I’ve been thinking that grandpa Microsoft was on the way to the old-folks home for technology. I’ve been making raspberries in his general direction. I’ve been finding alternatives.

And then I see Microsoft Surface — and it actually takes my breath away! It’s AWESOME!!

This is the type of computer integration with my life and my way of doing business and being entertained and staying organized that I’ve always known could be possible — but now I have the details, the funky, cool, OMG details.

This is like the interactive display hardware/software I reported on last year, but it’s so much more — it’s the next generation… and it’ NOW.

I can’t believe I’m recommending my readers go to a Microsoft site… but here I am doing just that.. Visit Microsoft’s Surface site — and watch all three videos. You will be glad you did.

Wow!

If you are planning a move from Outlook 2007, or if you just want to “soup-up” your open-source Mozilla Thunderbird product, I’ll share some tips, some links and some add-ons that I found particularly useful during my own MS to open-source migration.

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I wanted to convert my use of Outlook 2007 to an open source option. The problem was determining which one to select.

Problems with Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 is so blasted slow, I nearly pulled my hair out nearly every day. My “trial” version expires Saturday, so I’m busy converting my stuff over to an open source alternative that will easily follow me when I discard the Windows operating system for a Linux model.

I’m tired of using Microsoft products. I despise what they have decided to do with Vista and the more I read, the more determined I become not just to avoid Vista, but to avoid all Microsoft products as much as possible.

Rather than buying a program to do the conversion from OL2007 to opensource, I was convinced I could find a way (even if it’s a multi-step process) to make this conversion myself. I wanted to share my findings with those of you interested in going on the same path, and hope that I save you time, research effort and frustration in the process.

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If you are like me, your Outlook suddenly did something weird a couple of weeks ago. I ended up going in and changing all the errant times by hand (grumbling the whole while about a government with nothing better to do than to once again mess with the laws of nature and my clocks).

And, I was looking forward to the same issues this fall…

But I found a download to help those Window’s users who are still enjoying the fun now, and those who worry that they will enjoy the fun again in a few months.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=931836

If you have downloaded Windows updates lately, or if you have automatic updates enabled, you probably already have this patch. (But if don’t know, then apply the patch. If you already have it a message will tell so and it will not install.)

Hope this helps your frustration level.

My father is converting to Linux. It’s something he’s considered for awhile, but he’s all bent about the new MS Vista release. I told him my concerns about the use of the CPU to be “big brother” to be sure you were doing nothing wrong — and my concerns that my own iTunes and ripped CD content would no longer be playable on Vista (among a plethora of other concerns).

They may have fixed this by now… I’m beyond caring. I quit researching the new Vista OS when I hit “saturation” point on the issues I wasn’t willing to accept. I’ve made my plan to scoot away from Windows-based computing completely. Pops is going to make the OS swap before I am, but I’m well on my way with applications already.

I saw an article today that referenced the fact that the US government is also moving away from the MS model. It quoted, in particular, the FAA and the DOT as they consider a move toward Linux.

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I’ve made the choice to start to move away from traditional closed-source software as much as possible in my business. I’m working on adopting the software this year with the idea that in 2008 I will move to Linux.

With all the stuff I use, this is a pretty bold plan. I hope I can make that deadline for the complete switch before the end of 2008. In the meantime, I’m searching for (and finding) a number of fantastic programs. And, over the next few weeks and months, I plan to share my findings in the hope that it makes the transition easier for others.

This means my findings (for the most part) will be limited to those programs that offer both a Linux and a Windows version, unfortunately. As I have it figured, there’s no way I can learn a new operating system, address software/hardware conflict issues, learn new software packages and keep a business going. Thus, I’ll be limited to cross-OS offerings for now. I’m looking for the best reviewed of the options and will pass along my findings as well as my resources for the reviews and the download pages.

Whether you are changing for ethical, moral, technical or financial reasons, I hope my findings will help your own transition.

I’ll keep the header “Open Source Gems” for each find to make it easy to search and I’ll tag them all with “open source” as well.

As a power-user (or at least a constant user) of OneNote, I miss two things.

1. A word count tool – to help me as I compose and edit and work inside the OneNote program
2. A formatting “paintbrush” tool offered by the rest of the office apps – to make my notes look prettier and become more organized.

Good news: There is now a powertoy plugin that offers the word count functionality.
Bad news: Apparently I’m still the only one that wants/needs a formatting paintbrush.

To get your own word count option…Visit descapa’s blog and download his OneNote Word Count Powertoy. (Thanks descapa!)

While Google is competing with Microsoft’s products online, Zoho is competing with Google’s offerings and is raising the ante. Zoho already has Zoho Writer (word processing online) and Zoho Sheets (spreadsheet online).

But Zoho also offers a PowerPoint competitor: Zoho Show and a OneNote competitor: Zoho Notes (coming in March).

Zoho is also increasing the buy in with products such as…a customer relationship management product, a project management program, a “virtual office” solution, a calendar and email program, a wiki and an online database application.

For small business owners, this may be just the ticket to lowering the cost of software. And for those considering the launch of an online business, this may lower the cost for startup. For anyone collaborating across geographic boundaries, this is another way online work can lighten the load.

And isn’t it nice to have options?

So you have listened to me blabber on and on about OneNote and you want to learn more — you want to determine if this is something that may be a benefit for you? I’ve found a resource that may help. Descapa from One Note Extensibility has released links to a couple of “in house” PowerPoint OneNote tutorials from Microsoft’s training department for your use.

Google has just announced that it will offer an online-based office suite to large businesses. The suite, in direct competition with Microsoft Office (during the current Vista push) will offer email, calendar management, spreadsheets and word processing tools for a competitive $50 per year per user — far below the current cost of maintaining the latest version of office.The current free version of Google Apps will be upgraded for the business users and will include full technical support, the promise of 99.9% uptime and larger email boxes (10 gigs!).

The timing of this roll out has been called “brutal” toward Microsoft, while the big boy MS is in the midst of convincing current clients to upgrade to Office 2007 (which carries a pricetag that begins at 239 for an upgrade/$399 for a full version of the standard and soars to $539 upgrade/$679 for office, according to the Microsoft site).

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Before you decide to switch to Vista, you may want to read a few reviews of the largest media rollout of a new operating system in history.

It’s been enough to bring those hold outs (like me) who have been considering Linux and other options, out of the closet. I’m now planning to work with open source software that is XP compatible in 2007 and do a switch to Linux in 2008.

By doing this in stages, I’m not learning all new software AND a new operating system all at once. I’ve not made a firm decision yet, but it’s looking more like Linux is looming in my future all the time. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, you may want to consider carefully before “upgrading” to Vista. You should know what you are giving up and what the risks really are.

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I’ve been hoarding a great little site that helps me to get any template I may ever need for OneNote… and it’s time to bring it out of the closet.

I tripped across this site several months back, but it took awhile to determine how to convert this “paper lovers” site from a “print it out on your printer and stick it in your paper organizer” resource to a digital resource to use with my own Tablet PC and my OneNote program.

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Last Friday, OneNote 2007 was released to manufacturing (along with the rest of the Office suite). They have blessed it as a finished product.

I’ve been beta testing this particular product (along with Outlook, Publisher, Word, Excel and … yes… even PowerPoint) for several months now and I must say it’s impressive. If you haven’t tried OneNote, or if you have previously considered it something “only for Tablet PCs” you should re-think that and give it a try.

To read the official press release on this power-house product…Click here: One Note Goes Golden.

Read OneNote guru Chris Pratley’s celebratory blog on the OneNote release.

technorati tags: Chris+Pratley, One+Note, MS, Microsoft, Released+to+Manufacturing

Ok, I don’t know who NAMES the versions of Microsoft Betas… but “Technical Refresh” sounds odd to me. I do, however, finally have the little sucker installed.

After spending the last two days in email hell… due to a problem with the new version of McAfee’s Security Center — which did NOT “play nice” with the MS Office Beta 2 at all… I can now get my emails again. And, my computer is no longer at a slow crawl with constant crashing symptoms. (And this is my baby… my TABLET PC!!!) * The horror!*

I was about to go nuts. NUTS, I say!

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While doing my daily thing today, I found the following information for those lucky enough to be in the Silicon Valley Area in early October.

Microsoft is hosting a Vista Fair — where they will download a free copy of MS Vista onto your machine and will provide you a free current copy of the Vista operating system and will send you another copy when the full version is released!

It’s enough to make me want to hop a plane! Learn more here:

Visit here to sign up!

Hurry, the available slots are going quick!

Following a lawsuit by Adobe, Microsoft agreed to remove the “save as PDF” feature from the upcoming Office 2007 (also called Office 12) as delivered.

But, Microsoft is providing this option as an “add-in” which can be downloaded for free by users from the Microsoft download site. Recently, that “add-in” was made available.

If you want yours (and the ability to also save as XPS format) …
Download your copy of the “Save as PDF” and “Save as XPS” add-in for eight MS Office program formats here.

Enjoy!

I’m loving some parts of the new (beta 2) Outlook 2007 – a part of the 2007 Microsoft Office System . As I mentioned before, I’m not liking the fact that I STILL can’t get my Business Contact Manager to work (so I can do my billing from my accounting program without copying files and doing the “desktop to Tablet to desktop” dance.

The other thing that was making me nuts was to be teased with the possibility of having an RSS feed directly imported into my Outlook program. Right after I add an RSS feed, it downloads and “wheeee!” I have my favorite RSS feeds being delivered into their own little folders under my personal files in Outlook.

I was thrilled… and then the errors began. Now, I’ve found the solution, and I thought I’d share…

Thanks to a post over at the Office forums by Patrick Schmid, I now have it back up and working… now I just wonder if it will be a temporary fix, or a permanent one. For others experiencing this issues, here’s Patrick’s solution:

Already restarted Outlook and your computer?

In Documents and Settings/username/Local/Settings/ –>Application/Data/Microsoft/Outlook and delete the file ending in sharing.xml.obi. If that doesn’t help, export all your feeds as OPML (File, Import and Export), delete them all and reimport the OPML.

Patrick Schmid


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http://pschmid.net

Thanks for the help, Patrick!

AFTERWARD… This worked for approximately… uh… 2 seconds. After some additional online research, I’ve discovered that the reason for this problem is … it’s a beta. DUH.

Hopefully the folks at MS will get this fixed before the final product comes out. For now, I’m going to have to investigate another format for reading my favorite feeds.

First of all, let me establish that I am NOT a quitter. Frankly, I’m, too darn stubborn to give up at all… much less to do so easily. Now, with that said, I’ve been working with the new office 2007 for A couple months now. It crashes alot, and has several issues, but overall, I like, it. (At least up to the point when I tried to get Business Contact Manager to work)

Now, after two days of hell, I decided to keep two systems running – one with Office 2003 on my server-desktop and one with 2007 on my Tablet PC. At least this way, I reasoned, I could still use my Accounting program to get my billing out (I use SBA 2006) I gave up QuickBooks last year because, well, I hated it. I hated the double entry between my timer and my books, the extra hassles and the constant “gouges” from Intuit to upgrade. I decided to go with Microsoft to get all things in one place. I assumed that software that advertised seamless integration with it’s own programs would be telling the truth.

But I digress…

The fact is, I wasted yet another day of my life trying to get the BCM database to launch and I resent the hours spent on it. I resent the time researching… but most of all, I resent that I didn’t find a solution. I resent that today’s exercises in futility have made me feel like a failure and a quitter. because it’s now past 10:30 pm… and I quit! (At least for today.)

(I also hate when my seeking in the mobile arena knocks the wind out of my sails… especially during the weekend.)

Despite my desire to get to a single hourly rate system, I still offer a discount to my those long-standing clients who have been with me for years.

In my new Microsoft Office SBA program, I figured I’d handle this with a % discount under the Price Level functionality.

So…

I get the invoice template all customized and pull in my first client’s billing to test the invoice. He’s one that gets the “longevity” discount. And, there’s my standard rate. And it STAYS there.

So I begin research…I went to the Microsoft site, which was sadly lacking in “tech support” type info for this new package.

I Googled it. Nothing.

I thought maybe it was me, so I went back to double check my price level settings. I even pulled up a new client invoice and had the same problem.

After quite a bit of time, I gave up and used the discount option on the invoice… but it haunted me. I didn’t want a bunch of “discounts” showing up in my books. I wanted to keep the new system clean and streamlined. Afterall, making things clean and integrated is why I undertook this mess at the beginning of this year, right? And it’s still not tweaked to suit me…

After revisiting all my searches and struggling with it, I went down and switched it to a tester Price Level I had created initially… and it WENT to that price level.

When I switched it back to the preloaded price level for the long-term client, Voila! It then registered the new price level.

MS Small Business Accounting will pre-load a specific price level for a given client (something you set in the details tab of the individual client) — but it won’t apply that price level until you click OFF of the price level at the invoicing level (it’s in the lower right hand corner) and then re-select the right price level.

As I go through this hair-jerking-out process, I figured I’d share with others. After all, maybe someone else trying to Google this, will hit on my blog.

I wish someone had written about this when I was looking!

Now, it’s time to get back to setting up my banking online… sigh.

*Am a word person… and am hating life while I’m forced to be a bean counter!* Grrrrr.