Service Pack 1 for Office 2007 has been released ahead of schedule!
It should remedy some issues, especially if running Vista and Office 2007, and has a number of performance and stability updates. Microsoft’s info and download page is here (although it is officially released you may have to wait a bit longer as the download page on Microsoft’s website seems to be down for the moment….).
– Troy @ TLC
If you have used desktop publishing software you are familiar with the concept of kerning. With (variable width) fonts, different pairs of characters are spaced differently. Kerning is the adjustment of spacing between letters to obtain a more pleasing appearance. The great news is that PowerPoint now has some basic kerning capabilities. Microsoft calls it ‘Character Spacing’ and here is the quick menu.
We can also get more fine control over the Character Spacing by opening the Character Spacing dialog window.
Here are a few examples of kerning in use. The top text is the standard, or normal, kerning. The second one is expanded and the third is condensed. All is still editable text and can be applied to select text within a single text box.
– Troy @ TLC
Another free application from Microsoft that ranges from good-to-great depending on your monitor is the CLEARTYPE TUNER. It basically tweaks the way Windows displays text on an LCD monitor.
It does not hinder, or noticably improve, displaying through a projector – and depending on your monitor it may or may not make a noticeable difference (on my 1900×1200 WXGA monitor it made a very noticeable effect, on a 1440×900 monitor it gave no noticeable difference).
Click here to go to download page
– Troy @ TLC
Being a graphic designer I admit that I understand things better when I can see them. One of the great features of the new Vista OS (and on Macs for awhile) is the ability to rollover the taskbar tab and see a thumbnail of the current application content. If you are running XP you can add this type feature to the Alt-Tab method of choosing your application.
With the Free Microsoft ALT-TAB tweak installed instead of seeing just the application/file name as you alt-tab through the active items, you see a thumbnail of the current content.
Click here to go to the download page at Microsoft.
– Troy @ TLC
This free application from Microsoft has some great uses. Basically it does exactly what the name implies, it adds the ability to resize images. But this one is accessible from a right-click on any image.
It is a limited use application, in that it offers only four preset image sizes. If you click the ‘Advanced’ button it also offers the ability to set a custom size. Another nice feature is you can select multiple image files and convert all to a new size as a batch process.
You can get more info and download from here.
– Troy @ TLC
Yesterday Microsoft released the largest Office Service Pack ever (SP3). It covers security, improvements, Vista compatability and interoperability with Ofifce 2007.
Here is some of the facts Microsoft sent me:
• Over 6000 fixes.
• Over 70% focused on security.
• Includes 600+ new hotfixes (including fixes to Watson crashes).
• Includes 50 public updates/security bulletins.
• Includes SP1 and SP2.
• Total of 77 languages and 398 distinct patches.
Easiest way to download is from Microsoft Office Update.
– Troy @ TLC
The below memo is true – date and all. Recently working onsite at a major corporation this memo was part of the weekly company updates sent to all employees.
– Note the date: April 19, 2007 (Office 2007 launched just weeks prior and Office 2003 is now almost 4 years old)
– Note the announcement: “…for future enhancements by beginning the worldwide implementation of Microsoft Office 2003.”
– Hmmm, the Microsoft sales team may have some work to do!
– Troy @ TLC
Just a quick weekend note:
Earlier this week Microsoft, after several months of testing, Microsoft replaced its official home page. It now has a more translucent style, more standardized code, and a new avatar (icon/logo in address bar).
– Troy @ TLC
One of the greatest things about the 2003 PowerPoint Viewer is that it does not require administrative rights to install. As a matter a fact, it does not need to be installed at all. It can run from the computer or from a CDROM, USB drive, etc. But it is important to know that on the first use of it on a computer its splash screen, which shows the official EULA, will show up.
– Troy @ TLC
Countdown timers can be created fairly easy in PowerPoint. There are lots of needs for timers and I recently had a client call me from there event (that was already underway) asking for a countdown timer to run for the breaks.
Microsoft has some good resources available on its website. I simply emailed a link to the Microsoft Online where they have a few dozen ready-made countdown timers. My client found one they liked, added their logo to the master slide and was ready to go in less than 15 minutes.
To check out the countdown timer presentations Microsoft has available (for free), click here.
– Troy @ TLC