word 2003 (or earlier) to Word 2007 much easier including Word 2003 to 2007 command reference and how to build your own Ribbon tabs

    I saw these links in the latest Microsoft downloads e-mail, but the more I looked into this the more I was amazed: Training materials you can use to deliver training on Word 2007 to your customers Tools that load onto a customers PC to enable them to find Word 2003 commands in Word 2007 Tools that put a useful set of getting started tools into a "Getting Started" tab within word Tools to build your own customised Ribbon tabs I'm going to start with the simplest of tools, the Interactive Command Reference . The Word 2007 Guide- Word 2003 to Word 2007 interactive command reference guide is available online, but the link is to the standalone downloadable version - which gives you an emulation of Word 2003, you click around on it and it then tells you where to find the selected item in Word 2007. great for that "Where has my command gone" conversations. Getting Started Tab for Word 2007 (download here) As you can see this tab has several features - the 1st one takes you off to the online version of the downloadable...

  • The Windows Vista and Office Consumer and Small Business Launch - 30th Jan, The British Library, London, UK.... and some demos you MUST run to understand what ISVs will do with Windows Vista.. and a couple of case studies

    Finally the day has come and the rest of us (well, you - but I felt that excited anyway) without a Volume License (or if you work at Microsoft) could get and use Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System (known as Office from here on in). The British Library was chosen as two Leonardo De Vinci codices were being brought together for the 1st time in over 500 years. One was owned by the British Library and the other by Bill Gates, who appeared in person to launch the event. These books, plus other treasures from the British Library can be accessed and downloaded from http://www.bl.uk - I've put some info on how to demo it at British Library Demo of Vista and the Windows Presentation Foundation and the Windows Vista Magazine have put their copy in the same format http://wpf.windowsvistamagazine.co.uk/ttpdownload/browserapp.xbap . As always I would like to thanks everyone involved - the partners and their customers who helped to shape and deliver Windows Vista and Office and the Windows and Office teams who put up...

  • How to feedback on Office Beta 2007 easily with the smiley and sad faces

    This is such a simple concept and such a great way to offer feedback. Simply press the faces if you are happy or sad with Office and a screenshot and your comments. How easy is that? You can download the tool or read more at http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/05/26/607768.aspx . If you want a deeper discussion, you can find out more at http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx Ttfn David

  • Summary of Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) just before I leave

    so, I have about 5 mins to write this, so it will be short & sweet. From the Small Business pre-day: event was sold out people told us licensing was still not up to scratch, but Eric Ligman's lessthancoffee.com site was very useful Much of the information for people was how to run a small business as it 1) enables us all to understand what is going on in the minds of our customers and 2) since many SBSC members are small businesses, hopefully gives them some ideas on how to be more successful as a business The Sloan Brothers were the highlight for me in advice ( http://startupnation.com ) - they said Got for 10% of the Watermelon, not 90% of the grape - this basically meant get funding and help to grow your business - keeping ownership of your business is more than just the number of shares - it is being there, so even if other people own 90% of the equity, you are still in charge. Outsource non-core skills Hitch your wagon to a star - eg Microsoft, but also someone local who will recommend you - so you get...

  • Using Companyweb with WSS V3 on a SBS box and more information on not shooting yourself

    This has been said may times, SBS 2003 was designed with WSS v2 in mind and the clever SBS team are spending their time getting Cougar ready for shipping, so have not gone and re-worked SBS for WSS v3. There are some great documents that describe how to safely add WSS v3 alongside WSS v2 (i.e. the Companyweb site), but now we have some tips as to how to get a bit more from it. 1st off, you need to read the blogs at http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/11/30/wss-v3-0-installation-on-sbs-2003.aspx and http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2006/11/19/loading-windows-sharepoint-services-v3-wssv3-onto-sbs-2003.aspx (as this has some examples of what can go wrong if you don't pay attention). Then hop over to Using CompanyWeb from within WSS 3.0 and see how you can start to build it out. Perhaps someone will build a companyweb V3 that links into the original companyweb site, but skins it all in WSS V3? Hope this helps and thanks to Mark Stanfill for putting these up. ttfn David

  • Business Contact Manager 2007 (BCM) is NOT supported on Windows Terminal Server, but a little hack will make it work

    [updated on 28th July] Hi, I've pinged this around a bit internally and the answer I got back is that this is not supported and will not work. I have not tried it myself, but don't expect it to work. If you need this sort of functionality you need to look at MS-CRM I am afraid. History: You need a Volume License of Office 2007 to run in Terminal Services. You can get BCM with Volume Licensing of Office 2007 as noted at http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/suites/FX101635841033.aspx Outlook running in Terminal Services does not run in cached mode - http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/ba930d00-dc38-4564-ad00-8304d74f1d8c1033.mspx?mfr=true 3) BCM requires Outlook to run in cached mode (Office 2003 note in a KB about this - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831747/en-us and I have had PSS confirm this is still the case with BCM and Office 2007) Wish this was not the case, but better to say up front rather than pretend. Now, updated, if you look at How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside...

  • Do we know when Windows Vista will ship yet – answering the CTS arguments?

    I have just seen an article in which the conversations from CTS (16 shows on Vista and Office 2007 in 2 days) have been misrepresented. Since I was the Vista presenter, I feel the need to set the record straight, 1 st off, the site where this is all being so heavily debated: http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/5/15/3974 http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=75041 http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5570 (article) To clarify Vista and Office 2007 are coming, as per the PR announcements at the same time – there is no new delay . At CTS we were speculating when in January the launch might happen. The only timeline shifts were those already mentioned in the MARCH press release - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx There were several interesting highlights from that article which were either not accurate or misunderstood. Whether that is the joy of journalism or my mistake we will never know. Vista will ship for Volume License customers...

  • Business Productivity Online Suite training for partners in Manchester and Birmingham

    Business Productivity Online Suite Launch Join us in Birmingham and Manchester The UK software market is evolving, and customers are looking to embrace the change. Forecasted growth for subscription software is expected to achieve an annual growth rate of +30% during the next three years - considerably outpacing traditional market growth and providing a tremendous resale and service opportunity for Microsoft partners. In a tough economy, subscription services are more digestible to cash strapped customers. Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), provides a new IT solution for their needs, delivering enterprise-class software as a subscription service, hosted by Microsoft and sold by you. Costing £10.04 for the entire suite, per user per month, BPOS includes: > Microsoft Exchange Online > Microsoft SharePoint Online > Microsoft Office Live Meeting > Microsoft Office Communications Online > Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services For Microsoft Partners BPOS provides an annuity...

  • WSS v3 Search and Search Server - how to mix the two and fix the error "The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service"

    I got this e-mail the other day: Hi David,From your posting "How to install Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express - including how to install on Windows Home Server" it seems that you had some similar problems that I am experiencing regarding running wss3 and ssx on the same server. In my case it effectively broke the "search this site" option and I'm trying to find a solution to this do you by any chance now what is my problem? I keep getting the error message: The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service . Regards Peter After a bit of research the answer can be found at http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1256 . While I have not used this, the feedback from Peter was excellent "Thanks a bundle, This was the solution to my problem.", so I feel confident sharing it. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Search Server Express Edition 2008 , Search Server , Windows SharePoint Server , WSS , SSX

  • Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack - coming very soon

    [updated - see the FAQ at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/02/12/windows-vista-windows-xp-office-2003-and-office-2007-action-pack-update-my-faq.aspx for more information on the benefits of the Action Pack and in answer to the questions raised in the comments] I am trying to re-confirm all the details, but this is the latest information I have asked for it to be double checked so as not to upset everyone. Here is the low-down: When will the Action Pack arrive - Before the end of Jan I heard the latest shipment was delayed - It was due to the Office OPK, but should still be there by end of Jan How much is the upgrade to Ultimate Edition - Action Pack subscribers can upgrade to Vista Ultimate for $139 (USD) – per license. Visit www.WindowsAnytimeUpgrade.com/maps to learn more (not active yet) Is the version of Vista an Upgrade or bare metal install (ala recent changes to stop piracy, so not an OEM version) - This is an upgrade, just like the XP discs that ship Can I use this as home - The Action Pack...

  • Vista and Office for Small Businesses - replying to Susanne's and Vijay's blogs

    Wow, I go on holiday, spend some time catching up on e-mail, and what do I find " There’s a whiff of coffee in the air… " asking if Microsoft can help position Vista and Office for small businesses and then Vijay also asking " What’s the Value Proposition…?? ". Now these two blogs acknowledge that there is value in both products, just that the communication of that value is not getting through. It is also worth me saying that I thoroughly appreicate and desire this sort of discourse. Without getting the occational slap around the face Microsoft can not improve what it does, especially if the slap is deserved. Lets start with some ground rules: Vista & Office are not something that every business has to buy either on the 30th November or the 30th January, some people can or will wait a month or two before they feel the need :-) Microsoft does not have all the answers - that is why we rely on a fantastic partner network to fill the gap between MSs view and the customers The products value is additive - one feature...
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(c)David Overton 2006-23