SuperWasp

Productivity tips, reviews, tools, software and gadgets.

Microsoft Office 2007 Filter Pack

This download will install and register IFilters with the Windows Indexing Service. These IFilters are used by Microsoft Search products to index the contents of specific document formats. This Filter Pack includes IFilters for the following formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx.

Download details: Microsoft Filter Pack

Labels: 2007, download, free, Microsoft, MSO2007, Office, Office 2007, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista, XP

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, October 13, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments

TIP: Improve weekly planning in your Outlook Calendar

Here are some quick tips to improve your productivity with the Outlook calendar:

Weekly Planning:
 

Create a second calendar for planning your week. Choose File | New | Calendar... and name it Planning.

In the planning calendar, make a general weekly planning by creating recurring appointments. Set their status like this: free status for home stuff, tentative status for work stuff, and busy status for must-do weekly items (backup, etc).

Assign meaningful categories to these appointments (work, phone, email, errands, home, garden, etc.) and make extensive use of Outlook's color categories. If you only need a few categories, give every one of them a distinct color.
If you plan on using lots of categories, assign the colors based on billable status (green = home stuff, blue = work stuff that brings in money, purple for unbilled work stuff, etc).

Every Monday morning, switch to the calendar view (Ctrl+2), enable Week View (Alt + "-"). Now you can do your weekly review (using David Allen's GTD-style or Franklin Covey's Big Rocks) with your planning calendar as a guide. Note that you can set the planning calendar to overlay your regular calendar, or you can display them side by side - whatever works best for you. Now it's easy to fill those days and keep a healthy balance between work and family life: a quick glance at the colors of the week will tell you if you schedule enough time for both parties.

Still in the calendar view, with the To-Do Bar at the right side open, arrange your todo's by Category. Based on the color or category, you can now quickly drag a task or follow-up item to your regular calendar:

• If you drop a task onto the Daily Task List, it will set the due date of your task and update the follow-up flag.
• Dropping it on a time slot of a day will create a new appointment and past the task text into the appointment.
• You can also drop your task on the calendar button in the navigation pane. That will create a new appointment with the task text, and open it for editing.

Note: Dragging/dropping with the right-mouse button will give you a popup menu with choices (create or copy a new appointment - with the tasks linked as a shortcut or attachment).

Some handy and lesser known Outlook keyboard shortcuts to further improve your productivity:

General:

• Control + 1: Email
• Control + 2: Calendar
• Control + 3: Contacts
• Control + 4: Tasks
• Control + 5: Notes
• Control + 6: All folders
• Control + 7: Your shortcuts
• Control + 8: Journal
  
• Control + Y: Jump to any folder
• Control + Shift + I: Jump to Inbox
  
• Alt + F1: toggle Navigation Pane (full, minimized, off)
• Alt + F2: toggle To-Do Bar (full, minimized, off)

Calendar views (regular shortcuts):

• Control + Alt + 1: Day view  (1 day)
• Control + Alt + 2: Work week view  (5 days)
• Control + Alt + 3: Full week view  (7 days)
• Control + Alt + 4: Month view (31 days)

Calendar views (alternative shortcuts):

• Alt + 1: Day view  (1 day)
• Alt + 2: Day view  (2 days)
• Alt + 3: Day view  (3 days)
• Alt + 4: Day view  (4 days)
• Alt + 5: Day view  (5 days)
• Alt + 6: Day view  (6 days)
• Alt + 7: Day view  (7 days)
• Alt + 8: Day view  (8 days, no kidding)
• Alt + 9: Day view  (9 days - yes really)
• Alt + 0: Day view  (10 days - this rocks!)
  
• Alt + -: Week view
  
• Alt + =: Month view

For email:

• Control + Shift + V: Move an item to a folder

Creating stuff:

• Control + Shift + M: New message
• Control + Shift + A: New appointment
• Control + Shift + C: New contact
• Control + Shift + K: New task

Has this helped you - or do you have some tips of your own? Drop a line in the comments...

Labels: 2007, key, keyboard, management, Microsoft, MSO2007, Office, Office 2007, OL2007, Outlook, Outlook 2007, productivity, project, shortcut, tip, trick, usability, Windows

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, March 31, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Free Preview Handlers for Outlook 2007 and Vista

Both Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 offer you file previewing functions. Unfortunately, not all file types are handled and this Microsoft webpage simply mentions "Available File Previewers: Check back soon for updates. We are currently working with previewer developers to list previewers on this page."

Subjectively the most needed previewers are PDF-files and code files, simply because it still takes ages to load Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Visual Studio 2005 respectively.

Here are two free PDF-previewers:

• Foxit PDF file Preview Handler | does not require Adobe Reader


• PDF Preview Handler for Outlook/Vista by Ryan Gregg | does require free Adobe Reader 8

You can read more blog posts about these great tools here, here, here and here.

And here's the free Code Preview Handler from Tim Heuer:

• Code Preview Handler (source code)


• Code Preview Handler (msi installer)

To finish this post, here's a link to the post about the preview handler article by Stephen Toub from MSDN Magazine. You can also download his free utility directly here:

• Preview Handler Association Editor

Labels: 2007, Acrobat, Adobe Reader, download, Foxit, Foxit Reader, free, magazine, Microsoft, MSDN, MSO2007, Office, OL2007, Outlook, Outlook 2007, preview handler, Vista, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, April 05, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta

Yes, you can download the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta if you hate that message box of VS2005 telling you it needs an update that is not yet available to run on Vista. The title of this package is a bit misleading, though. It is not an update for Windows Vista Beta, it's a Beta Update for Windows Vista. In fact, they'd better named it Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update Beta for Windows Vista.
The final version of this update is expected in Spring 2007 if I remember correctly.

Labels: 2007, beta, download, install, Microsoft, RTM, update, Vista, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005, Windows

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, December 21, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments

IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine

From a post by Pete LePage:


Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it’s unfortunately not so easy to do. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported and don’t necessarily work the same way as IE6 or IE7 would work when installed properly. As Chris said, the best way to use multiple versions of IE on one machine is via virtualization. Microsoft has recently made Virtual PC 2004 a free download; we’ve taken advantage of that by releasing a VPC virtual machine image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to help facilitate your testing and development. The image is time bombed and will no longer function after April 1, 2007. We hope to continue to provide these images in the future as a service to web developers.

Now you can install IE7 on your main machine for development, and get all the advantages of IE7, like the RSS platform, native XMLHTTP stack, and improved security, while still running IE6 simultaneously in the VPC on the same computer. Most importantly, you don’t even have to buy an additional Windows license. The VPC image runs in a virtual machine that offers all of the functionality of a full IE6 installation without giving it any access to its host machine’s hard drive, registry, etc. You can make as many modifications as you want to the virtual machine without affecting your host installation at all.

Included in the VPC image are:

• Windows XP Professional SP2 + high-priority fixes through November 2006


• Internet Explorer 6.0


• Internet Explorer 7 Readiness Toolkit 2.0

While we’ve released a VPC image today with Windows XP SP2, we’re also investigating creating other VPC images, for example IE5, IE5.5, IE6 and IE6 SP1, as well as versions of IE on different language operating systems.

Get more information on Virtual PC 2004
Download Virtual PC 2004
Download the Internet Explorer 6 Testing VPC Image

One more note - VPC 2004 doesn’t run on Windows Vista, but this image will work fine with VPC 2007, which is in beta now. You can get this free beta via Connect.
Happy testing!
PEte LePage
Product Manager

Transmit your pdf docs into charts with pdf to excel software. Also using a pdf server will save you  time. Get the details of a pdf file conversion tool and how it was created. If you are using all Microsoft applications then you can convert pdf to doc as well. Here you can get useful tips on purchasing new programs and what to look for.

Labels: 2004, 2007, activated, beta, download, free, IE6, IE7, license, PC, RSS, SP2, Virtual, Vista, VPC, Windows, XMLHTTP, XP

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, December 01, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Office 2007 classic interface on Vista: only blue!

What idiot at Microsoft has decided to make the few Office programs still using the classic interface (like Office OneNote 2007) only show the blue interface?

Frankly, you don't want to run OneNote in MS-Optimistic-Blue! But that's all you've got on Vista, unless you choose the high-contrast display scheme, or the Vista Classic interface...

Why can we choose between silver and blue on XP but not on Vista?

Labels: 2007, Microsoft, Office, RTM, Vista, Windows

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  Posted by oVan on Saturday, November 18, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Microsoft Office Mondo 2007?

Has anyone heard of Microsoft Office Mondo 2007? Neither did I, until I checked some xml files from the installation of Office Professional 2007.

Besides all the language packs that are defined, here's the list of all Office versions and products that are/will be available:

• <PID="0011" Name="Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007" />


• <PID="0012" Name="Microsoft Office Standard 2007" />


• <PID="0013" Name="Microsoft Office Basic 2007" />


• <PID="0014" Name="Microsoft Office Professional 2007" />


• <PID="0015" Name="Microsoft Office Access 2007" />


• <PID="0016" Name="Microsoft Office Excel 2007" />


• <PID="0017" Name="Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007" />


• <PID="0018" Name="Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007" />


• <PID="0019" Name="Microsoft Office Publisher 2007" />


• <PID="001A" Name="Microsoft Office Outlook 2007" />


• <PID="001B" Name="Microsoft Office Word 2007" />


• <PID="0021" Name="Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component" />


• <PID="0026" Name="Microsoft Expression Web" />


• <PID="0029" Name="Microsoft Office Excel Home and Student 2007" />


• <PID="002B" Name="Microsoft Office Word Home and Student 2007" />


• <PID="002E" Name="Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007" />


• <PID="002F" Name="Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007" />


• <PID="0030" Name="Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007" />


• <PID="0031" Name="2007 Microsoft Office system" />


• <PID="0033" Name="Microsoft Office Personal 2007" />


• <PID="0035" Name="2007 Microsoft Office system" />


• <PID="0037" Name="Microsoft Office PowerPoint Home and Student 2007" />


• <PID="003A" Name="Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007" />


• <PID="003B" Name="Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007" />


• <PID="0044" Name="Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007" />


• <PID="0051" Name="Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007" />


• <PID="0053" Name="Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2007" />


• <PID="0050" Name="Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Software Development Kit (SDK)" />


• <PID="00A1" Name="Microsoft Office OneNote 2007" />


• <PID="00A3" Name="Microsoft Office OneNote Home and Student 2007" />


• <PID="00A9" Name="Microsoft Office InterConnect 2007" />


• <PID="00BC" Name="Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with InterConnect 2007" />


• <PID="00BA" Name="Microsoft Office Groove 2007" />


• <PID="00CA" Name="Microsoft Office Small Business 2007" />


• <PID="00E0" Name="Microsoft Office Outlook 2007" />


• <PID="000F" Name="Microsoft Office Mondo 2007" />

Did you notice that there are 2 entries for "2007 Microsoft Office system", and that they forgot to capitalize the word "system"?

Now I would like to know what the Microsoft Office Mondo 2007 is...

Update: It appears that Mondo was an earlier beta version of Office System 2007. No idea why it's still listed with a product id though.

Labels: 2007, ID, install, Microsoft, Mondo, Office, product, Professional

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Office 2007 Product Key Fun

Did anyone notice that the developers at Microsoft have chosen special product keys for the Office System 2007?

When traversing the registry for remains of the beta versions that were blocking the install of the RTM version (see previous post), I noticed that the product keys all end in "0000000FF1CE" (e.g. 30120000-006E-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE).
At first sight, nothing special to see... however, if you read it in the language many hackers use for their patches, warez and keygenerators, it reads "OFFICE" with the O replaced by zero and the I replaced by a 1.

Just thought it was fun...

Btw: If you still can't install Office 2007 after removing all the products mentioned in my last post, you should scan the registry for "-0000-0000000FF1CE". By manually removing those entries, setup should start without any problems. No warranties of course, you're on your own there...

Labels: 2007, B2TR, beta, install, key, keygen, Microsoft, Office, patch, product, Professional, registry, RTM, System, warez

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments

Office 2007 RTM: Installation Problems

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional has been released to manufacturing (RTM), and is available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers as of today.

When installing Office 2007, you may encounter the following problem:

---------------------------
Setup Errors
---------------------------
Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s):
The 2007 Microsoft Office system does not support upgrading from a prerelease version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You must first uninstall any prerelease versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system products and associated technologies.
Correct the issue(s) listed above and re-run setup.

---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

According to the Installation Read Me page (the cd doesn't contain up to date information, only a link to this page at the Office website), this may be caused by the Office 2003 Web Components. Here's the explanation:

The Office 2003 Web Components feature installed with Office 2007 Beta2 causes the Office 2007 product to block its installation. Users should use Add Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel to Remove the Office 2003 Web Components, and then install the final Office 2007 product.

However, after uninstalling this product, you can still get the same error message. Googling further on the Microsoft website, I came across the following list on this page of programs that you should remove also:

• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS (Beta)


• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF (Beta)


• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as XPS (Beta)


• Microsoft Expression Web Designer Beta 1


• Microsoft Expression Web Designer CTP1


• Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats (Beta 2 Technical Refresh)

The above list is not mentioned on the ReadMe page, so I doubt a lot of users will find this information. Hey, maybe we should just remove all programs? :-)

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007


• Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007


• Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007


• Microsoft Office Professional 2007


• Microsoft Office Standard 2007


• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007


• Microsoft Office Basic 2007


• Microsoft Office Groove 2007


• Microsoft Office Access 2007


• Microsoft Office Excel 2007


• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007


• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007


• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007


• Microsoft Office Publisher 2007


• Microsoft Office Word 2007


• Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007


• Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007


• Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007


• Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007


• Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2007

Keywords: kbuninstall kbsetup kbexpertisebeginner kbtshoot kbprb KB927222

Labels: 2003, 2007, B2TR, beta, Expression, install, KB, Microsoft, MSDN, Office, PDF, Professional, RTM, System, TechNet, Technical Refresh, web components, Web Designer, XPS

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments