Rest Assured
Bits and pieces from recent newsletters
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007
There are one or two things about Office 2007 which have been the subject of help calls and email comments in the past couple of months:
NEW FILE FORMATS. We have had a lot of calls about this - not just customers who have had 2007 installed with a new PC, but also receiving email attachments from other people who have installed it.
2007 uses a different file format to previous versions of Office - signified by the addition of an 'x' [= XML format] at the end of the file extension [so Word documents are now .docx, and Excel files are .xlsx, and so on]
If you don't have 2007, but you want to be able to open files created within it, you will need to visit the Microsoft Website, and download a 'Compatibility Pack'
<Click here> to be taken to the download site.
If you are using 2007, and you want to send a file to someone who isn't, save a copy as a '97 - 2003' format, and make sure it is that one you attach to the email!
Office 2007 has more 'Save As' options - as above
FEATURES OF OFFICE 2007. Microsoft has introduced 'contextual' icons and drop-down boxes, so that you only see functions that relate to the activity you are carrying out at the time. This 'improvement' has generally brought untold grief to most users, and has made telephone support just about impossible.
There is no easy way - you just have to learn how to navigate your way around it - if you do need help, give us a call!
If Microsoft do read this - why, oh why did you get rid of the 'Edit' menu?
Footnote re MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007
We have surprised and delighted many customers recently by pointing out their 'elegibility' for the Home and Student Edition. This effectively gives them a full-featured 'Pro' version which may be used on 3 machines [non-commercial] for around £75.00 [or £25,00 per copy, which is around 10% of the cost of a single retail copy of 'Pro'.
The primary qualification is that someone in the household must be in Full-Time education [check the Microsoft website for full details]
JUST AS YOU WERE GETTING USED TO DVD.......The war continues to rage over its successor.
In the Blue Corner - Blu-Ray, and in the Red Corner - HD DVD. Most of the biggest players in the IT industry have thrown/are throwing their weight behind one or other. Each time one seems to be gaining an advantage, somebody else comes up with a compelling reason to support the other.
At the moment, Blu-Ray is in the Barack Obama slot, but write Hillary off at your peril!
If you don't feel compelled to upgrade at the moment, may we suggest you leave it for the time being - unless you want something to keep your Betamax machine company in the loft!
And talking of Betamax.......
The next great 'Judgment of Solomon' is heating up nicely. On the one hand, those who think that wide-area wireless [known as WIMAX] will be the next big communications technology [the vision is a wifi service available anywhere you are on the globe, with an interim vision of e.g anywhere in the UK]. On the other hand the mobile phone networks who already claim a 'global' network [who's kidding who?] and want you to buy a data card that uses it, even when you are at home, and have already made significant moves to reducing tariffs from the completely absurd to the marginally acceptable.
In fairness, there is probably enough of a market for both of these approaches to live alongside each other, so Solomon may not be called upon.