arouet.net | where tomorrow’s technology meets yesterday’s genius

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.

Shameful blog neglect

March 27, 2006

Happy Monday, everyone! Well, I think I've been promising for a few weeks now to get back to some meaty tech posts ... and I keep failing. I will get back to it very shortly -- but wanted to give you an update meanwhile...

First of all, I just returned from a week at Microsoft. I was there for the Office Developer conference and to catch up in person with lots of very cool people I only get to see every few months when I get myself to Washington.

I had a great time at the conference, getting some more Office 2007 programming under my belt ... and experienced one very cool geek moment I've been looking forward to for some time ... I got to see Mr. Gates in person for the first time, when he gave the keynote address. He delivered his keynote with Steve Sinofsky (SVP, Office) -- and they were great fun to watch. If you want to read what they had to say, get the transcript here.

I will start blogging about Office 2007 shortly and will have more to post than promises of posts to come :) Just have to catch up first on a few deadlines after returning from a week away. In reality, I'm guessing that I'll be using this week to catch up, this weekend to finally organize my tax stuff to send to my accountant (wahhhh!) and after the shock of how much I'll owe the US Government wears off, things should get back to normal enough for me to have something worthwhile to contribute.

Also -- my site will be redesigning imminently, which I'm really psyched about. Talented designer (and photographer) Michelle Jones is working on some cool stuff for the site that I hope everyone will like.

So, happy Monday, and please keep checking in with me ... I will have content of consequence :) to share again very soon ...

Posted by Stephanie at 12:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

... and the world keeps shrinking

March 17, 2006

Happy Friday! I have an off-topic little bit of trivia to share. While planning an upcoming trip to France, I looked online at Amazon and others for a French book that is the best existing guide for anyone planning to visit wineries in France -- it's the Hachette Guide des Vins. The book is very cool, and bears explaining -- but the point of this post is the way I ended up ordering it. The best price I found from US booksellers was $70 -- but this is about a $25 book. That's some serious customs tax :) So, I went online to the french Amazon page (Amazon.fr) and ordered the same book for 24 Euro and 10 Euro for shipping. Even with the weak dollar, that's half of what it would have cost from the US Amazon site.

I realize I might just be a geek or way behind the times, but I love the fact that I can order something from France in just a few mouse clicks and,with no extra effort and a very short wait, have it delivered to my door for almost the same cost as if I was in Paris right now.

As someone who works with computers professionally, I think I take so much of the convenience for granted. This just struck me as something very cool. It's a pretty interesting time we live in :)

... and yes, this post is a bit of a cheat. I promised to be back up and posting meaty stuff by earlier this week, but my schedule has taken a bit more time than planned to get under control. I do hope to post some new tips before the end of the weekend (fingers crossed :)

... meanwhile, for anyone who is interested in French wineries and hasn't heard of the Hachette guide, it's really quite incredible. They have a very detailed listing of producers by region and locality -- provide ratings for recent vintages, as well as contact information and tasting\visiting policies. There is an English version, I believe, but I've been told it's just not the same. The 2006 edition was just recently released. I can't wait to get mine!

It's beautiful today in NYC -- hope everyone is enjoying this Friday!

Posted by Stephanie at 02:10 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Where, oh where, have I been? :)

March 07, 2006

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to apologize for my absence. I have not run away! I'm just swamped like crazy with work deadlines. Should get better by the end of this week and I'll start posting again by next week with gusto :) Meanwhile, please check out a couple of newly published items:

The third Tables course in a series of 3 that I've written for Office Online training. This course is advanced and focuses on working with tables from Excel and the Web, as well as formatting complex financial tables in Word. Check it out: Tables III

A new article for Microsoft At Work, about the newly-started and publicly available Office Live beta (I think this is so cool -- If you haven't seen Office Live yet, it includes lots of stuff that's great for small businesses and independent contractors like me, including a free website and hosted Sharepoint services) - Introducing Microsoft Office Live. All of it is free during the beta (and getting your own website will continue to be free after the beta), so check it out - nothing to lose! :)

Meanwhile, I'll be back in action with some new posts of substance by the beginning of next week, if not sooner. And you can always post questions in comments and I'll still respond asap - busy or not :) If you have trouble leaving a comment (that functionality isn't working perfectly on this site right now) you can always click the Contact link at the bottom of the main blog page to email me.

Happy Tuesday!!

Posted by Stephanie at 05:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)