I’m sold on the Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon interface (or Fluent user interface) but there are some that are not. Well, if the Ribbon isn’t for you then here’s a way to go back to the classic office menu structure of Office 2003. You can download several add-ins that give you that familar feel for Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. Here’s the link.

Very cool. Daniel Escapa is pointing to a cool new OneNote 2007 Powertoy developed by Dave Tse. The OneNote Web Explorer allows you to convert a notebook into an interactive website. Not only is the Powertoy available for you to download and try out, but Dave Tse has also made the source code available (along with reams of documentation) on CodePlex so that others can learn and modify the code if they wish. This sounds like a great way to share a notebook if you are working with others who aren’t using OneNote 2007. Note that IE is recommended to use this Powertoy.

Microsoft and HGTV are teaming up to give one deserving person a home office make-over, worth $25,000. Along with a design makeover, led by former Trading Spaces designer Vern Yip, the winner will also be receiving:

• One Microsoft Office Professional 2007
• One Windows Vista(R) Ultimate operating system
• A one-year subscription to Microsoft Office Live Premium
• One Windows Live(TM) OneCare(TM) PC care service
• One Microsoft Zune(TM) digital media player
• One HP Compaq tc4400 Tablet PC (includes three years' on-site hardware support and docking station)
• One HP Photosmart C6180 All-in-One (includes three years' hardware exchange extended warranty)
• One HP Photosmart R967 digital camera with 1GB memory card (includes three years' hardware exchange extended warranty)
• One HP Color LaserJet 2605dtn (includes three years' hardware exchange extended warranty)
• One ream of HP Color LaserJet paper
• One ream of HP ColorLok InkJet paper
• Sixty sheets of 4-by-6-inch photo paper

If you feel you could use a home office make-over, head over to  http://www.makeovermyoffice.com and put your entry in. Entries must be received by July 4, 2007. Ten Semi-finalists will be announced on July 17, when public voting will occur. The winner will be announced on September 4. Semi-finalists will receive a copy of Office Professional 2007. Finalists will also receive an HP Notebook PC.

Via RedOrbit

Well, one could say it is about time. But instead we’ll just say, we’re glad this happened. The Microsoft Office Outlook Team has launched a blog, appropriately named the Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog. (Hey, there’s no small ‘s’!)

Now that we’re working on our next release we’ve decided to create a team blog where we can talk about a wider range of topics. We look forward to having folks from all across the team posting about the tons of different features and functionality in Outlook.

We want to make it easier for everyone to find information, directly from the source, about the way Outlook works and how to get the most out of our product. We’ll be talking about what we’re working on, how we decide what to do next, and cool things you can do with the product.

For now, we’ll be communicating mostly about the current release, Outlook 2007. When the time is right, we’ll begin to transition to discussing details of the next release of Office and Outlook so you can learn more about what will be coming in the future.

This one might want to find a home in your feedreader.

Tablet PC software developer extraordinaire Josh Einstein is looking for your feedback. Not only is he continuing his efforts on the must have Tablet PC application, TEO, he’s working on something new for Outlook 2007.(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view.) Here’s what Josh has to say:

Like many of you, I was pretty disappointed when it was revealed that Outlook 2007, my favorite application in the suite, would not be getting the ribbon makeover. At least not in the main part of the UI which is what we spend most of our time looking at anyway. The justification of course is that Outlook 2007 isn't overloaded with commands the way the other Office applications are. I agree with that, but it does make Outlook stick out like a sore thumb and makes it seem like a red-headed stepchild instead of the first class Office citizen that it is.

So anyhow, I did something about it. But what I need now is feedback from you guys on what you would want to see on the primary ribbon tab and whether or not you would even use such a thing. I'm not planning to charge for it either. Here's my prototype so far. I have no idea when this will be available for the public.

He’s started a thread and a poll in the GBM Forums for you to give him feedback. Keep in mind, Josh doesn’t know when he’s aiming to release this, and he’s looking at this as more than just a Tablet PC development. My $.02? This would be a grand idea.

Head over to this forum thread and leave your input.

Here’s a nifty tip from Josh Einstein via Lora Heiny via Craig Pringle. (That’s some lineage for a tip!) If you are using the stylus on a Tablet PC and need to select multiple emails in Outlook 2007 you can do so without having to press the Shift key. Here’s the tip:

Josh passed along a great tip. The cursor switches directions so that you can actually multi-select emails without having to use the Shift key.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007 in normal view mode
2. Move cursor position to the left side of the mail envelope and the right side of the divider, and the cursor direction switches to point to the right.
3. Now, drag the pen or mouse position down et voila! you can select multiple emails.

Of course it works on any PC, but as Craig says, this is an awesome aid on a Tablet PC.

Today's How-To is another "short and sweet" that illustrates just how natural the ink experience can be. I mean, what could be more natural than written expression? I remember the wonder of getting ink' ed emails from Dennis Rice before I had become "Ink Smart". So, with those who may be new to the inking experience on their new tablet or UMPC purchase, this one's for you! Inking in Microsoft Outlook 2007 is a piece of cake.

Here's how...

GBM How-To Series #11 : Inking in Outlook 2007

Getting Started

To ink in Outlook 2007, assuming you are either in folder view and have an email folder selected, OR you are in email view, begin by clicking the New Mail Message button at the top left of the Outlook toolbar. Also, you MUST compose the email in HTML to include ink. If you are having trouble, check to see that you have HTML composition enabled by choosing Tools,Options then Mail Format tab and select HTML to compose email in the message format section.

Next, address you email using the TIP (Tablet Input Panel, come on; use it!) to enter the email address of your recipient. This takes a little getting used to, but is very powerful once you are "Ink Smart". Enter your CC's and subject using the same method.

Time to Ink!

OK, now comes the real ink fun. After you have your who-to's and such completed, you are ready to ink the body of your email. To do this, with your pen or stylus, select any area inside the body of the email. You will see a normal cursor. Then on the Outlook Message toolbar, notice that the Start Inking button becomes active. Go ahead and select it.

Once selected, an inkable region will be placed into the body of your email. Now, ink away! Notice that the Ink Tools toolbar comes up and gives you options for selecting the type of pen you wish to ink with, color and line weight control, eraser, and the ability to select inked objects and insert more inkable space. When you are done inking, click the Close Ink Tools button. The Select Objects tool can be used to resize, recolor, and move inked objects

Inking in Outlook is a great way to communicate ideas and provide a personal touch to your email. Hey, it's fun too!

Happy Inking!

Tips and Notes:

• Remember ONLY recipients that can read HTML will be able to see your ink.
• For more help using Outlook 2007, click here.

Today's How-To is brought to you from the road. At this moment, I'm blogging from the parking lot of the Tampa Bay Land Rover dealership. Ah, the wonders of EVDO. (Thanks for the AirCard Dennis, you are not getting it back!) :) And no honey, I'm NOT shopping for a new vehicle here. I will be at the BMW dealership after I finish this post. That's a joke Beth. Ha-Ha. Get it, a joke. She has no since of humor.

Now, back to work. Inking in Excel; not as apparent as you might think. Let's take a closer look.

GBM How-To Series #10 : Inking in Excel 2007

The inking experience in Excel is not limited to the tablet input panel, you can also ink comments and drawings in Excel freehand with your tablet. By the way, have you trained your TIP?

Inking in Excel 2007 is a bit tucked away in the review tab. To begin inking in Excel 2007, from your worksheet, click on the Review tab, then Start Inking.

You are then presented with the Ink Tools toolbar that contains all of your ink controls for Excel grouped by Select, Pens, Format, and Close. You can now add ink anywhere in you worksheet. Remember that these inked comments and annotations can be hidden or shown as needed.

To hide your inked comments, on the Review tab, in the Comments section, toggle display of ink on and off by clicking the Show Ink button.

Ink in Excel is a great way to illustrate ideas with sketches and handwritten notes that do not alter the original document. 

Tips and Notes:

• Digital Signatures can be added to any Word or Excel document to provide authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation (signer cannot deny signing) by utilizing Digital ID's or Certificates. For more on Digital Signatures, click here.
• Make sure that any "personal" inked information that you do not want published is removed by clicking on the Review tab, in the Tracking group, point to the Display for Review arrow, and click Final Showing Markup. In the Tracking group, point to the arrow next to Show Markup, and make sure that all of the following are selected: Comments, Ink, Insertions and Deletions, Formatting, and Markup Area Highlight.

I’ve adjusted quite nicely to the new ribbon interface in Office 2007. But perhaps you’re one of those who’d like to do some customization, or would like to see that interface look more like Office 2003. Patrick Schimd as a customization tool for you. The Ribbon Customizer v1.1 allows you to have it your way with the ribbon. The tool costs $30 and allows you to change things around in Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Outlook. (click on the thumbnail below for a larger view.)

You can check it on at pschmid.net or read a review of the tool on ComputerWorld.

William, one of the new writers at Student Tablet PC, has an interesting article on using Microsoft Office Groove to sync documents between computers. Syncing is always a topic of considerable debate among mobile and multiple pc users as everyone searches for the Holy Grail of syncing. I personally have not checked out Groove at all, so the article has aroused my curiousity. Groove comes with the Enterprise and Ultimate Editions of Office 2007 and according to William, it is “a great content management & syndication tool.”

How about you? Any GBM readers in the Groove when it comes to syncing documents? Chime in.

New blogger to the OneNote testing team John Guin has posted up a small little addin.  This replaces the Sticky Notes module in Outlook with a link to open up OneNote.

I got an email from a user yesterday who wanted OneNote to replace the Sticky Notes module in Outlook. I had been wondering if anyone was interested in an addin I had in mind which would start OneNote when you try to open a notes module in Outlook, but did not know if anyone would want that type of functionality. Now that I had some (one) request, I decided to write it for him.    

This was an Outlook only addin - all it does is register for the FolderSwitch event in Outlook and if a notes folder is opened, I use System.Diagnostics to start OneNote.exe. And while it doesn't strictly replace the Outlook module with OneNote, it does allow OneNote to jump to the forefront when the opens an Outlook notes module.

Add his blog to your RSS feed, cause I am sure he will have some cool stuff to talk about! (He is also the developer for the PowerToy: Outlook To OneNote AddIn & Export your Outlook notes to OneNote)

Have you ever needed to create a task or appointment that included the details that are contained in an email you received? Unless you know this handy little how-to, I bet you did the old copy-paste trick. There is an easier way. Check this out.

GBM How-To Series #3 : Creating an appointment from an email in Outlook 2007.

1. From your inbox, click on an email that contains the task or information that you need and drag it to the Tasks or Calendar tab on the left hand panel of Outlook.
2. A new task or appointment is automatically created and includes the body of the selected email.  Be sure to edit the task details by filling out Subject, Location, Start/End times, and Attendees, etc. Also edit out any extraneous information that's not needed in the appointment.
3. If you are inking notes in your appointment, pay close attention to this. After you create the appointment, click Start Inking, then Insert Space to place an inkable area in the appointment. Expand the ink space to allow sufficient room for you to contain your inked notes. Then ink away. I mention this because it took a while to figure out why I could not ink on the newly created appointment. Thanks to Dennis for helping me figure it out!
4. Click Save and Close and you are done.

There you go. A quick and easy trick for getting the details in your email into an Outlook appointment without doing the old "copy-paste shuffle".

Tips and Notes:

• Starting next week, the GBM How-To series will be posted twice a week. Look for them on Monday's and Wednesdays!
• Remember that this trick works equally well for appointments OR tasks.
• Click Here for more information on Microsoft Outlook 2007 and the Microsoft Office 2007 suite
• Download the Microsoft Office 2007 Trial Version

This week's How-To is one that I have found extremely useful for keeping your Outlook 2007 appointments and OneNote 2007 notes organized. Like many, I have used Outlook for managing my calendar, and OneNote for keeping my notes organized. I never considered joining the two. When I first used OneNote to record audio on OneNote some years ago, I was WOW'ed at how effective this could make my meeting time. Needless to say OneNote changed not only my effectiveness in meetings and such, but solidified my commitment to tablet PC technology in my life. Sorry, I digress. Linking my appointments with my notes is not quite that significant, but it really does help me to keep my notes (and recordings, etc inside my notes) organized and allow me to find them easily when I need them.

GBM How-To Series #2 : Linking to OneNote Meeting notes in Outlook 2007.

This How-To is pretty short and sweet.

UPDATE: Before linking your appointment to OneNote, BE SURE TO SAVE THE APPOINTMENT. I found that every time that I clicked "Meeting Notes" it was taking me to a new OneNote page. That's because I had not saved the appointment BEFORE moving the OneNote page. Thanks to OneNote Guru Chris Pratley for the clarification.

"You don't have to click the "Link to Outlook" link to establish the connection. That isn't "Create link to Outlook", it is "follow link to Outlook". It will work all the time, as you can see if after you do step 1 you go back to Outlook and click "Meeting Notes" again - you are just taken to the page. The link actually points directly to the Outlook item by its guid ("serial number") and is placed there when you click the button in Outlook.

Effectively there is *always" a page in your notes about each meeting because if you click the Meeting Notes button, that page will be found if it exists or it will get created (much like in a wiki where a page is created if one doesn't exist if you simply make a link to it.) We couldn't get in a feature to tell you in Outlook if notes have already been taken for the meeting."

1. Right-click on the appointment and select the Meeting Notes option at the bottom, or open the appointment and select the Meeting Notes button.  This automatically creates a new un-filed OneNote document to store your meeting minutes, notes, etc.

2. Assuming you have saved your appointment BEFORE opening the linked OneNote page, the link is now complete and you can organize the page as you like.  Once the un-filed page is created, click on the Link to Outlook Item that appears in the body of our note page. The Outlook appointment that is to be associated with your notes will open and you simply click the Save and Close button on the appointment. This establishes the link between the appointment in Outlook, and the notes in Onenote. Now, take you notes as you normally would.

You can now organize your OneNote page, section, or notebook however you like. In the future rather than remembering where you filed the associated notes, simply go to your Outlook calendar, open the appointment and click Meeting Notes or simply right-click the appointment and select Meeting Notes, and there you are.

Tips and Notes:

• Remember to click the "Link to Outlook Item" in OneNote and save the appointment in Outlook to establish the link. UPDATE: The key here is to SAVE THE APPOINTMENT BEFORE you start you meeting notes.
• Before taking notes, try to organize your OneNote notebook before the meeting or lecture.
• Try to start each new OneNote meeting or lecture on a new page, and make sure the date is correct on each page. You may find that the sequence of content in the lecture or meeting may become important.

• Develop a system of abbreviations and symbols you can use wherever possible.
• Leave blank spaces. Blank space can be you friend. This allows you to add comments or indicate questions for later. Change pen colors to indicate follow-up items.
• Make your notes as brief as possible. Try not to use a sentences when you can use a phrase, or use a phrase when you can use a single word.
• Highlight any unfamiliar concepts or words you don't understand. You can always go back and look them up later.
• Click Here for more information on Microsoft OneNote 2007
• Download the OneNote 2007 Trial Version
• Click Here for more information on Microsoft Outlook 2007 and the Microsoft Office 2007 suite
• Download the Microsoft Office 2007 Trial Version

If you are looking at getting the most out of Outlook 2007, then you might want to take a look at Marc Orchant’s new book, The Unofficial Guide to Outlook 2007. Knowing Marc and his knack for the detail, I’d be surprised if anything was left uncovered.

Marc Orchant runs a ZDNet blog called Office Evolution, is a Micosoft Tablet PC MVP, and is co-host of OnTheRun with Tablet PCs Podcast.

Congratulations, Marc and thanks letting us know that it is finally shipping!

We met with Microsoft's Outlook Program Manager last night. They are in the planning stages for Outlook 14 and 15, and have requested some specific information from the tablet pc community in regards to Outlook and tablet pc / ultra-mobile pc usage.

What they are looking for is how you currently use Outlook with your Tablet PC / UMPC. Describe your work scenarios when in convertible and slate mode. When operating in slate mode, how are you currently using your pen to interact with Outlook.

They are not asking for input right now on how you would improve Outlook from an ink perspective, so please keep this mind. Please post your responses in this forum thread

The Outlook Program Manager and others on the team will be monitoring this thread for input. Please help spread the word on this and lets get as many use cases and scenarios for the Outlook team as possible, so they can understand how a tablet user currently uses Outlook. Your input can can help impact the future of Outlook.

If you have automatic updates turned on you may have already notice that Microsoft has pushed through a series of updates for Vista, Office 2007, and other products. The DreamScene Content Package is one of those updates if you are running Ultimate.

For a list of what was updated, patched, etc.. check out this article on eWeek.

I’ve gotten very used to the Office 2007 Ribbon interface and have to say I like the new interface very much. But I’m sure there are those who are still adjusting and those who want to customize to their heart’s content.

Microsoft MVP Patrick Schmid has come to the aid of those who want the Ribbon their way. He’s created a tool, called RibbonCustomizer Professional, that offers a point-and-click interface that allows you to shift things around. The utilty costs $29.95 and there is a free edition (with limitied capabilities), along with a 30 day trial.

Patrick also provides a thorough overview and a demo of how Tabs and Groups are structured.

Check it all out here.

Hat tip to Marc Orchant.

A lot of Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC users are really in to productivity solutions, so it should be of no surprise to hear Tablet users sing the praises of David Allen's Getting Things Done method of time management.

GottaBeMobile.com forum member Steve Beller just let us know that NetCentrics has released a much anticipated update for Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In users. Version 2.5.21 enables the GTD Outlook add-in to work with Outlook 2007. It is important to note that the GTD add-in is not supported on Vista, but they will be releasing another update in Q2 2007 for that compatability. That said, I've installed the add-in on my Vista install and all appears to be running fine at the moment.

If you use the GTD add-in to help manage your time and tasks, and you've recently upgraded to Outlook 2007, then head over to the GTD site and download the update. The update is free.

If you are interested in learning more about the add-in and how it helps to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done method, then check out the product page here. The add-in costs $69.95 and there is a trial version available.

We have talked about him in the past, but the Microsoft OneNote Blogger Daniel Escapa is constantly putting up tips for using OneNote 2007.  If you aren't following him, go check out what he has been posting the past couple of days...

Shift Click on a Notebook

Create Section from a list

OneNote iFilter for a SharePoint Server

Some great pointers and tips - Add him to your RSS feed if you haven't already!!