Microsoft's Office Subscription Service Ready To Hit The Market

Microsoft has recently declared that Circuit City will soon be the first to offer an all new Microsoft Office Subscription Service.

Microsoft has joined hands with retailer Circuit City to provide a consumer software subscription service which features its Photo Gallery, Messenger, Windows Live One Care, MS Office and other services and applications.

The new software, dubbed Microsoft Equipt, is expected to be available at around 700 US based Circuit City stores till mid-July.

As per the reports, the cost of the newly launched Equipt licence has been fixed at $70 or £35 per year.

Microsoft makes it clear that the launch does not exactly indicate a complete move to sell its software through subscription models, but the initiative is a significant move for the company.
Reports suggest that Equipt features subscription versions of Office Home and Student 2007 that makes it a cheaper choice.

In addition to this, Equipt also offers unlimited e-mail support and easy subscription removal with the main idea that has triggered the move is to convert more PC buyers into Office buyers.
Microsoft has yet to announce a similar product on this side on the Atlantic.

If you want Microsoft Help then contact us.

source:itproportal.com

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Microsoft snafu blocks enterprise patching

Microsoft Corp. confirmed late Friday that enterprise administrators using one of its patch-distribution tools have not been able to install last week's security updates.
The company offered a work-around and said it is working on a fix.

"We're aware of an issue that is affecting the deployment of the June 2008 security updates," acknowledged Christopher Budd, spokesman for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), in a post to the group's blog Friday night.

Only corporate administrators using System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2007, which itself was just updated to Service Pack 1 (SP1), are affected, and only those systems running System Management Server (SMS) 2003 client software refuse to update. "The impact of this issue is that customers in this configuration cannot deploy the June 2008 security updates to their SMS 2003 clients," said Budd.

Last Tuesday, Microsoft published its usual monthly batch of security updates, which for June patched 10 vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer.

The successor to SMS 2003, System Center Configuration Manager assesses, deploys and updates server and client systems.

The MSRC also posted a security advisory on Friday, even though Microsoft doesn't strictly consider the problem security-related. "This issue is not a security vulnerability in System Center Configuration Manager 2007," the advisory stated. "[But] in this case, we are communicating the availability of an update that affects your ability to perform subsequent updates, including security updates. Therefore, this advisory does not address a specific security vulnerability; rather, it addresses your overall security."

According to an entry added to another company blog last Thursday, the glitch stems from "an issue with updated content published for the Office 2003 Service Pack 1 update, " said J.C. Hornbeck, an engineer at Microsoft's manageability group. "The June 10, 2008, release of the WSUS Offline Scan Catalog (wsusscn2.cb) fails to synchronize on a ConfigMgr 2007 or ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 site server using the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU)."

No other information was provided about the source of the problem or why the Office 2003 SP1 update caused the trouble now. Office 2003 SP1 was first released in mid-2004.

And although Office 2007 SP1 was updated last Tuesday to fix a problem on Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) that caused some language-specific content to fail to download, Microsoft said there was no connection between that fix and the ConfigMrg problem caused by Office 2003 SP1.

Administrators can determine if the June 10 updates were deployed by examining the Wsyncmgr.log on the ConfigMgr 2007 site server, added Hornbeck.

Budd said that Microsoft is working on a patch. In the meantime, he recommended that administrators use the Software Distribution feature within ConfigMgr 2007 to roll out the June security updates.

For any help related to Microsoft you can go for Microsoft Help

source:computerworld.com

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Web services with Open and Microsoft Office

While much of the talk around SOA revolves around the reuse of services bound to enterprise applications, the same ubiquity of these services in the "cloud" gives end users the potential of reusing data from Office productivity suites. In this tip, we will discuss how you can put all those services available in the "cloud" to good using two such suites: Microsoft Office and Open Office, the latter being a royalty free license suite compatible with the former platform.

Given that most services in the "cloud" are data intensive, our focus will be on the spreadsheet application's offered by both suites: Excel for Microsoft Office and Calc for Open Office. Before we discuss the actual process of accessing services though, you should be aware that both suites also support the process of Web scraping, that, while apparently similar to accessing services, is a different process all together.

Web scraping simply consists of obtaining raw information off a Web page and laying it out on a document for further manipulation, a process that is both inefficient and cumbersome when compared to that of using services. In the case of Web scraping, both suites rely on end users to provide additional formatting instructions in order to reliably extract data, generally from HTML pages. Add to this that scraping tends to be on addresses that don't or can't receive input values, and the approach to using services inside Office productivity suites becomes a lot more compelling.

If you're interested in further exploring the process of scraping, in Open Office you can do so through the Insert->Link to External Data option, introducing a Web address and following the presented Wizard's instructions. In Microsoft Excel, you can make use of the option New Web Query, located under the Data->Get External Data menu option.

As far as accessing services is concerned, the first thing you need to realize is that both suites rely on the presence of Macros, a term used to describe a small program that performs a more elaborate operation than those included natively. Both Office suites support Macros written in a wide variety of programming languages, not to mention Macros can be pre-packaged and simply accessed by anyone without any programming background.

For Open Office we will rely on the older stalwart programming language: Basic. Assuming you have a Calc spreadsheet containing business addresses, and you wanted to obtain the nearest hospitals to each address for emergency purposes, listing 1.1 contains what an Open Office Macro written in Basic would look like for accessing a Yahoo Local Web service providing such information.

source:searchsoa.techtarget.com

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Unlock the Power of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office is considered to be one of the leading application software in the world of computers. This is a widespread application among businesses. Microsoft Office consists of applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Major applications that are used are Word and Excel. Let us see the various features available in Excel and how to learn them. Read along!

If you think that Microsoft Excel is only for business purposes, you are wrong. Many use it for various personal needs at home too. Some of the features that you should understand about Microsoft Excel to unlock the potentiality of this application are working with spreadsheets, cell formatting, various menus and toolbars, entering of data and editing the same, navigating between various spreadsheets, formula calculation, inserting various functions like date/time, mathematical functions, using of various charts that are available, inserting, editing and deleting comments on cells, etc.

Read further to understand the various options available to you to master Microsoft Excel. You can learn the tricks of Microsoft Excel through CD, CBT or videos. Let us learn about each option one after the other.

Mastering Microsoft Excel through CD

With the help of CDs, you can learn Excel at your own pace and need not spend time in attending classes. Microsoft Excel CD would contain screenshots of various commands, how to create professional looking spreadsheets, how to insert charts, diagrams, formulas, create tables, etc. You would also get hands-on training as it would be more interactive. One of the main advantages of learning Microsoft Excel using CD is that you can read at your own convenience.

Unlocking the potential of Microsoft Excel through CBT

Computer Based Training (CBT) is yet another way where you take your own time to master the application. With the help of CBT, you get realistic, interactive and complete training. You get to learn right from what a beginner should learn to advanced level. Once the training is over, you would have mastered Microsoft Excel. You get to see simulations of Microsoft Excel application software. Some CBT also offer review quiz questions to gauge your understanding. CBT generally offer interactive, complete and comprehensive training. As it offers practice questions, you will be able to understand better and gain confidence in using the application. According to me, this is one of the best ways to learn Microsoft Excel.

Using tutorials to learn Microsoft Excel application

Microsoft Excel tutorials are another best way to master the application. You get to learn the application in detail as there are various simulations available that are realistic and interactive. Like CDs, videos and CBT, you can learn the application at your convenience.

Why are you waiting? Grab either a CD, video, CBT or a tutorial and start mastering Microsoft Excel and unlock the power this application has got.

If you face any kind of Problem with Microsoft Excel then go for Microsoft Operating System Help

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Microsoft Word - The Fast and Smart way to Small Business

One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment when starting out; Overtime, if your systems are built correctly they will in fact save you very large sums of money, in particular in the area of staff wages.

When I first started my business, One-on-One Personal Computer Training, I started out with a $3,000 Credit Card, which when you talk to any business adviser or business-coach is absolutely the worst thing you could do. One of the issues I have been most conscious of is the cost of having a large number of staff. The way I achieved a high level of efficiency in such a competitive market was to automate as many of the day-to-day tasks as I could. The best tasks for business automation are those that are repetitive.

As soon as I mention the word Business Automation, most technophobes will put up a barrier and go into a minor or major fit. Business automation can be as simple as creating just a few Microsoft Word templates. Business automation does not necessarily mean hiring a huge plethora of software developers and toiling day and night to build some monsterous and complex system. It can and should be simple so that you as a business owner can in fact do it yourself. Let me explain!

Microsoft for all its good and bad issues, has provided business one of the most awesome tools - Microsoft Word allows you to build templates that you can reuse as many times as you wish.
What Is A Microsoft Word Template?

Essentially, a Microsoft Word Template is like any traditional word document, the difference is that it is designed to be reused as many times as you require. Why not create a normal word document then. Well, the difference is that when you use a Microsoft Word Template, you can store the template under the New dialogue box, so that each time you want to use the document you go to that one point and it will be available.

Did you know that you can even create your own folders in the New dialog box? If you didn't know this, all you have to do is to simply create a new folder where all your templates are stored. On each of our company's computers we have a special folder called one-on-one where we store each of our templates for use by our staff.

What Sort Of Templates Might You Need?

This is one of the key questions I get asked the most. The most common templates I see small businesses require are items like Sick Leave Forms, Leave Applications, Order Forms, Sales Letters, Purchase Order Forms and so forth.

One of the reasons why I chose to build Microsoft Word Templates in my business was to ensure a level of continuity of contact with our customers. By building a series of Templates such as:

- A Company Letter Head
- A Company Fax Sheet
- A Company Leave Application
- A Company Thank You Letter
- A Company Weekly Timesheet
- A Company Sales Letter
- A Company Visitor Sign-in Sheet
- A Company Purchase Order Form
- A Company Order Form

By having these forms in a central place I have ensured that my staff does not need to be recreating these styles of documents each time they have to send a letter or fax. Further to this, I know that certain sales letters used by my staff will achieve the sales outcomes that I am looking for. By using a Microsoft Word Template, they know that when they get and enquiry that they can simply fill-in the customer details and the letter is done.

In our sales letter templates we use Microsoft Word Fill-in field to prompt our staff for key information like the Customers Name, Address and Company Name ensuring that the information does get put into the letter. Once they have completed that they simply press the Print button and its ready to go to the customer. As a business owner, knowing that all my staff have to do to achieve the sales makes me feel far more comfortable than them having to write their own customised letters each time a customer enquires about our training.

Microsoft Word templates are an incredibly useful tool in automating common documents that your staff maybe creating and I believe that this is the first process that all business owners should be using in automating their business.

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Powerfull Powerpoint Background Slides

There are various tools available in the computers, for your web designing and writing. One of them is the tool, Microsoft Powerpoint. This powerful tool is used to create professional looking presentations and slide shows from scratch or by using its easy wizard. By using the PowerPoint software, you can make any form of background you may need for your program. Using different values in the program, you can get animated backgrounds, music backgrounds and even Christmas and religious backgrounds.

The world of internet has made advertising so easy, that you can shop, buy and download perfect PowerPoint templates and PowerPoint background videos in a matter of minutes. Not only this, there are terrific, ready-made PowerPoint background slides be available where you can change your dull PowerPoint presentation into an aggressive, attention grabbing and energetic presentation in not time at all.

With the free PowerPoint templates available in the internet, you can try out your skills at the PowerPoint presentation background, without actually first buying it. You can download these Microsoft PowerPoint templates for free for your education and use. Remember, all the PowerPoint background slides have been pre-set by expert graphic designers. The design background, typeface and colors have all been expertly designed; all you have to do is insert the text, and you have it!

You can experiment in making animated backgrounds in the PowerPoint by setting different values in the program. The background animates when an absolute value has been specified for either the horizontal or the vertical directions. If at all both the directions are specified, the background is animated diagonally. By making changes in the PowerPoint values, you can form blue blocks, closed circuit, award night and many more other PowerPoint background presentations. These changes bring about moving characters on the computer screen.

If you need graphics for specific web pages, they too are available in abundance in the internet. You just have to download these special backgrounds, like Christmas, New Year and other festivities?backgrounds from the internet for free. You then use these graphics in your web page as you desire. There is another free software available for download in the internet, the Movie Wizard, where you can spice up your slideshows with the addition of graphics and background music and animating photos with the help of their tutorials.

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Computer Support – Simplest Way to troubleshoot Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Help has become a general term used by online computer repair vendors nowadays. The term includes everything related to troubleshoot any of the operating system and office suites offered by Microsoft.

Whether you are bothered by the irksome errors in your Windows 2000, Windows Millennium, or need Online Vista Support, you can contact these onsite computer repair providers for help. They are 24x7 available and much cheaper than expensive computer repair showrooms and calling technicians at premises.

Some companies have specified their services by using the terms such as Microsoft Help, Online Computer Support, Windows Help, etc. These terms deal only with the services as signified by their titles. Although Microsoft help is a newly added service in the array of computer repair services, it is gaining wide popularity among tech savvy consumers. Other known services are Network Setup and Troubleshooting, PC Optimization (increasing the speed of a computer), Virus and Spyware Removal, Data Backup Services.

Computer repair services help you improve overall system performance and get rid infected programs that tend to spoil your PC’s efficiency. Whether you are a professional or a starter, have home or small business, computer repair available online is all you require to solve all your PC woes.

Using remote support technology, the technicians access your system with your permission, diagnose it, and fix the problems right away while you watch. You can also ask them to offer you the support over phone. Either way, we will be there for you until the problem is completely solved. These Online Computer Repair services are known for excellent customer response time, tech proficiency, and affordable services. A few computer users avoid calling online tech support for their computer problems thinking that these technicians may not hold the required expertise. Well! This is completely a myth. Companies dealing in on-site computer support have highly trained technicians (most Microsoft Certified Experts or Computer Engineers) who get to the root of the consumer’s technical issues and resolve them fast. What are you waiting for then. Contact any good online computer repair shop and get your problems solved within no time.

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How to Insert Flash Into PowerPoint 2007

Ensure the Flash Player is installed on your computer, and then please follow the steps below:

1. Click Microsoft Office Button on the top left corner > click "PowerPoint Options" at the bottom of the panel > go to the "PowerPoint Options" window > click "Popular" on the left column > select "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" on the right column > click "OK" at the bottom.

2. On the "Developer" tab > go to "Controls" group > Click the icon of hammer and nail for "More Controls"> go to the "More Controls" window.

3. On the "More Controls" window > select "Shockwave Flash Object" in the list > click "OK" at the bottom > use your pointer to drag on the slide to draw and resize the control.

4. Right click the control you draw > click "Properties" in the right-click menu > go to the "Properties" window.

5. On the alphabetic tab > click the "Movie" property > type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C:a.swf)

6. To make the Flash paly automatically when the slide is displayed, set the "Playing" property to "True"; To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set "EmbedMovie" property to "True"

7. Finally close the "Properties" window and save your presentation.

On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.

An alternative solution to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2007

Actually it's sort of troublesome to someone who needs to insert Flash into multiple sildes within PowerPoint 2007 directly. You may want to know: is there a shortcut to insert Flash like inserting other media files in PowerPoint? Probably no.

An alternative solution is using some third-party tools to achieve this, such as Wondershare PPT2Flash, which has a feature of "Insert Flash" to add Flash files instantly. Through PPT2Flash, you can directly select Flash files and manage to insert them into any slides in PowerPoint 2007 and any earlier versions.

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Top 5 Used Features in Microsoft Excel

We all have been impressed at some point by some magnificent graph created and presented by a colleague during a meeting. Those great charts were probably created in Microsoft Excel in fact, this program is a must in any office environment. We all use Excel to do all kinds of things like handling sales figures, number calculation, data tracking and even to create those cool looking graphs. To give you a high overview of the capabilities of Microsoft Excel, here are its top five used features:

Data logging and tracking ? - You can't do this in Word because when you have a lot of information to track you'll find that using Excel can really save you time - and your sanity. You can enter number figures, names, addresses, months, dates, and any information and track it in a workbook.

Number calculation ? - You can add, multiply, and sales information. You can combine totals from different locations and create new totals. You can select from a large range of mathematical calculations options.

Create lists and group information ? - You can easily and quickly list series of number or words. You can group lists of information by filtering out pieces that you don't need.

Accounts Payable ? Many Small Businesses use Microsoft Excel to track their expenses and gains instead of using fancy accounts payable programs. Even internal departments within major corporations use excel spreadsheets and workbooks to track their expenses.

Graphs and charts ? - You can create fantastic looking graphs using all this information that you track, log, group and list. You can see the relationships between different sets of data by portraying the data in a graph or chart.

source: enzine articles

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A Small Definition of Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is Microsoft's flagship word processing software. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows (1989). It is a component of the Microsoft Office system; however, it is also sold as a standalone product and included in Microsoft Works Suite. Beginning with the 2003 version, the branding was revised to emphasize Word's identity as a component within the Office suite: Microsoft began calling it Microsoft Office Word instead of merely Microsoft Word. The latest release is Word 2007.

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