I cannot uninstall Microsoft Office 2010

Friday, October 8th, 2010

The press release said that a survey of 600 sales, marketing and IT professionals from companies in the UK, France and Germany had revealed millions of pounds were being wasted every year on unused applications. Actually, it said millions of Euros but I knew what it meant. Actually, at first I didn’t know what it meant as my thoughts turned to smartphones and while I appreciate that the iPhone, BlackBerry and assorted Android devices are doing well, I wasn’t swallowing a survey which reckoned that business were wasting millions every year on apps they don’t even use.

Then I read the document again, and everything became clearer. This was a story about data governance rather than Angry Birds in the office, and don’t even get me started about that one or the wife will kill me. According to Informatica, the outfit that provided me with the research data, some 81% of those IT professionals questioned said their corporate networks were hosting unused applications and data. Which isn’t really any surprise at all, is it? I’ve just looked at my own corporate network and it’s full of applications that sounded like a good idea at the time but turned out to be a waste of money as they are never used. Microsoft Office 2010, for example.

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How to add the Facebook social connector to Office 2010

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Microsoft has just announced that it’s added Facebook and Windows Live to the Outlook Social Connector, but it’s not entirely obvious how you access it. So here’s a quick step-by-step guide that tells you everything you need to know.

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How to add week numbers in Microsoft Outlook 2010

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

I didn’t realise until recently that week numbers are a bit of a European obsession, which is why US-created software such as Microsoft Office tends to ignore them.

You had to jump through three or four hoops in Office 2003 and Office 2007 to add them (clicking Tools | Options | Calendar Options and then tickboxing “Show week numbers in the Month View and Date Navigator”), but fortunately Outlook 2010 makes it much easier.

Or at least, easier to explain. So, here are the three steps you need to add week numbers in Outlook 2010.

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Why Outlook 2010’s conversation view doesn’t work

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Let’s be clear: Outlook 2010 is good. Very good, actually. And, certainly, if you instructed me to write an email client I’d come back to you with a white box with “INBOX” written on the front in biro.

But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been driving me up the wall.

Outlook 2010 tries to be all clever by bundling messages into “Conversations”. This is useful for when someone in the office CC’s everyone in on which pub to go to and you spend Friday afternoon battling a deluge of witty put-downs. In Outlook 2010 everything with the subject line “Let’s go to the pub!” is rolled into one conversation and you have to scroll through your inbox less. (more…)

Microsoft Office 2010: Word 2010’s print dialog

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

I’ve already blogged today about the excellent new meeting request view in Outlook 2010, so I hope you’ll forgive a second Office 2010 entry for the day. However, I had to share this (note – to get a clearer picture, click on the screenshot):

There are a number of things I like about this dialog, which is what you’ll see if you press Ctrl + P or click File |Print, where File is the new-style Office icon that sits at the top-left of the Word window.

And prime among them is the automatic print preview feature. (more…)

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010’s new meeting request view

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Outlook 2010 is undoubtedly the most changed of all the Microsoft Office 2010 applications, benefiting from the much-heralded Ribbon interface. Although my first reaction on seeing it was slight shock, as you’re presented with a mass of options when often all you want to do is Reply or Delete, I’m already seeing advantages.

Primary among these, so far as I’m concerned, is the new meeting request view. Not so much in the organisation phase – there are no major innovations there – but in the view that’s presented to invited members. (more…)