Chris Pirillo » outlook

Microsoft Office 2010 Comparison Screencast

Chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:34:03 +0000

Microsoft Office 2010 Comparison Screencast is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I recently asked all of you to submit your screencasts to me for review. The best of the best will be chosen to be featured here, in my various channels and outlets. This provides content of a different perspective for our community, and gives you new exposure for your work! Jack has submitted another excellent screencast, this time showing us a nice comparison between different versions of Microsoft Office.

Jack wanted to show us some of the differences between Office 2007 and Office 2010. One of the biggest changes is that Office 2010 now fully supports 64-bit operating systems. Also, Web Applications (allowing you to co-author documents across the web in real-time) have finally been implemented in the newest release, as well. Office 2010 also includes a redesigned Office button, as well as a nice backstage experience.

Differences in Word include the search function. In Office 2010, it shows up in a navigation pane, instead of a small window. Also in Office 2010, you have a paste preview, letting you see what you’re going to paste BEFORE you actually paste it. There are also enhanced picture editing tools. There are new options for working with text, including changing plain text into Word Art, or using shapes and styles.

The differences in Excel include graphs in single cells, instead of only within sheets like in Office 2007. Formatting tools have also been ehanced and upgraded.

There are also many interesting and excellent differences found within Outlook, Publisher and other Office applications. Thanks, Jack, for this sneak peak at what we can expect when we grab Office 2010 for ourselves!

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Microsoft Office 2010 Screencast

Chris — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:43:54 +0000

Microsoft Office 2010 Screencast is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Recently I threw down the gauntlet, asking all of you to submit your best screencasts. I plan to highlight the best of the best here in my channel, and help promote yours. Jack has sent a few in to us now, and they’re fantastic. This one gives you a quick (but excellent!) overview of Microsoft Office 2010.

Jack started off by letting us know that Office 2010 is only available at this time for developers and technical reviewers. Included features include support for 64-bit, enhanced Office button that leads to a back room of sorts, and web applications for Word and Excel.

The enhanced UI includes a minimizer to give you more work space. This hides the toolbar until you click the button again. The new Office button leads you to a backstage experience where you can edit, save, print or share your documents.

New features in Word 2010 include an improved search function. It opens in a new pane that won’t cover up your document. Other new features include a paste preview, which is very nice. Others include improved picture editing capabilities and more text effects.

Some things new in Publisher 2010 now have pages show up in the side window pane, instead of at the bottom. Powerpoint features include new animations and a video editing capability. Excel doesn’t have too many new features, but it does have a few nice improvements.

Outlook 2010 has a new conversation view, that allows you to group conversations, and even clean them up… allowing you to focus on the most important feature.

Jack did a great job with his screencast. Don’t worry if yours wasn’t chosen to be featured today, though. We’ve received a lot of excellent submissions. We’re still going through them all, and plan to upload one per day (when videos are normally uploaded).

Remember, you need to upload your screencast video to Geeks, and then send me an email with a link to your video, a short description, and of course – tell me where we can find you on YouTube (or wherever you want to be found online).

Keep those submissions coming!

Writing Guidelines for Screencasts

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How to Synchronize and Coordinate Schedules

Chris — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:33:20 +0000

How to Synchronize and Coordinate Schedules is a post from Chris Pirillo

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On an average morning, I wake up and check my email. Then I worry about going about the rest of my day. There are many times when I need to coordinate my schedule in order to accommodate other people and meetings. I can never get anywhere with schedules, because I end up with an email thread that is 14 pages long! Have you ever noticed how some people are insanely focused on setting up a phone call to talk about something you could have already covered in an email? When it comes to coordinating schedules and getting people on the same page, you may want to Doodle!

Doodle is a free service that you don’t even have to sign up for! Use it to schedule an event, such as a meeting, business lunch, conference call or even a family reunion. Create a poll with your choices, and email out your link. Then, watch as the votes come in so that you can choose the best time for everyone!

You can also use Doodle to choose what movie to see, or find the newest hot restaurant to visit. You can use Doodle with your calendar (Outlook, iCal, etc), on Facebook, or even from your mobile device.

Doodle may not be a drawing service, but it certainly does make it much easier (and more fun!) to get something scheduled.

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How to Set up a Phone Call Reminder for Free

Chris — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:31:53 +0000

How to Set up a Phone Call Reminder for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Instead of asking the live community to remind me to do things, I could use Outlook. But what if I’m not sitting at the desk at the time the reminder goes out? What do I do at this point, when I just need something like a phone call reminder. There’s a website that allows you to send phone reminders to yourself for free – without even having to register for an account! Wakerupper is the web’s easiest telephone reminder tool.
Schedule reminder calls on the web. It couldn’t be simpler.

Set a wake-up call at a specific time.
Remind yourself of important events.
Remember to take medication on time.
Escape from a boring date or meeting.
Remind child or spouse to do chores.
Set reminders for tasks and follow-ups.

Wakerupper is a telephone reminder service that aims to make telephone alerts as simple as possible. Just enter the number of the phone you would like to be called, the time you want the call to be placed, and an optional 140-character reminder message. That’s it – you will receive a call from Wakerupper at the time you have specified and your message will be delivered.

As long as you’ve scheduled your reminder at least three minutes into the future, it will work. Any number within the US or Canada can be called by the service. This is an excellent way to remind yourself of important things, instead of having to rely on services that may or may not work (or be able to reach you!) when you need it to.

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Reasons I Use Outlook

Chris — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:16:19 +0000

Reasons I Use Outlook is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I’ve been using Microsoft Outlook for about 9 years now. It’s an excellent personal information manager… from mail, to tasks and notes, to the calendar. Here is Lisa’s list of reasons why she uses Outlook, as well.

It’s much faster to get into your email using Outlook, than it is having to open a browser and log into a webmail client. All you have to do for Outlook is double-click the icon on your desktop, and it’s all right there.
It’s SO easy to set up. There are tours, guides and instructions every step of the way to get you started.
You can use an Exchange server with it. This will allow you to share information and schedules with others, such as your co-workers or family.
Outlook has excellent little reminder sounds built in, so you never forget an appointment or task!
You can personalize pretty much everything, from your signature to setting up a reading pane.

As I said before, I use Outlook as well, and love it. It keeps everything in one place for me, and makes it much easier to manage it all.

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Top 5 Reasons Eudora is Better than Apple Mail

Chris — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:31:19 +0000

Top 5 Reasons Eudora is Better than Apple Mail is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I personally use Microsoft Outlook 2007 in an Exchange environment for my email. I’ve used Eudora in the past, and wasn’t very happy with it. However, CalgaryGuru sent me the top 5 reasons he uses Eudora instead of the Apple Mail. By the way, he is also using Tiger (10.4) and not Leopard (10.5).

Images pasted into Apple Mail are automatically converted to .tif format. If I wanted them as a .tif, I would have saved them that way.
With Apple Mail, you can only send messages that are plain text or Rich Text Format. You can’t send an HTML email.
Speed… the more saved messages you have, the slower Apple Mail gets. For power users, this is crippling when trying to work.
Apple Mail has no formatting controls in the message window.
If a message has styled text and images both, Apple Mail will send it out twice. With Eudora, you can send them as one regular message.

What email client do you use, and why do you prefer it? What things about it make it better than the rest? Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Thunderbird or Outlook for Email?

Chris — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:57:16 +0000

Thunderbird or Outlook for Email? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – I have been using Outlook since it came out in 1998. Until recently, I wouldn’t have recommended using Thunderbird, but that has changed. Both are good clients, but it depends on what exactly you’re looking for, and your preferences are.

The first email client I ever used was VMS. After that came Elm (via Unix), Eudora, Pegasus, and finally Outlook Express. When Microsoft Outlook became available in 1998, I switched to that, and have used it ever since. I currently run Outlook 2007 on Microsoft Exchange 2003 .

racedude from our live chat channel asked me today which email client he should be using… Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. He says that he doesn’t use any of the features that come with Outlook, he just reads email with it. Until recently, I wouldn’t recommend Thunderbid, as it seemed to have been left behind while Firefox was developed further. However, Mozilla has recently begun updating Thunderbird, and it’s a pretty good email client now.

Both programs will do essentially the same thing. Take a look at the features and previews of each, and see which better fit your needs and lifestyle.

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Microsoft Office Windows Installer Problem

Chris — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:31:00 +0000

Microsoft Office Windows Installer Problem is a post from Chris Pirillo

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Poor Big John Midland. Every time he launches a Microsoft Office application the Windows Installer box comes up. Uninstalling and re-installing hasn’t helped the issue. Luckily, I have a very good idea what the problem is.

Most likely, a third party extension is causing this trouble. I asked John what version of Winows and Office he runs. He’s using Vista and Office 07. Both are still relatively new programs, and still have some bugs in them. He doesn’t recall installing anything new that would hook into Office. But that is probably the trouble here. I advised John to go through Microsoft Word and Outlook both to check active addins. Disable them one by one, and see if any of them fixes the problem. If not, then he needs to go through his programs, and uninstall or disable (one at a time again) any programs… such as Adobe Acrobat Professional… which tie into Office. I’d bet the farm that he will track down the problem through this method of madness.

John is a regular chatter on our >http://live.pirillo.com/ channel. If you’ve had this problem, and have suggestions for him, come by and talk with him!

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Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 Thoughts

Chris — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:22:27 +0000

Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 Thoughts is a post from Chris Pirillo

Oh, there’s more content coming down the pike – Jake’s still busy encoding interviews he did at CES a few weeks ago. Until then, I’m pushing my own personal envelope and inviting you along on a ride across town. Since I spend a fair amount of time in my own car, traveling to get a fine cup of Peet’s Coffee every day (if I can escape the hell of my home office), I thought I’d bring the recorder along with me today – if only to share my thoughts on Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 – two products I’m now using on a daily basis. If this one-way carversation works, then I’ll be thrilled witless.

I’m Using Microsoft Outlook 2007

Chris — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:15:30 +0000

I’m Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 is a post from Chris Pirillo

Stop the presses – I’ve finally moved from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2007! Granted, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. The decision was reached after I tried using Outlook 2000 on Windows Vista – and that experience was painful, at best. Then again, my Windows Vista experience has been nothing short of “so-so” to this point (far too many ghosts in the machine).

I’m still getting used to Outlook’s haphazard UI, but at least most of the speed issues with it have disappeared. Search is only as good as the last time the index was updated, however – which is frustrating if a message has just arrived and I can’t find it again by keyword. I’ll miss Net Folders, too.

Despite leaping to the new version, my outlook on Outlook remains the same; Microsoft needs to overhaul their PIM. And don’t even get me going on the mess that’s Windows Mail – as opposed to the slightly-more usable Windows Live Mail Desktop. Thunderbird kicks their respective digital asses (though none of ‘em are true personal information managers).

Is Microsoft’s Outlook Team on Crack?

Chris — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:09:22 +0000

Is Microsoft’s Outlook Team on Crack? is a post from Chris Pirillo

I’ve been playing with Outlook 2007 for a few weeks now, trying to get over the fact that it falls short of “impressive” in nearly every way. I wasn’t sure why HTML email messages were looking as though they had fallen out of the ugly tree – until I read this Campaign Monitor post that claims Microsoft takes email design back 5 years:

Previously you could send a HTML email in the comfort that the majority of your recipients would have very good CSS support. Other email clients were also catching up. Thunderbird uses the Firefox rendering engine, the new Yahoo! Mail beta has great CSS support. Things were looking good for us CSS based email designers. Unfortunately, that all goes down the toilet now.

What goes in the toilet – HTML email newsletters in general, or Microsoft Outlook? Not sure why people are so surprised about this turn of events; I’ve been telling you that every release of Outlook (beyond the 2000 client) has been craptacular. Then again, maybe Microsoft completely agrees with my “email is dead” argument? The jury is still out on this one.

Syncing Outlook, OS X, Google with Ease

Chris — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:47:59 +0000

Syncing Outlook, OS X, Google with Ease is a post from Chris Pirillo

Not sure how it happened, but I ran into The Holy Grail of Synchronization – how to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol, ScheduleWorld. I took the time to dig deeper, largely because I’ve been wanting to sync Outlook with Google (and Google with iCal) for a while now – and I’m still using Outlook 2000, which keeps certain syncing tools out of reach.

Standards to the rescue! Engtech, as described, pointed me to ScheduleWorld: “An experiment in a new kind of rich Internet application, built on the foundations of open standards that enables you to access your data from virtually anywhere using a growing number of interoperable devices and software.” Yes, it’s absolutely free – and absolutely 100x more useful than you may realize:

Sync between countless devices, platforms (iPod included!)
Simple and fast Calendaring, Scheduling, Tasks, Notes
Global address book (LDAP!)
Java Micro Edition (JME/J2ME) Client for mobile phones

Whoa. As recommended, I downloaded the Outlook SyncML client (which runs independently). Took a small bit of troubleshooting to get going, but the problems were remote – and cleared up quickly by Mark Swanson (ScheduleWorld mixmaster). In no time at all, I was able to do what I’ve always wanted to do – sync calendars, tasks, and notes through simple software, as well as have a network-accessible address book. Dude, ScheduleWorld is absolutely amazing – and free.

The Outlook on Outlook 2007

Chris — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:31:31 +0000

The Outlook on Outlook 2007 is a post from Chris Pirillo

The UI still has a ways to go before I’ll be completely satisifed, but Outlook 2007 is shaping up to be a smart upgrade from Outlook 2000 as an Internet PIM. I was proven 100% correct on the suckitude of Oulook 2002 and 2003, as the 2007 team has de-merged Exchange and Internet environments (as it was in Outook 2000). From there, I’m able to move forward and consider Outlook 2007 as a viable upgrade.

I was cautiously optimistic when I watched Hank Leukart’s Outlook 2007 Calendar sneak preview. Separately, Jessica Arnold give Scoble a more general Outlook 2007 overview before Beta 2 was released. Both videos are worth watching if you work with Outlook on any level, if only to discover what’s changed. Most concerning to me, however, is how each Microsoft interviewee dismissed two issues which both interviewers raised independent of one another!

You can’t (yet) publish your calendar to your own server from within Outlook. Instead, you’re “forced” to push it to Office Online. It’s not like Microsoft can’t let you put your data elsewhere – it’s just that Office doesn’t make a lot of money, so it has to make up for lost revenue elsewhere. Whatever.
You can’t easily copy an item from a remote calendar to your own. Instead, you have to manually drag and drop from one time slot to another – introducing potential PEBKAC mousing errors. Moreover, if you try to set a reminder on a remote calendar – you’re told that you can’t do it, and asked: “Is that okay?” No solution is actually provided by the error dialog.

I’m happy to be able to share calendars easily from within Outlook 2007, but I’ll miss the being able to edit external calendars like I can do with Net Folders in Outlook 2000. It’s certainly looking like I’ll migrate to the new version once it’s gone gold. My biggest beefs with Outlook 2007 so far?

Fonts. Tahoma needs to be eliminated from Office, wholesale. Segoe UI is the new standard – even though the Windows Vista team didn’t get that memo.
Corners. Around some elements, like Calendar entries, I see rounded corners. Surrounding other elements, like informational “bubbles” inside email messages, I see sharp corners. One or the other, folks – not both.
Flashing. Too often, I’ll watch a window pane redraw itself. This is painfully obvious when you switch views in Outlook, or when you try to resize a pane. My video card has much more than 4MB of RAM, ya know? I’m trying to use Outlook, not a bowl of Jell-o.
Headers. Why can’t I customize the message header? I don’t want a gigantic font for the message subject and sender in the preview pane. I want it to look like it does when I open a message in a separate window. Moreover, the headers in the preview pane for the calendar are rendered differently, too. Make up your mind!
Toolbars. Are you using the ribbon, or what? I realize that the Outlook client is fundamentally different than Word, PowerPoint, and Excel – but you just can’t keep those old toolbars in place. And please, for God’s sake, don’t employ the craptacular Windows Vista styled toolbars?!

What disturbs me most is how Outlook 2007 – a single program – looks and acts differently throughout. Much like the whole of Windows Vista, Outlook 2007 feels somewhat schizophrenic. Spacing is haphazard, controls are varied, and elements (again) are inexcusabily dissimilar. That said, Outlook 2007 seems to be faster than 2002 and 2003. We’ll see what they do with the UI in these remaining months.

Outlook Evolution

Chris — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:01:46 +0000

Outlook Evolution is a post from Chris Pirillo

Evolution finally runs on Windows! Looks like they released something a few months ago, although it just hit my radar this afternoon (in an email from Matt Hartley). “Evolution is an incredibly versatile email / calendar / PIM that took the Linux world by storm a few years ago.” I’m excited that there’s been some movement forward on this project, but I’m disappointed that Evolution for Win32 sports a nasty-ass UI. Of course, if Linux developers are trying to be more like Microsoft by making inconsistent and aesthetically-challenged interfaces, they’re succeeding. Here’s to hoping that Outlook 2007 won’t suck as much.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

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Network Tools for Windows

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

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Chris Pirillo » outlook

Microsoft Office 2010 Comparison Screencast

Microsoft Office 2010 Screencast

How to Synchronize and Coordinate Schedules

How to Set up a Phone Call Reminder for Free

Reasons I Use Outlook

Top 5 Reasons Eudora is Better than Apple Mail

Thunderbird or Outlook for Email?

Microsoft Office Windows Installer Problem

More Outlook HTML Email Problems

Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 Thoughts

I’m Using Microsoft Outlook 2007

Is Microsoft’s Outlook Team on Crack?

Syncing Outlook, OS X, Google with Ease

The Outlook on Outlook 2007

Outlook Evolution

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

Network Tools for Windows

Get Your Own Web Site

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

Coupons for Online Shopping