1. Add files to Web Apps

The process of adding files to Office 2010 Web Apps is pretty simple. First, you need a Windows Live account (free!), and you need to be a registered user of an installation of Office 2010. You can then log in, click Add Files, and choose the files you want to upload to Web space. And just like that you have access to your files from any web-enabled device, which brings us to our next point.

2. Work on Office files from anywhere

Once a file is in your Windows Live SkyDrive account, it can be opened, edited, enhanced, and shared easily. The tools are almost identical to those in the desktop version of Office 2010, and the program features work in the same way.

3. Create a new file

Not only can you add and edit files you’ve created on a desktop system, but you can also use Web Apps to create new files in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. After you log in to your SkyDrive account, click the icon of the file you want to create on the right side of the browser window. You’ll have access to a new document where you can choose a template, add content, and save and share the file as you ordinarily would.

4. Use the Windows Live Sign-In Assistant

Windows Live offers a utility that signs you in automatically so you don’t have to stop and log in each time you want to work with Web Apps files. You will be prompted to install the Sign-In Assistant the first time you open a file in the Office 2010 Web Apps. Just click the link provided to start a wizard that walks you through the process of downloading and installing this useful tool.

5. Give users permission to share your files

The user permissions features in Windows Live lets you share your files with others. Create a folder to store the file by clicking New and choosing Folder. Add a name for the folder and click the Change link in the Share With selection (Figure B). Add the email addresses of those you want to share the file with or click Select From Your Contact List to display all Windows Live contacts and click the users you want to add. For each one, choose whether you want to assign the permissions that enable that person to add, edit, and delete files or simply view them in the folder. The users you specified will be able to access the files you add to the folder you just created.

6. Work collaboratively online

The Office 2010 Web Apps, including Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Excel, enable you to work online with others in real time. When you have given a user the necessary permissions for the file, the Office Web App lets you know when others are working with you in the file. You can click the lower-right corner of the status bar to display the list of others working in the file.

7. Download a file

You can move files from the online environment to your desktop and back. Hover the mouse over a file in SkyDrive, click More, and then choose Download. You will be prompted to choose the folder where you want to store the file. While you’re working in a file in Web Apps, you can open the file in your desktop application. When you save and close the file, any and all changes are synchronized with the online version.

8. Grab a snapshot of a workbook

If you want to download only a portion of the file you’re working on, you can click the File tab (in the Excel Web App) and choose Download A Snapshot. This downloads a copy of the workbook to your computer that includes only the values and the formatting so you can review the workbook as needed.

Overall, Office 2010 Web Apps gives you the power and reliability of Microsoft’s Office suite with the flexibility to work from anywhere. If you are a registered Office 2010 user and want to be productive anywhere and everywhere, then you should definitely look into Office 2010 Web Apps. Call Responza at 206-762-5100 to learn how to implement this service at your business today!

The new OS has been widely anticipated as the North American smartphone leader tries to catch up with the innovations that Apple and Google have brought to the market in the past three years.

BlackBerry 6 software looks and feels a lot more like iPhone and Android, but the first BlackBerry 6 device, the BlackBerry Torch 9800, features a slide-down version of the traditional BlackBerry keyboard.

Here are the official specs of the Torch:

* Carrier: AT&T

* Launch date: August 12, 2010

* Price: $199

* BlackBerry 6 operating system

* Hardware qwerty keyboard (slide-down)

* 3.2 inch 480 x 360 screen

* 512 MB SDRAM

* 4 GB eMMC + 4 GB media card (expandable to 32 GB)

* 5 MP camera, autofocus, flash, video recording

* 1300 mAh battery

* Weight: 161g

* Dimensions: 111(h) x 62(w) x 14.6(d) mm

And here is what’s included in the new BlackBerry operating system:

* Full multitouch interface

* Faster Webkit browser

* Universal inbox, including Facebook, Twitter, and BlackBerry Messenger

* Redesigned home screen

* Universal search

* Context-sensitive menus

* Social tools

* Content sync over Wi-Fi

* Homescreen notification previews

* Will run older (pre-6) BlackBerry apps

* BlackBerry Bold (9650 and 9700) and Pearl 3G will be upgradeable to BlackBerry 6

It’s too early to tell if these big moves will be enough for BlackBerry to keep pace with iPhones and Droids, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction for the business smartphone leader.

1) Recent docs are buried Backstage

In Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications, clicking the big Office button invoked a relatively compact menu with items such as New, Open, Save, and Print in the left pane. Recent Documents were handily displayed in the right pane.

In the final release of Office 2010, the Office button is gone. Instead, we have the File tab. It looks just like the rest of the Ribbon but instead of taking you to a Ribbon bar, clicking it opens up Backstage view — which has three panes and takes up much more space.

By default, to see your recent documents, you have to go to Backstage view and click Recent in the left pane. There is a way to change this: at the bottom of the list of recent documents, you’ll see the Quickly Access This Number Of Recent Documents check box, with a drop-down box to set the number. After you enable this option, your recent docs will show up in the left pane of the Backstage view. But it’s annoying that this option is not more obvious.

2) Upload Center takes center stage

Office 2010 is integrated with the free Office Web Apps, which can be very handy if you need to work at a public computer that doesn’t have Office installed (see “Office 2010: The Wonder of Web Apps”). However, if you don’t use Web Apps, you might be annoyed by the Upload Center icon that Office 2010 puts in the notification area (system tray) of your taskbar. Upload Center auto-starts by default when you boot the OS, so even if you uncheck the option to display it, it will run and take up valuable system resources. If you want to disable it completely, open the system configuration tool (msconfig.exe) and uncheck Microsoft Office 2010 on the Startup tab.

3) 64-bit can be a hindrance

2010 is the first version of Microsoft Office to come in a 64-bit version. This version can take advantage of the larger virtual and physical memory capacity of today’s 64-bit processors and operating systems. This is especially useful if you need to use large Excel spreadsheets (more than 2GB in size).

Also, you can’t install 64-bit Office if you have any 32-bit Office programs installed. This means you have to uninstall your 32-bit PowerPoint 2007, for instance. And you can’t install 32-bit PowerPoint 2010 (to get Flash support) alongside 64-bit Excel (for large file support).

64-bit software is the future, but you might not be ready just yet for the annoyances that come along with the more “futuristic” version of Office 2010.

4) Social networking integration falls short

Sometimes, the biggest annoyance in a new version of software is the disconnect between what new features could be and what they actually deliver. A good example in Office 2010 is social networking integration in Outlook. It’s a lovely idea: Check out your friends’ updates in the People Pane at the bottom of their email messages. The problem is that it’s really designed to work with SharePoint 2010 and if your company doesn’t use SharePoint, some of those great features won’t work.

There are social connectors for other networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Windows Live. And after you jump through some hoops — install an updated version of the Social Connector and then download and install the connector for each social network — you can see your friends’ status updates in the People Pane. What you can’t do is do anything with that information. This would have been so much better if they had provided a way to comment on or “like” updates or post your own updates from within Outlook. Just sayin’…

Summary

We at Responza like Office 2010 and use it every day. In most ways, it’s a big improvement over its predecessors — new editing effects for text and image; no more so-called smart-ware such as auto-recognition – but as with anything new, there are still some annoying aspects and bugs to work out. Let’s hope Microsoft addresses them in the next version, but in the meantime we’re always here to help. Give us a call at 206-762-5100 today for more tips on how to get the most out of Office 2010.

Most workers today cut their computing teeth on PCs, which were considered a hobbyist device 25 years ago. Some people saw the value of the PCs, but for a while corporate America clearly did not.

Many considered PCs to be security risks, and believed they did not provide the performance required or have a place in modern computing. At the same time, hype behind the PC was huge, dominating much of the tech press.

The emergence of cloud computing follows a familiar pattern. Many enterprises believe the cloud lacks the security and performance they require. They are pushing back on the hype, and some won’t yet allow any of their storage and computing functions to run off-premises.

The adoption pattern of cloud computing will be very much like that of the PC. There will be those that give it a try after considering the hype, and once proven they will take a stepwise approach to increasing its use. Also, there will be those forced to use cloud computing despite their personal feelings, pushed into it by the success of others. Still others will simply go with the flow; ultimately, you can’t argue with momentum.

Cloud computing, like the PC, is not a revolution around any particular concept. It’s an evolution in how we think about computing, with different and more efficient ways to do the same things done now.

How many of the early resistors of the PC do you think use them now?

1. Shouting: Scrolling text, automatic launches of video and audio, and screen-grabbing ads are all turnoffs.

2. Clutter: An over-abundance of links, boxes, and and menus paralyzes visitors with uncertainty, not to mention eye-strain.

3. Unfriendliness: Prescription-label-sized text, ill-used white space, links represented by obscure, unfamiliar icons … these are helping your visitors how?

4. Navigation Hazards: Broken or misdirected links, poorly worded links, an inability to go directly back to the home page—all will drive your visitors batty, if they even stick around.

5. Catastrophic Colors: We’re already on your site. Why the gaudy display of plumage to get our attention?

6. Lack of Contrast: Some color is good. Keeping a visitor’s interest requires balance.

7. Runaway Text: Hiding text off to the side or below the screen without easy scrolling tells users you just don’t care if they read it.

8. Drop-Down Debacles: Drop-down menus that disappear below the visible page and prevent visitors from getting at those unseen links are site-killers.

9. Devilish Details: Grammar gaffes and errors in spelling or fact-checking leave a lasting impression, and not a good one.

10. Printing Problems: Print-configured pages should actually print easily and in a usable fashion.

Responza’s team includes seasoned web design pros, so never hesitate to consult us if your site could use refreshing! For some samples, check out responza.com/webdev.

Or maybe you do have a pulse-pounding reaction to worksheets, but it’s due to anxiety, not excitement. What am I supposed to see in all this data? How hard is this going to be to decipher? Am I really smart enough to figure all this stuff out? What time is lunch?

You can lessen this type of math anxiety for those who view your worksheets by using some simple techniques in Excel to get your data message across clearly. Here are a few tips to get you started.

#1: Give your worksheet a good title

The ultimate goal of your worksheet is to present information in a way others will understand, right? Give readers a head start by titling your worksheet clearly. A good title lets readers know immediately what the content of the worksheet is going to show them — that way, they won’t have to work so hard. “2008 Projections” isn’t bad, but it leaves a lot of things out. What kind of projections? Sales? Hired Employees? New Store Openings? Be as clear as you can and, if necessary, add a subtitle. And if you plan to circulate the worksheet by e-mail, be sure that you title the worksheet file with something that reflects the content of the sheet itself. That way, when people open the file, they’ll know what to expect.

#2: Wake people up with color

Sure, black and white does the trick. But. It’s. Boring. For those of us who aren’t numbers people to start with, pouring over a black-and-white grid stuffed with an ocean of numerals is torture. Jazz it up by splashing a little color on the page. Choose an energizing color — green, orange, purple — for your column heads. Do something special with the title — maybe format it in a complementary color, add a picture at the top, put a background behind it to make it pop. Just be sure the color you add doesn’t actually detract from the readability of the page. You want the color and design of the worksheet to draw people into the page, not make them forget what they’re looking at.

Excel makes it easy to add a picture to the background of the worksheet as well. This is really a neat effect, if you have a reason to use it. As a general rule, don’t put pictures behind your data just for the fun of it — readers have to work harder to see what’s in the foreground. But if you want to promote something fun, such as a summer sales competition, you can raise the energy by adding a special picture behind the scenes.

#3: Let the format lead the eye

Have you ever felt your heart sink because you’ve got five minutes to prepare for a meeting and the worksheet you’re looking at makes no sense? Chances are, the problem is one of three things:
* You can’t immediately tell what you’re looking at.
* You can’t tell where to start on the page.
* You don’t have a context for the information.

The way in which you format your worksheet can solve all three of these potential problems for you. As a general rule, the largest items on your page will get the first look. Then, the eye will look for the next largest, and the next largest after that. The actual content — the data in the cells — is likely to be what your readers see last.

You can use this idea to your advantage when you plan the format of your page. Make the title stand out, good and bold, and make sure it says something clearly about the content you’re showing. Next, enlarge the column and row heads just a bit and put them in a second color. Readers will quickly scan the column and row headings to get a sense of how the information on the worksheet is organized. This will help them see what’s most important on the page and where they should begin.

If you have extra information you want to be sure readers see — for example, a note explaining why you’re displaying projected 2008 data even though it’s only 2007 — you can set it off by enclosing it in a border or using a second color. This will draw the reader’s eye to the note after they’ve taken in the most important items on the page.

#4: Apply a theme

Excel 2007 benefits from the hip new (or should I say, expanded and improved) themes feature that has been added throughout the core Office 2007 applications. Themes exist in Office 2003, but they were limited in design and functionality (and much less fun).

When you apply a theme to your Excel 2007 worksheet (by clicking the Page Layout tab and choosing Themes), you make a design choice that includes the font, color, table style, and effects of the information on your worksheet. The great thing about this feature is that you can dramatically change the look and feel of your information simply by opening the Themes gallery and clicking another choice.

#5: Don’t cram your charts

What would we do without charts in Excel? Charts are a saving grace for those who need to provide their information in the easiest possible way for readers to understand. A chart quickly shows readers what’s most important in your data (or at least, what’s most important in what you want to show right now) and presents each data item in relation to other items in the chart.

One mistake that Excel chart novices often make is to try to show absolutely everything under the sun in a single chart. You’ve got one shot, right? The best way to ensure that your readers will keep viewing your information is to make sure they understand what they’re looking at. And that means paring your chart down to the essentials and not littering the bars or pie slices with all sorts of labels and percentages and other nonessential items. Show what you need to get your point across and no more. Your readers will thank you for it.

#6: Diagrams are helpful

Excel 2007 includes another way to show your data visually. Now you can use SmartArt to create professional-looking diagrams for flowcharts, org charts, and much more. Creating a SmartArt diagram is similar to creating a chart — you choose the type of diagram you want to use, add your text, and then add bars, lines, suns, moons, whatever. You can tailor the diagram in an almost unlimited number of ways (including adding pictures to the shapes in the diagram).

#7: Take advantage of conditional formatting

I admit that I am easily amused by simple, colorful things. So I love the improved conditional formatting in Excel 2007. This is another feature that’s been dramatically enhanced and made easier to use in the newest version. Now you can use a variety of visualizations to help show trends in the data you’re presenting. You can use symbols, color bars, and more. To add conditional formatting to your worksheet, select the cells you want to showcase and click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group of the Home tab. Select the style of formatting you want to apply, and Live Preview will show how the formatting will look on your data. Nice.

#8: When in doubt, spell it out

If you are working on a complex worksheet and just can’t see how everyone will understand what you want them to focus on without a note or two, you can easily add comments to cells in the worksheet. Simply select the cell or range you want to add a note to, right-click, and choose Insert Comment. A small text box opens on top of your worksheet so that you can type the note you want to add. Your readers will know a comment exists at that point in your worksheet because a small red triangle appears in the upper-right corner of the cell. When a reader hovers the mouse pointer over the triangle, the note opens.

#9: Frame it

It’s an old trick, but it still works — if you want to draw a reader’s eye toward something on the page, box it. Newspapers do it, magazines do it, Web pages do it. If the design is done well, readers think they are getting something “extra” in that little box — and we all love getting something extra.

Select the cells you want to border and right-click on your selection. Choose Format Cells and select the Border tab. Test out different border styles and choose one that frames but doesn’t overwhelm your worksheet design. Click OK when you’ve found the style you want to use.

One caveat: Use the box idea sparingly. If you create more than one box on the page, readers might get confused about which one to read first and maybe even give up on reading any of it.

#10: Invite feedback

Finally, if you really want to make sure people are getting the message of your worksheet, ask. E-mail one or two coworkers and ask them to take a quick look at your data; then find out whether:
* It was easy to understand what the worksheet is about.
* They could clearly see what was most important on the page.
* They have any suggestions for ways you could make it easier to understand.

So what’s the result of all this? People will smile at you more when they pass you in the hallway, because you made their day easier — and helped them feel smarter — by making your information easier to understand. And who knows, you might even get a free lunch out of the deal.

FakeAV (Fake AntiVirus), also known as Rogues, or ScareWare, is malware that displays false alert messages about a threat that doesn’t actually exist. These alerts often prompt users to visit a website where they are asked to pay for these non-existent threats to be cleaned up. The FakeAV will continue to send these intrusive “alerts” until a payment is made. To learn more about these dangerous and innovative threats and how you can protect your business against them, please enjoy this insightful paper from Sophos Inc.

https://secure.sophos.com/sophos/docs/eng/papers/sophos-what-is-fakeav-wpna.pdf

How the app stores work

When it comes to apps, Apple led the way. Blackberry, Google, and Microsoft jumped into the fray soon thereafter. Apple and Google have garnered the lion’s share of the market, and here’s how they operate:

The problem

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Labs was quoted as saying:
“This year and next year we expect to see the industrialization of smartphone malware.”

The FBI is also concerned. Spencer Ante of the Wall Street Journal quotes Gordon Snow, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Division:

“Mobile phones are a huge source of vulnerability. We are definitely seeing an increase in criminal activity.”

Mr. Ante then paraphrases the rest of his conversation with the assistant director:

“The FBI’s Cyber Division recently began working on a number of cases based on tips about malicious programs in app stores. The cases involve apps designed to compromise banking on cell phones, as well as mobile “malware” used for espionage by foreign nations. To protect its own operations, the FBI bars its employees from downloading apps on FBI-issued smartphones.”

Experts have a good idea as to how this will happen. All the pieces are in place: immense traffic to the app-store sites, a great software delivery system, and no simple way to tell if an application is malicious or not. On top of that, with the number of applications being written and submitted every day, how is it possible to check every line of code? Cybercriminals have to be smiling.

Apple’s solution

Most developers dislike the tight control Apple has over the App Store. But, that control is in the iPhone user’s favor when it comes to vetting app software. According to CEO Steve Jobs, Apple checks each piece of software for the following:
* The app must work as advertised.
* The app cannot crash the iPhone.
* The app cannot use private application programming interfaces.

Google’s approach

Google does not vet applications submitted to their Android Marketplace. Google has specific rules, but relies on users to point out bad software. Google’s policy is as follows:
* Google will remotely disable apps found to be malicious.
* Google requires developers to register with Checkout.
* Google requires developers to declare what their application will need to interact with the phone.

What can we do?

If you pay attention to tech media, you know that neither Apple nor Google is impervious to malicious applications in their stores. Since that’s the case, here’s what we at Responza recommend to avoid downloading smartphone malware:
* Positive reviews: Examine reviews to ensure the application is from a reputable developer. There are web sites that test software for all smartphones. That’s a good place to start.
* Negative news: Due to the nebulous nature of smartphone app development, any negative information should be taken seriously, especially ones dealing with your finances.
* Healthy skepticism: The way app stores work should encourage a lack of trust on the user’s part.

The signs are here. Yet another useful and amazing technology is about to get used for evil. Thankfully, you have Responza on your side to prevent, diagnose, and eliminate new threats as they arise. If you think your smartphone has been compromised by a crooked app, call us right away.

And how did this affect them? www.quickbooks.com went down for hours. Also, over the past several years Intuit has quietly incorporated cloud dependant services into their software so if you use Payroll Services inside QuickBooks, you would not have been able to process your employees’ hard earned salaries.

E-mailing invoices and purchase orders from within QuickBooks also relies on cloud and you may not have been able to send them. If you accept credit card payments through QuickBooks, you may not have been able to get approvals or receive their associated deposits.

In QuickBooks 2010, Intuit has also added highly integrated document management to scan and attach documents like packing lists and bills to QuickBooks transactions. These files were also inaccessible during the outage.
If you use Intuit’s hosted version of QuickBooks, you could not use the software at all. This may have been an inconvenient interruption to your business, but all companies should be able to work around such occurrences by considering these possibilities and backup plans:

In the instance of a cloud outage, be prepared to continue to work using manual processes. Whether writing checks, processing payroll, or keeping track of the day’s receipts. If you have not considered such plans, a cloud outage could lead to a very frustrating several days.

The thing users must remember is that the cloud is not infallible. There will be outages, and everyone needs a plan in place to deal with them. Fortunately, your team of Responza IT consultants are disaster recovery experts ever at the ready to keep you dry when the cloud is all wet.

1. Backstage
   Consider it “mission control” for Office 2010 applications. Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and other applications in Office 2010 feature a Backstage area where users can send, save, share and perform a host of other functions without closing the current document. Backstage is also the nerve center where users can get real-time information about their documents and applications.
2. Outlook Quick Steps
   Outlook 2010 lets users set up what Microsoft is calling “Quick Steps,” which live in the middle of the ribbon. Quick Steps are essentially pre-defined macros that users create a button for, which assigns a short cut. For example, if a user changes jobs or responsibilities he or she can set up a Quick Step that when clicked will auto-generate a forward to the current person in that position, and will generate a reply alerting the center to the new contact person and delete the message. Up to 10 actions can be carried out in each Quick Step.
3. PowerPoint Broadcast
   PowerPoint Broadcast lets users broadcast a PowerPoint presentation on the fly. The cloud-based service is free; all users need is a Windows Live ID. A user builds a PowerPoint presentation, connects to the Broadcast service and sends the presentation to the cloud. From there, a URL is generated and the link can be sent to users in an IM, in an e-mail or can be copied and pasted. When the viewer clicks the link, it launches the presentation in their browser so they can view the presentation along with the presenter.
4. PowerPoint Photos
   Microsoft Office 2010 eliminates the need to paste and undo when it comes to editing photos and adding them to PowerPoint presentations. Now, a photo editor is included in PowerPoint. Users have access to most common photo editing tools. Users can crop, chop and change the background of images, correct colors, add artistic effects, and perform a host of other photo editing actions without leaving the PowerPoint application. Most of these features likewise apply to video.
5. Outlook Conversation View
   Conversation View collapses the Outlook inbox based on conversation IDs, not subject lines. That means a user can see all e-mails that are part of a single conversation collapsed into one chain, cleaning up inbox clutter and keeping the conversation flowing. Conversation View eases email management, letting users view only the most recent message in a discussion and move, flag or delete entire conversations in one fell swoop. Outlook 2010 also adds new features like previewing voicemail in the inbox where the first few words of a voicemail message are transferred to text in an e-mail and each word is hot linked to let users jump to a certain point in a message. There’s also a new Live Calendar Preview in Outlook that lets users view a meeting invite and see their calendar all from the inbox without having to jockey between the inbox and calendar tabs.
6. Outlook Social Connector
   Outlook Social Connector does just what it says it does, provide a social networking tool available in users’ inboxes. Users can pivot e-mails based on people. The pane at the bottom of the screen shows that person’s image, along with thumbnails of others on the e-mail string. From that view users can view attachments from a single sender and review e-mail exchanges. Additionally, when connected to SharePoint it gives access to social feeds and collaboration tools. Facebook and LinkedIn information integration is also available.
7. Excel Web App In Windows Live
   Microsoft Office 2010 also offers an Excel Web App that offers the same functionality of a desktop-based Excel app in the cloud. This App functionality also applies to sharing Excel documents in SharePoint.