Microsoft Office 2010 – What’s New

Earlier this year Microsoft announced that Office 2010 will be released sometime in the first half of 2010 – very likely in the first quarter of 2010. With so many businesses dependent on the Office suite of products I thought it would be good to post a quick preview of what Microsoft expects to deliver in this new iteration of Office. Additionally, I’ll be posting regularly on the features and changes of each application – Word, Excel, Outlook and the rest as the weeks roll on. Presently, I thought I might provide a quick overview of the general concepts and goals behind the upcoming new version

Design – Office 2010 will make use of the familiar “ribbon” navigation tools found in Office 2007. Unlike ’07, however, Outlook will also take on the ribbon look and feel. Additionally, the “file” button (the Microsoft symbol in the upper left hand corner of the interface in Office 2007) will be incorporated into the toolbar – hopefully avoiding some of the confusion the file button caused in the 2007 line of products.

Access – Office 2010 will ship with what are called Office Web Apps. Essentially, these are lightweight versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote that are all accessible via desktop, mobile devices, and Web browser. Clearly, Microsoft thinks Google is onto something with their Google Docs and it will be interesting to see how the two compare.

Collaboration – Just like in the 2007 product, significant emphasis was put on the ability to collaborate with other people on documents. This includes a number of updates to the core product (enhanced security, deeper integration with SharePoint, and obviously the integrated use of Office Web Apps.

Social Media? – Okay, this is entirely unfounded – well almost entirely unfounded – but in writing this post I found information stating that Word 2010 will include functionality that allows users to integrate with social media tools such as Facebook and twitter. Interesting? Yes. Confirmed? No.

Stay tuned for more posts on the upcoming Office 2010 release. Definitely more good stuff to come.

Remote Web Workplace Active X control problems in IE7 or IE8

Just a friendly reminder to all our clients and loyal viewers that if Internet Explorer updates from 6 to 7 or 7 to 8 because of Windows Updates on your home computer that the activex control used to connect to your machines may get reset.  If this happens when you click the connect button a drop down should come down from just below the URL bar to install the activex control.  You can also click on the gears in the lower right on IE 8.  You may have to five it a second then close your browser and redo the login process completely.   Also make sure you have added your RWW address to your trusted sites list in Tools->Internet Options->Security Tab.

RWW is a great economical remote access tool for small to midsize companies.  As always feel free to contact us to discuss RWW vs. Logmein vs. Terminal Services or other remote access products.

ITP Engineers

ITP Becomes the IT Provider for “The Credit Man”, Michael Mack

ITP is proud to announce our newly formed relationship with “The Credit Man”, Michael Mack.  Attorney Mack and his staff provide quality debt consolidation and bankruptcy services for their clients.  ITP will be providing Attorney Mack and his staff with comprehensive IT consulting including network support, legal-specific application support, and a range of Internet & website services.  You can find out more about Attorney Michael Mack and his practice here.

Please join me in welcoming Attorney Mack and his staff into our “ITP Family.”

It’s Official – Paul Hager Becomes ITP Partner!

ITP is proud to introduce Paul Hager who joined the firm officially as a partner on August 1st. Paul comes to ITP with the unique blend of networking experience and an expertise in website design, Internet development and Internet marketing. Currently, Paul manages our Madison office, but can be found in our Milwaukee office fairly frequently. Many of you have already had the opportunity to work with Paul, but in case you haven’t you can find out more about Paul here.