October 2003
Take Note - Office 2003 lands October 21 The latest iteration of Microsoft Office is scheduled for retail release on October 21. Here are some initial impressions based on a little over two weeks of using it. This mini-review focuses on Outlook, some general enhancements, and a new Office application. Outlook I find some of the enhancements to this product to be very useful. The old "preview pane" now defaults as a true "reading pane", showing emails in an intelligently formatted view on the right hand side, using the full height of the Outlook window - like a piece of paper. It's so easy to read that, if you have a high resolution monitor, you'll likely never open an email, simply use the reading pane to read and respond. You can group and sort your inbox with a single click, using one of 13 predefined "arrangements" - just right-click on the heading pane at the top of the inbox, and group by date, conversation, sender, etc. The conversation option allows you to track conversation threads - initially just displaying unread and flagged messages, but expanded with a single click to include all relevant messages. We use Exchange for group scheduling. I can now place other people's calendars side by side with mine in whatever calendar view I choose (day, week, etc.), something I already cannot live without (after less than 3 weeks). OneNote This is a new application, available as part of the "Microsoft Office System" (new marketing label) but not included in most Office packages. It's a simple yet powerful note taking application, intended for jotting down quick notes and thoughts in an unstructured format, with the ability to reorganize them in a virtually free-form manner. Better yet, as you type (or input with a Tablet pen) your notes are saved automatically. I find this very useful in meetings, and for brainstorming, and am a big fan of OneNote; however it seems that this is one of those products that some people love, while others don't get it at all. General In Word, the new Reading Layout view is optimized for document reading on screen. Being accustomed to Print (Page) Layout view, it took a while to get used to. The ability to view and compare two documents side by side is a nice enhancement. Although there are dozens of other new features and enhancements, these are the ones that have caught my eye thus far. And yes - Office 2003 coexists quite happily with Blue Link Solutions.     Tech Corner Slow Hard Disks under Windows XP (Home or Professional) If you use SCSI hard disk(s) that are formatted as NTFS using Windows XP, you need the latest service pack for Windows XP to avoid unreasonably slow hard disk performance. To obtain Windows XP service pack 1 (free), go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/default.asp For more details on this, see the Knowledge Base article at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308219					In this issue: Take Note - Office 2003 Tech Corner Tips and Tricks Case Study   Tips and Tricks PDF Files Copy Text We all use PDF files on a routine basis, and use the free Acrobat reader to read these documents. Sometimes, we'd like to re-use the text in a received PDF file, and using copy and paste, we can. To select the text you want to copy, first click on the Text Selection tool on the Acrobat toolbar:   Your cursor changes from a hand to a vertical line, which you use to select the appropriate text. Then use Copy from the Edit menu (or Ctrl+C) to copy to the clipboard. Now you're all set to paste the text into Word (or another application as required). No, that's not an earthquake - just those who've been manually retyping text from a PDF, hitting their heads collectively against the wall. .   Case Study   Japan Auto Parts is Canada's largest importer of used Japanese Engines and Transmissions.  Using Blue Link Solutions, this company was able to grow sales significantly without increasing staff and overheads. “We are delighted with the service and assistance we receive from Blue Link," says president Bruce Wulfsohn. Click here for the full story.        Our flagship product, Blue Link Solutions, is a completely integrated business and accounting package with functionality unmatched in its price range. For a complete listing of all of our products and for more information about them, click here.
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