word

Freeware office apps earn an update

For freeware productivity fans, March has ended like a lamb, not a lion. Microsoft Office replacement OpenOffice.org--download for Windows, Intel-based Macs and PowerPC-based Macs--and MS Word analogue and significantly smaller AbiWord have released updates that strengthen their functionality, expand their features, and ensure that they won't be rolling over to Web-based competitors anytime soon.

Redmond's MS Office is a behemoth of a program, but Silicon Valley-based Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice.org is hardly a lightweight. Currently, the update is only available for the Windows version of the suite, although updates for the Mac editions are expected … Read more

Google Docs: Now with more Word 2003

Google today updated the menu structure of the word processor in Google Docs. Gone are the menus that change the toolbars underneath. Gone are the useful but unusual "revision" and "tag" items. What we have now is familiar to anyone who's used Microsoft Word 2003. In fact, the five menu items have the same names as items on the menu bar of Word 2003.

Google is saying that Microsoft got it right in 2003. Ironically, with the 2007 Office suite, Microsoft itself has moved on to a prettier, but not universally loved menu structure that … Read more

Microsoft probes Word flaw that permits targeted attacks

Microsoft is looking into a vulnerability that could affect Word, the company said Monday.

Overall, Microsoft said, it believes the vulnerability's risk is limited because its requires people to take multiple steps for the hack to be successful. Microsoft said it is only aware of targeted attacks that take advantage of the flaw.

The vulnerability is in Microsoft's Jet Database engine, which can be exploited through Word. Microsoft is investigating whether other applications can also exploit the vulnerability.

According to Microsoft's security alert:

Customers running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, and Windows Vista Service … Read more

Microformats (I): Say it in six words

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the micro-format by asking its readers for their own six-word memoirs. Thousands submitted short life stories, ranging from the bittersweet ("Three marriages. Two divorces. BA .333"), poignant ("Look Mom: I've finally written something"), and sad ("I still make coffee for two") to the inspirational ("Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah") and aspirational ("Next Life Van Morrison Backup singer"). … Read more

Microsoft +/vs. Novell: The rich irony of then and now

There is a tragic (but rich) irony in the news that Microsoft failed in its appeal to throw out Novell's decade-old antitrust lawsuit against it. On one hand, you have Novell arguing (rightly) in court that Microsoft unfairly bullies competitors:

"Microsoft specifically targeted WordPerfect and Novell's other office productivity applications because they threatened Microsoft's Windows monopoly," according to the Novell court filing quoted by the Bloomberg news service.

In its case, Novell also said that Microsoft withheld technical information to make WordPerfect work with Windows 95.

On the other hand, we see Novell supping at the feet of Microsoft to revive its Linux business, conveniently forgetting that what Microsoft giveth, Microsoft taketh away the minute a competitor becomes inconvenient. But the irony gets better as we dig into Novell's complaint with Groklaw:… Read more

Create a simple form in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Office includes industrial-strength tools for creating forms of all types, but the Access database and InfoPath information manager are overkill for my meager form requirements. If I need to collect basic information from a bunch of people in a hurry, such as for planning a potluck lunch, I stick with the simple form-creation tools in Word.

Word 2007 groups the options found on the Forms toolbar in Word 2003 into the Legacy Tools button in the Controls section under the Developer tab. These form fields are a subset of Office 2007's Content Controls, which allow you to populate … Read more

Convert any Office file to PDF for free

Recently an associate whose PC lacked Adobe Acrobat sent me a Word file via e-mail, asking if I could convert it to PDF and e-mail it back to her. Since the process took all of about 30 seconds, I was delighted to help. Then the next day she sent two more files in need of conversion to PDF, and a couple of days after than another. After her fourth request of the week I felt compelled to tell her about two ways she could have converted the files herself for free: Adobe's own Create Adobe PDF Online free trial, … Read more

WordPress hire hints at a more social future

Matt Mullenweg, creator of blogging platform WordPress, said in a blog post on Tuesday that "the future is social."

With that, he announced that WordPress parent company Automattic has hired designer and developer Andy Peatling, who has created a WordPress-based social network called BuddyPress.

BuddyPress, meanwhile, has become part of Automattic's arsenal. The project's home page has been replaced with an Automattic logo and the teaser "BuddyPress will transform a vanilla installation of WordPress MU into a social-network platform."

Mullenweg was a featured speaker at last week's Future of Web Apps conference in … Read more

Making the switch from Microsoft Office to Web apps

The only reason I've opened Microsoft Outlook or any other desktop e-mail program in the last year is to test tips. Since I added my ISP account to my Gmail in-box, and moved my Outlook appointments to Google Calendar, I get all the information I need in my browser.

Now I'm getting ready to boot Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for their Web alternatives, but before I bail on Office entirely, I stuck a toe in the Web-apps water by using the free ThinkFree Online service irregularly over the past few weeks. So far, I haven't missed Word, … Read more