Jeffrey Kent, a loyal GBM reader, was having a heck of a time figuring out why inking was disabled within Office 2007 on his Fujitsu P1620. James Kendrick and I even spent some time helping him through the debugging process. Through many emails back and forth, support calls to Microsoft, and to Fujitsu, it turns out that his custom installation of Office 2007 was the culprit.

It turns out that a customized install of Office may inadvertently remove the inking components necessary for inking within Office apps. Lesson learned: Do a Full / Non Customized Install. Head over to Mobile Barbarian for all the details.

This is definitely something the Microsoft Office team needs to look at. It is not a good thing if someone can inadvertently break inking by choosing not to install features that don't appear at all related to inking.

While you are on Jeffrey's site, be sure to checkout his vLite tutorial on streamlining a Vista installation.

Interesting little meme on Twitter this morning started by Robert Scoble with this Tweet:

My Microsoft Office trial is over. I am not spending $450 just to get Outlook. Gmail and Google Calendar win this game: big time

That prompted quite a few others to chirp in and say that with the exception of Outlook and OneNote they’ve moved to other solutions, mostly on the web.

How about you? Are you still using Microsoft Office applications and if so which ones? I know I still use Word and Excel quite a bit because the functionality I need isn’t there yet in online solutions.

Don’t forget you can follow GottaBeMobile.com on Twitter.

One of the frustrating things about Office 2007 is how the inking tools are hidden under the Review Ribbon button. The ink options are harder to find, further sends the message that ink is a second-class citizen in Office products, and breaks that flow of "thinking in ink". When I want to ink, I don't want to hunt and peck for my pens. I just want to start inking.

Here is something I've done recently to make it easier to access my pens when I want to ink an email, mark up a document in Word, etc. These steps are for Outlook, but they generally apply to Word, Excel, etc. Just substitute Editor Options for Word Options, etc.

1. Create an email
2. Click on the Office Button on the top left corner of the email message
3. Click on Editor Options
4. Click on Customize
5. In the drop down of commands, select Ink Tools | Pen Tab
6. From that list of options add the Ink commands you want to appear in the Quick Access tool bar. I added the Ball Point Pen, Felt Pen, Eraser, Ink Color, and Close Ink Tools. Add as many commands that give you one-click access to your needed ink toolset.
7. Below the list of commands, put a check next to "Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon". This will move the toolbar from the top of the window to below the Ribbon, and will require much less hand movement to select your ink tools.

Now you have one-click access to your pens and they are no longer hidden under the obscure "Review" tab. Unfortunately, the Editor Options do not apply system wide in Outlook. You'll need to make the same changes to the Calendar, Contact, and Journal screens. Just create a new item for Calendar, Contact, and Journal, and then go to the Editor Options for each type to customize the Quick Access Toolbar. Follow the same instructions for customizing Word, Excel, etc.

The Office Online training team has just published a new training course designed to educate new users about OneNote 2007. In addition to the training course, there is a short quiz to make sure you know all the basics of this popular Tablet PC application. Check it out! ( via Michael Oldenburg and OneNote Extensibility blog)

In addition, Clifford Brooks, a GBM reader, just let me know of a OneNote Notebook designed to teach you how to use the Enterprise version of Office 2007.

Everybody into the cloud. It sure seems like it today. On the heels of the Google Gears announcment, Microsoft is announcing that the Office Live Workspace Beta is now live worldwide (albeit in English only). Users can share and access their data online and Microsoft is rolling out several new features.

Office Live Workspace lets people organize documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer. People can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online,* and access and share them via the Web. They can view and comment on documents in the browser as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.

Microsoft has also added several new features to Office Live Workspace, based in part on feedback from early beta participants:

• Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance.
  
• Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents.
  
• Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window.
  
• Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop.
  
• Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.

Check out more or sing up for the beta here.

In the past, it was often too difficult or expensive for small businesses to use the full suite of Microsoft business applications. Last November, Microsoft announced Microsoft Online Services for businesses of 5,000 employees or more, and today, they announced that they were expanding availability of Online Services to businesses of any size. Also announced today is a free beta trial of the services. From today's press release:

"Based on the proven, business-class software available in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the new services enable businesses to access e-mail, calendaring, contacts, shared workspaces, and webconferencing and videoconferencing over the Web. The new services are managed through a single Web-based interface, designed to meet the needs of IT professionals. Through this security-enhanced interface, IT professionals can monitor the performance of the services, add and configure users, submit and track support requests, and manage users and licenses."

With Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, Microsoft is embracing cloud computing for businesses much they way that they have embraced it for regular users with Microsoft Windows Live. The real question is whether businesses are any more ready than regular people to depend that heavily on the Internet for all of their office applications.

Dennis O'Reilly has penned (perhaps literally!) a great article on using digital ink in Microsoft Office 2007 apps. Although he's specifically talking about Office 2007, many of his tips and hints actually work just fine in earlier versions of Microsoft Office. I know I've sent many handwritten emails using Outlook 2003, for instance.

In my opinion, the great thing about the article was that it was NOT on a Tablet PC site. This was a general CNet blog that is pretty widely read, and therefore many people who don't know about inking may have just gotten their first exposure. And that's a Good Thing.

Oh, and if you haven't tried it already, Microsoft is offering free trials of Office 2007. It really is an improvement for inking.

It is raining service packs it seems. Microsoft has released The Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 1 for public download. (note that silly small ‘s’ in the title.) Unlike Vista SP1, this is not a release candidate and is the official service pack release. This service pack is really more about fixes than it is about features. A description of what’s contained in the service pack is located here, although you’ll need to hit a bunch of Knowledge Base links to read more about it. That said, Daniel Escapa, has a rundown on what’s available for OneNote 2007 on his blog.

I’ve installed the service pack on my Tablet PC and so far have seen no issues with any of the Office programs I’m running. The install was relatively painless as well.

Here’s the download link.

Back in September we posted about the availability and sudden unavailability of Office Mobile 6.1. Turns out info got released from Microsoft a bit too early and they pulled the info. Well, now Office Mobile 6.1 is finally available. 6.1 is an upgrade for Office Mobile 6.0 that allows you to read native Microsoft Office 2007 file formats on your mobile device. Office 2007’s fnew file format based on Open XML wasn’t readable on mobile devices (and other platforms) when 2007 rolled out.

The link takes you to the download page for the update which means you need a licensed copy on your mobile devcie to install the upgrade.

Chris Paris is a very active GottaBeMobile.com reader and forum member, helping others in our forums with tablet pc issues, etc. He's written the following article for us on how to blog in ink using Word 2007.

- Chris Paris 

I've been an early adopter of using MS Word 2007's blogging features, having used it for various blogs -- via WordPress -- since the software came out. Here's the latest , entirely blogged from within Word! A while back I wrote a tutorial on setting up Word 2007 for WordPress  - (pardon the comical pseudonym), and it's been well received, even though setting up WordPress under Word 2007 isn't exactly easy. One mistake, and Word will throw an obscure error, directing you to a minimalist help page that hasn't been updated since Word 2007 came out.  However, my tutorial should work fairly well even if you blog from some other provider, and Word 2007 includes native support for Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, SharePoint Blog, Community Server, WordPress and Typepad. A "refresh list" option right on the dialog box hints that it will auto-update to include additional support for newer blog services, but I can't confirm that.

Microsoft is announcing its strategy to get into the cloud focusing on two different types of services, “Live” and “Online.”  Live is targeted at individuals and small businesses and Microsoft is preparing to roll out a beta of the newly christened Microsoft Office Live Workspace around October 1. Online is targeted at the enterprise customer. Both look to take advantage of Microsoft’s Sharepoint and Groove software. 

Office Live Workspace is a web based service that allows uses to access their documents online and of course share and collaborate on those documents with others. While it will be an extension of Office 2007, the service will also work with third-party office applications like OpenOffice and StarOffice, as well as Office XP. This isn’t an online document creation tool, but rather a sharing and collaboration solution from what I’m reading.

You can sign up for the beta here.

I'm not sure if these are going to continue or not (this is the first one) but YouTube user jgvanides has posted a 'Tablet PC Tip #1 over on YouTube.  This is a quick once over with some tips on how/why to use Ink in a Powerpoint presentation.  This might be one to keep an eye on!

Microsoft has rolled out an upgrade to Office Mobile 6.0 that now allows you to read native Microsoft Office 2007 file formats. If you recall, Office 2007 introduced a new file format based on Open XML, but the new file format at the launch of Office 2007 wasn’t available on other platforms. Of course there was a work around by simply saving Office documents in an earlier compatibile format.

Well, for Windows Mobile users you can now use the native Office 2007 format in Windows Mobile with Office Mobile 6.1. You’ll need to have Office Mobile 6.0 installed to use the upgrade, or purchase a version of Office Mobile 6.0 to use this.

Read more about it or download here.

UPDATE: Looks like changes are afoot here, as Microsoft has pulled the info and download page. We'll post more as we have it.

If you’re one of those who wished Microsoft had been consistent across the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications and added the Ribbon Interface to Outlook, you might want to take a look at this work in progress.

Josh Einstein, the amazing developer of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook (TEO 3.0) has been tinkering with a Ribbon for Outlook. In the GBM Fourms, he’s announced that he’s put up a version for those who want to take a look at this and, most importantly, to give him some feedback.

Here’s a link to the download and here a part of what Josh has to say:

Treat this as experimental code. It won't blow up Outlook but it's not exactly in the most usable state right now. Because it hides the menu bar and toolbar and replaces it with a ribbon that does not yet have all the functionality it's replacing, some commands are simply not available. Most of the stuff on the main tab works and that's about it.

Well, this one caught me and some others by surprise  - Microsoft has released Office 2003 Service Pack 3, which contains a wrapup of previous updates,  security fixes, and stability enhancements as a result of all of those Crash Analysis feeback submissions we've all sent in.

Here are the download links:

• Office 2003 SP3
• Office 2003 SP3 for Multilingual User Interface
• OneNote 2003 SP3
• Project 2003
• Project 2003 for Multilingual User Interface

Via Neowin

TheUltimateSteal.com kicked off live this morning and the biggest question of all has been: who is eligible for the $59.95 Office Ultimate 2007?

Here are the details from http://theultimatesteal.com/eligibility.asp

You must hold a valid email address at a U.S. educational institution ending in .edu (for example, leina@contoso.university.edu)

AND

Be actively enrolled with at least 0.5 course load.

Also, you must be able to provide proof of enrollment status (ie, student card) upon request by Microsoft. If you are unable to provide proof of enrollment, you will be required to pay the full retail price of Office Ultimate 2007 (approximate ERP $679USD).

We all know the student budget is a tight one. So, for students, this deal from Microsoft cannot be beat: students will be able to purchase Office Ultimate 2007 for just $60, that is a $620 savings over retail - check it out at Microsoft's TheUltimateSteal.com . The offer is valid through April 30, 2008, and starts in less than 3 hours.

Office Ultimate 2007 includes the following apps:

Update: By the way, for those who might doubt the legitimacy of this program, here is Microsoft's official press release on "the Ultimate Steal"

via Microsoft.BlogNewsChannel.com

One of the things I had to deal with while using my new OQO Model-02 while on the road is viewing my email through Outlook. Remember the OQO has incredible viewing resolutions and zoom options. However, his was only part on my solutions. In this How-To, I will show you some of the things I have dome to make my Outlook experience on the OQO really great.

GBM How-To Series #24 : Optimize Outlook for mobile UMPC viewing  

 Having the mobility that the OQO Model-02 offers does come at a price for these aging eyes. As excellent as the screen is, I was not satisfied with the experience I was getting with Outlook. My problem was this, if I put the OQO in the highest screen resolution possible ( and thus mimic my desktop experience ) even with my glasses on , it was hard to read not to mention the safety issue of doing so on the road. When I zoomed out to a point where it was, there was the issue of having to constantly use the vertical and horizontal scrollers on the display (which are quite simply the balm!) to read the messages. Again, safety bells start ringing in my head! What I found was a couple of simple features in Outlook to minimize the Navigation Pane, and to turn off the Reading Pane. I also customized the Quick Access Tool Ribbon to show the tools I wanted to utilize, as well as display it above the ribbon. This worked like a charm. Let me share with you how...

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.