So That's How!

Live Webcast on October 16, 2007

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:43:14 GMT

(Posted by Evan)

Tiffany and I will present an encore performance of our Microsoft webcast entitled "So That's How! 10 Tips to Get You Started with the 2007 Microsoft Office System" on Tuesday, October 16, 2007.

Here's the event overview from Microsoft:

Turn your productivity drains into productivity gains! Now that you have upgraded to the 2007 Microsoft Office system, why not put the newest features to work for you, making it even easier to perform everyday tasks with the 2007 Microsoft Office programs, such as Microsoft Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, Office Outlook 2007, and others? This webcast is based on the book, So That's How! 2007 Microsoft Office System: Timesavers, Breakthroughs, & Everyday Genius (Microsoft Press, 2007). Join us as we provide tips and shortcuts that can help you solve everyday productivity problems. Whether you need to power through your inbox or breeze through complex spreadsheets, authors Evan Archilla and Tiffany Songvilay show you easy-to-learn ways to save time in the newest versions of your favorite Microsoft Office programs.

Click here to register for this free and informative event.

18th Annual Direct Response Forum

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:05:42 GMT

(Posted by Evan)

FYI--I'll be presenting two sessions on Office Tips & Tricks (one on Office 2003 and one on Office 2007) at the Direct Response Forum in Seattle, WA on August 5th.

What is the Direct Response Forum? According to the DRF website at www.directresponseforum.org:

The DRF provides an exclusive venue for payment industry peers to meet, learn about and address the unique challenges facing Customer Not Present (CNP) merchants including:

Management and optimization of multiple payment types and payment channels

Integrating payment processes with complex customer service and fulfillment systems

Compliance requirements imposed by regulatory bodies

Strategies for handling disputes and fraud

New technologies and payments-related products and services

We are an organization created by and committed to serving the employees of merchant organizations that process CNP transactions. However, representatives of acquirers, card companies and service providers are invited to participate with their merchant customers in DRF activities in order to encourage dialogue between all stakeholders in the CNP arena.

If you work for a CNP merchant and would like to learn more or register for the event, visit http://www.directresponseforum.org/ForumInformation/tabid/85/Default.aspx. While I won't be selling books at the event, I will gladly sign any personal copies someone happens to bring along.

Book Nook at IAAP

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:20:25 GMT

For those of you attending the International Association of Administrative Professionals Convention in Tampa at the end of the month, please stop by the Book Nook and pick up a copy of So That's How! Take advantage of the fact that many titles will be on sale at a reduced rate because IAAP has a relationship with book vendors to purchase some of these books at half price and they pass the savings on to you! So, leave some space in that carry on for Evan and me.

436 registered and counting!

Tue, 29 May 2007 22:27:14 GMT

Evan and I were told today that our upcoming webcast has more than 400 registered participants. That's great news and we look forward to spending an hour with you on Thursday. We'll demo 10 of our favorite Office 2007 tips and tricks from the book. Register here.

Where did it go?

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:38:47 GMT

(Posted by Tiffany)

Initial feedback is coming in to me about the Office 2007 ribbon from pilot groups. Most people say that the transition has not slowed them down at all and that they find it "refreshing" that Microsoft took such a bold step to make the user interface easier. The downside is that all those menus we had committed to memory are now obsolete. When you just want to find the spell check button in Excel, you can glance right past it on the left side of the screen on the Review tab because your brain wants to look for it in the middle of the ribbon since it used to be in the middle of the Standard toolbar. Here are three shortcuts to paste onto your desktop that can save you some time:

Word 2003 to Word 2007

Excel 2003 to Excel 2007

PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007

Click Start the guide in the middle of these pages to get an Office 2003 user interface. Click on the feature you want and the screen will fade to the Office 2007 interface and show you where to find it on the ribbon. It works with menu items too!

Wireless Interstate Access

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:21:27 GMT

(Posted by Evan)

Top 3 (legal) reasons to stop at an Interstate rest area:

Use the bathroom
Stretch your legs
Check your...e-mail?!

Yes, you read that correctly. The next time your kids, spouse, or carload of rowdy road-trippers demand a bathroom break, you can break out your laptop and check your e-mail, current weather conditions, local attractions, and more.

In Part V of So That's How!, we talk a lot about mobile Internet access. Most people think of airports, libraries, and coffee shops as logical places for a wireless hotspot. I have to admit, even I was surprised by the Wireless Internet designation on the Rest Area exit sign near my little stretch of Interstate 10 (see photo). Come to find out, Texas was the first state to provide wireless Internet access at Interstate rest areas and the Texas Department of Transportation is in the process of expanding the service to all 90 of its Safety Rest Areas.

To see if your state or the state you're traveling to offers a similar service, visit the respective state's Department of Transportation Web site. You can find more information on the TxDOT Safety Rest Area wireless internet access program at http://www.dot.state.tx.us/mnt/sra/wireless.htm.

Are we there yet?

Houston, We Have a Launch Event

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:52:40 GMT

(Posted by Tiffany)

I attended the Office 2007 launch event in Houston two weeks ago. Evan may be attending in San Antonio tomorrow and I'm eager to hear his reaction to the event as well. I followed the IT Professionals track and attended seminars on Infrastructure Protection, SharePoint Server 2007 Configuration and Management, Unified Communications and Microsoft Business Intelligence. The day started with a keynote address that included demos of Vista and Office 2007. Even though I've been working in the Office 2007 environment for about a year now (Evan mentioned "dog food" in his last post), I still love to hear the reactions of people seeing Live Preview for the first time.

To that point about how many people were still only seeing these products for the first time, there was such a big focus on the release of Exchange Server 2007 that I almost felt as though I was attending the launch of that product. I remember feeling that way at the end of January too when such an emphasis was put on the launch of Vista, that I felt that Office 2007 took a backseat in the press. I watched Headline News the entire day and it was barely a mention that Office was being launched on the same day.

I am not inside of Microsoft day in and day out anymore, and while I admit that the experience casts a long shadow and co-workers still say that I act like I work for Microsoft based on my fierce loyalty to the products, I've got to stand up for the average home and office user on this one. Microsoft has been on the edge of the largest launch event in history for years now, but I feel that their extensive use and testing of the product, while ensuring what should be the smoothest upgrade that people have seen thus far from the company, has lessened the impact of the release. It's as if working in Office 2007 is so commonplace to Microsoft that they've forgotten that not everyone downloaded and worked in the Beta. Especially not in the Enterprise space (large companies with more than 5,000 licenses).

Sure, I know how many resources exist at microsoft.com and I've attended the hands-on labs for SharePoint Server 2007 and InfoPath, but my clients are not always the IT, geeky people who are out there everyday looking for more information on the new products. A lot of the people who attend these launch events are still not the business decision maker of a large organization that is already evaluating the products it will buy within the next three years. Most of the people that I sat around in these seminars had never seen what Excel Services and Business Data Catalog could do for them.

It's not that I was disappointed in the event at all. In fact, for the person like me that has already been integrated in the high-level overview of these products, it was great to finally see these features demonstrated live with RTM code. I even got my geek t-shirt from the Microsoft Learning booth for flashing my MCP card. It was a great day that would have bored a typical home user and while I know the event is not intended or marketed for that audience, I still feel that a lot of assumptions are made about how much an IT person is leveraging these products from a personal and team productivity stance. It just made me even more proud that my and Evan's message is out there as a Microsoft Press launch title for Office 2007 because I saw firsthand how our book can bridge that gap between business decision makers and developers and the rest of us.

For more information on Microsoft events, visit www.microsoft.com/events

A Blog! A Blog! My kingdom for a Blog!

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:52:11 GMT

(Posted by Evan)

OK, so our Blog is finally up and running. After a few false starts, here we are at Windows Live Spaces. Of all the Blogging sites and tools out there, this is the one we chose to use. Sure, Windows Live Spaces is still technically a beta product, but we've eaten so much dogfood over the past few years we've grown to like it. What can we say? It's an acquired taste.

Anyhoo, our plan is to keep this site as up to date as possible given the demands of our day jobs and any book-related appearances, etc. (We're ready for our close-up, Mr. DeMille.) Check back often for new postings related to "So That's How!" and any other technological musings we happen to muse-up during the week. Or better yet, use Outlook 2007 to subscribe to our RSS feed and have our mind-blowing (or mind-numbing, depending on your point of view) bits of wisdom delivered directly to your desktop or laptop, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Here's how to add an RSS feed to Outlook 2007:

Right-click RSS Feeds in the left navigation pane in Outlook 2007.
Click Add a New RSS Feed.
Copy/paste the following URL into the New RSS Feed dialog box: http://sothatshow2007.spaces.live.com/feed.rss
Click Add.
Click Yes.

Congratulations, you did it! Let me be the first to say "thank you" for welcoming Tiffany and me into your daily Outlook experience. Don't worry, we won't eat much.

Custom List: Links

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:00:48 GMT

Links

Archilla Marketing
Archilla Marketing Company Site
Office Over Easy
Tiffany Songvilay's Home Page
Microsoft Office Online
Microsoft Office Online

Book List: Book List

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:54:41 GMT

Evan Archilla and Tiffany Songvilay: So That's How!
Turn your productivity drains into productivity gains! Now thatyou’ve upgraded to the 2007 Microsoft Office System, why not put the newest features to work for you—making it even easier to do the things you do every day with Microsoft Office.