Office Ribbon Frustrations: Switching Windows

I may be a little late to the party, but I finally upgraded to Office 2007 a few months back. While I like the new styles and themes, and I can still use the keyboard shortcuts I've learned, I'm still struggling with find other features within the Ribbons.

Top of my list has been switching windows (view another open file) within Excel. In prior versions of Excel, I could go to the Windows menu and select another file. With Office 2007, you have to first select the View ribbon and then click Switch Windows, where you can select a different open file. As with many of the changes, I had to hunt for a while to find the Switch Windows option.

In the mean time I did learn a new keyboard shortcut for switching windows. Use Ctrl-F6 or Ctrl-Shift-F6 to go in reverse order. As with the View >> Switch Windows menu, this also works in Word and PowerPoint as well as Excel.

Fix corrupt Outlook.pst (2007) in Vista

Unlike XP, Vista does not provide the same privileges by default, and therefore it can be difficult to repair your PST file. The trick is to run the scan and repair program with Admin privileges. Here are the steps:

1. Close Outlook -- likely it's already closed, because if the PST file is corrupt, Outlook wont run.
2. Find the Command Prompt, right-click, and run as Administrator.
3. At the command prompt, enter "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE", including the quotes. If you have a different version of Outlook, you may still have a repair program -- find it and replace with the string I have here.
4. When prompted to Repair, select Repair.
5. Enter 'Exit" at the command prompt to close the Command Prompt window, and run Outlook again.
   

That should do the trick.
Some folks may not have an Admin password for Vista. If that's the case, check out these instructions for further help.

Rip / manage music on your iPod

Sometime you need to manage music on your iPod that iTunes doesn't allow. I tried iDump, and it didn't recognize my music, so I tried SharePod. While iDump has a 30 day trial before purchase, SharePod is completely free -- donations accepted. SharePod installed quicker, and was very simple to use.

Press Esc to Exit Full Screen never goes away

I noticed in my video viewing that when I set the view mode to full screen, the message "Press Esc to Exit Full Screen" is never going away. I tried searching Google, and while many people have asked the same question, there was no clear answer.

Through some experimentation, I learned that in locking down my Flash Player (see New "Cookies" and your Privacy), I introduced this new issue. Apparently the Flash Player wants to store information as third-party content in order for the message to go away. You need to go to the Global Storage Settings panel and check "Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer." Interestingly, you can keep the storage setting on "None", and it will still work. (Remember, the Flash setting for your installation is reached by going to a website, with each tab having its own URL. There is no application you can open locally to make configuration changes. Learn more here.)

This seems like a real mistake -- to see a video full-screen, you have to allow any third-party to store a Flash cookie!? First, I don't see the reason any storage is needed to display text on the screen for a short time. Further, if required, why isn't the storage request coming from the same domain as the video? From what I gather, the full screen display, and therefore message, is a Flash Property. I suspect the third-party domain must be a Macromedia/Adobe domain, which also makes no sense. Macromedia/Adobe can track all our Flash usage, without any setting, so why make the 'call home' for full screen open yourself up to all other third-parties?

With the bloat of a Flash Player / Flash App, and the introduction of HTML 5 and native video support (see demo - browser must support HTML 5), perhaps Apple is onto something by not supporting Flash in their iPhone, iPod Touch, and new iPad.

Remove Paragraph Marks / Carriage Returns

I'm sure you've received an email from time to time that you need to save in Word or publish online, and there were carriage returns every line as if it was entered using a typewriter (you remember those). It can be very time consuming to manually delete each Carriage Return on every line. But thanks to a Word Macro, the job is easier. Note that once they are all removed, you still need to re-enter the appropriate paragraph marks.

Create a new Macro and use code:

Sub NameOfMacro()
For Each Xpara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
Xpara.Range.Select
Selection.Characters(Selection.Characters.Count).Delete
Next
End Sub

After saving, run the macro.

2010 Tech Predictions

2009 was a very difficult year for our economy, and many friends and colleagues lost their jobs and/or their homes. While I can't very well predict how our economy will do in 2010, I will try to out due my 1 for 3 predictions of 2009 with my 2010 predictions. In no particular order, here are my 5 top tech predictions for 2010.

1. With the number of players increasing in the eBook Reader arena, Amazon will adopt the ePub format as a supported file format.
2. The next version of the iPhone, announced this spring, will be available on Verizon.
3. Similar to the data loss that occurred for Sidekick users in 2009, a significant data loss or corruption will happen on a Cloud platform. Though hopefully like with the Sidekick data being recovered, even if the data is recovered, it will send a strong message to CIOs and others considering moves to the Cloud.
4. Depending on the reports you read, the browser war statistics can vary widely. Regardless, Internet Explorer continues to dominate, despite lowering numbers. Using MarketShare as a reference, by the end of 2010, Internet Explorer’s market share will drop below 50%. MarketShare currently reports Internet Explorer to have a 62.69% market share, with Firefox coming in second with a 24.61% market share.
5. Microsoft will buy Palm and will make a Palm phone with Zune or a Zune phone featuring Palm WebOS.

There are several other predictions that I though about, but never quite got to the formalization stage. For example, there's no lost love for AT&T right now, particularily with their cell phone coverage, but to an extent with their position on net neutrality and their network management too. Likewise Comcast continues to be in the middle of several battles around net neutrality as the same time they're trying to purchase controlling interest in NBC/Universal. Will the FCC be able to step in and protect consumers? Or will they make it worse, or have no say at all? Will congress step in on the net neutrality argument?

Who knows what will happen around the naming space and ICANN? Will we get too many to count top-level domains (TLDs) as planned? And if so, will this really make cyber-squatting worse or perhaps most Internet users wont adopt the new TLDs, and therefore minimizing additional cyber-squatting problems.

There continues to be a lot of buzz about an Apple tablet, while HP and Microsoft have announced a partnership on a slate, which appears to be a competitor in the tablet space. Likewise I think the tablet/slate is going to directly compete the eBook Readers, which is quickly becoming a crowded market.

I think it was Buzz Out Loud that discussed the notion of more devices with built-in, no additional cost, wireless downloads, similar to the Amazon Kindle's Whisper Sync, so no prediction in that area. But perhaps we might see a phone/tablet combo device. In its tablet configuration, you can use the wireless 3G/4G data networks and a blue tooth headset. But the phone/tablet would have a detachable "phone" that could work stand-alone for those times you don't want to carry the larger tablet.

How will social networking continue to evolve over the next 12 months? It seems Facebook and Twitter are both struggling to find a profitable business model. Facebook continues to change its privacy and security settings, while the user interface has gotten much more Twitter-like. YEar end rumors have Twitter being purchased by Facebook, Google, or even Microsoft. In a year from now, will we even care?

Finally, I expect to see continued innovation with green technology, but it's difficult to say what exactly.

Wow, so many fun things to consider, and a few that worry me (predominately net neutrality issues, and of course the economy). Here's to a great 2010!

2009 Tech Predictions Review

I made 3 rather tame (or lame) tech predictions for 2009 -- none with any real relevance. Here's a recap of how I did.

1. Apple will become less popular.
   Miss. Though a very subjective opinion, here's what happened. Throughout much of 2009 there was a lot of buzz about an Apple Tablet that never materialized, but it kept Apple in the news. Early in the year there was also a lot of buzz about Steve Jobs' health and further whether he would return to Apple or not. Upon his return, as announced, the buzz has died down. Finally, Apple received some spill over from the new Verizon ads that really trashed the AT&T 3G network. To counter some of the Apple buzz, we started seeing several Android phones (finally) ship late in the year. Overall, I don't think the buzz, and therefore popularity, died down as much as expected. On the other hand, clearly Apple was no where near as popular as they had been the two prior years with the iPhone.
2. TWiT will lose its spot as the top tech podcast.
   Hit. I tried doing a little research on this, but it too is very subjective. But as I figured, I believe Buzz Out Loud (BOL) did pass TWiT as the top tech podcast. At the end of 2008, BOL was really hitting its stride, while TWiT had had too many episodes that rambled on too long. Mind you, I started listening, and really loved TWiT, well before I listened to my first episode of Buzz Out Loud. Early in 2009, Molly Wood had announced she's leaving BOL as a regular host, and I thought that this prediction would miss too. Further, I don't think BOL is the best platform to showcase Nateli Del Conte's talents (ironically, I think Nateli did a great job on TWiT). But to my delight, BOL started rotating through many great regulars and a few guest talents, which has led to a great show.
3. Nateli Del Conte will move back to the Silicon Valley.
   Miss. Not really a tech prediction per say, but rather a prediction of a tech personality. What can I say, Nateli made a move to NYC that would be difficult for anyone, and she always appeared much more happy when visiting the Bay Area. As I referenced in the prior prediction, I thought early in the year, things got even more difficult for her as she became a regular host on BOL. But with another year past, Nateli has proven that she's very resilient and she's still in NYC. Congratulations Nat!

Well I was 1 of 3 for my 2009 predictions. I have 5 predictions cued up for 2010 -- watch for that post coming soon.

Count the number of Rows after Auto-Filter in Excel

When you first apply an Auto-Filter in Excel, the Status Bar indicates the number of records in the filter (e.g. 517 of 8614). In many cases when you start performing other manipulations, the number disappears. Using a simple formula, you can calculate the filtered total.

Assume you want to count all rows that are not empty -- the CountA function -- and assume you want to count the rows in column A. The formula would be SUBTOTAL(103,A:A)-1. The syntax is as follows: subtotal(function_number, reference), where function_number is 1 of many possible options as illustrated below. I included the "-1" to remove the count for the column heading row.

function_num (includes hidden values)	function_num (ignores hidden values)	function
1	101	AVERAGE
2	102	COUNT
3	103	COUNTA
4	104	MAX
5	105	MIN
6	106	PRODUCT
7	107	STDEV
8	108	STDEVP
9	109	SUM
10	110	VAR
11	111	VARP

Note: I used Excel 2003 for this example.

Increase IIS on XP Maximum Connections

With increasingly more complex web pages, I found myself running into a limit in the number of IIS connections allowed for the constrained web server on Windows XP. By default Microsoft has limited the connections to 10. Even when I changed the time to release connections down to 5 minutes, I was still running into problems. With a little Google searching, I found a solution (here, here, and here).

Apparently the hard-coded limitation Microsoft has set is 40 connections. The trick is determining how to raise the level from 10 to 40. There's a script, adsutil, that can do this for you.

1. Go to the Command Prompt and navigate to C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts.
2. Enter "adsutil set w3svc/MaxConnections 40".
3. If you get an error message, "This script does not work with WScript," click OK and click Yes to make Cscript as the default script for VBscript.
4. When this completes, go back to the Command Prompt and press F3 (repeats last command) and Enter.
5. If you were successful, the command should return "MaxConnections: 40".
6. Stop and start IIS. You can do this as the same Command Prompt by entering "iisreset".
   

I suspect there may be a Registery equivalent setting, but this did the trick for me. If you don't need IIS to begin with, perhaps a better solution would be to load Apache. Microsoft Visual Web Developer may also be a solution, though I haven't spent much time with it myself.

Love @ First Website 2009 notes

For the last five years iSiteDesign has been hosting Love @ First Website (#LFW). It's a half-day event where you get to listen to 3 or 4 speakers share about their business and their website and/or web presence. I've attended 3 of the 5 events and have always taken away a few nuggets. This years theme was "Dare to Delight." My notes follow.

Carri Bugbee
Owner of Big Deal PR; Instructor of Social Media Marketing at Portland State; and ghost tweeter as Mad Men's (AMC) Peggy Olson (@peggyolson) Twitter @peggyolson Lessons:
1. Get there first
2. Stay on message
3. Always listen first
4. Admit when you're wrong; Give credit due
5. Build community; everyone wants to be acknowledge.
6. It's a real job; it's a real tool (i.e. It takes time and effort to have a Twitter/social presence)


Paul Zaengle
Sr. Director of eCommerce, Columbia Sportswear
Columbia Sportswear basics:
1. Make Brand the #1 Focus
2. Be Truly Multi-channel (Zipcar demonstrated this)
3. Think Like a Customer (Zipcar demonstrated this)
4. Provide an Online Experience
5. Overload with Images & Info (i.e. Make sure that you have the content for those who are looking for it)
6. Leverage Content (At Ralph Loren/Polo, each group (offline/online) did all their own photo shoots and other collateral. At Columbia, they all share everything)
7. Socialize (When they [finally] added a Facebook Fan Page, it grew [huge number] on the first day)
8. Build a Scalable, Global Digital Platform
9. Encourage Innovation (They have innovated re-usable boxes, "A Box Life" -- 68% of online orders select to ship in a used boxed: so much that they are running out of used box inventory. All new and used boxes have a trackable re-use sticker, where receivers can log into a website and tell how they are re-using the box they have. This is not Columbia branded, and will shortly open to three other companies.)
10. Look to the Future


Lesley Mottla & Lisa Rigano
Zipcar:
1. Understand your customer experience. ("Eat your own dog food.")
2. Get the basics right and do them really well.
3. One size doesn't fit all. (Different cultures have different things they want/like. E.g. Portland wants bike racks; London wants small cars.)
4. Schedule randomness, spot awesomeness. (You can't do something extra for everyone, but you can schedule time to do something extra for some. They had learned a customer liked Skittles. Onetime when the customer reserved a car, they surprised him by having a bag of Skittles in it for him.)
5. Get out of your own backyard.