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)

Microsoft Office 2010 - the New Version of Office!!

Office 2010 is the New Version of Microsoft Office that has been scheduled for release next year. Microsoft has done it again, thanks to pressure from Google.

Facing potential challenges from Google’s browser-based Apps products and its new Chrome OS, Microsoft has been touting its 'three screens strategy' which is the ability for products to synchronize across the phone, browser, and desktop.

As a direct response to Google Apps, Microsoft is rolling out a LITE, FREE, Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. The web-based versions of these products have fewer features than their desktop cousins but still give users basic tools to edit and change documents, and collaborate.

Innovation is back, and there are things that are just plain cool in this suite. Watch how Microsoft has improved copy and paste features. In Outlook 2010, watch how Microsoft has added so many new features. (Office 2010 movies)

The Backstage View in Microsoft Office 2010 applications is accessed when you click the Office Button. Each application in Office 2010 has a different coloured Backstage View. Microsoft included Backstage to help people use more of the Tools available outside their documents. This includes tasks such as printing, and saving files.

PowerPoint 2010, has several new features added to it, including the ability to edit images and video from within PowerPoint. The image editing tool is similar to a simple basic version of Photoshop, and the video editing tool is similar to a basic version of iMovie. Also Microsoft has added a Web-Ex like live sharing feature with other users.

Word 2010 has enhanced features to create professional quality documents, and some excellent collaboration features. The Web Version of Word 2010, maintains the exact fidelity of the document in a Browser. This feat was accomplished with JavaScript. In the browser, documents retain the same look and feel as in the desktop. The browser version still has the “ribbon user interface,” where you can change fonts, size, formatting, styles etc.

Excel 2010, can now run in the browser, and just like PowerPoint you can publish your spread sheets to the browser. The browser version has less features than the desktop version, but has more features than Google spread sheets.

Outlook 2010, has some nifty new features, including the Ribbon Interface, which has now been extended to all Microsoft Office 2010 products including OneNote. I will be discussing more details of all Office 2010 product at a later date.

Microsoft's New Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 is the New version of Office that was released by Microsoft. This version of Office 2007 has some very exciting new features, along with a completely redesigned User Interface.

The overriding design goal for the new user interface, Microsoft says, is to make it easier for users "to find and use the full range of features these applications provide" while preserving "an uncluttered workspace that reduces distraction for users so they can spend more time and energy focused on their work."

In Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, the Drop Down Menus we have grown to be so familiar with, have been replaced by the New Ribbon interface. Instead of drop down Menus we now have Tabs. The Microsoft Office button is new, as well as extensive new Keyboard shortcuts.

For a quick overview of the New Features in Microsoft Office 2007 please click on this movie.

Contextual Tabs like the Pictures Tab, appears only when you need them, i.e. for Ex. when you click on a picture. Live Preview is an excellent new feature that gives you a live preview just by pointing to a selected style. Also numerous new Style galleries have been provided, for quick and elegant styles. Microsoft Access 2007 has undergone a more drastic makeover.

Professor Corrinne Hoisington visits Chatt. State

The Business and Information Systems division under the auspices of Betsy Headrick, Leon Daniel, and Jim Steele, invited Corrinne Hoisington a professor at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, Virginia, to introduce faculty/staff at Chattanooga State to the New Microsoft Office 2007.

Professor Hoisington has over 20 years of teaching experience and was the 2004 recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Computer Programming award. A dynamic speaker, she regularly presents on new technology and education trends to instructors across the United States.

The sessions on Microsoft Office 2007 that were conducted at the beginning of the Fall Semester, were very exciting and informative. Thanks, Business and Information Systems division for maintaining Chattanooga State's leadership in Information Technology.

Microsoft's Expression Web

Expression Web is a new site-development tool, recently released by Microsoft as a replacement for its FrontPage 2003. Expression Web is part of Expression Studio (Suite) which also includes Expression Blend, Expression Design, and Expression Media.

• Expression Web is a professional design tool to create modern standards - based sites (XHTML, CSS, Microsoft.Net, ASP.Net, RSS) which deliver superior quality on the web.
• Expression Blend is the professional design tool to create engaging Web connected user experiences for windows (Microsoft's answer to Flash?)
• Expression Design is a professional illustration and graphic design tool that let's you build compelling elements for both web and desktop applications user interface.
• Expression Media is a professional asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets for effortless retrieval and presentation.

Please click on Expression Studio to watch an Overview video on it.

Why is Microsoft discontinuing FrontPage 2003? Why doesn't it simply call its new program something like FrontPage 2007? Expression Web's senior program manager, Wayne Smith, explained that his team's new HTML tool was "rewritten from the ground up" and is not merely a refresh of the old FrontPage 2003 code.

Expression Web does, in fact, share much of the FP03 look and feel. Some of the dialog boxes in Expression Web, for example, are indistinguishable from those that perform the same functions in Microsoft's older HTML editor.

Expression Web is being positioned as a tool for serious, professional Web developers, especially those who are already versed in the ways of ASP.NET 2.0. These developers will find task panes that facilitate ASP.NET usage and excellent round-trip compatibility for code that is edited in Microsoft's Visual Studio by programmers and in Expression Web by graphic designers.

For more details click on Expression Web

Preview of Windows Vista and Office 2007

This is a preview of Windows Vista, the new Operating System to be released in Jan 2007, and Office 2007, the new version of Microsoft Office. Windows Vista will be the new replacement for the Windows XP Operating System.

Windows Vista has a newly designed user interface, and an elegant and sophisticated look and has special built in security features, that makes it a whole lot less vulnerable to worms and viruses. It has a sidebar on the desktop, which gives you the ability to add gadgets.

Microsoft has also given the green light for the final release for Office 2007 which will replace the Office 2003 suite currently being used. The Office 2007 user interface has been vastly improved, the New Ribbon interface gives quick access to dozens of features that used to be hidden behind labyrinthine menus, and it also displays even quicker keyboard shortcuts, and commands that can be accessed with the fewest number of mouse clicks or keystrokes.

Microsoft Project 2003

This is a slideshow on Microsoft Project 2003, and is part of my class on using Microsoft Project for creating Project Schedules for Banner. I do a series of three classes with hands on work in the Faculty/Staff Training Lab.

The PowerPoint for the above was created and then uploaded to "my slideshare" a free website, thanks to Dr. Jean Claude Bradley from Drexel Univ. who happens to be my mentor.