Add a Mini Calendar to Outlook's Out of Office Reply

No matter how clear you write it, some folks just can't grasp that you'll be out of the office for a certain period.

The Outlook development team's blog explains how you can insert a miniature, HTML-formatted calendar into your auto-replies. You basically email yourself an Outlook-formatted, date-selected calendar, copy it from that email, and then paste it into an Out of Office message. You could also likely paste that same calendar into any email service that supports HTML signatures, and if you give that a shot?or find another way of creating mini-format calendars?let us know in the comments.

Cool Trick: Making Miniature Calendars [Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog via Lifehacker AU]

Convert Your PowerPoint to DVD with Freeware

Weblog FreewareGenius walks through three different methods for burning your PowerPoint presentation to a DVD using free software. Photo by garethjmsaunders.

The three methods discussed involve converting the presentation to an intermediate format like video, Flash, or JPEG, and then burning that more DVD-friendly file format to a DVD. If you've ever needed present somewhere where all you had was a DVD player and monitor, this post has you covered inside and out. Unfortunately there are no free one-step options, but the post is detailed and easy to follow along with.

How to convert PowerPoint to DVD for free [FreewareGenius]

Excel 2007 File Format Error?

An upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 for my corporate laptop was an option I had last week. This new software update was preceded by a dialog box asking if I really wanted to install it? Of course I did. My inner response was, "Are you kidding me? I asked for it. Why wouldn't I want it? Sure, I'll take it!" So the update was advertised as a package via our SMS architecture and the goods arrived after a few hours of connection time.

Perhaps I did not make it clear in my original request that I would receive this package using our VPN client because it took two pushes of the installation package. After all, I'm a field-based employee. The only way I EVER connect to the internal network is via VPN. The first package timed-out twice and then a new package labeled "Office 2007 VPN Version" appeared as an option. Ah Ha! Now we're getting somewhere. The total package ended-up weighing in at around 850Mb.

The very first document I opened with the new Office 2007 Installation was an Excel spreadsheet sent to me from a colleague as a file attachment to an e-mail message. BAM! Warning number one popped-up and it looks like this: (Click to view 100% zoom)

The file you are trying to open is in a different format than specified by the file extension? Since when does XLS stand for anything other than an Excel spreadsheet? According to Microsoft, this is by design!

The warning message is a user-notification function that was added to Excel 2007. The warning message can help prevent unexpected problems that might occur because of possible incompatibility between the actual content of the file and the file name extension.

Their resolution to the issue is to click "Yes" if you trust the source of the file. C'Mon Microsoft, this is ludicrous! An adjustment of the user notification feature is available to select between three states:

0. Display the warning message, and do not open the file.
1. Display the warning message, and let the user decide whether to open the file (default).
2. Open the file, and do not display the warning message.

Unfortunately, the only way to adjust this election is by using a Group Policy setting or by using Registry Editor. Isn't that handy?

The Registry Editor option is the least painful and goes something like this:

Run the Registry Editor




Locate and then click the following registry subkey:




1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security









On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.




Type ExtensionHardening, and then press ENTER.




Right-click ExtensionHardening, and then click Modify.




In the Value data box, type the value data, and then click OK.

The appropriate value data matches the numbers for the three states listed above, 0, 1, or 2. Zero is the right value for me. Shutting off that annoying feature made me feel so good!

No matter how fully featured a new product appears to be, it always comes with more than we need. The user notification function is one of those unnecessary features.

~SP

The New Office 2007 File Formats

It is true this information is a few months old. Although not late-breaking news (released in April 2006), I wanted this information stored here for future reference. The original article came from Aviran's Place.

Office 2007 is due to be released sometimes on 2007. Office 2007 will have two major changes to the office file format. For the first time Microsoft will have file extensions with more than 3 characters, but more importantly it will move from the well know .doc, .xls and .ppt file extensions for the popular Office documents.

Office 2007 will have a new, XML-based file format for Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. The New file formats will be the default file formats for Office 2007 but they will also be backward compatible to Microsoft Office 2000 using Office 2007 Compatibility Mode.

Here are the new file formats:

Word 2007 Supported File Formats

• Word Document (.docx) - Default format


• Word Macro-enabled Document (.docm)


• Word Template (.dotx)


• Word Macro-enabled Document Template (.dotm)

Excel 2007 Supported File Formats

• Excel Workbook (.xlsx) - Default format


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook (.xlsm)


• Excel Template (.xltx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook Template (.xltm)


• Excel Binary Workbook (.xlsb)


• Excel Add-in (.xlam)

PowerPoint 2007 Supported File Formats

• PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx) - Default format


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation (.pptm)


• PowerPoint Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Template (.potx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation Template (.potm)


• PowerPoint Add-in (.ppam)

Not all file formats will be backward compatible only the following formats will be backward compatible down to Office 2000.

• Word Document (.docx)


• Word Macro-enabled Document (.docm)


• Excel Workbook (.xlsx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook (.xlsm)


• Excel Template (.xltx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Template (.xltm)


• Excel binary Workbook (.xlsb)


• Excel Add-in (.xlam)


• PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation (.pptm)


• PowerPoint Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Slide Show (.ppsm)


• PowerPoint Template (.potx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation Template (.potm)

Office 2007 will also support export to PDF (ver 1.5 which is compatible with Acrobat version 6) and XPS . XPS will support rights management for secure document managements, PDF export will not support rights management.

~SP

RSS Reader for Outlook

Attensa is a free (for now) news aggregator with hooks to Outlook, Blogger, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Thus far, it looks like quite a package and comes very close to satisfying the need which sent me searching for similar applications!

~SP