Hi, everyone! Thanks to all who took the time to attend today's session on customizing 2007 documents. For those who wanted to but didn't get a chance - the on-demand version should be available by tomorrow.

For those were there today, here are the resources I promised...

Office Online Beta Site
Office 2007 Great Tips site for webcast listings and more tips
2007 Office Preview site - to take the test drive or download the latest beta release (the Beta 2 technical refresh)
2007 Office Beta Community Articles - lots of topics covered here
Windows Vista home page

Command reference guides on Office Online - for help finding the commands you need in 2007
Word
Excel
PowerPoint

Some articles either with more on a topic or with a review of specific topics covered today ...

Microsoft Office Open XML Formats for the Non-developer
Quick, Easy, and Customized: Create the Professional Documents You Need Using Microsoft Office Word 2007
Exploring the Benefits of Document Themes in the 2007 Microsoft Office System

... also, there are several blogs by members of the Office product team with lots of good information about the new products. One that's really active right now and turning out some great info is a new blog from the Word team ... check it out: http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/default.aspx several recent posts with terrific info from Jon Bailor, who is a Program Manager on Word 2007...

....my upcoming October webcasts (all level 300 sessions, like today - but focusing on a single program):

Thursday, October 12, 2006
Advanced Tips and Tricks for Creating Custom Documents with Microsoft Office Word 2007
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Advanced Tips and Tricks for Fast and Fabulous Charts in Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Advanced Tips and Tricks for Incredible Presentations in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 in No Time

For another resource resource for your 2007 questions ... check out the TechNet forums I mentioned during the Q&A at the end of the session today

... and, click here for more info on my upcoming book for the 2007 Office release

If these references don't answer your question or I forgot to post something I promised - please post a comment to remind me and I'll take care of it asap. Please be sure to post your comment to the most recent blog post so that you can easily find it again to see the reply...

Meanwhile ... Happy Thursday!

Posted by Stephanie at 03:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone! Webcast starts at 12noon Eastern, 9am Pacific ... please join if you can:

Advanced Tips and Tricks for the 2007 Office System: Customize Your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Documents in No Time (Level 300)

Topics include:

• Across the 2007 Office release
○ Understanding the new file formats
○ Saving your own Themes
• Word 2007
○ Styles, Building Blocks, and Content Controls
• Excel® 2007
○ Charts, tables, and conditional formatting
• PowerPoint® 2007
○ Custom layouts, shapes, and diagrams

See you soon! Happy Thursday everyone :)

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

Hi, everyone! Two things to mention in this post ... first, a reminder about my upcoming webcast this Thursday ... and second, I just got the cover for my upcoming book and I had to share ... I get school-girl giddy over this kind of stuff :)

So ... here's the link to register for Thursday's webcast on customizing documents in 2007 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint): Advanced Tips and Tricks for the 2007 Office System: Customize Your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Documents in No Time (Level 300)

And here's that beautiful new book cover :) ...find more info about the book through the 'my books' link in the navigation bar at left...

Happy Tuesday everybody!

Posted by Stephanie at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone! Thanks to all who took the time to attend today's session on formatting documents in the 2007 Office release. For those who wanted to but didn't get a chance - the on-demand version should be available by tomorrow.

For those were there today, I promised a bunch of additional resources ... those are below...

If you didn't get a chance to ask your question during the session today - feel free to post it as a comment here. Please make sure to post your question to whatever is the most recent post on this blog, so that it's easy for you to navigate back to later to find the answer. I try to answer all posted questions within 24 hours and will let you know when I am not able to do that...

For those who want to take the topics from today to the next step - please join me next Thursday for an advanced session, where I'll show you how to use a number of the features we looked at today. Click here for more info or to register for that session.

Meanwhile - the following additional resources should keep you busy with your 2007 Office pursuits :) ...

Office Online Beta Site
Office 2007 Great Tips site for webcast listings and more tips
2007 Office Preview site - to take the test drive or download the latest beta release (the Beta 2 technical refresh)
2007 Office Beta Community Articles - lots of topics covered here
Windows Vista home page - also keep an eye here for a link to register for an upcoming Vista webcast I'm giving on 10-5

Command reference guides on Office Online - for help finding the commands you need in 2007
Word
Excel
PowerPoint

In response to some specific questions:
Great article from Office System MVP Beth Melton on the New File Formats
Article from me all about hidden data in 2007 Office documents

... and, click here for more info on my upcoming book for the 2007 Office release

If these references don't answer your question or I forgot to post something I promised - please post a comment to remind me and I'll take care of it asap.

Meanwhile ... Happy Thursday!

Posted by Stephanie at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone! Please join me today for Great Document Formatting Made Simple with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 (level 200) ... starting at 9am Pacific, 12noon Eastern ...

This one-hour session will look at new document production tools across Office, including:

Themes
Quick Styles
the new Graphics engine
New document security tools
.... and then some ...

Here's the link to register: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032306024&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

See you soon!

Posted by Stephanie at 10:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everybody! Finally got to start working on the latest beta update over this weekend, and ran across something small but nifty that warranted a particular mention...

Awhile back, someone asked me for a way to access the full path name of the file, since the Web toolbar is no longer used. There are a few ways to do this ... ?ActiveDocument.Path (or ActiveWorkbook...or ActivePresentation... depending upon the program in question) in the Immediate window in the VB Editor ... click into the Address Bar in the Save As dialog box, if working in Vista ... copy the path from the Properties dialog box.

BUT - in the Beta 2 Technical Refresh that became available last Thursday to anyone already running Beta 2 ... there's a nice new little addition to the Document Properties pane ...

Click the Office button, point to Prepare, and then click Properties. At the top of the Properties pane that opens, you'll see a Location field - from which you can copy the full file path, similar to the old Web toolbar. Nifty :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Posted by Stephanie at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone! I've had a couple of help requests lately that I was not able to respond to because of how they were submitted. I hate to say no to a request for help, so I thought it was a good idea to post some help for people on how best to get help here :)

... First of all - I won't be at my computer as much as usual this week, so I won't be checking the email associated with this site for a few days. So, if you need help, please be sure to post your question as a comment to the most recent post - and give me a couple of days to get to it, as I'll have less frequent access to my computer.

In terms of asking for help at any time - please post questions as a comment to the most recent blog post on this site. That way, when I respond, others can benefit from your answer. I also appreciate you posting questions as comments instead of sending them by e-mail for the same reason. Also, if you post the comment to an old blog post, my comment spam filter might block it -- or it just might be difficult for you to navigate back to in order to find my response.

If you have trouble posting your comment, you can use the e-mail link on the main page to send your question by e-mail or to ask for help posting a comment. I know that people sometimes feel more comfortable asking a question in e-mail, which is why I don't refuse questions by email as many people in the online community understandably do -- but please be considerate when you e-mail a request for help. Also, please don't send file attachments unless I ask you to do so -- for security reasons, I never open files from people I don't know.

You will be asked to give your name and email address when posting a comment, in an effort to reduce comment spam. Your e-mail address is not shared publicly on the site. I do sometimes use it, however, to respond to you if I think your request needs more of a response than I can give in a comment, or if there's been a delay between your request and my availability to answer it.

... and one last thing ... I love being part of the online community and so enjoy being able to help whenever I can. Most people are so nice that it's really a pleasure. So, for the 99% of people out there who that includes - please disregard the following. But - for the other 1% for whom being nice doesn't come so naturally ... if you're rude, your comments and e-mail will be blocked.

That said - I never, EVER ignore a help request (unless it's rude), whether I can provide an answer or not. I will always respond at least to recommend other resources or (at the VERY least) acknowledge receiving your request and let you know if I can help. So, if you post a comment or send an e-mail and don't see a response within a few days (or if you don't see your own comment posted on the site) ... please try again in case a spam blocker or something of the sort has interfered.

Thanks everyone! ... and happy Sunday :)

Posted by Stephanie at 01:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, everyone! Starting September 21st, I'll be doing a webcast every week through the first week of November. Most of these are 2007 Office sessions, with one Vista session in the middle just for fun :) Here's the lineup of what we'll be covering...

Note that most of the sessions are advanced (level 300) - not meaning your experience level with the 2007 versions, but with the programs being covered in general. So, if you're strong in Word 2003 and new to 2007, you'll be perfectly comfortable in a level 300 session. it is a good idea to have at least some familiarity with 2007 for the level 300 sessions, because I won't be taking time in those sessions to explain the new UI ... so they will move pretty fast.

9-21 - Formatting documents with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 (level 200)
9-28 - Customizing documents with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 (level 300)
10-5 - Find a new world of possibilities in Windows Vista (level 200)
10-12 - What's new for Word 2007 documents (level 300)
10 - 19 - Creating Excel 2007 charts (level 300)
10-26 - What's new for PowerPoint 2007 presentations (level 300)
11 - 2 - The Visio 2007 \ Excel 2007 connection (level 300) - data-based diagrams

The September Office sessions are already available for registration at www.microsoft.com/greattips

I'm also giving a live chat about managing metadata in Office 2007 documents on 9-19. Check that out here: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/community/chats.mspx ... there's a typo at the moment that says this chat is on the 17th ... but I don't give chats on Sunday mornings - and guessing you wouldn't want to attend them ;-) So, please disregard - that is set for Tuesday the 19th.

Meanwhile, Happy Wednesday all!

Posted by Stephanie at 10:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)