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TO ASK A QUESTION: If you have a question or need help with Office, please feel free to use the 'Click to Contact' link at the bottom of this page. You'll get a form that you can use to email a question to me. (I had been getting a ton of spam when accepting direct emails, so only emails that use this form will get through to me.)

Please be sure to mention the version of Office you are using when you send your question.

I answer all e-mails that I receive via this form, as long as they are polite :)

Since disabling comments on this site, I'm actually hearing from more of you with questions ... so, as it seems people prefer to email rather than comment, I'm going to leave comments disabled. As always, you can ask me any Office-related questions you have. If the question is outside of my expertise, I'll try to direct you to where you can get an answer.

Open XML (which, among other things, is behind the new file formats used for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 (as well as the 2008 versions for Mac)) have surely gotten their share of attention, positive and negative, as their supporters and detractors fought for the past couple of years over their right to exist as a recognized international standard. An extraordinary amount of work went into Open XML's hard-won victory to become an ISO standard, as finally announced last month, and an extraordinary amount of drama was played out across online developer communities for the years leading up to that win (and some after it, because, let's face it, some people are just sore losers). BUT - if you're not a developer, and you don't follow any of those communities, this may very well be news. After all, it's a new file format - so what?! ... If you're not a developer, if you just use Office to get your work done, why would you care about the technology behind your documents?

Well, I'm glad you asked ...

For advanced Office users, Open XML is the best thing to happen to Office since VBA ... and in some ways, it's even more important. So, if you can create great documents, make Excel charts dance, and make PowerPoint presentations that don't look like PowerPoint -- but you don't own Visual Studio, are not really sure what .Net actually is, and, if pressed, would probably say that C# is a musical term ... then this post is for you ...

So, what can you, the advanced user, really do?

- You can see and understand virtually everything that is stored in your document.
- You can troubleshoot documents more efficiently
- You can edit and format many aspects of documents, or groups of documents, more quickly and easily than from within Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
- You can extend and customize Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with such things as including a custom Ribbon in any document, template, or add-in; creating custom document themes, and creating custom SmartArt graphics...

... and then, of course, ...

Continue reading "Open XML ... Not just for developers ..." »

Posted by Stephanie at 10:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone - a bit of advance notice here ... but if you use, plan to use, or collaborate with those who use Office for Mac - I'll be giving two webcasts in June on Office for Mac 2008. The first will be about working cross-platform with Office 2007 for Windows and Office for Mac 2008 ... and the second is one on formatting great documents with Office 2008 for Mac.

As some of you know, I built the templates you'll see in Word 2008 and many of those in PowerPoint 2008, so I have been working with these programs for quite some time and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to share lots of tips!

If you'd like to get these sessions on your calendar before your busy June schedule starts to fill up, the links to where you can register are below. As with all Microsoft Office webcasts, these sessions are free and open to anyone. You can attend a LiveMeeting on either a PC or a Mac. If you've not attended a LiveMeeting before, on the PC you will get the option to install LiveMeeting on your computer or use the Web interface ... on the Mac you will always use the Web interface. When the dates get closer, I'll also post some info on which browsers work well with LiveMeeting on the Mac.

June 19th:
Compatibility Tips for Office 2008 for Mac and the 2007 Office Release for Windows

June 24th:
Tips and Tricks for Office 2008 for Mac: Incredible Documents Made Simple

Both of these sessions will be intermediate level (level 200).

Happy Friday and a great weekend everybody!

Posted by Stephanie at 09:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it has been an eventful day so far. After one of those mornings where random nonsense keeps me from getting much work done ... I go to my login to this blog to post that little rant I just posted, but I'm getting an error. Configuration error. I have no idea what this means ... I know almost nothing about the Moveable Type platform on which my blog is built (other than that I really like working with it) ... and I certainly haven't changed configuration.

I send an email to the talented person who installs, updates, and designs all things blog-related for me... and then after sending that email - before she has a chance to reply - i think that maybe I should check with my hosting service just in case they changed something.

I full expect them to reply that they can't help me with anything to do with the configuration of my blog or MT (and I wouldn't blame them for it), but I figure it can't hurt to ask. Well, in about a minute after sending the service request email, I get a reply asking me for more information. That reply came from a support person whose name I recognized as someone who has helped me many times in the past.

Two exchanges of email in less than 5 minutes and the support agent doesn't give me info about the problem - that person went in and FIXED the problem for me. (Well, you guys know that or i wouldn't be able to do this post).

I've been with Total Choice Hosting for a couple of years now (I think it's been that long) ... and I've made many requests - from changing my account level several times for more or less space ... to requests for help when the site has had problems or I've had questions that I thought were site-related. Requests are always handled quickly - and expertly - and they just keep getting better. It really is unusual to encounter a company that does it's job that consistently well in all areas.

Perhaps I'm raving over-the-top because this morning's experience is in immediate contrast to the horrible support experience I just reported with a different company in my earlier rant post ... but I think the positives deserve more attention than the negatives in life ... and they often don't get it.

So, thanks to Total Choice Hosting ...

... and Happy Thursday, everyone!

Posted by Stephanie at 12:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

So, I have a rant and a rave to post today ... thought I'd start with the rant so that the top post, the one that will stay up top for a day or two, will be the rave. The rave is NOT about HP. The rant most definitely is....

Anyone who knows me or has read my blog for awhile knows that I don't write negative things about anyone or any company. It's not my style. This situation, however, is unbelievable - and I want to post it to warn others before they make a purchase they'll end up regretting.

Never in my experience with computer products have I ever had such a bad experience as I've just had with HP. And it wasn't 1 person, it was several people, at several levels, over a period of a month...

About a month ago, I realized that what initially appeared to be an Office 2007\Vista SP1 issue (crashing on exit) was actually just a conflict between my printer driver (Photosmart C4180) and Vista SP1. I reproduced the same issue on 4 separate computers by installing Vista SP1 where that printer was installed or installing the printer on an SP1 machine. Uninstall the printer and the issue goes away, 100%, every time.

So - I contacted HP to see if it was a known issue, if they had a fix for it yet - and if not, to report the issue and provide them with repro steps. Here's how that went:

1 - Call 1: the level 1 tech support said the Vista drivers on the site are old and he would transfer me to the department that could send me a CD with updated drivers. 1/2 hour on hold, provide nearly enough personal info to steal my identity, and the new person says the drivers on the CD are identical to those on the site. There's no point in sending me a CD and he can't help me.

2 - Call 2: the new level 1 tech support person says he doesn't know the solution. he puts me on hold to research (seems reasonable so far) and says he can't find anything but he's sure he's heard about it and wants to research. he tells me to give him a week to get back to me. I was impressed. BUT - It's been a month. He never called back. No longer so impressed.

3 - Emailed support: I sent detailed, written repro steps on the issue. Conflict between HP driver and Vista SP1. Two days later, I got an email with a link to a MSFT KB article about crashing when an Office program opens - having nothing whatsoever to do with printers or with the issuer reported. I reply to that effect.

- I go back and forth with several replies over weeks ... each time getting another irrelevant link (getting so bad that the last one was a link to a KB article about problems opening Office documents in IE (yes, really, it was that bad). I repeatedly ask for the case to be escalated to level 2 and that request is repeatedly ignored.

4 - This morning I call HP support again, asking to talk to a manager. I no longer want to troubleshoot - I want to report the abominable support experience. After being put on hold several times, disconnected twice, I am told by two people (I called back again because I figured the first was just (*&! but no such luck) ... that they can't transfer me to a manager because my product is now out of warranty. It was IN warrantee when the case was opened. I explain this to them, explaining that I don't want tech support - i want a manager to report the issue to, and I'm told the same thing - only in-warrantee customers can talk to a manager, and the fact that the product was in warranty when the case was opened is not even acknowledged.

5 - I wait for HP's west coast corporate office to open for the day and call. I'm transfered to what I'm told is the highest level of customer contact. A case manager for multifunction machines such as mine. I explain the above and he tells me that what I'm asking is out of the scope of support and that the support staff was right to tell me that my product is out of warrantee and there's nothing they can do. I ask him if he realizes he's telling me that HP thinks it's acceptable to take so long addressing an issue that they can just wait for the product to go out of warranty and then say they can't help. He says that I'm putting words in his mouth and then he becomes rude. He tells me that he's the highest level of customer contact, so my only other option is to send a letter to the black hole, general mailbox of hte corporate office that transfered me to him or to email general customer support (i.e., back to level 1).

I realize that I am much better off buying a new product from a different company than trying to get any type of satisfaction from HP.

I called Canon pre-sales support to ask some information on a few models. After less than a minute on hold, a helpful person gave me all the information I needed. That's a good sign (I hope) ... fingers crossed ...

... and on to the good news for the day...

Posted by Stephanie at 12:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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