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January 31
Following features are covered as a part of this release:
- Dublin Core Metadata
- UID metadata
- Frontmatter, Bookmatter and rearmatter mapping
- Levels and Headings
- Paragraphs
- Tables
- Lists
- Note’s and Note References
- Emphasis and Strong
- Superscript and Subscript
- Images
- Validity
- Captions
- Enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings.
- Open the Start menu and select Programs > Messaging > New E-mail Account.
- Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') in the E-mail Address field.
- Uncheck the box to get settings automatically from the Internet and select Next.
- Select Internet e-mail as your email provider in the drop-down menu.
- Enter your name as you want it to appear in sent emails.
- Enter a descriptive name for the email account and select Next.
- Enter 'imap.gmail.com' in the Incoming Mail Server field.
- Select IMAP4 as the Account type from the drop-down menu and select Next.
- Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
- Select Next.
- Enter 'smtp.gmail.com' in the Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server field.
- Make sure that the Outgoing server requires authentication box is checked.
- Select the Advanced Server Settings link.
- Make sure that the Require SSL box is checked for both incoming and outgoing emails.
- Select The Internet as the network connection from the drop-down menu.
- Select Done and then Next.
- Select how often you want your phone to send/receive emails from the drop-down menu.
- For more download options, select the Review all download settings link.
- Select Finish.
Like most Microsoft bloggers, Boris Yanushpolsky began his project by innocently answering a question like: "What's in my (System Center) management pack?"
This inspired Boris to write MPViewer 1.0 which show the contents of a management pack (Rules, Monitors, Views, Tasks, Console Tasks, and Reports) BEFORE you import it. The bottom window displays the knowledge associated with the particular management pack item.
Of course this begat MPViewer 1.1 which added some improvements:
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See the following additional MP components: Targets (classes), Relationships, Discoveries, Diagnostics, Recoveries.
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Ability to see the raw XML in a tab next to the knowledge tab.
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Remember the location of where you opened the last MP from.
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Browse for both MP and XML files.
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Added the Category column for Rules/Monitors
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Added Enabled column for Rules/Monitors/Discoveries.
And now Boris has released MPViewer 1.3 with several small features:
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The target of a rule/monitor
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The type of a monitor
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The priority of the alert generated by a monitor
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Whether a rule generates an alert as well as the severity and priority of the alert.
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Command line mode is now supported. So you can run it like this:
C:\MPViewer.exe "C:\SampleMP.mp" "C:\SampleMPReport.html" (this helps create HTML reports for a large number of management packs without opening each one in the MPViewer UI)
NOTE: The OpsMgr console must be installed on the same computer. January 30
Amazing to think that "today" is Microsoft's 1 year anniversary of the release of Windows Vista & Office 2007. The Road to Know Where's collections of free Microsoft software has grown considerably since that time -- so if you have not checked these lists recently they're worth a fresh new look!
FREE 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SOFTWARE FROM MICROSOFT:
When two of my favorite Microsoft bloggers ( Sarah in Tampa and Jason in UK) both recommend Chirpscreen, you know it worth a closer look!
Chirpscreen is an interactive screensaver that automatically updates with content from your friends' social networks (i.e. Facebook, Flickr) -- it floats the information across the screen, and allows you to click on the content taking you to the web page or social networking site.
January 27
MAP is an automated agent-less network-wide inventory and assessment tool that can quickly determine if your organization's desktops and servers are ready for migration to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
New MAP 3.0 Features:
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Full incorporation of the features of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment including the generation of reports and proposals in 7 languages including N. American English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese
- Windows Server 2008 migration hardware assessment
- Windows server virtualization assessment (supports Virtual Server 2005 R2; will also add Hyper-V assessment in later this year)
- Application virtualization infrastructure assessment for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)
- New Graphical User Interface
OFFICE 2007 DEMOS
Office 2007 System Demos:
Enable blocked macros - Watch this demo to learn how you can enable macros in 2007 Office release programs and make informed security decisions that can help you keep your computer safer while you work.
Access 2007 Demo:
Meet the Navigation Pane - This demo shows you how to use the Navigation Pane to organize the objects in a database into categories and groups. The demo also shows you how to begin working with the built-in categories and groups, as well as how to manage custom categories and groups.
InfoPath 2007 Demos:
Create reusable template parts - In this demo, you'll learn how to create a new template part, test it, make corrections in it if necessary, and install it on your computer. After that, you can use it over and over and share it with other form designers in your company. Watch the demo to see how easy it is to create these basic building blocks for form templates.
Publish a form template as an e-mail message - With InfoPath 2007, it's simple to distribute a form template as an e-mail message. When team members receive the form template you've created, they can easily create a form right from their Inbox. To help out the team members receiving
completed forms, you can enable easy sorting by categories of data in the form in Office Outlook. The Publishing Wizard in InfoPath makes all of this a snap. Watch the demo to see how you can be creating and distributing your own form templates in no time.
Outlook 2007 Demos:
Create and use an e-mail signature - In Outlook you can create and store different signatures for different circumstances. It's easy to create a signature that includes the information you want— whether it's a plain signature with just your name or an elaborate one with a photo, hyperlink, contact details, and several lines of text formatted for clarity and emphasis. Set a signature to appear by default, or add one with a quick right-click. Creating, managing, and using e-mai signatures is easy.
Customize your calendar - Did you know that the views in your Outlook calendar are fully customizable? For example, you can view your days and weeks in increments of 5 minutes, 60 minutes, and a variety of periods in between. You can adjust the view of your calendar according to your work week and work day; for instance, you can display Sunday through Thursday and show a normal day as being 11 in the morning to 7 in the evening if you like. Use different color schemes, and show more or less detail in your calendar.
Find needles in a haystack with Instant Search - If you're buried in e-mail (and who isn't?), Instant Search in Outlook 2007 can save the day for you — every day. The new Instant Search helps you quickly find e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, or any Outlook item. You don't even need to know which folder the item is in. Watch the demo to see how to use this fast search feature, and start finding what you want instantly.
Share contact information with Electronic Business Cards - Traditional paper business cards are a time-honored and effective way to get business and contact information out to current and prospective clients. But these days, a lot of business is done in e-mail. So how do you make sure that people know how to reach you? Try an Electronic Business Card (or EBC), part of the Contacts feature in Outlook. An EBC is simple to create and you can easily add your company logo or a picture of yourself. And when you use an EBC as part of your e-mail signature, customers and friends will see it in a format that looks good and is easy for them to save.
Up to speed - Learn how the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar put the commands you need right at your fingertips. You'll see that it's quick and easy to compose and format your message, add attachments, and then send. Tracking tasks, making appointments, scheduling meetings, working with contacts — Outlook makes it all easier than ever.
PowerPoint 2007 Demo:
Add animation and sound to text and objects - Animation effects and sounds can add excitement to your presentations and help you emphasize key points while you deliver the slide show. This demo shows you ways to add these effects: by using the built-in animation effects in PowerPoint, by creating your own customized effects, and by adding sound. Built-in effects are a good choice when you're pushed for time. As you move your pointer over the list of options, you see a live preview of how the animation will look on your slide. If you want to choreograph more complex effects, PowerPoint lets you choose from dozens of options to build unique visuals and sound.
Project 2007 Demo:
Add, hide, and show columns - Suppose you've created a project plan in Project, and you want to add a new column of information. You also want to be able to choose not to display the new information, but you don't want it to be lost. With Project, you can create a column of information, hide a column, and show a column that you've previously hidden.
Visio 2007 Demo:
Create a background and watermark for your drawings - Watch the demo to see how easy it is to create a background and watermark for your Visio drawings. You can include your company logo in the background and add a watermark in just a few quick steps. And you can reuse this background on every page in your Visio drawing.
Word 2007 Demos:
Create a set of labels with mail merge - In Word you can use mail merge when you want to create a set of address labels. These four demos show how to use the Mail Merge feature in to create labels for use in mass mailings.
Headers and footers made simple - It's easier than ever to customize your Word documents with unique headers and footers. With a few clicks you can create a designer look while you insert an additional layer of information in multipage documents. Choose from a gallery of designs, and change the theme to suit your needs. This set of three demos shows you how headers and footers can make your work look more professional and help readers keep their bearings.
Let Word manage your table of contents - A table of contents helps those who read your document by presenting the information in handy outline form. Preparing a table of contents used to be a laborious manual process of making sure all the TOC headings and page numbers matched up with the text—as you worked from first draft to last draft.
Share documents with people who are using previous versions - learn to to share your documents with your colleagues who are still using earlier versions of Word. Your colleagues can open, read, and even make changes to the documents that you create in Word 2007. And you can make your Word 2007 documents fully available for editing by turning on Compatibility Mode.
January 26
Configuration Packs are designed to be used for managing the configuration of Microsoft's various Windows Servers. These configuration packs were developed based on recommendations from the Microsoft Product Groups regarding the configuration of these server roles. It is recommended that users begin by evaluating their configuration against the Basic configuration pack, and then progress to the Intermediate and Comprehensive configuration packs as desired configurations are verified.
9 NEW Management Packs:
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
SQL Server 2000
ADDITIONAL Management Packs Available:
Exchange Server 2003
SQL Server 2005
Windows Server 2003
January 24
Actually, Microsoft recommended 5 programs -- but only 3 were free (^_^)
Vispa allows you to easily tweak your Windows Vista for better privacy and security, even system performance. Do a few clicks rather than finding the write registry keys or program settings.
NOTE: Vispa is no tool for beginners, just a more convenient way of tweaking your operating system. Do not apply settings without vague knowledge of what you're doing. Not every setting is desired in every environment.
VistaTweaker is a complete tweaking utility designed for windows vista. Has software, performance, usability and other kinds of tweaks to improve the overall Vista experience. It’s easy to use and provides descriptions for every tweak and setting.
- Changes the number of Folder views Windows saves.
- Resets the folder views Windows has saved.
- Add/Remove classic Windows 2000 user control panel icon.
- Disable/Enable ATI Catalyst Control Center right click on Desktop (only for use if you have an ATI video card and have the Catalyst Control Center installed).
- Disable/Enable ‘SendTo’ right-click menu.
- Allows you to adjust and tweak TCP/IP settings.
- Disable/Enable ZipFolders.
- Disable/Enable the Outlook Express/Windows Mail splash screen.
- Put the File menu above the Back/Forward buttons in IE7.
- Remove or Replace the Search box in IE7.
- Disable/Enable User Account Control prompts under Vista.
- Disable/Enable the “- Shortcut” text under Vista.
- Attempt to force Vista to better save folder views.
- Disable/Enable Windows Media Player Explorer context menus.
- Add/Remove “Take Ownership” to right-click menus under Vista.
- Disable/Enable the Documents item on the Classic Start Menu.
- Changes “Delete” to “Search…” on Recycle Bin.
- Turn off the annoying full screen “black” UAC prompt.
- Add/Remove the Network Connections icon to Control Panel
Recently, Microsoft released the Visio Toolbox Site -- with lots of free software hosted on ShapeSource website. After spending a few minutes on their website I noticed a slew of other Office Vista 2007 software packages for free download! (^_^)
FREE VISIO BUSINESS TEMPLATES
- Business Travel Plan - This travel planning sample shows how to illustrate the critical information for business travel including flights, hotels, and car rentals. It is primarily designed for business travelers, but is just as applicable to leisure travel.
- Office Move Plan - This office move plan provides you with a variety of components including a timeline, PERT charts, Gantt charts, a layout of the new office space and an inventory report to help make sure items end up in their correct locations on moving day.
- Spider Chart is a format commonly used by management consultants to show their clients how an organization compares with those in similar companies.
FREE VISIO EDUCATION TEMPLATES
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Classroom Seating Chart - This classroom layout for educators shows several ways to set up a classroom workspace as well as store important student information with each shape.
- High School Curriculum Plan - This template is designed to assist high school teachers with planning a goal-driven integrated curriculum.
- Historical Cause and Effect - This historical cause and effect diagram shows an example of the events that result in a single effect. Causes are arranged in categories resulting in a depiction of relationships and hierarchy of events.
- Periodic Table of the Elements - This template was created for educational purposes. It shows the periodic table of the elements with a color legend.
- School Calendar - This school calendar sample is a useful tool for both Teachers’ and Administrators’. All school related events are posted on the calendar and teacher’s can customize calendar to post classroom related events and deadlines.
FREE VISIO STENCILS
FREE VISIO NETWORKING STENCILS
Emcor Enclosures
VISIO VISITOOLS ADD-ONS
- VisiClean - Removes unused masters to help reduce .VSD file size
- VisiExam - Examine your Visio diagrams for inconsistencies and errors, and fix them automatically
- VisiNotes - Adds 3 long text note fields to each of your shapes
January 22
NEW VISIO 2007 SOFTWARE
IconSet Builder provides a quick and easy way to create custom Icon Sets that you can use in the Data Graphics in your diagram. Just upload the images you want to use, then copy the resulting shape into your diagram or template. This copies in the icon set so that you can use it in other data graphics.
Near Real Time Monitoring (NRTM) Connector of Disk Space uses the new Data Graphics feature of Visio 2007 to display the results of server monitoring. This application enables effective integration of Visio 2007 with the service management solution System Center Operations Manager 2007. The connector helps to view the results of monitoring servers as a clear, comprehensive Visio network diagram.
NEW FREE VISIO TEMPLATES
- Audit Process - The Cross Functional Flowchart template enables users to create data linked dynamic drawings faster & easier than ever before.
- Factory Floor Assembly Plan - A sample diagram follows the path of the product being manufactured. The work flows from the machine shop to the pre-paint area, to the paint shop and finally to the packaging station.
- Fault Tree Analysis - This diagram shows the Fault Tree analysis of a systems failure. This type of diagram is a widely used methodology in system reliability and failure probability analysis. FTA diagrams are used to provide a graphical representation of the events that might lead to a failure so that the failure can be prevented.
- Help Desk Flow - Here you will see the six data collection points for this example help desk. Call volumes, wait times, and resolution rates are tracked at each point in the process. The diagram flows from left to right and top to bottom. Not every caller will experience each of the steps, if a problem is resolved by a Level One technician, then the caller does not progress to the Level Two technician.
- HVAC Controls - A simple Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning control diagram.
- Insurance Claims by State - This diagram is a map of the US with the individual states shaded to represent insurance losses for the previous year.
- Investment Analysis Report - A year to date summary of the funds in the account covering account balances and performance, and comparing it to S&P 500 returns. Allowing you to visually show where each fund lies on a risk vs. return axis while at the same time showing the asset allocation in each fund, this is represented by the relative size of the purple background shape for each fund.
- Loan Consolidation Process - This seven page diagram provides an overview page, showing the overall status of each department. The other six pages show department specific details.
- Military Organization Chart - A standard organization chart. It details the commanding officers and their direct reports. In addition to the standard Orgchart information of name and title, this diagram also utilizes the addition display fields now available in Visio 2007.
- Network Equipment Rack - A server room floor plan showing the location of the equipment racks and location of the computer equipment in the room. Corresponding pages show a front view of the network equipment racks and the details of the computers on the racks.
- Office Space Planning - An overhead view of an office layout. Each office and cubical is shown and has detailed information on the occupant, including Office Number, Occupant, Department, Title and phone number.
- PC Assembly Process Flow - Reviewing the four major stages of computer assembly. The diagram is in the form of a flowchart showing the parts of the PC being put together. In this case the boxes of a standard flowchart have been replaced with the detailed PC parts to show that manufacturing companies can replace the boxes with parts diagrams.
- Sarbanes-Oxley Pivot Diagrams - The PivotDiagram enables users to create data linked dynamic drawings.
- Supply Chain Analysis - This diagram shows part of the Supply Chain of a motorcycle manufacture. This type of diagram is used to analyze the costs and time associated with shipping parts and sub assemblies between suppliers and manufactures.
- Value Stream Mapping - Review a value steam map for the fictional K Soda company. This diagram allows you to see at a glance the number of shifts, uptime, and inventory hours each process has.
OFFICE 2007 TRAINING
"Get Started" tabs are added to the Office 2007 Ribbon , giving easy access to free content on Office Online (i.e training courses, video demos). An Office Online interactive command mapping tool, also available on the Get Started tab, shows where to find previous Office 2003 buttons and commands in Office 2007. Office Online Community discussions are also available directly from Microsoft with this add-in.
"Learn by Doing" Online Training
Office 2007 Guides: These visual, interactive reference guides helps you find your favorite Microsoft Office 2003 commands in the new 2007 interface.
Office Enterprise 2007 Training Notebook introduces the new Fluent User Interface and then moves through different programs in the Office Enterprise 2007 system. Training and information about new features, tools, and benefits are presented in easy-to-follow sections with pages that can be reviewed at your own pace and in any order that you prefer.
Running Start CD serves as a handy shortcut to vital questions and resources so employees can get the information they need to be their most productive and efficient.
OFFICE 2007 DEMOS
Office 2007 System Demos:
Enable blocked macros - Watch this demo to learn how you can enable macros in 2007 Office release programs and make informed security decisions that can help you keep your computer safer while you work.
Access 2007 Demo:
Meet the Navigation Pane - This demo shows you how to use the Navigation Pane to organize the objects in a database into categories and groups. The demo also shows you how to begin working with the built-in categories and groups, as well as how to manage custom categories and groups.
Excel 2007 Demos:
InfoPath 2007 Demos:
Create reusable template parts - In this demo, you'll learn how to create a new template part, test it, make corrections in it if necessary, and install it on your computer. After that, you can use it over and over and share it with other form designers in your company. Watch the demo to see how easy it is to create these basic building blocks for form templates.
Publish a form template as an e-mail message - With InfoPath 2007, it's simple to distribute a form template as an e-mail message. When team members receive the form template you've created, they can easily create a form right from their Inbox. To help out the team members receiving
completed forms, you can enable easy sorting by categories of data in the form in Office Outlook. The Publishing Wizard in InfoPath makes all of this a snap. Watch the demo to see how you can be creating and distributing your own form templates in no time.
OneNote 2007 Demos:
What is OneNote? Watch this introductory demo to learn about OneNote 2007 and how to use it to gather, organize, and share your notes and other information.
Keep It Together with OneNote 2007 - Learn how you can use OneNote 2007 to gather, organize, and search notes and information from many different sources in one location.
Outlook 2007 Demos:
Create and use an e-mail signature - In Outlook you can create and store different signatures for different circumstances. It's easy to create a signature that includes the information you want— whether it's a plain signature with just your name or an elaborate one with a photo, hyperlink, contact details, and several lines of text formatted for clarity and emphasis. Set a signature to appear by default, or add one with a quick right-click. Creating, managing, and using e-mai signatures is easy.
Customize your calendar - Did you know that the views in your Outlook calendar are fully customizable? For example, you can view your days and weeks in increments of 5 minutes, 60 minutes, and a variety of periods in between. You can adjust the view of your calendar according to your work week and work day; for instance, you can display Sunday through Thursday and show a normal day as being 11 in the morning to 7 in the evening if you like. Use different color schemes, and show more or less detail in your calendar.
Find needles in a haystack with Instant Search - If you're buried in e-mail (and who isn't?), Instant Search in Outlook 2007 can save the day for you — every day. The new Instant Search helps you quickly find e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, or any Outlook item. You don't even need to know which folder the item is in. Watch the demo to see how to use this fast search feature, and start finding what you want instantly.
Share contact information with Electronic Business Cards - Traditional paper business cards are a time-honored and effective way to get business and contact information out to current and prospective clients. But these days, a lot of business is done in e-mail. So how do you make sure that people know how to reach you? Try an Electronic Business Card (or EBC), part of the Contacts feature in Outlook. An EBC is simple to create and you can easily add your company logo or a picture of yourself. And when you use an EBC as part of your e-mail signature, customers and friends will see it in a format that looks good and is easy for them to save.
Up to speed - Learn how the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar put the commands you need right at your fingertips. You'll see that it's quick and easy to compose and format your message, add attachments, and then send. Tracking tasks, making appointments, scheduling meetings, working with contacts — Outlook makes it all easier than ever.
PowerPoint 2007 Demos:
Add animation and sound to text and objects - Animation effects and sounds can add excitement to your presentations and help you emphasize key points while you deliver the slide show. This demo shows you ways to add these effects: by using the built-in animation effects in PowerPoint, by creating your own customized effects, and by adding sound. Built-in effects are a good choice when you're pushed for time. As you move your pointer over the list of options, you see a live preview of how the animation will look on your slide. If you want to choreograph more complex effects, PowerPoint lets you choose from dozens of options to build unique visuals and sound.
Keep sane with the Selection Pane - If you work with layered items on PowerPoint slides, the Selection Pane, new in the 2007 Office release, can make that task easier. The Selection Pane lists each item on your slide so you can apply custom effects to just that item, without having to click through the layers on the slide itself. When you finish, you can preview the effects and unhide all the items.
Use 3-D effects - You want your presentation to convey key points to your audience. The new 3-D effects in PowerPoint 2007 give you dozens of ways to create graphics effects that pop off the slide and highlight the information you want to be remembered. Watch the demo to see how to do this with slides. Similar options are available in Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, and Word 2007.
Project 2007 Demo:
Add, hide, and show columns - Suppose you've created a project plan in Project, and you want to add a new column of information. You also want to be able to choose not to display the new information, but you don't want it to be lost. With Project, you can create a column of information, hide a column, and show a column that you've previously hidden.
Publisher 2007 Demos:
Visio 2007 Demos:
Create a background and watermark for your drawings - Watch the demo to see how easy it is to create a background and watermark for your Visio drawings. You can include your company logo in the background and add a watermark in just a few quick steps. And you can reuse this background on every page in your Visio drawing.
Word 2007 Demos:
Create a set of labels with mail merge - In Word you can use mail merge when you want to create a set of address labels. These four demos show how to use the Mail Merge feature in to create labels for use in mass mailings.
Add or delete pages - Having trouble getting rid of a page from your document? Do you just want to add a page in a specific location? This demo shows you the little secret for how to easily add or delete pages from your documents.
Add and remove page breaks - Frustrated with the layout of your document? By taking advantage of automatic page breaks and using manual page breaks sparingly, you can save yourself effort and get the results you want in your documents.
Add pictures to a Word 2007 document from a camera or scanner - If you're baffled about how to get your own photographs into your documents, then wonder no longer. This demo shows you how to insert your picture or digital photo into a document and format it the way you want it. He addresses some of your questions about terms like "inline" and "floating," and he explains how easy it is to set up a watermark.
Get the page numbers you want - You can get the page numbering you want in your documents without having to set it up manually. This demo explains how to select the formatting you want. You can even use different styles of numbers in different sections of your document.
Headers and footers made simple - It's easier than ever to customize your Word documents with unique headers and footers. With a few clicks you can create a designer look while you insert an additional layer of information in multipage documents. Choose from a gallery of designs, and change the theme to suit your needs. This set of three demos shows you how headers and footers can make your work look more professional and help readers keep their bearings.
Let Word manage your table of contents - A table of contents helps those who read your document by presenting the information in handy outline form. Preparing a table of contents used to be a laborious manual process of making sure all the TOC headings and page numbers matched up with the text—as you worked from first draft to last draft.
Make Documents Look Great - Use the information in this demo to give your Word 2007 documents, diagrams, and tables a professional appearance and feel.
Set page margins or change them - Adjusting page margins is easy when you know which feature to use. This demo shows you how to set or change margins in Page Setup. The demoalso points out how you can use either inches or centimeters as the unit of measurement for margins.
Set tab stops or remove them - Do your tabs sometimes appear to misbehave? Ever wonder how to see a ruler for setting tab stops? This demo shows you how to insert and delete tab stops and how to see and use the ruler.
Share documents with people who are using previous versions - learn to to share your documents with your colleagues who are still using earlier versions of Word. Your colleagues can open, read, and even make changes to the documents that you create in Word 2007. And you can make your Word 2007 documents fully available for editing by turning on Compatibility Mode.
Up to Speed with Word 2007 - Word 2007 introduces a new feature, the Ribbon, which brings the most popular commands to the forefront. Get familiar with the new design, and see for yourself that you won't have to learn Word all over again.
Use Word Viewer to open or print Word documents - Even if you don't have Word on your computer, you can open Word documents as long as you have Word Viewer. This Word 2007 demo shows how you and your colleagues can download Word Viewer and the Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. With these two downloads, you can open, print, or copy and paste from Word documents, without having to install Word on your computer.
Who says geeks aren’t romantic? Here are some free Microsoft resources to help celebrate “Amour”
WORD TEMPLATES
AVERY (Word) TEMPLATES (Because nothing says “I Love You,” like “Stickers!”)
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Valentine's Day Shipping Labels with Hearts or Puppies (6 page; Avery 8164, 8254, and 8464)
January 20
I recently blogged about a 12 year old Microsoft Icon Editor tool -- so here's a newer Windows program that's only 7 years old! ha ha
Here's a handy program that Microsoft's Brad Rutkowski found that helps troubleshoot "latency issues" when running commands. TimeThis is a "command timing utility" that provides the length of time a command takes to run.
January 19 Prevoiusly only available for beta testing -- Palm has released their Palm Desktop synchronization software for Windows Vista.
Palm Devices Supported:
- Palm Centro
- Treo 755p , 700p, 680, 650
- Palm TX, Z22
- Tungsten E2
What's New?
- Integrated Desktop: Provides a single desktop and conduit compatibility across all Palm OS 3.5.x through 5.4.x devices.
- Enterprise Friendly HotSync Enhancements: HotSync Manager 7.0 is a standalone application, and no longer requires Palm Desktop to be installed on the computer. All user management functionality has been moved into HotSync Manager 7.0 Migration Tools: the installer checks for the latest settings and reports any known incompatibilities with third-party software.
- Multilingual Support: Localized in Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
- Install Tool: The Install Tool, which replaces the "Palm Quick Install" tool, allows you to sync .prc and .pdb files (Palm OS applications and databases) to your device.
Outlook 2007 synchronization: Allows you to use your USB sync cable to synchronize with Outlook 2007's Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Notes. This version includes all previously released patches such as the Outlook 2007 Update.
What's NOT in this Software?
- Palm Quick Install Tool: The Palm Quick Install Tool has been replaced by the Install Tool, which lets you install applications onto your device through HotSync.
- VersaMail HotSync Synchronization: You will not be able to synchronize email through the USB sync cable. Wireless email synchronization, including Exchange ActiveSync for Outlook accounts, is not affected by this limitation.
- Birthdays and Anniversary reminders that appear in the Calendar on your Palm device will not appear in the Calendar in the Palm Desktop application. (This does not apply to manually created Calendar events; it only applies to reminders generated from the Contacts application fields for Birthday and Anniversary on your device. These reminders will not appear in Palm Desktop, but they will be backed up on your computer when you sync, and they will be restored to your Palm device if you erase your device and then perform a HotSync operation to retrieve data from a backup.
- Color coding of events in the Calendar is no longer supported.
- 64-bit Editions of Windows Vista are not supported.
The Road to Know Where strives to find free Microsoft solutions -- so the lame solution of creating an icon by renaming an MSPaint .BMP file to .ICO was never recommended.
Nor was this convaluded solution of creating an icon using Visual Studio outlined in Knowledge Base article KB914349 ever recommended.
IconEditor - supports creating an icon, adding multiple formats to it such as 16x16 - 16 color, or 48x48-24bit color, up to 128x128-32bit color, along with marking the transparent colors (XOR Mask and AND Mask).
January 17
Management Packs:
Active Directory Management Pack monitors the availability and performance of Windows Server 2000 and 2003 Domain Controllers. It can also issue alerts for configuration problems. Availability and performance monitoring is done using synthetic transactions. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. The Management Pack monitors Windows services critical to a Domain Controller, such as Net Logon, File Replication, KDC, and Windows Time. The Active Directory Client Perspective monitoring is used independently from the monitoring on the Domain Controller. It runs synthetic transactions to validate the availability of the Active Directory deployment from the perspective of an Active Directory client. Client monitoring can be enabled on selected critical members servers or desktop clients.
The Active Directory Management Pack monitors Active Directory and the external components that are related to Active Directory. It provides forest-wide monitoring of the directory service and its required subsystems. In addition to real-time performance and event monitoring, it allows you to respond immediately to critical performance, health, or capacity issues.
Active Directory Management Pack Features:
- Core services (Net logon, KDC), dependent services (File Replication, Windows Time), and SYSVOL/DC Locator availability monitoring
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Synthetic Transactions for general AD, Global Catalog, Op Master Roles response
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Synthetic Replication performance monitoring
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Replication health
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Comprehensive performance metric collection (synthetic transaction and performance counter based)
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Independent Client-side monitoring MP
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Database and Log file growth/free space
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Comprehensive list of tasks to diagnose problems
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AD Topology discovery (Forests, Sites, Domain, and Connection objects between DCs)
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400+ Event rules with associated knowledge
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Reports in the area of Configuration and Configuration changes, Availability, Performance
Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack provides monitoring of the basic health indicators of a Windows Client system, such as processor, memory, disk health, availability, and key performance metrics. Optional alerting on threshold monitoring is available.
Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack Features:
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Key Processor performance indicators
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Logical and Physical Disk performance and free space
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Memory utilization
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Network health
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Health monitoring of key Windows Operating System Services
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Comprehensive performance collections
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Availability and Event reports
Data Warehouse Library Management Pack contains the definitions and workflows required to support the forwarding of data to the Operations Manager Data Warehouse as well as the subsequent maintenance of the data. It also contains rules and monitors to track the ongoing health of the Data Warehouse data flows and processes. This Management Pack ships with the Operations Manager product and is periodically updated with fixes and new functionality.
Data Warehouse Library Management Pack Features:
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Manages the flow of data to the Data Warehouse
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Manages credentials used for the operation and management of the Data Warehouse
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Supports the deployment of reports to the Data Warehouse
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Manages the aggregation of performance data in the Data Warehouse
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Synchronizes alert data in the Data Warehouse with recent alert changes made in the operational database
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Manages the health of Data Warehouse workflows
Domain Name System 2000, 2003 Management Pack is designed to be used for monitoring DNS 2000 or DNS 2003 events, collecting DNS component-specific performance counters in one central location, and for raising alerts for operator intervention as necessary. By detecting, sending alerts, and automatically responding to critical events, this Management Pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible service outages or configuration problems, allowing you to proactively manage DNS and identify issues before they become critical.
Domain Name System 2000, 2003 Management Pack Features:
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Monitor the health and availability of the DNS components.
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Collect key performance data for DNS.
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Start common tasks in context of Operations Manager alerts.
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Monitor overall health through state view for DNS computers.
Exchange 2003 Management Pack monitors the performance and availability of Exchange 2003 Server systems. It can also issue alerts for possible configuration problems Availability and performance monitoring is done using synthetic transactions. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. The Management Pack discovers and monitors the individual server components and functional areas on an Exchange 2003 Server. Update version addressing problems with empty alert parameter data in self-tuning threshold monitors, and discovery issues on Exchange 2003 running in a clustered setup.
Exchange 2003 Management Pack Features:
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MAPI, OWA, OMA, EAS synthetic logon transactions
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Mail flow synthetic transaction
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Mail Queue monitoring using Self-Tuning Thresholds
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Comprehensive performance metric collection
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1000+ Event rules with associated knowledge
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Database status
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Database size
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Mailbox statistics
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Public folder statistics
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Message tracking log statistics • Exchange and related OS Service monitoring
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Configuration monitoring
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Topology discovery of Exchange deployment
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Integration in Exchange Best Practice Analyzer and ExDiag tools
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Reports in the area of Configuration and Configuration changes, Availability, Performance
Group Policy Management Pack Monitors:
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Group Policy core infrastructure/registry client-side extension
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Scripts client-side extension
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Software installation client-side extension
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Security client-side extension
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Folder redirection client-side extension
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Disk quota
Internet Explorer - version 5 through 7
Media Player - version 6 through 11
MSN and Windows Messenger - version 3 through 7
Outlook Express - Internet Explorer 5 through 7
Windows Explorer - Windows 2000 and Windows XP
Access - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
Communicator - 2005 and 2007
Excel - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
FrontPage - Office XP and Office 2003
Groove - Office 2007
InfoPath - Office 2003 and Office 2007
LiveMeeting - Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007
OneNote - Office 2003 and Office 2007
Outlook - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
PowerPoint - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
Project - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
Publisher - Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007
Visio - Office 2003 and Office 2007
Internet Information Services Management Pack monitors the availability and performance of IIS 5.0 and 6.0 Web Servers on Windows Server 2000 and 2003 systems. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. If configured, the IIS MP also monitors FTP Site, SMTP Server, and NNTP server.
Internet Information Services Management Pack Monitors:
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Web Sites
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Application Pools
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FTP Servers
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NNTP Servers
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SMTP Servers
Print Server Management Pack monitors the performance and health of print servers running on Windows 2000 and later Operating Systems. In addition to monitoring the health of print servers, this Management Pack can also provide insight into the status of shared printers. By detecting, alerting on, and automatically responding to critical events and performance indicators, this Management Pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible operating system service outages.
By using embedded expertise, this Management Pack highlights performance, health, and availability conditions that indicate problems. It helps you identify issues before they become critical, thus providing you with a level of customer responsiveness that increases the overall availability and performance of your Windows Operating Systems. As a result, this Management Pack will reduce the cost of ownership by enabling proactive management and reducing resolution times for the issues identified.
SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit monitors the health state of the components in your SharePoint environment that affect performance and availability. When there is an issue that may cause service or performance degradation, Operations Manager 2007 uses the management packs to detect the issue, alert you to its existence, and facilitate diagnosis and corrective actions.
SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit Monitors:
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Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 related services (Timer, Tracing and Search)
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Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 related Events
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Web server applications such as Internet Information Services (IIS)
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IIS-related Events
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Microsoft SQL Server database-related events
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WSS Server performance
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Management Pack monitors the health and performance of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 components. It includes a rich set of views, tasks. This Management Pack detects and alerts problems with performance, health, and availability. It can automatically respond to critical events and performance indicators. In some cases it identifies issues before they become critical, enabling you to increase the overall availability and performance of your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 deployment.
SharePoint Services 2.0 Management Pack Monitors:
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Core Services
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Web Parts
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Configuration Database
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Web Sites
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Application Pools
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Content Databases
SQL Server Management Pack monitors the availability and performance of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and can issue alerts for configuration problems. Availability and performance monitoring is done using synthetic transactions. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. The Management Pack discovers Database Engines, Database Instances, and Databases and can optionally discover Database File and Database File Group objects.
SQL Server Management Pack Features:
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Detection and monitoring of all Configuration Manager servers and dependent services
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The alert driven state
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The site hierarchy diagram,
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Performance and backlog monitoring and configuration
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Performance and availability reports.
Terminal Services Management Pack monitors the health and performance of Terminal Services components. It includes a rich set of views, tasks, and reports, and provides monitoring for Terminal Services, the Licensing Server, and the Session Directory.
This Management Pack detects and alerts problems with performance, health, and availability. It can automatically respond to critical events and performance indicators. In some cases it identifies issues before they become critical, enabling you to increase the overall availability and performance of your Windows operating systems.
Terminal Services Management Pack Features:
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Independent discovery of Terminal Server Service (application mode), Licensing Server Service, and Session Directory Service (Windows 2003 only)
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Optional discovery of Terminal Server installations in Remote Desktop (Remote Application) mode
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Performance threshold monitoring on key Terminal Services Metrics using Self-Tuning Thresholds
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Comprehensive performance metric collection (optional collection rules)
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Comprehensive event rules with associated knowledge
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Availability and Event Reports
Windows Server 2000/2003 Operating System Management Pack provides monitoring of the basic health indicators of a Windows Server system, such as processor, memory, disk health, availability, and key performance metrics. Optional rules and monitors can be enabled to provide in-depth discovery and monitoring of the Windows Operating System.
January 15
Microsoft has released a free "Fun Family" collection of 30 emoticons for Windows Live Messenger. (+_+)
Administration Tools Pack allows administrators to install the Windows Server 2003 SP2 management tools onto a computer running Windows XP Professional or a Windows Server 2003 family operating system to perform remote server management functions. (Support: KB304718)
NOTE: This is the final version of the Administration Tools Pack; you must uninstall all previous versions before installing this version.
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