As promised, we are now covering on the new Microsoft Office 2007 User Interface. Surprisingly, it’s very clean and neat look with amazing visual. Taking into account extensive usability data and recent advancements in hardware and software, the team has delivered the most significant update to the Microsoft Office user interface in more than a decade. The result of these efforts is a user interface that makes it easier for people to get more out of Microsoft Office applications so they can deliver better results faster.

Images are taken from an Office user interface blog at Jensen Harris’ Blog.

And now, we present the new look of Microsoft Office 2007:

MICROSOFT OFFICE WORD 2007

Microsoft Office Word 2007 helps people create professional-looking documents by presenting a comprehensive set of writing tools in a new user interface. Rich review, commenting, and comparison capabilities help you quickly gather and manage feedback from colleagues. Advanced data integration helps ensure documents stay connected to important sources of business information.

(Please click on the small image for a bigger picture)

MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL 2007

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 is a powerful tool for analyzing, sharing, and managing information to help you make more informed decisions. Office Excel 2007 delivers a new, results-oriented interface, PivotTable views that are easy to create and use, enhanced formula authoring, rich data visualization, and a much faster way to create professional-looking charts and tables. Share and manage spreadsheets that contain sensitive business information using Excel Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

(Please click on the small image for a bigger picture)

MICROSOFT OFFICE OUTLOOK 2007

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 provides an integrated solution for managing your time and information, connecting across boundaries, and remaining in control of the information that reaches you. Office Outlook 2007 delivers innovations you can use to quickly search your communications, organize your work, and better share your information with others—all from one place.

(Please click on the small image for a bigger picture)

MICROSOFT OFFICE ACCESS 2007

Microsoft Office Access 2007 enables you to quickly track and report information with ease, using an improved interface and interactive design capabilities that do not require deep database knowledge. Get started easily using prebuilt database solutions—modify and adapt them to your changing business needs. Collect information through forms in e-mail or import data from external applications. Create and edit detailed reports that display sorted, filtered, and grouped information to facilitate more informed decision making. Share information with others using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services technology lists, where you can audit revision history, recover deleted information, set data access permissions, and back up your information at regular intervals.

(Please click on the small image for a bigger picture)

MICROSOFT OFFICE POWERPOINT 2007

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 enables you to quickly create high-impact, dynamic presentations, while integrating workflow and ways to easily share this information. From the redesigned user interface to the new SmartArt Graphics and formatting capabilities, Office PowerPoint 2007 puts the control in your hands to create great-looking presentations.

(Please click on the small image for a bigger picture)

And that’s not all. If you want a more darker look, you can use its Black Skin instead. Here is the screenshot:

Microsoft Corp. on June 26, 2006, announced a “try it before you buy it” program allowing people to take an online test-drive of the Microsoft Office 2007 system release. With the online test-drive, people can experience products directly for themselves to learn how the next release can help them better manage documents, organize their work and collaborate with others.

In just minutes, anyone with access to an Internet connection can try out the latest improvements to familiar Microsoft Office applications using sample data to demo editing documents, sending e-mail, and posting to Microsoft Office SharePoint® sites to illustrate real-time collaboration functionality. The system is set up not only with Microsoft Office client applications, but also with server offerings pre-populated with data to allow people to easily experience the new server functionality in Microsoft Office 2007.

This is the first online test-drive made available before the launch of a Microsoft Office 2007 release, and it features 18 product-specific tutorials with step-by-step instructions covering most Office system client products and servers, including Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office Project Server 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft continues to invest in services that help people express themselves, and find, connect and nurture deeper relationships with others around the world as it announces the Windows Liveâ„¢ Spaces, a blogging and social networking site on the Live.com platform, at August 1, 2006.

Microsoft began rolling out Windows Live™ Spaces, the next generation of the world’s most widely used blogging service, MSN^® Spaces. The new service includes social networking features designed to help users discover and connect with friends through their trusted contacts and allows customers to personalize their Windows Live Spaces with gadgets.

With Windows Liveâ„¢ Spaces, you can write a blog; post photos; create lists; import Xbox® gaming modules; add gadgets and RSS feeds; communicate with others using Windows Live Messenger; and get to know the friends of your friends. You have control over who sees your space: your friends, your Messenger contacts, and / or the whole world. And you can view and publish your space from whatever Web-enabled PC or e-mail-enabled device is convenient—for example, your laptop, cell, or handheld. Finally, it’s your space—make it your own by choosing the colors, designs, and themes that best reflect your individual style and personality.

Windows Liveâ„¢ Spaces has two key new features:

1. A Friends Module that can be added to a space. Users then invite friends who will then appear on the site. Clicking on the messenger icon will initiate an IM session with that friend as well. With another click you can view all of the friends of your friend, expanding your network (and racking up page views for Microsoft). This last feature is called Friends Explorer.
2. Live.com gadgets can now be added to spaces with a single click.

Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change the way you think about digital photos forever. Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space.

With Photosynth you can:

• Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
• Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size.
• See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
• Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
• Explore a custom tour.
• Send a collection to a friend.

Windows Live™ Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger—your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video—plus new ways to connect and share documents with almost magical ease. As always, it is free to download Messenger and use most of its features.

What you will be able to do with it

• Send all your familiar winks and emoticons, plus some cool new ones
• Have real-time text, video and voice conversations*
• Call your friends’ mobile or land-line telephones by signing up with Verizon Web Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily share documents of all kinds with Sharing Folders
• Make free PC-to-PC calls with other Messenger users

With Windows Live™ Messenger, you can talk to your Yahoo! contacts. Forget needing multiple accounts to talk to all your friends—you’ll be able to see when they’re online and communicate with them from one place. Try sending and receiving messages while you appear to be offline. And if you really are offline, your contacts can still send you messages—you’ll get them next time you log in.

*Both parties must have compatible Web cams, microphones, and speakers.
Please note that some beta features may not be available immediately.

By Ronald Pacchiano
June 23, 2006

If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time downloading files from the Internet. Throughout the course of a day I could download new software to review, security patches and updates, PDF files, MP3 files, Bittorrents or even the latest videos of my favorite TV shows. (Anyone else watch the new Battlestar Galactica?)

I like to multi-task and, as a result, I usually try to download files from various sites simultaneously. Many of these downloads take place using Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer has a limitation built into it, which allows for only two simultaneous downloads. If you attempt a third, it will just sit there waiting for either of the first two to finish before beginning. Often the files I am downloading are very large and they can sometimes take a considerable amount of time to finish — this can really slow my productivity.

Originally, I had thought that the download sites implemented this two-download limitation in an attempt to limit the amount of bandwidth being used. As I researched it, I discovered that this limitation was, in fact, built into Internet Explorer and is part of the browser’s normal operation. This was done in order for IE to comply with a mandate issued by the Internet Standards Committee.

However, as connection speeds continue to increase, the two-connection limit may be a bit too restrictive for you. Fortunately, there is an easy way to circumvent this limitation, but Microsoft does not recommended it and doing so constitutes a violation of Internet standards, so you should use this workaround at your own discretion.

All you need to do is make a small change to your system registry. Before making any changes to your system, though, make a backup of your system registry first, because if the registry becomes damaged or corrupted, it could disable your system. I found a detailed description with step-by-step instructions for backing up the registry in multiple Windows operating systems here:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/199762382617?OpenDocument&src=sec_doc_nam.

Take a minute to follow these directions before you go any further. Once your registry has been backed up we can begin.

As with most modifications, you should make sure that no other applications are running — especially Internet Explorer. Now by following the simple procedure outlined below, you’ll be able to increase your number of simultaneous downloads from two to 10.

1. Click on the Start button and select Run.
2. On the Run line type Regedt32.exe and hit Enter. This will launch the Registry Editor
3. Locate the following key in the registry:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
   CurrentVersionInternet Settings.

4. Click on the Internet Settings Key. Now go to the Edit menu, point to NEW click DWORD Value
5. Type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server for the name of this DWORD Value.
6. Double-click on the MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server key you just created and enter the following information:
   • Value data: 10.
   • Base: Decimal.
7. When finished press OK.
8. Repeat steps 4 and 5. This time name the key MaxConnectionsPerServer and assign it the same values as indicated in Steps 6.
9. Close the Registry Editor.

That’s all there is to it! If you modified your registry settings correctly, you should now have the capability to download up to 10 files simultaneously.

Universal Plug and Play

We’ve all heard the term, but how many of us actually know what Universal Plug and Play (UpnP) is, what its benefits are or how to enable it on our systems? My guess is not many. So I thought that a brief explanation of what it is and how to enable it might be helpful. Basically, UPnP is a standard that uses Internet and Web protocols to enable devices such as PCs, peripherals, intelligent appliances and wireless devices to be plugged into a network and automatically know about each other.

With UPnP, when a you plug a device into the network, the device will configure itself, acquire a TCP/IP address, and use a discovery protocol based on the Internet’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to announce its presence to other devices on the network. For instance, if you had a camera and a printer connected to the network and needed to print out a photograph, you could press a button on the camera and have the camera send a “discover” request asking if there were any printers on the network. The printer would identify itself and send its location in the form of a universal resource locator (URL) to the camera.

The camera and printer would use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to establish a common language, or “protocol negotiation,” to talk to each other and determine capabilities. Once a common language was established, the camera would control the printer and print the photograph you selected. Microsoft is one of 29 companies sponsoring UPnP and hopes that it will make plugging a device or appliance into a home or small business data network as easy as it is to plug a lamp into an electrical outlet. Microsoft describes UPnP as “seamless proximity networking” that provides “standardization on the wire rather than in the devices,” and is based on existing Internet standards.

Windows XP has built-in support for UPnP and can be easily enabled on your own system. In some cases you might need to have access to the original Windows XP CD to complete the installation. Now follow these steps:

• Click on Start and select the Control Panel.
• Double-click on Add/Remove Programs.
• On the left side of the window select Add/Remove Windows Components scroll down to Networking Services and check UPnP User Interface. Click OK.

Windows will now install the UPnP User Interface software. With that done we now need to activate the service. To do so just do the following:

1. Right-click on My Computer and click Manage.
2. Double-click on Services and Applications.
3. Click on Services.
4. In the right pane, scroll down till you locate the service named Universal Plug and Play Device Host. The UPnP Device Host service provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices.
5. Now right-click this service and select Properties.
6. Make sure that the Startup type is set to Automatic.
7. Click Start and then click on OK once the service has finished starting.
8. Now we need to locate the service named SSDP Discovery Service. This service lets the system perform a discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.
9. Now right-click this service and select Properties.
10. Repeat Steps 5, 6 and 7 for the SSDP Discovery Service.

That’s all there is to it. I hope you find these tips helpful.

Adapted from PracticallyNetworked.com, part of the EarthWeb.com Network.

By Todd Bishop
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/20/06 8:32 AM PT

“If we are correct about our investment, and this marketplace really does take off in the next three to five years, then we take our revenues as the marketplace builds,” said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) developing software for … robots?

Yes, it’s true. And no, despite the timing, it’s not a case of the company’s engineers taking Microsoft on a crazy tangent now that Bill Gates is shifting away from his day-to-day oversight.

Gates, in fact, helped instigate the new Microsoft Robotics Group, which will announce its first product Tuesday — a software system that robotics developers can use to create the programs that make robots work.

Growing Opportunity

Dubbed the Microsoft Robotics Studio, the system aims to create common technological underpinnings for what is now a relatively fragmented industry. The company says it’s intended for use with a wide range of robots, from those in factories to the growing number of robots available to consumers.

It might take many years, but Microsoft believes robotics could present a big opportunity as the market grows, said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. He cited estimates predicting that consumer robotics alone will grow into a multibillion-dollar industry in five to 10 years.

“It’s an investment that we’re making now for the future,” said Trower, a veteran employee whom Gates tapped to explore the opportunity, eventually leading to the formation of the group.

Such an initiative may not sit well with people already worried about Microsoft’s widespread clout in the technology world. Even when the company enters new areas, for example, it can face concerns over locking others in to its own technologies, said JupiterResearch analyst Joe Wilcox.

“Microsoft does some very compelling work but it also, in some areas, has a rocky track record,” Wilcox said. “If you’ve got a reputation, good or bad, it goes with you.”

But the company says others, not just Microsoft, will be able to offer software development tools for use with the underlying Microsoft Robotics Studio system. And while the system will run on Windows, it can be used to create programs for all types of robots, not just those using the Microsoft operating system, Trower said.

At first glance, the initiative might seem like a sharp diversion from Microsoft’s traditional computer software businesses.

Trower pointed out that robots are essentially advanced personal computers. And he compared robotics today to the nascent PC industry of the 1970s.

Wider Audience

“You had a number of small companies all building on their own processor, all with their own set of development tools, and it was mostly open to only the technical elite,” Trower said.

Back then, versions of the BASIC programming language — including one from Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — made it easier to use the same software on different PCs. BASIC also helped fuel the PC industry by giving more people the ability to program computers.

“That’s really what we’re trying to do with this,” Trower said of Microsoft’s robotics initiative. “We want to make development of robotic applications available to a wider audience.”

The company is expected to announce the new Microsoft Robotics Studio system at the Robo Business conference Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Microsoft also will make a free technical preview available for online download.

Features of the system include the ability to create three-dimensional computer models of robots, using real-world physics, letting developers see how the programs they make will work, before building the robot itself.

Microsoft’s system overall should simplify matters for robotics software developers, said Lloyd Spencer, president of CoroWare, a Bellevue, Wash.-based robotics and systems-integration company that has been giving Microsoft feedback on the system. He said the standardization should also be good for robotics developers who use off-the-shelf hardware components.

Tools are available from open source projects and others for making robotics software.

No Downside

However, Spencer said Microsoft is unique in putting together a comprehensive system for robotics software development. “I don’t see any downside in this case; I really don’t,” he said.

Microsoft hasn’t decided on pricing for the final version, but Trower said it is expected to be a “nominal fee” for commercial use and free for academic research and educational use.

“If we are correct about our investment, and this marketplace really does take off in the next three to five years, then we take our revenues as the marketplace builds,” Trower said.

That investment is relatively small for now, with nine full-time employees in Trower’s group.

It’s “a long-term strategic play,” Trower said. “We do believe it will have high returns for us, but not for a few years.”

© 2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved.
© 2006 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.