The Office Live Guy

Office Live can help when working from home

As someone who does work from home sometimes - admittedly mostly during evenings and weekends :-), it’s always interested to read about how Microsoft technologies can help.

I came across these two articles which provide some useful pointers :

Make a good home office great with Office Live Workspace

How to stay motivated when working from home

The main premise is that Office Live Workspace can be used as a central location for documents, presentations, pictures, and other files that you want to store and share.

However, once the technology is in place, its often the ‘softer’ human factors that can make the difference in having a successful home-based working experience.

Use Publisher to build an Office Live website

At last week’s Business Startup Show, several visitors asked if they could use various website editing tools with Office Live. The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

The beauty of Office Live is that you start with the basic templates, which are very easy to use.  If a more advanced website is required, then customise the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which effectively means you can design your own unique templates. To go one step further, turn off the templates altogether and use any html editor to build web pages offline and upload them into the Office Live website hosting space.

So, as well as being able to use Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Expression Web and other html editors with Office Live, you can also use any application that allows saving in html format. That includes Microsoft Publisher, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Have a look at this page, quickly pulled together in Publisher,  which provides instructions or how to do this :

http://publishertest.web.officelive.com

How to get Office Web Apps on Windows Live

Now that the Beta of Office 2010 is publicly available, anyone can try the Office Web Apps on Windows Live as follows :

1) Download the Office 2010 beta, installing it onto your PC

2) Save a document to SkyDrive from Office 2010 :

• Open or create a document in Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2010 on your PC
• Click File, Share, then ‘Save to SkyDrive’ to store your document on SkyDrive, the free storage service on Windows Live
• Click Sign In, enter your Windows Live ID and password, and click OK. If you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox Live, you already have a Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one, click Sign Up to create a new Windows Live ID
• Select a folder in SkyDrive and click Save As.  Type a name for your file and click Save.  The document is now saved on SkyDrive.  Click File and Close

3) View document on Skydrive :

• From your Web browser, visit http://skydrive.live.com.  If prompted, enter your Windows Live ID and password and click Sign in
• Select the folder where you saved your document.  Click the filename and then select View
• You will be prompted to read and accept the terms of use.  When you click Accept, you can use Office Web Apps to access and share your document online.

Office 2010 Beta

The Beta for Office 2010 was made available for download on 18th November 2009.

Get it here : http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

There’s also a comprehensive website, called http://www.office2010themovie.com/, which is designed to share thoughts about Office 2010 in the pre-release period. Check out some of the recent videos posted :

Outlook Social Connector : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=baade234-178e-4a7a-3231-fdda4306ead1

Co-authoring : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=edaf21da-ab4e-4a9e-3be1-ffe34793d4f1

Click-to-run : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=cf2a2084-14a4-4a71-9032-fe2c127e3ca2

Excel Sparklines : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=26599014-54fa-4c92-9032-fc5c304adcf5

Office Web Applications : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=22599018-54fa-4c92-9034-fc5b302aece8

Visio 2010 : http://www.office2010themovie.com/?videoId=22599018-54fa-4c92-9034-fc5b302aece9

Office Live at the Business Startup Show, November 26th and 27th at Olympia London

If you want to meet the Microsoft Office Live team, put a marker in your diary to attend the Business Startup Show at Olympia London on 26th and 27th November 2009.

Alongside the Microsoft stand (showing Office Live, Windows 7 & Microsoft Advertising), there will be 200 other exhibitors, 100 free seminars and 80 speakers, plus opportunities to network and get advice.

Free entry tickets are available via www.bstartup.com

Run a PowerPoint presentation from a netbook without Office installed

With thousands of people around the globe testing the Office Web Apps, some of the uses to which they’re being put are starting to emerge. I particularly liked this story about a PowerPoint presentation, made to a University class, from a basic netbook that didn’t have Microsoft Office installed at all. Read about it here

Using third party html editing tools with your Office Live website

I often come across people who would like to use an html editor, rather than the templates provided, to build their website on Office Live.

You can use any html editing tool with Office Live but have to go through a couple of simple steps first :

1. Within Site Actions, click “Activate advanced design features”
2. Then go back to Site actions, and click “Activate third-party design tools”
3. The Office Live templates are then removed and Office Lives’ free hosting space is ready for you to upload files from Dreamweaver, Expression Web, etc

Colour tips when building an Office Live website

I regularly read the Office Live Small Business blog, as it often contains some useful tips that I wouldn’t have necessarily have thought of.

An article posted this week delves into the importance of colour choice for your website, highlighting this site all about Tuscany.

The link below takes you directly to the specific blog article covering areas such as colour palette, company image, colour combinations, legibility of text and more : http://ask.officelive.com/smallbusiness/blogs/team/archive/2009/10/09/bright-imagery-simple-colors-make-this-office-live-site-a-winner.aspx

Office Live Workspace helps you get more out of your Netbook

I was just scanning the Office Live Workspace blog and came across this article about how Office Live Workspace can help make your Netbook handy anywhere.

The premise of the article is that for some users, putting an Office Suite on your Netbook is quite awkward as the device doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, so why not just use Office Live Workspace ?

Whilst I can see that the lack of an optical drive might cause concern to some, its actually pretty simple to download the entire Office Suite, as detailed on this page : http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/HA103621001033.aspx.

Broadly speaking, you can either buy Office from Microsoft Store and choose the ‘download’ option, or you can buy a boxed copy of Office, download the required files and enter the product activation key from the box.

That said, the original article referred to above does include some useful tips on how to use the Office Live Workspace templates for everyday applications.

Office + Office Live Workspace = Better Together

Office Live Workspace on it’s own is a very useful tool. For instance, the 5GB of free storage space can be used as a backup for important files. The browser preview of Office documents allows full fidelity viewing of those files from any internet connected computer, even if Microsoft Office is not installed. Personally, I find this very useful for viewing content whilst travelling for business or pleasure. It really reduces the need to carry a laptop everywhere.

However, Office Live Workspace really comes alive when the add-in for Office is installed. This small download facilitates the opening, editing and saving of documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It works with Office 2007, 2003 and XP, meaning you can open files directly from Office Live and then save them back to Office Live. This effectively allows you to use Office Live Workspace as an extra 5GB of disk space that is accessible from anywhere, with the ability to invite others in to view and comment on files.

Here are a few of the more common scenarios we hear about :

• Planning a wedding – create all the required files on your PC, save them to a Workspace, then collaborate with others involved in the wedding organisation.
• Organising a holiday for multiple families – groups of friends often get together and rent a big villa between them for a summer break. Rather than spending hours on the phone and emailing files around, store them centrally in a Workspace and keep them updated centrally.
• Storing documents from a club, society or school group – avoid the need to email around lots of attachments by uploading them into a Workspace and sending out a pointer after each meeting.
• Working with an supplier external to a small business – set up a WorkSpace to store contracts, invoices, parts lists, minutes of meetings, and so on. Reduce email traffic and keep an audit trail.
• Charitable organisations – use a Workspace to store minutes of meetings, lists of donors, plan future events, store materials used to promote the charity.

Office Web Applications

The Technical Preview of Office Web Applications has just been added to a select group of Skydrive users around the world. Check out the video below to learn more about what’s coming with the Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App and OneNote Web App :

There have been many articles written about the Office Web Apps; here’s a small selection of them :

Microsoft Office Web Apps review: first look

REVIEW: Office Web Apps Will Pose Strong Counterattack Against Google Apps, Zoho

eWeek Labs' tests

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/172198/sharing_and_collaborating_with_microsoft_office_web_apps.html

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/17/imitation-isnt-always-flattery-microsoft-previews-google-apps-killer-to-beta-testers/

Office Live Small Business downtime planned to complete a server upgrade

Downtime is a rarity with Office Live, but an announcement has just gone out that on Saturday September 12th 2009 and Saturday September 19th 2009, there will be some periods of planned outage.

All customers will be sent an email to this effect later this week.

What this actually means is that for your Office live website, there will be three hours on either the 12th or 19th September when you will not be able to do any site maintenance and visitors to your site will see a message detailing the outage. You will still be able to log in and check email during this time.

This upgrade work is designed to further improve the performance, reliability, and stability of all Office Live websites.

Read the official posting here : http://ask.officelive.com/smallbusiness/blogs/team/archive/2009/09/01/brief-site-downtime-planned-to-accommodate-a-server-upgrade.aspx

Watch out for virus emails in your inbox

There seems to be an increase in hackers trying to get into your inbox, enticing you and all of your contacts to click on links that have very undesirable outcomes. This doesn’t just affect Office Live mail but is occurring in all email systems, so watch out.

The most recent one I’ve seen doing the rounds is an email with no subject, where the first line is something along the lines of “Hey, how are you doing recently ?”. However, the contents change on a daily basis.

The Office Live team in the US have just posted a blog article on this subject, including details of how to protect yourself against these sort of viruses, where to go to update your PCs protection against them and what to do if you find that your PC is infected :

http://ask.officelive.com/smallbusiness/blogs/team/archive/2009/08/24/beware-of-possible-virus-mails-in-your-inbox.aspx

‘Staycation’ in a Yurt in Devon on Office Live

This year we decided to take a summer break at home in England; the Blackdown Hills of Devon in the south-west of the country, to be precise.

As fairly keen walkers, we have a great love of the open countryside and a growing interest in all things eco. After having read various holiday articles in the Sunday newspapers earlier in the year, we decided to try staying in a traditional Mongolian Yurt.

The Mongolian Yurt dates back over 2,000 years, being a very simple and low-cost way for various nomadic groups to survive the harsh weather conditions in Siberia, where the temperature can range from +45°C down to -55°C.  In the UK, famers and other landowners can erect a Yurt within planning guidelines designed for camping, as long as the Yurt is taken down each winter. This makes them ideal for farmers fields  where it would be nigh-on impossible to get planning permission for a new-build holiday cottage.

Taking all this into account, a Yurt in Devon certainly seemed like a pretty safe bet for a short break. Look on it as a good compromise between the discomfort of British camping and the extortionate rates for renting a west country cottage in August. Yurt holidays are often referred to as ‘luxury’ or ‘glam’ camping.

Being the UK in August, the weather was mixed. A day of non-stop rain, a day of brilliant sunshine and the rest of the time something in-between. We expected nothing less.

The Yurt itself stands up to changing weather conditions pretty well. It’s like a big tent, with 10cm think insulation plus a wood-burning stove, sat on a large area of raised decking. You wouldn’t think the stove would be needed in August, but we found that if there’d been any rain at all the Yurt started feeling a bit damp inside and the stove burnt that off in minutes. It also kept the chill off the air on cloudless, starlit nights. At least we were burning locally sourced wood, which can arguably be claimed a carbon-neutral source of heat.

I was going to include a link to the website of the company we used (www.blackdownyurts.co.uk), but several people have reported that the site doesn’t seem to work outside the UK or through some corporate proxies. Therefore, I’ve put a short page together on Office Live, which you can review here : http://yurt.web.officelive.com

Change to Office Live Small Business Domain name policy

As of 1st October 2009, Microsoft Office Live Small Business will no longer offer free domain name renewals. For details of how this will affect your Web site and e-mail, or to learn how to renew your domain, please review the following list of frequently asked questions :

http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-gb/DomainPolicyChange

For UK customers, with .co.uk domain names, it’s worth focussing on this point :

What this means is that if your .co.uk domain name is due for renewal prior to 1st October 2009, you should get another two years free. If the renewal date is on or after 1st October 2009, then you’ll either need to pay for the next two years (£10.99 + VAT) or lose the domain name. If you choose not to pay, your website will revert to a fourth level in this format http://youroldcustomdomainname.web.officelive.com.

There’s more on Office Live small Business pricing at this page : http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-GB/pricing