Setup

Setup for Directory List & Print is quick and easy. Unzip the zip file, add the two files inside (DirectoryListPrint.exe & DirectoryListPrint.pdf) to their own folder in Program Files, and create a shortcut. Now everything is ready to go…

Note: The pdf file is the “Help Manual” for Directory List & Print.

This is what Directory List & Print looks like when you start it up for the first time. Only the top two information categories are selected…you can easily select additional categories and the program will remember your selections each time that it is opened up afterwards.

Directory List & Print in Action

Time to try things out. For our example we decided to create a list for the Opera Browser folder on our Vista system. As you can see there is a very nice preview of the list in the lower part of the window. From here you can choose to directly print your new list, copy it to the clipboard, or export it to Microsoft Word and/or Excel.

To export to Microsoft Word or Excel, simply click on the appropriate button(s) and the new windows will automatically open as shown below…

This is what your list will look like when exported to Microsoft Word…

And what it looks like when exported to Microsoft Excel. Of the two, the Excel version has a cleaner more organized look. Using Excel you can also arrange the rows and cells to make it even easier to read in case you need to present it to your supervisor.

Conclusion

If you have been looking for a very smooth way to print directory lists or export them to Microsoft Word & Excel, then you are really going to enjoy having Directory List & Print added to your Windows system.

Links

Download Directory List & Print (version 1.9.9.16)

Create a Pivot Table 

First select any cell in the worksheet that contains the data you want to create the report on. Then under the Insert tab click on the PivotTable button.

The PivotTable dialog box opens and the table or data range we already selected will show in that field. You can have it placed in a new worksheet or in the existing one where you will need to select the location. For our demonstration we will put it in a new worksheet because it makes things less cluttered.

The PivotTable Field List opens up and the PivotTable tools become available.

Select the fields you want to include in the table by dragging them to the different boxes below. The table is built while dragging the fields into the boxes for Report Filter, Column Labels, Row Labels, and Values. This lets you move the data around so you can best organize it for your report.

You can arrange the view of the PivotTable Field list so it works best for you.

While building the PivotTable it’s fully functional so you can go through and test it out, like in this example where we’re filtering the months.

So now instead of having to hunt through a bunch of data in a large spreadsheet…

You can create a nice PivotTable for better organization and presentations.

Hopefully this will get you started creating your own Pivot Table. A lot of creating the table is trial and error and finding the best way to organize the data. As you progress in your use of Excel, you’ll find a lot of other customizations for more attractive layouts.

Search Commands

Have you ever found yourself in a situation at work where a document has a deadline, and you’re spending too much time searching for commands and formatting features? If you are new to the Office 2007 Ribbon feature it can be extremely frustrating.  That is where Search Commands from Microsoft Office Labs comes in.

During installation you have the option to participate in the Office Labs Analytics. It’s completely up to you, but it can help in further development of this ongoing project.

After it’s installed you will see a new tab on the ribbon called Search Commands. Click on the tab and enter in your search term and hit enter to get results.

This example is where I wanted to decrease the font size, and I typed in “smaller” … notice everything related to that search term shows up. This makes it nice in case you’re not sure of the command for what you want to do.

In this example we want to add bullet points. Highlight the text where the points should go, type “bullet” into the search box, and notice each command is numbered. After the commands come up you can just click the number for the command you want.

The numbers make it easier to launch the menu right away, but you can also use the mouse to click on what you want.

The search function will make different suggestions if you spell a search term incorrectly.

It only works with Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (32-bit versions).

Search Commands in PowerPoint.

Conclusion

This is a great add-in that will help you use the Ribbon more quickly when you’re not sure where a function is located. Instead of wasting 15 minutes clicking through the Ribbon to find a simple function. you can find it with search instantly. Once you use it for a while, it becomes very easy to use and will save you a lot of time. If you are looking for a way to make the Ribbon in Office 2007 extremely easy to use, install Search Commands.

Download Search Commands

This feature has been available in Office 2007 from the beginning but we never covered it yet, and it was something I overlooked. After playing around with it for a while however, I found that it is a good way to manage the multitude of emails I get everyday. Here we will go through colorizing contacts who are sending messages so they’re easier to spot. Also categorizing the subject matter into different color groups seems to help in keeping thing straight.

Color Code Senders

Open Outlook and click to highlight the message you want to color code.

Go to Tools and then Organize.

Ways to Organize Inbox opens up and you want to click Using Colors. Now you can select the color you want to associate with that contact. You can also choose a specific color for messages sent to only you, which comes in handy as a way to distinguish between group and personal messages.

Here is an example of what can be done with the colors. You might only want to create a couple of colors for the most important sender though, I went a bit overboard with this example.

Color Categories

Another helpful way to visually organize your messages is adding color categories to them. You can customize the which email subjects are related to each color category.

The message will have the category color bar across the top and you can Right-click the bar to change the color.

You can also Right-click on a message under the Categories section to change the category.

You can rename each category to whatever makes sense to you.

You might want to make a new category for different mails. Go to Actions \ Categorize and All Categories.

In the Color Categories screen click on New and give the category a name and color, you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to it as well.

Now you can sort through your email messages based on the type of category they are in.

If you want to be able to quickly glance at your email to get an idea of what is there, using color categories can be helpful. Hopefully this can get you started with organizing your emails so you know what the pointy-haired bosses want you to do more effectively.

Import Access Data

Open up a new workbook in Excel and click on the Data tab. Then under Get External Data click on From Access.

Browse to the location of the database you want to import.

If there are several tables you will need to select the one you want to get the data from.

Select how the data will appear in the workbook and choose the cell where you want it to start then click OK.

The table data will be place in Excel with the Design tab open so you can organize the look and feel for presenting the data.

If you want to get multiple tables into the Workbook, just repeat the above process and import it into new worksheets or different areas on the same worksheet.

This process saves a lot of time when going through large amounts of data versus sorting through a report. This should get you started with organizing items from the database however you need it.

About Lotus Symphony

IBM Lotus Symphony is an office productivity suite that includes apps for creating documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. It is completely free of charge and is built on OpenOffice.org technology and supports Open Document Format standards.  You can create the same great quality documents as you would with MS Office apps, use MS Office formatted documents, and it’s completely free. 

Lotus Symphony Document

This is their word processing app that would replace MS Word. It has all of the tools you would expect from a quality word processing application and make make professional looking documents. Notice there is a single interface with tabbed sections for each program and / or document.

There are plenty of templates for various types of documents to choose from and download.

It includes a decent library full of clip art you can use in your document creation, and they offer more you can download from the site.

Save documents in in Open or MS formats.

Lotus Symphony Spreadsheet

This is a replacement for MS Excel and lets you create new spreadsheets or use built in templates.

Lotus Symphony Presentation

Presentation is their version of MS PowerPoint where you can create shows from scratch or preconfigured presentations.

Web Browser

Also included is a basic but handy web browser that will open up in a new tab. This comes in handy when downloading additional items from their site and for doing quick research while working on documents.

Conclusion

If you need a basic office suite then Symphony is a good choice as it can handle most tasks. It doesn’t include an email client or database app like MS Access, but if you need that you can use OpenOffice.org Base which is a free database program. Let’s take a look at a few of the other features available, including using MS documents with the open format of Symphony.

The entire suite opens up all documents using tabbed sections to make navigation easier.

You can associate Symphony with open document formats.

It will open up MS formatted documents…(.doc, .docx, .xls, .pptx) but you may lose some quality. I had little problem with documents I tested out and opened between the programs.

If you are working with another person who has Microsoft Office 2007 remember they can save their documents in Open Document format as well.

You can easily save documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to PDF format.

There are a lot of extra plug-ins you can download for additional functionality for all three apps.

If you get stuck there is a help section that will guide you through basic tasks.

If you are a small business, student, or an individual with not a whole lot of extra money to spare, Lotus Symphony is a great way to get the professional office document results you need.

Download Lotus Symphony

Classic WordPad

WordPad has always come in very handy as a quick and easy to use text editor for documents. Rather than opening up a new Word session to make simple adjustments, WordPad can save a lot of time. In fact it is all some users need to create basic letters and and other simple documents.

WordPad 6.1 w/ Ribbon UI

The new WordPad in Windows 7 includes the nicely laid out Ribbon interface which has been a feature in Office 2007 and in the forthcoming 2010. If you are new to the Ribbon, it does take getting used to, but once you do, you’ll wonder how you did without it before.

To access commonly used commands easier, just Right-click the button and choose “Add to Quick Access Toolbar”.

What may be considered the coolest new feature, it includes the ability to read and write documents to Office Open XML format, which supports Open Office (.odt) and IBM Lotus Symphony suites.

Like in pervious versions you can insert a Paint drawing.

Paint

Of course we would be remiss if we didn’t show the new Ribbon UI included in the new version of Paint.

Easier to access options for editing projects.

The main menu offers more choices for saving, printing images etc.

It looks like the Ribbon is around to stay and it’s nice to get uniformity between Windows applications. Paint and WordPad may seem like forgotten accessories, but the new look and improvements might warrant a second look.

How about you? We are curious how many of you still use WordPad or Paint and what you think about the new interface. Just leave us a comment and let us know.

Overview

Microsoft Web Apps is a new service that will coincide with the launch of Office 2010. With Web Apps you can share, read, edit and create documents through your browser. This will allow easy collaboration with other friends and colleagues to get important project results much quicker. It’s similar to the way Zoho or Google Docs allows collaboration, but this will let you keep the exact look of the desktop document and lets you edit using the familiar Office tools.

Right now the files you work with come from your Live SkyDrive and from there you can manage rights and organize files.

You can access the documents and allow users to make comments on the documents as a project is collaborated on.

Scroll through to access the different documents available and also notice each document will have its own URL for sharing.

Create and edit new office documents directly on the Web Apps page.

Edit permissions and control who can access the documents and if they can read only or make edits to documents.

One thing to note is you’ll need to use Office 2007 format (.xlsx .pptx .docx) or higher. If you want to edit a document in an older format, the site will convert it for you.

Microsoft Word

As of this writing Word documents are read only with no editing capability, but notice any Word doc uploaded looks as good in the browser as it does on the desktop version.

If something isn’t available yet they let you know, in this instance there is no editing in Word yet.

Viewing a MS Word document in Google Chrome.

Excel

After opening a document, you can click on the edit button to start making changes. Here you can see functionality of Home tab on the Ribbon is available.

There is also limited functionality in the Insert tab as well for Hyperlinks and Tables.

Ability to create new Excel Workbooks.

A look at a brand new worksheet.

Editing an Excel document while in the Firefox browser.

Editing an Excel Worksheet in Google Chrome.

PowerPoint

There is currently a limited amount of functionality for PowerPoint as well.

It includes the Home, Insert, and View tabs with different editing features. Right now you won’t be able to make a lot of edits but can do some basic tweaking.

You can go into Slide Show view to view a presentation inside the browser.

Editing a PowerPoint Presentation in Firefox.

Creating a new Slide in a PowerPoint under Google Chrome.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that this is still a technical preview and does not yet act as a full fledged office suite. It does look promising, and should help productivity after everything is polished up. One thing that seems to be missing, and this might be due to early development, is the online docs do not automatically save while editing them. You can however, take a snapshot of the document at any time or go in and manually save it. As far as the different web browsers, I found that Internet Explorer and Firefox seemed to work fine, Google Chrome was somewhat buggy, and there is no love for Opera at all other than being able to download the files.

Try Office Web Apps Yourself

If you want to try out Office Live Apps out for yourself basically all you will need is a Windows Live account and some MS Office documents.

Join the Invite-Only Office Live Web Apps Preview Today  -via Lifehacker and Digital Inspiration

Note: Remember this is a prototype and under development and may not work perfectly with your system. 

Install Chart Advisor 

Because this is an Office Labs prototype you will need to participate in Usage Metrics and Auto Update. Continue through the installation wizard to complete the process.

After the installation is complete open Excel and you will see it under the Insert tab in the ribbon.

Using Chart Advisor

Here we will take a look at using Chart Advisor. Open up an Excel spreadsheet and select the data you want to to create a chart on. In this example we’re using monthly sales figures for tools and supplies. After you have highlighted the cells click on Chart Advisor under the Insert tab.

Give it an moment while Chart Advisor analyzes the data and recommends appropriate charts.

Hover over the different suggestions at the top to get a more detailed view of how it will look.

The amount of charts you have to choose from will be determined by the data cells you select. Also notice they are sorted by relevance.

Just hover the pointer over the percentage box on each suggestion to get a detailed formula of why it got its score.

You can filter data to further modify the charts.

You can further tweak the chart under Modify Chart and change data positions, exclude data, etc.

When done configuring the chart just click the Insert Chart button to place it into the spreadsheet.

If you are looking for a way to speed up how you create charts and graphs in your Excel presentations then you might want to check out this add-on.

Download Chart Advisor from Office Labs

When experiencing a hectic day at work, nothing is more annoying than receiving tons of email while you’re trying to get things done. Email Prioritizer is a handy plug in that will let you put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your inbox by pausing new incoming messages.  It also lets you prioritize email through a 0-3 star rating system that you can customize. It requires Outlook 2007 running on an Exchange Server so is perfect for use at the office and not intended for home users.

Using Email Prioritizer

It will first install Visual Studio 2005 Tool for Office.

Then to continue you will have to agree to participate in Office Labs Metrics and Auto Update.

However, if you’re concerned about privacy, after it’s installed you can uncheck it in Options after installed.

To activate the Do Not Disturb feature just click on the button, you can select different times to leave it running from 10 minutes to 4 hours.  It will stop incoming mail for that time so you can concentrate on other work and not be distracted.  Messages that are flagged as Important will still be delivered however.

It allows you to sort through your email based on different priorities.

To set up new priorities click on Options and Edit priority rules.

Here you can customize priority rules for incoming mail.

Keep in mind that this is a prototype still in development and you will probably want to talk with your IT staff before installing. If you are tired of dealing with needless emails while trying to get real work done, the Email Prioritizer plug in might be exactly what you need.

Download Email Prioritizer