July, 2011

Although the Office Resource Kit offers a set of downloadable books, we realize that there are many more possibilities for tailoring sets of articles for specific environments. So…the good news is that you can now build your own books of TechNet articles. You can pick and choose up to 100 articles from anywhere in the Microsoft TechNet library, arrange the articles in any sequence you like, and save your customized article collection into a book for use either on or offline.

The build-a-book process is a new TechNet feature and is currently in a beta release. It's now available to you in the Microsoft TechNet Library. We encourage you to try it out. Here’s some instructions:

Get ready. You'll need:

• A recent browser. Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 work, as do other recent versions of other browsers. If you use IE 8 or IE 9, make sure they're running in regular browser mode (not in compatibility view mode).
• A Live ID for signing into TechNet.

Make sure you're using the Lightweight view in TechNet. (If you're currently in Classic or ScriptFree view, click Lightweight at the top of the TechNet page.) When you're in Lightweight view, the upper right corner of the page should look like this.

1. Sign in at http://technet.microsoft.com using a Windows Live ID.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the printer icon on the upper right corner of the page and then click Print Multiple Topics.
   
   A Help page will open. That page provides Help, but it also serves as your start page.
3. Read the How does it work? overview on the Help page and then click Start. The Print Multiple Topics ^(Beta) toolbar will appear at the top of your window.
4. Browse through the left pane of the TechNet library, and pick topics or folders for your collection. Each time you select a topic or a folder, right-click it to add it to your collection.
• If you right-click a folder, you can choose Add this topic or Add this set of topics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of topics in the set.
  
• If a selected folder contains more than 100 topics, you'll get a notice that says "(100+) Too Many Topics." In that case, you'll have to select topics or sub-folders one by one within that folder.
• If you want to select more than 100 topics, you'll need to create a second book.
5. When you're finished, click Collection on the Print Multiple Topics toolbar (top of page). The Manage Collection page will open and the list of folders and articles that you’ve selected will be displayed.
6. Organize your topics into the sequence you want and into chapter groupings that you like by using drag and drop. You can rename chapters, add more chapters, and delete chapters or topics on this page.
7. Under Advanced Options, in the Export Your Collection area, select the file format you want (XHTML or PDF).
   Note: You must be signed in with your Live ID before you can export your collection.
8. Click Generate.
• While your book is generating, a Generating progress bar will appear at the top of the page.
• When the book build is done, you'll see Finished at the top of the page.
9. Save your book either by right-clicking the Download your Document link, or by downloading the document and then saving it.

To start a brand new collection, click Delete on the Manage Collection page. Otherwise, the articles you selected for the current book build will remain in the collection.

That's it! We really hope you'll find this Beta functionality useful. Please let us now!

The latest release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with tools to simplify public and private cloud migration planning. Office administrators will be interested in new Office 365 readiness assessment features--here's the scoop:

Assess client environments for Office 365 readiness. For organizations considering a move to the cloud with Microsoft’s award-winning business productivity solutions, MAP 6.0 can help make the planning process easier and faster. MAP 6.0 includes an Office 365 client assessment which evaluates the compatibility of Office suites deployed in their environment with Office 365, via a hardware and software readiness assessment. This assessment helps organizations quickly determine which client computers in their environment are ready to use Office 365. The tool obtains machine level detail about why a given computer is not capable of using Office 365, and identifies whether the Office suites currently being used in your environment are compatible with Office 365.

Want to learn more?

Visit the MAP home page: http://www.microsoft.com/map
Get the latest news straight from the MAP team: http://blogs.technet.com/mapblog
 

As of this week, Lync connectivity with Windows Live Messenger in Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P) is temporarily removed. During this temporary period, customers who use Lync with Office 365 for professionals and small businesses will not be able to use Messenger to see presence, send instant messages, or make video calls. They will, however, be able to see presence, send instant messages, or make video calls with other Lync users inside and outside their organizations.

We are working to address this issue and re-enable support for Lync-Messenger connectivity in Office 365 for professionals and small businesses in the coming months. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause in the interim. For more information, see the Office 365 Technical Blog.

As you know from previous posts, on this blog and the SharePoint Team Blog, Service Pack 1 and the June cumulative update have been released for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Products.  If you are running Office Web Apps on-premise, you may be wondering which updates to install and in what order.  The following table provides a list of updates to install and the order in which to install them depending on your environment.   Pick your environment in the left column and from the corresponding right column, apply the updates in the order listed. Be aware that if you are installing the updates to a server farm, the updates must be installed on every server in the farm.  Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard only after all updates are applied.

 Hope this helps!! You can also find this information on TechNet.

A customer recently contacted us via this blog about issues reported with Access 2010 and SP1. The issues reported relate specifically to the 64-bit version of Access 2010. Please see the topic Using 64-bit Access 2010? You may want to wait on SP1 on the Access Blog for additional details.

Microsoft Office 365 provides enterprise-grade security for businesses of all sizes. To learn more about the security practices and technologies in Office 365 see the following articles available on the Microsoft Download Center.

For an overview of security in Office 365 download the following article:

Security in Office 365 White Paper

For a more comprehensive and detailed treatment of security in Office 365 download the following article:

Office 365 Security and Service Continuity Service Description

Ross Carter, CISSP (Office 2010 Security Resource Center on TechNet)

The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) version 2 (BETA) is available for download. Some of the new SCM 2 features include:

• GPO import: SCM 2 can now import Group Policy Object (GPO) Backup files to allow organizations to import and compare their existing knowledge against Microsoft baseline recommendations. This long-awaited feature effectively helps you to customize and manage your organization’s existing knowledge stored in Active Directory.
• Baseline setting customization: Modifying baselines just got easier. Adding, extending, or deleting settings from a baseline is an effortless process in this new version of the tool.
• Local GPO functionality: Apply security baselines directly to client and server computers using the LocalGPO command-line tool, which enables you to secure stand-alone computers and test different baselines without using Active Directory to deploy them. Use this tool to create local policy snapshots that you can import into SCM 2 using the new GPO import capabilities, which you can then compare, customize, and export as needed.
• Additional features: These include a new and enhanced UI that provides simpler navigation in the tool, and improved installation with SQL Server 2005 and later releases of SQL Server.

For information on how to join the beta program please see the following blog post: SCM v2 (BETA) + New Baselines Available to Download.

Ross Carter, CISSP (Office 2010 Security Resource Center on TechNet)