Hope you had a great Christmas and happy New Year.  I certainly did not work during the break so here is a collection of stuff that I thought was interesting in my inbox when I got back to work today.

"A Santa without Excel is like a scrawny kid without a wedgie"

I thought I was prone to using Microsoft Office for everything at Christmas but Bob Rybarczyk takes it to a whole new level in this post :-)

Cybernet voted us 2007 most productive app

The 2007 CyberNet Awards is wrapping things up by highlighting what they believe to be the Most Productive Apps of 2007.

"I first started using Microsoft Office 2007 over a year ago when it was still in the pre-release stage. It took a few weeks to get accustomed to where some of the options had moved to, but in the end I find myself saving loads of time. A big thanks goes out to the developers who came up with the idea for “live previews,” because that alone deserves a gold medal. And the Mini Toolbar is sheer genius."

Security Guide for Office 2007

I'd missed this guide that went up in November.  (hat tip to Harry Waldron)

Ambush interview questions

Apple PR heavies show how not to handle an ambush journo question. 

It was a leading question for sure but it is better to break it down and try to respond than to prevent the VP from responding. 

Office 2007 selling extremely well over Christmas

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said Chris Swenson, NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent."

full post

Humorous videos on using Office 2007

I liked these a lot:

• four ways office 2007 will make your life easier
• what to do if you send a kamikaze email
• write a powerpoint presentation in five minutes

Nice Office 2007 how to videos

Hilary Pike demos her top 10 features of Office 2007 - good work Hilary.  Maybe check out my own videos if you haven't already.

Design IT competition 2008

This year's competition stumps up £15,000 to help a charity if you submit your ideas and designs.