In Office Support Tools

Are you  in charge of creating your organization’s employee manuals and other support tools? You may want to consider adding Video support to your portfolio. There are so many tools out there that will allow you to accomplish this, it is very hard to make the choice of the right ones to use. Let me make a few suggestions for you to look at.

TechSmith is a company that has been producing software to help educators and support personnel to provide simple, professional looking video for quite a few years. I use several of their products to help me produce my   How To  Videos as well as short videos I use to respond to my clients at the office.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but what is a video worth? I said I used several of TechSmith’s tools and this first one I am going to talk about is free. The Jing Project is a program that is offered by TechSmith that will integrate back into  their other products. Jing has two components that will help you with your presentations. The first is a static screen capture. In Windows 7 you have that component as part of the operating system but you if you are not running Windows 7 you are missing it. There are many times when I am working with an article or proposal that I need to be able to capture part of screen display like I did with all of the images on this page. It is so much easier to be able to call on Jing to capture a little bit of the screen real-estate that I want to include without having to come back and work with my cropping tools to get it just right.

The second component of Jing is it’s video capture. While this may sound like the same thing, it most assuredly is not. With Jing I can capture all of my screen changes and narrate the subject matter at the same time and produce a quick, up to 5 minute presentation on the fly. The only negative, you have to do it in one take or begin again from scratch.

Camtasia Studio is the paid version of Jing on steroids. This product lets you take the next step  forward and create content with much better focus and give you the ability to tie multiple videos and stills together and to overlap them all with a narrative that you can add after the video collection is complete. The big difference here is that ability to edit your video.  Camtasia Studio will allow you to take video that you capture with Jing, Camtasia Studio or from some other static image or video sources and work with the content to achieve your creative result.

This leads me to the last component of the TechSmith Family that I use called Screen Cast. If you sign up with Screen Cast you will be able to easily store and serve up you video creations to the inhabitants of the Wild and Wooly Web (WWW). 

So if you are interested in seeing these programs in action, don’t hesitate making an appointment with me to see them. I will be more than happy to show them off and help you decide if they are the right fit for your business.

$59,000 Coffee Table?

I get to see a lot of new technology on a daily basis and this is one that causes us gadget hounds to salivate. Touchtable makes a product that allows a user to network different sites together using a large screen table top designed touch screen system. Touchtable, Inc. CEO Rocky Roccanova showed Wired Science TV’s Ziya Tong different uses for this interesting device. Mr. Roccanova stated that this device was originally designed for children to learn geography, but it really shines with applications for the oil and gas industry, military and public service areas. Take a look at the video above and I am sure you will be wowed.

Bobs Tech Talk has moved!

I have officially moved Bobs Tech Talk from Microsoft’s site over to SquareSpace. The first benefit that you will see is that the Posts are now indexed and are searchable. So if you are looking for information that you had a hard time finding before, you can enter a key word or phrase and the will bring it right up for you. I will be able to put more information on this site as time goes by as well. This is a full website not just a controlled blog feed and I will be able to put richer content on the site as I move forward. It is still accessible by typing in http://bobstechtalk.com. Let me know what you think of the new site and send me any requests or questions that you have that I can address for you in future postings.

So you miss Office 2003 Menu Bars

We had a recent request for how to make Word 2007 look like Word 2003…

Though I truly believe that the new interface in Office is so much better than what we had in Office 2003, some people have had a hard time with learning the new versions Office products.

From Steve Bass’s Tips and Tweaks:

Make The Change To Office 2003
If you're stuck with Office 2007, yet yearning for the familiar menu of Office 2003, you now have an option. It's an add-in from Addintools: Classic Menu for Office 2007. It changes the menus for Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, and PowerPoint. The downside is that at $30, it's fairly expensive. However, you can pick up individual add-ins, say, just for Word, for $16.

Aruba Networks - Looking at Large Controlled Wireless Networking Infrastructure?

The overview on Aruba Networks'site says: " in today's world, realizing a vision for tomorrow requires mobility.  More specifically, the more secure, more manageable, more scalable, more powerful true mobility networks of Aruba.  Our business user centric networking architecture securely and reliably brings enterprise applications to users where ever they work-in the office, in a hotel, on the road.

This product provides a centralized secure system for control of your wireless technology.  Using mesh technology this company's products enable converged data, voice, and video network to be deployed and expanded without installing any network wiring. As an extension of Aruba's WLAN and Security Solutions, Secure Enterprise Mesh technology is ideal for outdoor enterprise environments and indoor locations that are tough to wire.  Both indoor and outdoor deployments are are supported through the same infrastructure, without required disparate solutions that are separately managed and secured for each area.  That makes it easy to design, deploy, and manage a secure enterprise network that contains mesh.

Aruba's Secure Enterprise Mesh solution has several key distinguishing characteristics related to security, reliability, performance, management and ease of installation. Some of these benefits include:

• Full integration with all existing Aruba services. No need for dedicated Mesh hardware - works on all Aruba APs and Controllers
• Securely extends Aruba services to areas difficult to cable
• Central policy definition and management, campus-wide roaming
• Mesh cluster technology for immediate recovery for both wired or mesh related failures
• Cooperative Control for mesh link path optimization
• Client-to-core security over mesh as well as mesh link security
• Easy to deploy - best in class visualization for management and troubleshooting
• Indoor and outdoor deployments for data, voice and video applications 

Aruba Networks has been a perfect fit for many of our local school districts and other large facility environments. Be sure to speak to one of your Computer Connections System Design Specialist to help provide you with a system design specific to your needs.

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft has released information on the pricing for Windows 7 this past Wednesday.  As reported by CNET, the pricing is comparably to Windows Vista pricing.  If you preorder your copy between now and July 11 you will get a substantial discount for the operating system off your choice.  These upgrades will be available at many of the major retailers like OfficeMax Costco and Staples. Be sure to read the full story at the link listed below.

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs | Beyond Binary - CNET News

PCMag Product Survey Request from DLink

If you have a DLink product and you are happy with the job it is doing for you, our DLink Rep is requesting that you take a moment and fill out a quick survey for them. Below is the request.

I request you pass the below link along to your customers, friends and family members who own D-Link routers.
This is the 22nd annual PC Mag customer satisfaction survey and home networking routers is a category.
Please use the below link to access the survey.
http://run.equationresearch.com/start/165/87/zcpZIEalfm?m=460731
http://run.equationresearch.com/pg/74645/Z0qOck6N47kDzjDYuI9h5K7ZfovDLTjgio88Me72Glov81U3

Windows 7 Task Bar

I created a quick video showing the task bar and how it shows you what applications are open and how many instances where views are available to you to access.  In this case what I have is one Internet Explorer window in my Live writer open.  During this demonstration I will open up another tab window in Internet Explorer and you will see that the taskbar will show you a representation of both of those windows.

Worm-bearing Twitter spam on the loose - Network World

Since I have been talking so much lately about different online blogging products, Twitter of course being one of them, I thought that I should post a pointer to this article as well. As always, don’t open an email or other form of communication that contains attachments if you don’t trust or know the sender. Be very careful and you will LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

Worm-bearing Twitter spam on the loose - Network World

Windows 7 and Speech Recognition

I thought I had a pretty decent headset and I'm using it with Windows Live Writer and it seems to work OK.  I'm using a Plantronics headset that that has a USB connection. I probably should train the windows speech recognition software several different times to make sure that it has a good sense of my voice to work with. I seem to be spending a lot of time correcting misrecognized words as I am speaking initially.  I'm wondering if there's too much hiss or if I don't have the microphone placed just exactly right.  Well, as in all projects they seem to be ongoing, and ongoing.  I was hoping that I would be able to speak at a normal speed it not have two very carefully enunciated each and every word but if I do slowed down what I am saying it has quite a bit more accuracy.  So, that is obviously the best way to work with it.  You need to speak up slow down your speech and concentrate on not slurring your words and pronouncing them clearly. As I've made some slight adjustments in the way I am speaking to the speech recognition software, the accuracy has increased considerably.  I'm having to make fewer and fewer changes and I am beginning to speed up slightly and still maintain the accuracy as long as I work on enunciating my words as clearly as I can.  So much for this test you can see the accuracy has turned up pretty well.  I still like the fact that windows still has included the speech recognition software right in the operating system so that it can be used in all windows based applications.

CASHBACK! This may be a reason to use BING…

While the general feeling about the new Microsoft Search Engine BING is mixed, most tell us that they have found it easy to use, that its results are quite good and they have no real compelling reason to use it over Google or Yahoo. Everyone likes to save money when the are shopping and here is a way to get a few dollars back from many of the stores you may be using online already. I was surprised at the number of vendors that have signed up with Bing to provide these discounts and the percentages that some of them are offering.

How to get started: Like most of Microsoft’s online applications you will need to have a Microsoft Hotmail Account and to get faster rebates you should have a PayPal account. Once you have these setup go to Bing’s Welcome to Bing cashback screen.  The left button provides you with the prompts to get a Windows Live ID and will then have you set up your new cashback account. The right button gives you your login prompt and will launch you into your account screen. Once you have an account setup you will be eligible for payments once your account has reached the minimum $5 limit to process.

Once you have finished setting up your account you are ready to take advantage of your cashback account while shopping. Just make sure you  are using the Bing search engine as your default search engine and that you use it to search for the products you want to buy. Find the best price and Bing will do the rest.

Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

We are constantly being asked by our customers if they need to upgrade to Office 2007 and the real answer to this is not cut and dried. Now that Office 2007 has been in circulation for quite awhile now so the problem that many people who have not upgraded is the inability to read or edit the new Office 2007 XML file format. One way to solve this problem is of course to purchase the upgrade but in many cases all you really need to do is install the Office Compatibility Pack so that you view and work with the newer Microsoft document file formats saved in XML.

Be sure to run all your updates to your system before installing this add in. Read the instructions and  Systems Requirements before you install. Even though it is pretty straight forward you do need to pay attention to the prep work that needs to be done.

Cloud computing and the return of the platform wars | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

Though a little bit heavy, if you want to get a birds eye view of the pros and cons and the definitions of cloud computer take a look at this article.

Cloud computing and the return of the platform wars | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

Looking for a new Smart Phone?

A new ZDNet article just came in giving a comparison of features and pricing between the new iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Android G1. So if you are in the market for a new phone this article may help make your decision easier.

Be CAREFUL what you say using your Twitter account

I always wondered about this. ZDNet is reporting that an Arizona Video Editor is attributing the way he uses Facebook and Twitter may have given burglars the high-sign to come into his home and steal his video editing equipment. While there is no way to be sure that his posting information to his Twitter and Facebook accounts, his posting detailing his trip to his friends may have been a heads up to the burglars. An article by Anne Wallace Allen for the Associated Press details this particular situation.

A lot of things would have to come together for a burglar to use your online postings to gauge when to take advantage your not being home. First they would have to know who you are, where you live and need to be monitoring you to see when the best time to sneak into your home. But, it probably wouldn’t hurt to be careful though.

As Sam Diaz of ZDNet said: “Still, it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Next time I head out on a vacation, I pledge to not tell my Facebook friends and Twitter followers that I’m leaving.  The last thing I need is to come hone to a ransacked house.”

CNet Posting – User’s guide to personalizing your Facebook URL

Take a quick look at this article describing how to reserve vanity pages at FaceBook by “letting them customize the Web addresses that lead to their profiles.” If you are into this then you may want to read this CNet article by Caroline McCarthy.

Lexmark X560N Scanning to File Demo

I put together a short demo video to show how you can scan to a file. In the demo we have setup the printers internal settings to FTP to file locations on our server. We have setup a function for all of the key personnel in the office where each individual has their own dedicated landing point folder on the server. This is a short video and won’t take long to demonstrate this function.

Review of the Lexmark X560N

We have had this unit in our shop now for over a month and I can honestly tell you that I don’t know how I lived without it until now. We haven’t had a decent copier for awhile, we print everything original, but the scanner is what I have come to love. We have setup FTP functions on the printer to allow it to scan to individual directories on our server that you can access and manipulate the scanned documents to your heart’s content. We have taken several functions that created more paper copies and now have fully digitized the functions. We are getting closer to that dream of a paperless office. I have taken to scanning all of my day notes into the system and now I able to quickly use these to working with the information.

This is a color printer so you have full capability of B/W and Color Printing, Scanning and Copying as well as Fax capabilities. I haven’t told you the best thing yet.

It costs only $999.

What a deal. Here’s a pointer to the product brochure, be sure to take a look. Let me know if this is something that you are interested in and we can setup a demo for you.

Father’s Day is just around the corner – Some gift ideas for ZDNet

Interesting article from ZDNet’s Andrew Nusca: “Top 10 affordable gadgets for Father’s Day [gift guide]”

Found some neat stuff here that I think I would want as well…

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=5028&alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE 

Have fun!

New iPhone 3GS gets a lot of Press Coverage

 

Even though we are not an Apple Fan House if you are a gadget geek you have got to love the Apple iPhone. Apple Announced the new iPhone 3GS ($199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB and will be available June 19th) and drops the price on the 3G to $99. The new 3GS is faster, launching Messaging 2x faster, almost 3x faster to launch a web page and includes OpenGL/ES with 7.2MBps HSDPA support built in.

Probably the best new feature that new owners will use is the 3.0 megapixel camera. There are some really neat features including:

• Tap-to-focus - tap an item in the photo to focus on it. Resets the light balance too.
  Improved low-light sensitivity.
• Automatic macro photographs (10cm).
• Video capture, 30fps VGA.
• Videos show up in photo library. You can trim them, share via email, MMS, YouTube, MobileMe.

Voice Control has also been added to the unit. Hold down the home button for a few seconds in any application. Commands that you can say float across the screen. Examples include: “Dial computer connections”, “play andy mckee”, “play more songs like this”, “what’s playing now”.

Other features: Built-in digital compass, New accessibility settings, Nike+ support, Hardware data encryption, Improved battery life. 9 hours on WiFi, 10 hours watching video, 30 hours audio, 12 hours 2G talk, 5 hours 3G talk.