Category Archives: Microsoft Office 2003

Book Review: The Secret Life of Word by Robert Delwood

January 8, 2012 – 2:52 pm

One of the dirty secrets about Microsoft Word in the technical communications world is that you have to put in the time to make it work. The Secret Life of Word by Robert Delwood from XML Press tackles some of the higher end topics in Microsoft Word like creating macros, find and replace; fields, form fields, and content controls; building blocks; and smart tags in an easy to digest manner that is accessible to even non-Word geek technical communicators.

It uses step-by-step procedures that should help Word newbies to inveterate tinkerers and even experts learn new higher end (and often underutilized) features.

Tags Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2010, MS Word, Robert Delwood, Secret Life of Word | Permalink | Comment (1)

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Work

Microsoft Office Isn’t Due Retirement Papers Just Yet

December 12, 2011 – 8:15 pm

Eric Lundquist’s recent article about the need for Microsoft Office to retire furthers my opinion of the wide gulf that exists between some technology journalists and real life out there in cubicle land. I am not talking about the next big sexy cloud computing platform or latest mobile computing apps but the people who do the day-to-day grunt work – crunching spreadsheets in accounting, writing technical documents, creating small databases, and presentation development for next week’s sales team meeting.

Tags Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2010, Office suite, Word | Permalink | Comments Off

2007 Microsoft Office system Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Writing

Building Basic Microsoft Word Skills With Non-Writers

August 14, 2011 – 12:00 pm

One of the challenging aspects of my current position is working with a lot of non-writers or those in what I consider allied professions – trainers, instructional designers, and project managers – and helping guide them through technical writing and course development tasks. It became relatively clear to me why I stayed a solo technical writer for so many years but I’ve been able to get some more insight into how regular folks use Microsoft Word and other Office applications that I am growing to appreciate.

This experience has also shown me that even with templates in place for each major document type there is no way escaping the need for non-writers to have a base set of MS Word skills if they are thrust into a writing or course development position.

Tags Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Word | Permalink | Comments Off

2007 Microsoft Office system Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Productivity Technical Writing

My Microsoft Word Template Manifesto

July 24, 2011 – 11:42 am

For reasons that continue to elude me, I’ve come across a lot of Microsoft Word template issues in my time. Some so bad that what should be a simple productivity tool ends up hobbling documentation efforts. Finding template issues is a never-ending source of disappointment for me. Perhaps it is because I am used to setting up templates in the early stages of a project and keep the fuss to a minimum.

Though along the way, my Microsoft Office experience and published writing credits on the subject got me put on some projects where I supported the roll out of Microsoft Office and saw how end users (who weren’t technical writers) actually used the applications and their varied levels of understanding.

These experiences got me to put together what I am calling my Microsoft Word Template Manifesto:

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2007 Microsoft Office system Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Web Office Web/Tech

OffiSync: Another Google Docs/Microsoft Office Syncing Option

March 27, 2011 – 1:36 pm

I’ve long been a proponent of a complementary model for Google Docs and Microsoft Office. While Google Cloud Connect is a great tool, I need to mention OffiSync — available in the Google Apps Marketplace — as another option for file syncing between the two office suites.

Tags Google Apps for Business, Google Apps Marketplace, Google Cloud Connect, Google Docs, Google Sites, Microsoft Office 2010, OffiSync | Permalink | Comments (2)

2007 Microsoft Office system Collaboration Tools Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Writing Web Office Web/Tech

My Initial Thoughts about Google Cloud Connect

March 1, 2011 – 6:56 pm

Google Cloud Connect launched last week and it plays nicely with the complementary model vision I have for Google Apps and Microsoft Office. While I know Google Apps is chocking up some enterprise wins, we live in a Microsoft Office world (a harsh reality to some) so I like seeing tools that help bridge the gap between these two competing applications.

Tags Collaboration, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Cloud Connect, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2010 | Permalink | Comments (2)

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SharePoint Productivity for Project Teams: Out of the Box

February 20, 2011 – 2:19 pm

The popularity of Microsoft SharePoint has given rise to a whole slew of third party application add ins and professional services that organization’s can use to customize and add functionality to their SharePoint sites. However, on the road to SharePoint adoption you might not always be able to get what you want until you score some initial victories. You can score some of these victories right out of the box – with minimal SharePoint knowledge and the appropriate user permissions – so here are a few ideas to get you started right out of the box.

Tags Microsoft Office 2010, Outlook, Outlook 2010, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010, Wiki | Permalink | Comment (1)

2007 Microsoft Office system Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Productivity Technical Writing

3 MS Word Survival Tips: Alternative Document Formats

August 28, 2010 – 11:41 am

Microsoft Word can be a wonderful productivity tool and then turn around to be one of the biggest productivity sinks known to man. As a web worker who has to provide my own Microsoft Word technical support plus being a veteran of a couple of Microsoft Office deployments inside organizations, I’d like to offer up the following survival tips.

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2007 Microsoft Office system Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Productivity

3 Bad Microsoft Word Template Decisions to Avoid

June 1, 2010 – 10:36 am

Microsoft Word templates can be an incredible productivity tool because they ensure a consistent look and feel across your documents freeing you up to focus on other things regarding the document you are writing. However, Microsoft Word templates can also be a productivity sinkhole especially if you don’t put some thought into how you manage and use the template.As Microsoft Word and the other Office applications grow in complexity, working smarter becomes a necessity because as Kelly’s Law of desktop applications says, “The application works for me, I don’t work for the application.”

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2007 Microsoft Office system Collaboration Tools Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2010 Productivity Technical Writing Work

Is Microsoft Office in Danger?

April 4, 2010 – 7:53 pm

Having spent some of my professional life as a technical
writer and consultant and then writing for technology industry web sites and publications like WebWorkerDaily and Projects@Work, I’ve gotten the benefit of viewing Office productivity suites – Microsoft Office and web office suites
like Google Apps and Zoho Business from all sides.

Microsoft Office has indeed grown in complexity – Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2007, and the upcoming Office 2010 all added more features that grow the venerable Office suite into more than just a tool to compose and save your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Tags Google, Google Apps, Google Apps Marketplace, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Office 2003, web office | Permalink | Comment (1)

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Will Kelly

Category Archives: Microsoft Office 2003

Book Review: The Secret Life of Word by Robert Delwood

Microsoft Office Isn’t Due Retirement Papers Just Yet

Building Basic Microsoft Word Skills With Non-Writers

My Microsoft Word Template Manifesto

OffiSync: Another Google Docs/Microsoft Office Syncing Option

My Initial Thoughts about Google Cloud Connect

SharePoint Productivity for Project Teams: Out of the Box

3 MS Word Survival Tips: Alternative Document Formats

3 Bad Microsoft Word Template Decisions to Avoid

Is Microsoft Office in Danger?

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