Jared Andersen

Anger Management for Outlook 2003 ...

jareda — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 18:47:00 GMT

Have you ever sent an e-mail you knew almost immediately you would regret? (More importantly, does this happen often?) If you've ever wondered if your e-mail client could protect you from yourself, here's a handy tip you should consider: You can create a rule in Microsoft Outlook 2003 that defers sending messages for a few minutes after clicking the fateful Send button.

Follow these steps:

From the menu, Click Tools > Rules and Alerts > New Rule to bring up the Outlook Rules Wizard.
Let's Start from a blank rule, and check messages after sending - Click Next.
Since the rule will apply to all sent messages, click "Next" to skip selecting a set of conditions. A dialog box may appear asking you to confirm that this is what you want to do.
Check Defer delivery by a number of minutes. Down below, click on the underlined "a number of" text and select the number of minutes you thinks it takes for your sanity to previal. Note: if it actually takes a few days, you might have a bigger problem than Microsoft Outlook can help you with. A couple of minutes usually works for me.
If you think you may want to apply some exceptions to this rule, click Next to apply any additional properties. Meeting invitations are a common exception - We rarely flame people we'll be meeting with shortly. Otherwise, click Finish. You're done!
Later ... In that fateful moment when you come to yourself after sending an e-mail, rush to your Outbox and delete the message before it goes. Wow! You may have just saved your career.
Resume breathing.

Mild-mannered e-mail writers need not apply.

My experiences also include accidentally sending e-mails before I finished writing them (doesn't that always look dumb?) Share your story below about "that message" you wish you could go back in time to erase ...

Word drives me crazy ...

jareda — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 02:58:00 GMT

My "technology specialist" status with Microsoft Office means I get questions from all sorts people about how to do stuff with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio ... (you get the idea). Most of these come from people I work with, which leads me to think we need mandatory Office 2003 training at Microsoft. :) Nearly as often, they come from friends outside of work. While I was sitting in a meeting this afternoon, a good friend of mine IM'ed me with the ultimate zinger: "Why does Microsoft Word randomly move my clipart image all over the page while I'm editing?"

I've authored some of the most outrageously complicated documents using Word. If you ask me about the 500-page academic report I wrote in Word 2002, I might even show you the photographs I took of it with my digital camera before turning it in (It was sooo beautiful!). Frightfully detailed feature questions I can often answer from personal experience. But if we were to talk about common annoyances with the product, I'd curl up on the floor in the fetal position within minutes. I find picture placement in Word downright counter-intuitive, and the feature hasn't changed much over the years. I'd love to hear suggestions for how we can make it better - my own solutions all involve computer-to-user telepathy.

Another one: I'm as frustrated as most people are when I find the Track Changes toolbar re-appear (again) despite the collective hours of my life I must spend closing it. Ironically, our online support points out how you can put it back in case it magically disappears. Lovely.

What is it about Word that drives you completely batty? More importantly, how can I cast the Track Changes toolbar back into the fiery chasm from whence it came?

The invisible paradigm shift ...

jareda — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 05:11:00 GMT

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) has to be one of the most incredible technologies we offer today - and not so much because it implements some revolutionary new capability. Document collaboration tools have been around for the last several years. The most powerful aspect of WSS is how users can easily adopt it using the natural sharing processes (and the applications) they are comfortable with today. Other solutions I've seen require the user to think outside of this process, hence they are never seriously adopted without training. WSS can help create a subtle culture shift in how you share information.

Here's a simple example ...

I want to share a document (or three) with my team. I'm an average person - I don't understand what a portal or an online workspace is, but I do have the concept of a file attachment figured out, or so my Exchange mailbox administrator tells me every time I exceed my quota. I include my documents in an e-mail I compose in Outlook 2003. With WSS, I'm presented with two alternatives: a regular attachment (we know this route) or a shared attachment. I want to share this attachment with my team, and by selecting the second option and sending the e-mail a number of things happen for me automatically.

1. WSS creates an online workspace for me and places a copy of my documents there.
2. WSS gives all the people on the "To:" line access to the site.
3. The e-mail includes an invitation to the recipient to participate in my new online workspace.

Now, let's think about this from the perspective of the recipient. I get this e-mail with three attachments and a linked invitation to an online workspace. Honestly, I don't know what a workspace is, but I do know those attachments are the documents I was asked to make changes to. Instead of clicking on the link, I open the file attachment. This doesn't pose a problem - Office 2003 asks the recipient if they would like to see the most recent version of this attachment and downloads the latest copy from the workspace if they request it.

Bottom line: The sender only ever needs to relay these files once. It doesn't matter how many changes we make as a team, every time I open the e-mail attachment I can refer to the latest copy of that document. Office 2003 also pulls in all the functionality of the online workspace directly into the application. Version control, user permissions, change alerts, task management, etc. are all presentated as though they were features of the Office application within the Shared Workspace task pane. Notice, my IT department didn't have to provision the workspace or manage the permissions for me.

I won't even go into the IM capabilities that integrate with WSS (and Office 2003) that work really well in these types of situations. The basic idea is that users can figure this out - it's not significantly different from the process they use to share information today. Still, it adds a much better collaboration environment and makes it much easier for IT to manage.

I use this feature nearly every day. Give it a whirl yourself! (at http://www.sharepointtrial.com)

My only serious problem with WSS is we haven't released any really thorough end-user documentation. Perhaps someone on the product team is taking my commentary above a little too much to heart. :) Users can't do everything with their eyes closed but they can certainly get started. If you enjoy really bad background music and would like to see a Flash demo of how this works, take a look here (press the mute button when the music finally becomes intolerable).

The Wayback Machine ...

jareda — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 04:56:00 GMT

Here's an interesting post by Jon Gruber discussing what Apple could have done differently over the last two decades to gain PC OS market dominance. According to Jon, evolutionary (not revolutionary) change and playing off of past successes seem key to attracting and retaining your customers. I have to agree - I was an Apple customer in the Apple II days (back when the Apple was my “gaming PC“), but I had no compelling reason to stay that way when the Mac was released. Despite the attractiveness of revolutionary and innovative technology, the laws of marketing still apply. That doesn't keep me from salivating over the 30” Apple Cinema Display. :)

Steve Ballmer wishes we were first to market with every cool technology (so do I), but when we arrive we would still rather be first to make serious money. Looking forward, we're definitely in the process of building an innovative software platform. I think we're going to have a number of “firsts” when Longhorn is released. But Longhorn simply won't fly if we break away from everything which has made Microsoft successful today. We'll see new types of applications, but more importantly the old stuff will still work. With backwards compatibility, users can take the revolutionary changes in comfortable baby steps. Thank goodness.

I'll be happy so long as we keep Solitaire in there ... I swear, it's the ultimate productivity app!

As the hourglass turns ...

jareda — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 19:36:00 GMT

I am a technology specialist and product evangelist for the Microsoft Office System and Windows client working in Dallas, Texas (of all places). While I'm much more comfortable in the foreign urban jungle of Hong Kong where my family has lived for over 25 years, Dallas is giving me a thorough education in country living.

Since the release of Office 2003, the terms "technology specialist" and "Microsoft Office" can hardly be used in the same phrase. My role covers the huge number of client products, services, and servers that make up our information worker platform. Tablet PCs and Mobile Devices also fall within my scope. Our Integrated Innovation strategy means that all of these parts work together to build some incredible solutions for our customers. It also means my job is becoming increasingly complex (and even more fun).

Among the 130-some customers I work with, I spend about half of my time with IT professionals and business leaders in the region and the other half with end users of our products. The two categories aren't mutually exclusive, but I do see a difference between the people who decide what to deploy and the people who then have to learn how to become productive with it.

If you're downloading any one of our recent product updates, you might want to take a moment to brush up on what's new in Office 2003. I've put together two 45-minute webcasts designed to help people increase personal productivity in the core Office applications:

Microsoft Outlook 2003 Inside Out
Available on demand
From search folders to side-by-side calendars, Outlook 2003 has many features to increase productivity. Attend this webcast for strategies on battling spam and e-mail viruses, along with learning some keyboard shortcuts that can save you time every day. The presentation also includes a link to a printable handout detailing the tips and tricks discussed.

Microsoft Office 2003 Tips and Tricks
Thursday, August 12th, 9:00 - 10:00am (Pacific Time)
Microsoft has added numerous enhancements and productivity features to Microsoft Office 2003 from document sharing with Windows SharePoint Services to Information Rights Management. Join us online and see demonstrations of many techniques for improving the way you work every day including the functionality of SmartTags, pivot tables and new, time-saving list tools in Excel 2003.

I have to admit, "Outlook Inside Out" wasn't the best title for the first webcast. This was a (seriously trimmed) adaptation of a 90-minute presentation I frequently give to Outlook users, and that just gets us warmed up. If you're like me, you spend ridiculous amounts of time with your e-mail - I need every shortcut I can get my hands on. This presentation should get you started ...