Tag: Office

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Advisory: Office for Mac 12.1.4 Fixes Entourage Meeting Invite Issue

As you may know from previous posts, we have both Macs and Windows PCs at home ( think that we even have some CPM and Unix lurking around somewhere).  One benefit is that I get to be the IT administrator for both, although the family uses Windows Vista exclusively.  As such, I was a bit mystified when I ran into a problem with a recent update for Office for Mac 2008 — version 12.1.3 – which introduced a bug that impacted the ability to send meeting invites via Entourage.

Well, the MacBU has resolved the issue in a little more than a week, with 12.1.4 fixing the Entourage Meeting Invite Issue.

"We’ve been working hard for the last week and a half to bring Entourage users today’s 12.1.4 update. It’s incredibly frustrating when we get through a release process and a new issue is introduced by an update.  When we start to hear feedback and customer reports about issues with an update, I simply cringe because so much work goes into preventing that from happening. Unfortunately, the recent Office for Mac 2008 12.1.3 update introduced a bug that prevented some Entourage users from sending meeting invites to others. We’re sorry."

The MacBU has identified the root cause and has worked on an update to correct the issue as posted here.  Version 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this issue.  The update will be available through the Office 2008 auto-update tool and on mactopia at http://www.microsoft.com/mac.

Thanks to Ash Savage and the Microsoft MacBU team for this update.

(Also posted here on the excellent Entourage MVP Blog.)

This is a good time to recommend that you have a backup of a known good version of Office 2008. as noted in this posting: Revert to a previous version after a bad update.

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Entourage, Customer Service.

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New on the Download Center: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta

Now available on the Microsoft Download Centre… the free Office Outlook Connector, to access and manage your Hotmail and Office Live Mail accounts with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007…

“…including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars for free!

“Outlook Connector enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

  • Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
  • Manage your contacts in Windows Live Hotmail.
  • Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
  • Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
  • Manage, and synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Windows Live Calendar from Outlook.

“Note to Premium Subscribers: The Outlook Connector will automatically upgrade your MSN Calendar to the new Windows Live Calendar beta. Once upgraded to Windows Live Calendar, you will be able to synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Outlook! You will no longer be able to access MSN Calendar.”

Download details: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta

Tags: Microsoft, Office, Outlook.

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News: Microsoft Office to get ODF, PDF support

In this morning’s news, Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office…

Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office

” The 2007 Microsoft Office system will support XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1 with the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2), scheduled for the first half of 2009.”

And as noted at PCWorld…

“Microsoft is finally adding support for ODF (Open Document Format for XML) and Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) to its Office productivity suite, the company is expected to announce late Wednesday.

“Support for ODF and PDF will be included in the software through Microsoft Office Service Pack 2, expected to be out in the first half of 2009, according to a confidential Microsoft press release viewed by the IDG News Service.

“Specifically, the Office service pack will add file-format support for PDF 1.5, PDF/A and ODF v1.1, as well as XPS (XML Paper Specification). XPS is a similar format to PDF created by Microsoft to rival Adobe’s popular document-exchange file format.”

See more news at on Live Search News on Microsoft Office ODF support, and at…

Tags: Microsoft, Office, XPS, PDF, ODF.

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Microsoft Office Labs launches today

As I dial in to a conference call, a little bit on the new Microsoft Office Labs site, launched today… as Chris Pratley notes…


       



“Welcome to Microsoft Office Labs.” It’s great to be able to say that. For quite some time the Office Labs team has been exploring ideas internally at Microsoft. Now we’d like to show you some of our ideas and ask you to give them a whirl.

“We’re a group of designers and developers that collect ideas from all over Microsoft (but mostly from Office and other products related to ‘getting stuff done’ – what we call ‘productivity’). We build working prototypes of the most promising of these ideas to see if they work as well as we hope they might.”


Office Labs is filled with prototypes of add-ons, web services and other downloads.  


The prototypes you see here are like “Concept Cars”.  They aren’t products or features of Microsoft Office.  Don’t expect them to work perfectly, or be available here forever.  Just as when a concept car is shown at an auto-show, one or two or none of the ideas shown might make it into a future vehicle.  Everybody knows its unpredictable, so don’t go off thinking this is some kind of preview for future versions of Office, ok?  Anyway, we thought it would be interesting to present some ideas we are exploring.


“Of initial interest…

InkSeine from Microsoft Research:  Use your Tablet PC with an interface uniquely tailored to pen input. The tool fades into the background so that you can focus on capturing your ideas, sketches, and creative thoughts. Integrates search and inking.

How to use Search Commands with WordSearch Commands:  Search for commands in your own words and get the button to do it, instantly. Works with Microsoft Office 2007 – Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Learn more and Download it

 


Tags: Microsoft, Office. 


 

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No, that’s Albany as in the subscription service beta, not upstate New York

The question I was asked as I was making my sandwich at an onsite conference…

“So, you work with the product groups… what’s happening in Albany today?”

No, that should be “What is Albany?”

See the news here on the Beta launch of New All-in-One Service for Consumers, as told by Group Product Manager Bryson Gordon on Microsoft PressPass today…

“… Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service of essential software and services consumers told us were most important to them. We’ve pulled together the productivity tools people need to organize their lives, security to help keep their personal information safe and online services that make it easy for them to keep in touch with friends and family, and folded them all into a single service that also ensures the user’s PC is running the latest security and productivity software.

“With just a few clicks, “Albany” subscribers will be able install the whole package, which includes Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare to help keep viruses at bay and their computer fast and healthy; and Windows Live Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with others. Albany also installs the Microsoft Office Live Workspace connector on the Microsoft Office toolbar, so users can save documents to their own dedicated online workspace and invite friends and classmates to collaborate and share.

“Additionally, with “Albany” consumers get the latest versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student and Windows Live OneCare as they’re released. Combined with ongoing security updates, consumers can have the peace of mind that they have protection from the most recent security threats and that their PC is running at its peak.

“The beta program we’re announcing today spans a broad cross-section of users and is an integral part of bringing a new service to market.”

As Ina Fried said in her blog today…

“Microsoft is planning to introduce a limited beta version of Albany in the coming days, with the aim of launching the product commercially sometime later this year, Gordon said. The company still hasn’t decided on how much it will charge or how the product will be sold, he said.

“In talking about the product, Microsoft did not refer to Google Docs by name, but I have said a subscription product might be Microsoft’s way of trying to find a more palatable way of charging for Office amid stepped-up competition from free and online rivals.

“By tying the Office subscription to OneCare, Microsoft is linking the purchase to one of the few areas where consumers have shown a willingness to pay for software–security. In this way, Microsoft can make the pitch to those buying security software that, for some extra dollars, they can always have the latest version of Office as well.”

Also of interest on CNet News…

Tags: Microsoft, OneCare, Office, Saas.