The New Microsoft Office 2010 User Interface

Welcome to the New User Interface in Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft has continuously tried to improve the Software products it releases, and there are some interesting New Features available in all their Office 2010 Products.

The User Interface has had some changes, although they are not as drastic as when we went from Office 2003 to Office 2007. The main change in the User Interface, is that the Microsoft Office Button has been replaced by the Files Tab, and clicking on the File Tab introduces us to the New and Greatly improved Backstage View.

In backstage view, you are exposed to a whole slew of file type commands. The Save and Send Command, gives you a bunch of choices, the coolest one being Save to Web. This option gives you the ability to Save to your Windows Live Sky Drive. (Please see the article on Sky Drive on my Blog). Microsoft gives you 25 Giga Bytes of free storage in the Cloud!! How cool is that, for you can have acces to all your files from any Internet Connected PC anywhere in the world!! No more flash drives.

SoftChalk the Perfect Tool for Creating Interactive Content in D2L

Many times, content in LMS's is pretty boring, with pages of Text to read. Students would be more attracted to the content, and have better learning outcomes, if the content was more interactive. SoftChalk helps you do just that. Softchalk is a powerful, award-winning e-Learning authoring solution that lets you easily create, engage, deliver and track eLearning content.

• SoftChalk allows educators to transform existing course materials into interactive and engaging e-learning content with minimal time, effort and resources


• Educators can build, csutomize and personalize content by mashing up their own materials with rich media (video, audio, images), interactive exercises, quizzes and text.


• The combination of personalized content, embedded assessment, interactivity, and immediate student feedback increases student engagement and improves learning outcomes.

Respondus Campus-Wide 4.0

Respondus is a Test/Quiz creation Tool, that helps you to create Tests/Quizzes and directly publish them to eLearn. But why use Respondus instead of the Test/Quiz creation tool in eLearn itself ? Respondus has some advantages over the Test/Quiz Tool in eLearn:

• You can import your Questions from a Word File (.doc., and .docx.), Text Files (.txt), Comma Delimited Files, etc. (You cannot do this in elearn itself)


• Since your Tests/Quizzes are in Respondus on your computer, it is very easy to re-upload your Tests in eLearn, if they ever got messed up.


• You can do all your settings in Respondus and directly publish them to eLearn


• You can publish to multiple classes in a single step in Respondus. (no copying components to your different sections)


• You can import Tests/Quizzes with pictures and diagrams into Respondus (.docx) format very easily, and publish them to eLearn


• You can Randomize your questions in Respondus to reduce cheating. etc. etc....

Respondus 4.0 Campus Wide Guide (P.D.F.)

Computer Software Training from CDE moves Online to Elearn!

In order to serve the Campus Community at Chattanooga State better, CDE Software Computer Training is now going "Online" in Elearn. This means that Software Computer Training is now available anytime anywhere on 18 different topics so far, with more to come. All this has been made possible through excellent support from Judy Lowe (AVP), and Ray Bertani (Director), and Tim Dills (Asst. Director),who have spent endless amount of time in assisting with the Course Design. Courses being offered so far are:

• Microsoft Word 2007


• Microsoft Excel 2007


• Microsoft PowerPoint 2007


• Microsoft Access 2007


• Computer Basics, Security, and Maintenance


• Adobe Acrobat Professional


• Respondus 4.0 Campus Wide and lockdown Browser


• Outlook 2007, Outlook Exchange Server, and Outlook Web Access


• Microsoft Project 2007


• New Employee Faculty/Staff Orientation


• MS Internet Explorer 8.0


• MS Visio 2007


• Integrating Office 2007 with Word, Excel and Access


• MS SharePoint Server


• MS Publisher 2007


• Adobe Photoshop CS3


• MS OneNote 2007


• MS SharePoint Designer 2007

Apple Introduces the New iPad 2!!

The iPad 2 is the New Version of Apple's original iPad. It is 33% thinner, and 15% lighter. It uses a dual core A5 Chip which makes it considerably faster than the iPad. Even with the increased processor speed, it still gives you the 10 hour battery life of the original iPad, before it needs to be plugged in for a recharge.

The New iPad 2 has two cameras with one capable of HD video. It is great for making video calls on your iPad. It has an incredibly responsive Multi-Touch Screen, a large High-Resolution LED backliit display. The New iPad has some incredibly wonderful apps for Education, with hundreds more in the process of development.

WebCRD - Printing Services on the Web

WebCRD is the Web Based Printing Service available at Chattanooga State. The beauty of this system is that you can order Print Copies of your documents like Word Files, PowerPoint Files, PDF Files etc. right from your office computer, on the WebCRD website. Talk about convenience !! All this is possible thanks to Roger Shipley, who heads up the Printing Services Department. The video above shows folks how easy it is to use WebCRD, and how to exactly use the service on the Web.

Sharing PowerPoints using SlideShare

View more presentations from pparakh.

Have you ever given a Professional Presentation, and afterwards folks have requested a copy of your presentation?Well SlideShare is a free web application that helps you to share your PowerPoints on the Web. You can even embed the Presentation on your Blog!! How cool is that!!

All you have to do is first create a Free Account with SlideShare. Next you can upload your PowerPoint File, by clicking on the Upload Button. Once the File uploads, you can view it in SlideShare. You can then take the embed code from SlideShare and Embed it in your Blog.

If you click on the Menu Button on the bottom left hand side, and then select Full Screen, you can view the Presentation in Full Screen Mode. Now that is totally Awesome!! To see your Presentation with greater clarity, you should convert it to a PDF, before you upload it to SlideShare.

The New UI in Office 2007

Click To Play

Welcome to the New User Interface in Word 2007. Gone are the Toolbars and Drop Down Menus, which have now been replaced by the Ribbon, and Tabs. A New Office Button has been added in Word 2007. Clicking on the button, reveals all the commands that were previously under the file menu, in Office 2003.

Why did Microsoft have to change the user-interface in Office 2007? Well, when Microsoft first came out with Word 1.0, it had about 100 comands. After all the versions of Office, Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, and now Office 2007, Microsoft has ended up with about 1500 commands. So the old user-interface was just not adequate for easily displaying all the commands, as a lot of them were being buried deep in Drop Down Menus, and Dialog boxes.

So Microsoft Came up with this new UI, that makes it a lot easier to use Office. Most folks agree that this is the most significant improvement to Office that has been made by Microsoft. A Podcast of the above movie is available for Download in I-Tunes, or on a Video I-Pod

Engineering Body Parts - A Great Scientific Breakthrough?

This is a facinating video of the TED conference where Dr. Anthony Atalla talks about engineering blood vessels, bladders, and kidneys using human stem cells. While blood vessels and bladders have been successfully engineered, the more complex organs like kidneys and livers, are still in an experimental stage.

The awesome thing about all this is that since the stem cells are obtained from the patient's organs, there is no possibility of the body rejecting the engineered organ, and no immune suppressing drugs are required.

E-Academy and Office 2010

The New Version of Office 2010 is available free of cost for installation on campus computers.

However, Chattanooga State, and Tennesse Board of Regents (TBR), participates in the E-Academy Program, that allow members of Chattanooga State's Faculty, Staff and Students, buy Microsoft Products at reduced prices.

So there is now available a wonderful opportunity to buy Microsoft Office 2010 products at substantially reduced costs, through E-Academy, for their Home Computers.

• Click on Sign-in, then click on Register



• Check an account has been created for me and I want to register it
  


• Type in your Chattanooga State e-mail address for your account identifier



• The system will then guide you to type your name, etc to complete registration of your account.

Click on Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, and you get the choices you need. The Microsoft Office Professional Plus has Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Publisher, Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint, Communicator, & Info path, for only $75.75. This version in stores costs $200-$300.

So take advantage of this great opportunity. Please Note: This is only available for Full Time Faculty/Staff

Nanosolar - a Breakthrough in Solar Technology

Nanosolar Technology Overview from Nanosolar Communications on Vimeo.

Nanosolar is a company based in California that has come up with an innovative way to create Solar Panels. The Solar Panels are printed on Aluminium Sheets, much as you would print a Newspaper. Traditional Solar Panels are manufactured using Silicon(similar to semi-conductor technology) which is a very expensive manufacturing process, but Nanosolar uses a propriatory C.I.G.S. (Copper, Indium, Gallium, and Selenium)process (similar to printing), along with a nano-particle ink.

Nanosolar has managed to produce low cost panels that can be mass produced quickly and easily, with efficiencies running around 12%. So Nanosolar can produce Solar Panels at a very cost-effective rate, that approaches traditional methods of generating electricity (ex. coal-fired plants), with the added benefit of zero pollution.

Amazon's New Third Generation Kindle

Amazon.com's third generation Kindle has temporarily sold out according to the online retailer. The new Kindle is going to provide fierce competition to the Apple iPad, and other e-readers.

There are two models available, the third generation Kindle (Free 3G) for $189, and the Kindle with wi-fi, for $ 139. The new Kindle has a 6-inch e-ink screen with 50% better contrast, so you can read the screen even in bright sunlight.

The body is 21% smaller, and 15 % lighter weighing in at only 8.7 ounces, and a battery life of up to one month. The storage has been expanded to 3,500 books, and most users can carry their entire library with them.

The New Kindle has 20% faster page turns, has an enhanced PDF Reader, and a New WebKit-Based browser, with which you can browse the web over Wi-Fi. Low book prices for over 510,000 books, which are available for less than $10 each, and over 1.8 million free, out of copyright, pre 1923 books are available including such Classics as Pride and Prejudice.

It also has a Text-to-Speech capability, that allows the Kindle to read out loud English-language content to you. The pricing structure is so low as to give competitors a tough price point to compete with.

Apple's New iPad-The New Laptop Killer?

Apple has recently released it's new iPad, which looks something in between it's iPhone and the wildly successful Macbook line of computers. The iPad has a 9.7" 1024 by 768 pixel capacitive multi-touch LED backlit screen and is thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook, and weighs only 1.5 pounds.

This device will provide fresh competition against e-Books like the Amazon Kindle, and Netbooks introduced a couple of years ago by various computer manufacturers. It has a 25 watt-hour lithium polymer battery which can keep the iPad powered for roughly 10 hours and 45 minutes, after which it needs to be plugged in.

The iPad packs Apple's custom 1GHz A4 system on-a-chip. Also on board is 802.11a /b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a digital compass, accelerometer, microphone, and ambient light sensor. It has a 30 pin connector just as on other mobile devices. It runs more than 150,000 apps that work on the iPhone. It comes with 16, 32, or 64 Gigabytes of Flash memory. It however does not have USB ports or a Web cam, neither is the memory upgradeable, which if added would tremendously increase the value of this computing device.

Microsoft Application Virtualization - App-V

Microsoft Application Virtualization also known as App-V is an application virtualization and application streaming solution from Microsoft.

Let me admit at the outset my ignorance on this subject. I know enough about it to be really dangerous, but here goes.

Microsoft Application Virtualization (MS App-V) platform allows applications to be deployed in real-time to any client from a virtual application server. It removes the need for local installation of the applications.

Instead, only the App-v client needs to be installed on the client machines. All application data is permanently stored on the virtual application server. Whichever software is needed is either streamed or locally cached from the application server on demand and run locally.

MS App-V thus allows centralized installation and management of deployed applications. It supports policy based access control; administrators can define and restrict access to the applications by certain users by defining policies governing the usage.

App-V also allows copy of the applications across multiple application servers for better scalability and fault tolerance, and also features a tracking interface to track the usage of the virtualized application.

The App-V client presents the user with a list of applications, to which the user has access. The user can then launch a virtualized instance of the application.

Depending on the configuration, the systems administrator can be either notified of the action via email or it can require an explicit confirmation from the administrator for the application to start streaming and initialize or it can just simply check the Active Directory for the user's rights and stream the application to the user if it is authorized to run the application.

Thanks to Greg Jackson (Associate Vice President - Computer Services) and a Developer from Dell Computers, the proof of concept was demonstrated for App-V. This should allow for greater efficiencies in Deployment of Applications, and some good Cost Savings.

Windows Live Skydrive or 25 Gigs in the Sky!!

Windows Live Skydrive helps you to store, access, and share your files with friends or co-workers, from anywhere online. Free 25 GB online storage means you can easily get to your stuff with just a few quick clicks.

All you have to do is simply drag and drop your files, and multiple files can be uploaded to sky drive in seconds.

With Windows Live Skydrive you get 25 GB of free, password-protected online storage, and you’ve got the freedom to share large photos, files, and documents. You set the passwords and you decide who sees what, so you have confidence that your data is in your control.

So now if you you forget your zip drive at home, you can still access that presentation that you may need from Skydrive. But some of you may say how is Sky Drive different from Office Live Workspace ?

Office Live Workspace is based on a hosted version of Sharepoint, which is a collaboration and document management solution primarily used by enterprises. What Microsoft has done is take the document management solution part of Sharepoint, host it on their own servers, strip down the functionality, offer it for free to public/individual users and market it as a solution specifically for Office documents (of course, you can store other types of files on Workspace as well).

The most important difference between Office Live Workspace and Skydrive is that in Office Live Workspace you can access your documents directly from within the Office applications via the add-on.

Skydrive is part of Windows Live, which is suitable for storing and sharing a range of files (not just Office documents), but the files are only accessible via the web interface and cannot be accessed via Office applications. There is also no document history/versioning in Skydrive. There is also more storage for Skydrive (25GB) vs. Office Live Workspace (5GB)

So it's 25 Gigs in the Sky aye laddie, it's 25 Gigs in the Sky, it's 25 Gigs in the Sky aye laddie, it's 25 Gigs in the Sky!!

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 - Productivity Improvement Tool

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 is a collaboration software program that helps teams work together dynamically and effectively, even if team members work for different organizations, work remotely, or work offline.

Working in Groove workspaces (virtual folders) saves time, increases productivity, and strengthens the quality of team deliverables. Office Groove 2007 is just one example of how the 2007 Microsoft Office system helps teams and organizations collaborate more effectively.

Groove 2007 helps to keep your team, tools, files, and information in one place.

• Create a Groove workspace right on your computer with two clicks.
  
• Invite your colleagues, partners, and customers without worrying about networks or servers.
  
• Add tools to support your team’s evolving needs: file-sharing, discussions, meetings, business forms, and more

The thing that boggles my mind, is why more folks are not interested in learning about Groove 2007, and using it to improve their productivity. For Ex. this would be a great collaboration tool to use for meetings on Banner, or for preparing for a SAC's review, etc.

This tool is fairly easy to use. Please watch the following movie: Getting to Know Groove 2007 and Synchronizing Documents with Groove 2007

The New Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Professional

The New Adobe Acrobat 9.0 has some new and very interesting features. Most of the features are incremental in nature, with some excellent new additions like Adobe Portfolio (more later..). Acrobat 9.0 comes in four versions, including the Acrobat 9 Pro version that ships in Creative Suite 4.

The free Adobe Reader is the most minimal version; the three commercial versions, Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended add various levels of authoring ability.

The Standard version creates PDF files, PDF Portfolios, and fillable PDF forms. The Pro version adds a wide range of collaboration and document-compare features.

The Pro Extended version has everything in Pro as well as the ability to embed standard video formats into PDF files, create interactive presentations, and create and manage 3D PDF files. For many authors of PDF output, the ability to embed video formats will be a major incentive for upgrading from the Acrobat Pro in CS4 to Acrobat Pro Extended.

Software Enhancements and New Features
Admittedly, there are quite a few, both on the technical side of high-end print production, and the more creative side, such as with the new Portfolio feature. In Acrobat terms, a portfolio is any collection of files that are then automatically displayed in portfolio-like templates.

Thanks to the new Flash support in PDF, a designer can assemble a group of PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign, JPEG, and Flash media files into the Portfolio window of Acrobat. You choose various layouts and preferences for how these files will be displayed, and then save the portfolio as a PDF file. Clients or colleagues can view your portfolio (including videos) with the latest Acrobat Reader.

Some other new features are:

• Combine videos, movies, simulations and 3D objects into a single compressed PDF Portfolio


• Personalize PDF Portfolios with your branding and choice of navigation


• Include searchable interactive maps


• Insert FLV or H.264 video for direct playback
  
• Capture web pages as rich, dynamic PDF files


• Convert PDF files back to Word 2007 format


• Create fillable forms with Live Cycle Designer, and Track forms


• Use Acrobat.com free of charge, to store and share documents, document reviews, etc.

Office Live Add-in

Office Live Add-in is a free download from Microsoft, that makes Office Live Workspace really come alive. Let me explain.

Office Live Workspace on it’s own is a very useful tool. For instance, the 5GB of free storage space can be used as a backup for important files. The browser preview of Office documents allows full fidelity viewing of those files from any internet connected computer, even if Microsoft Office is not installed.

Personally, I find this very useful for viewing content whilst travelling for business or pleasure. It really reduces the need to carry a laptop everywhere.

However, Office Live Workspace really comes alive when the add-in for Office is installed. This small download facilitates the opening, editing and saving of documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The Office Live Add-in works with Office 2007, 2003 and XP, meaning you can open files directly from Office Live and then save them back to Office Live. This effectively allows you to use Office Live Workspace as an extra 5GB of disk space that is accessible from anywhere, with the ability to invite others in to view and comment on files.

Microsoft Rocks with Microsoft Office Live!

Microsoft Office Live is a set of Internet-based services designed for consumers and small businesses interested in storing and sharing documents online or creating a website.

As of 2009, it consists of two services, Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business. Office Live may be Microsoft's answer to Google Docs.

Have you ever arrived at work only to realize you left your thumb drive with your revised presentation at home? Or have you ever wondered if the documents you received through an email is the most current? Have there been changes?

Work can be very frustrating when were not all on the same page, so to speak. Wouldn’t it be nice to have access to your documents from any computer in the world? As well as sharing files with friends and workmates, in a way that everyone has the most recent version?

Well Microsoft has done it again with Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business. Microsoft gives you the following:

• 5 Gigabytes of storage on the web completely free of cost


• You can store and share your documents


• Works with Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007


• View, edit, share documents with password protection


• You can create a very good looking Web Site completely free, and hosted by Microsoft.

Now tell me if that's not totally awesome!!

Microsoft hits a Home Run with Windows 7!!

The New version of Windows, Windows 7 has recently been released for Production by Microsoft Corp. It's been three years since Microsoft introduced their last version of Windows Vista, which was not as popular.

I have a feeling that tons of people may upgrade to Win7 from Win XP. This time it seems as if Microsoft has really listened to customer feedback.

Windows 7 seems to work faster than Vista, and application windows seem to open up a lot snappier and Win7 seems to run as well with lesser system resources, such as memory, and slower CPU's and Netbooks.

The Taskbar is new and improved, and let's you pin Application Icons onto it. The task bar has combined ‘launching programs’ with 'switching between programs’, resulting in a single menu with bigger icons. There is also a JumpList with each icon – akin to a start menu - so you can open a recent word document right from this JumpList.

One of the most exciting features is Windows multi-touch. This allows you to move, resize, rotate, two-finger zoom, flick and pan objects by simply touching the LCD Screen.

Win 7 has backward compatibility with Win XP, and Vista, so that older device drivers, applications, and hardware, will run in Win 7 right off the bat.

The Libraries feature, organizes file type folders that show you all files of a particular type in one view – Ex: all music files across all directories in a ‘Music Library’.

There is also less user account control (UAC), which was quite a significant annoyance on Windows Vista machines. (Top 25 Features of Windows7)