I'm a long time user of the Maxthon browser which does everything you expect from Internet Explorer and a bit more like tabbed browsing, address line shortcuts and mouse gestures. But having recently started testing the Internet Explorer 7 beta I've just decided to abandon Maxthon and make IE my default browser once again. Some of the features like 'shrink to fit' in the Print options, integrated search, a nice RSS Feeds interface, and the incredibly useful Quick Tabs viewing mode which shows a live thumbnail of every open tab have convinced me to give IE another chance.
You can download the beta of IE7 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx. Hope you like it too!
I've previously posted about Outlook's annoying Ctrl-Enter shortcut which instantly sends your email, even if you accidentally type Ctrl-Enter midway through composing your email. There are a number of workaround options including disabling the shortcut (see http://blogs.technet.com/usefultechnology/archive/2005/08/23/409572.aspx), adding a time delay to email sending (see http://blogs.technet.com/usefultechnology/archive/2006/01/20/417790.aspx) or simply religiously avoiding pressing the Ctrl-Enter key combination.
Help is at hand in the new version of Outlook which will be launched as part of the 2007 Microsoft Office System. In the new version (let's call it Outlook 2007) pressing Ctrl-Enter while composing an email will bring up a helpful warning dialog box. You can disable it by clicking the 'Do not show me again' option but my advice is to keep this warning enabled to help save your blushes from premature sending.
My regular reader will recall that back in late 2005 I was busy rushing around the country supporting the Exchange Tour Unplugged. If you weren't able to join one of our tour dates you can now view some of the highlights on the TechNet IT's Showtime website at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=86.
As you'll see from the IT's Showtime site you can "Get the low down on upgrading from Exchange Server 5.5 to 2003 then discover how to get the most out of your new IT infrastructure. In this video you'll learn how to go mobile without the cost, stop spam at the front door and painlessly manage your messaging environment." Blimey! All that without even setting foot outside your front door!
I've been banging on for ages about the future state when we'll be able to listen to our emails and read our voicemails. And we're now on the brink of being able to do just that. Exchange Server "12" will introduce new unified messaging capabilities that will allow messages left on a phone system to be embedded into messages arriving in your Outlook Inbox. Users will also be able to phone their Exchange Server to have emails read out to them or use voice commands to interact with content they would normally only access through the Outlook client. All of this is great but this only allows us to 'listen to emails'. The 'read our voicemails' component remains tantalisingly out of reach.
Transcribing telephone messages is a hit and miss affair. Traditional phone lines only transmit voice at about 8kbps and that's only enough to guarantee about 70% accuracy in transcription. As more services move to VOIP (voice over IP) the potential for accurate voice transcription improves significantly allowing more than 95% accuracy in most instances. 70% accurate may sound high but it creates significant risk for mis-transcription leading to either gobbledegook or, more dangerously, complete misunderstandings. Who knows what could happen when "Don, Sell all the shares in Big Ship Inc" becomes "Don't sell all the shears in Pig Sheep Ink".
Thankfully, third-party services are already available that allow you to test automated voice transcription for yourself. There's a free 7 day trial available from http://www.spinvox.com/ that will convert your voice-messages into SMS text messages. Have a play and see what you think. It's impressive stuff and hugely useful if you're in a public place or meeting, or simply in a noisy arena or club and unable to hear your voice-messages clearly. The general accuracy is very good (my wife asked if some poor soul was manually transcribing the messages). Just be alert for gobbledegook and if in doubt verify that the text conveys the meaning that the sender intended!
If you use more than one monitor then you'll already appreciate the massive productivity gains you get from having more screen estate to play with. But not many people take advantage of the amazing functionality provided by their graphics card software. One of my newest keyboard shortcuts is SHIFT+CTRL+` which I have set to move the active window to the next active monitor. This saves my having to drag windows around from one screen to the next and is superb for laying out my Inbox on one display and my calendar or task list on others.
You can discover and configure your graphics card software by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Properties. Then go to the Settings tab and click Advanced and go to the tab named after your Graphics card. Every graphics card features slightly different software so have a root around to find something like KeyBoard Shortcuts or Hotkeys.
One other monitor tip: To get to the Advanced tab of the Display Properties dialog box in super-quick time you can add a shortcut to your desktop or the quick launch toolbar that has a target %windir%\system32\desk.cpl ,3. Here's how:
- Right click the desktop
- Select New > Shortcut
- Type %windir%\system32\desk.cpl ,3 and press Next
- Give it a name like Change Display Settings
- Click Finish
Hey presto! You now have an icon which launches you straight to the Advanced tab of the Display Settings dialog
Tip: if %windir%\system32\desk.cpl ,3 takes you to the wrong tab, try changing the number 3 to something else. The " ,3" of the target determines the active tab but not all tab numbering sequences run in a logical numerical order as you might expect!
Ha! I knew there had to be a keyboard shortcut. My boss (God bless 'er) just asked me if there was a way to expand all grouped items in a list in Outlook to save having to click on the little down arrow inside each group. And there is: right-clicking the little arrow and choosing Expand All Groups does the job for you.
But then I figured there had to be a keyboard shortcut somewhere for this. And through a process known as "brute force and ignorance" I discovered that pressing CTRL and the + key on the number pad does the same thing: Expand All Groups in the current view. And CTRL and the - key on the number pad does the opposite: Collapse All Groups.
Another mouse manoeuvre bites the dust!
This makes perfect sense to me. Intel has unveiled a new laptop concept machine where the machines folds to allow the screen to face away from the keyboard so it can be used as an LCD TV in a docking station. Given the quality of modern laptop displays why (other than needing a larger screen size) would you buy a separate LCD TV and laptop when one device can easily perform both functions? More details at http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/04/10/77277_HNintellaptopdoubles_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/04/10/77277_HNintellaptopdoubles_1.html.
Meanwhile, not wanting to be outdone, Toshiba has announced the world's first high definition DVD equipped laptop, the bizarrely named Qosmio G30. The new machine will initially only be on sale in Japan with rollout in other markets expected sometime in the future. Of course, the success of this device will hinge on who wins the HD DVD vs Blu-Ray war. If HD DVD comes out on top, Toshiba could have scored a big win by being first to market with their latest laptop offering. More at http://www.mobile-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=02300000L1FS.
Now all we need is some easy means to turn the Quasimodo G30 (oops, I mean the Qosmio G30) into an LCD TV, and that fancy new TV and DVD system I've just bought for the lounge will be completely obsolete. Oh joy...
In a very short space of time Windows Desktop Search has become the tool I use most often while at my PC. If you don't have it yet you can download it for free from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/enterprise/default.mspx.
With a bit of registry tweaking you can also customise this tool to allow you to search across SharePoint Portal Server sites or against specific external websites.
And you can even add shortcuts to your favourite sites so that you can access them quickly straight from your desktop. For example, by typing @#ms,http://www.microsoft.com into the Desktop Search box on your desktop you'll add a shortcut that will allow you to launch your browser straight to www.microsoft.com simply by typing #ms into the Windows Desktop Search box. Very handy!
If you want to get fancy, now try a shortcut like @#efred,mailto:fred@freddomainz.com that will allow you to start composing an email to Fred (using the fictitious email address fred@freddomainz.com) simply by typing #efred in the Windows Desktop Search box. Or if you want to instantly email a group of people try setting a shortcut like @#eteam,mailto:person1@myteam.com;person2@myteam.com;person3@myteam.com. Again, very handy!
Good news for IT Pros and Developers in the UK: registration for the Microsoft Technical Roadshow 2006 is now open.
The May/June roadshow will visit five venues across the UK: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, London and Bristol. We'll be giving detailed technical insights into a host of current and future technologies including Windows Vista, Exchange "12", 2007 Microsoft Office System, WinFX and ISA Server 2006.
To find out more and book your place visit www.microsoft.com/uk/techroadshow2006.
There are numerous keyboard shortcuts you can use in Outlook to navigate through the interface and read your email in double-quick time.
The space bar is one of my favourites. Make sure your reading pane is visible then try it by clicking on an email in your Inbox then pressing the space bar. If the email is longer than your reading pane can display each press of the space bar scrolls through the email for you. If you want to go backwards press SHIFT+space. And when you've finished reading one email, another click of the space bar brings up the next email in your Inbox. Pretty quick, eh?!
Another favourite of mine comes into play when you have opened an email in its own window. Once you've finished reading the email try pressing CTRL+>. As if by magic the next email in your active folder appears in the same window! Need to put yourself in reverse? Just press CTRL+<.
I've been thinking... What would you do if you were suddenly unable to access the Internet from home? Maybe the telephone line was down due to engineering works or your modem router packed up. Or there was a power outage...
It's worth thinking about these situations and planning in advance. One smart move is to keep an old modem (even dial-up if that's all you have) in the attic just in case you hardware fails. Another is to find out where the local internet cafes or wi-fi hotspots are using a tool like http://www.bcentral.co.uk/technology/mobile/hotspot/hotspot.aspx. Now, keep a paper copy of the results for your home location. If the worst happens, you could always finish your day's work while sitting in a bar. Maybe not such a disaster after all!
Yes, that is a real word. 'Utraquism' means "the use of two languages on an equal basis". And, yes, I didn't know its meaning either until I found it in dictionary. But it's a good word, and we should all use it more frequently.
In the most tenuous link you're ever likely to find on this blog, Office 2003 is pretty good at utraquism. In fact, your software can handle far more than just two languages; as many as you need in reality. But Office 2003 can only be multilingual this if you remember to enable the languages that you are likely to use. To do this, click Start, then point to All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools, then click on Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings. Here you can set your default language and Add/Remove languages based on your needs.
With the right languages set up in Office 2003 you can then type away being as multilingual as you like and the spelling and grammar checking will adapt accordingly. Just don't expect it to understand obscure words like utraquism!
Here's an excellent article that just caught my eye:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/manageinfo/email.mspx. Great advice for anyone struggling to tame the email beast.
Steve Clayton's blog helped me discover FolderShare, a brilliant little application that lets you share folders across devices. It's fabulous! Very easy to use, very quick and very smart! And I can finally wave goodbye to those crazy times of copying files to USB memory or CD or, dafter still, emailing things to myself! Now I just drag'n'drop files into a shared folder and can sit back, comfortable in the knowledge that FolderShare just synchronised the files to all my selected online computers! Brilliant!
Oh, and did I mention remote desktop search? Being able to instantly find anything on any linked online computer means you never need to be without an important file again!
Outlook was really messing with my mind this weekend when it started behaving really oddly. That was, at least, until I discovered a solution using a cunning combination of brute force and extreme web surfing!
On one of my computers I spotted that emails were still sitting in the Outbox long after I had pressed Send. It turns out that this can be caused by .Net framework add-ins that erroneously mark messages as 'read' even if they're sitting in the Outbox. And, of course, you can only send messages that are 'unread' otherwise they would arrive in your recipients' inboxes looking like they had already been read.
So how do you work around this little bit of quirkiness? It's very simple. Open the item that's stuck in your Outbox, then (and this is the important bit) click on a different folder in the main Outlook window, now press Send and don't go back into the Outbox folder until the mail has left.
This 'sticking' behaviour only occurs if you click on the Outbox while it contains a message waiting to be sent. So if, like me, you rely on reopening emails from your Outbox, you might want to learn this tip by heart. Or, perhaps, try disabling the add-in that may be causing this behaviour. Slipstick has a detailed list of offending add-ins here.