Office Newswire: New screenshots of Office 15 on a Windows 8 Tablet – 5.8.2012
We live in some incredible times. As a kid (and as an adult), I was (am) enthralled by baseball. Where I grew up, it was almost impossible to find a store that sold caps of anyone besides the Texas Rangers or Houston Astros. I’m not a fan of either of those teams. I’m a fan of the Oakland A’s. I wanted to wear A’s gear while watching or listening to A’s games. When I grew up this just wasn’t possible.
Today, for $14.99, I can listen to all the games I want every day of the baseball season. I can even choose which team’s broadcast I want to hear. It’s utterly amazing. And, if I want to pay a monthly fee to Major League, I can watch any game as well. It is the stuff the younger me could only dream of and hope for.
I can’t help but think about what’s next for Office, SharePoint, and Microsoft. I am hoping for some big things. I can’t wait to learn what Microsoft will offer developers in this next version. In a way, I feel like the young me again wishing I could hear the A’s game.
Given how much we have changed our software habits since Office 2010 released, I’m hoping MSFT hits a home run. I want and expect big things. Things I have not imagined. Things that allow me/us to build new types of solutions that make life better for our customers.
I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
Office news & editorials!
- New screenshots of Office 15 on a Windows 8 Tablet :: Want to see what Office 15 looks like on Windows 8 for ARM? I’ll spoil it… it looks just like the screen shots floating throughout the Interweb of Office 15 running on Windows 7. I wonder how much “Metro-fication” will wind-up in the final release of Office 15.
- Office patch primed and prepped :: Microsoft will release patches for 23 security holes in Office. Be sure and patch you system today and thwart a hacker or two.
- Five solid replacements for Microsoft Outlook :: It’s a slow news week for Office so I’ll include some coverage of Office competitors like Zimbra, Thunderbird, & Pegasus. This is more of an image gallery than it is an article. But it’s short, sweet, and to the point. The comments are good too. I can’t help myself so I’ll just say it. The only way these apps compete against Outlook is if the competition is for accessing SMTP or IMAP email only. The competition can’t include contact, calendar, or task management.
- The new WordPerfect is just about perfect :: This is their title, not mine. If I were the editor, I would retitle it, WordPerfect Looks to Differentiate Itself In Attempt to Move Beyond the Law Market. I think some of their ideas are useful… which makes them cool.
Office tips, tricks & tools
- Harmon.ie brings SharePoint to iPad and iPhone :: It’s a brand new week and already we have a new iPad app that connects to SharePoint! There are 3 different ranging in price from $0 to …? The question mark is due to the fact that the 3rd version, Enterprise, is not available yet. Hamon.ie Mobile provides SharePoint document viewing and editing features just like many other iOS SharePoint apps. With the deluge of these apps, at this point, I think it’s just a question of which app best fits your platform.
- Join in Tuesday’s Office 15-minute webinar on keyboard shortcuts :: Here is a nice and quick webinar from the Office team. Today’s topic is Keyboard Shortcuts in Word, PowerPoint, & Excel. Keyboard shortcuts save time. If you don’t use them, I highly recommend this webinar.
- OneNote getting started tip 5: Connect task lists & turn notes into emails :: OneNote continues to gain in popularity. I see it in use more and more in companies of all sizes. A feature I think underrated is the OneNote + Outlook integration. Read this item and learn how to turn notes into emails as well as create Outlook tasks within your notes.
- Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook :: This tool promises to check for problems in your Outlook calendar. The description on the Microsoft Download page doesn’t do the best job of describing what kinds of problems it identifies. The tool is also a command-line tool… meaning this is a tool for your IT Administrators out there. I love you guys and all your command-line windows, I really do. What’s that you say? Point-and-click is for sissies? I couldn’t agree more.
Office developer items of note
- Javascript Editor for SharePoint :: A lightweight, in-browser editor for customizing SharePoint pages with javascript, html, and css. I pretty much lifted that description from its CodePlex page.
- SharePoint 2010 at work – jQuery to the rescue :: jQuery rocks and it can help you make SharePoint do things not supported OOTB (out-of-the-box). Read this and learn just a few examples of how this is so.
- New edition of Beginning SharePoint Development :: If you are new to SharePoint development, this e-book promises to teach all you need to know to get started. This is no small task given all the APIs and architectures involved with SharePoint.
- Troubleshooting SharePoint’s page output caching :: A 17 minute video of the When page output caching does not output article included in a previous Office Newswire.
- SharePoint: Advantages and disadvantages of the Client Object Model :: SharePoint 2010 is a few years old now and still I need a reference when I try to answer this question. This one is bookmarkeable. It doesn’t contain a fluffy or ridiculous introduction (ahem) and gets straight to the point.
- SharePoint 2010 and unit tests :: Unit Testing for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010. You might already know how to pull this off. If you don’t, check it out. My bet is you don’t. I didn’t.