Microsoft – Page 23

Office 2016 for Mac is Coming!

Mac users seem to have been forgotten by Microsoft Office developers since the last version was released in 2010. However, the folks in Redmond have finally announced that a new version of Office is on the way! Office 2016 is rumored to be released sometime this fall, and should also become available in our Office 365 offerings at that time, as well. Check out some of the features and improvements that will be coming in the new version thanks to some early screenshots from Microsoft:

One of the biggest additions to Office is deep integration with Microsoft’s cloud services, including SMU’s OneDrive service! Now your files can be accessible from anywhere without the difficult setup that was required in Office 2011.

If you would like to use Outlook as your e-mail client but never liked the look and feel of the Mac version, the new version of Outlook for Mac mimics the look and feel of the Windows version, so you no longer have to learn how to use multiple interfaces if you use both PC and Mac.

Excel is greatly improved as well, not only looking more like the Windows version but also providing better compatibility with functions from the Windows version. There will also be more analytical functions available, as well.

As for PowerPoint, it also sports a whole new look and the addition of a “control center” for your presentation that can display your notes, upcoming slides, and the current slide on your laptop’s screen while only the current slide is projected to your audience.

And the best part about the new Office for Mac, the feature we’ve all been craving…OneNote for Mac! The beloved note-taking software that has graced Office for Windows for years finally makes its Mac debut. This is an excellent addition for any digital note-taking addicts.

Office 2016 for Mac has been released to a select few so far for testing purposes, but should be released to the public, along with Office 365 users, later this year.

Adios Internet Explorer

By: Shayan Gaziani

In August of 1995 Microsoft released their first version of Internet Explorer (IE). A revolutionary feat at the time, eleven generations later IE has fallen behind rivals (such as Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox) in terms of speed, ingenuity, and modernism.

A solemn farewell.

Twenty years later, Microsoft is pulling the plug. As noted by The Verge, the company revealed IE’s fate this past January. While the browser will still exist, function, and be available for download, maintenance will soon cease. Earlier this month at Microsoft Convergence, the company’s marketing chief Chris Capossela revealed plans for the future.

“We’re right now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10,” said Capossela. “We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing.”

Moving on.

Project Spartan is set to be officially released along with Windows 10 later this year. According to a blog post by the IE team, “Spartan provides a more interoperable, reliable, and discoverable experience with advanced features including the ability to annotate on web pages, a distraction-free reading experience, and integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster.”

Information for this post was provided by The Verge here and here.

Save Your Voice for the Presentation

By: Shayan Gaziani

Imagine this Scenario:

You walk into class prepared to deliver a paramount presentation. You’ve spent hours rehearsing every aspect from timing to delivery. You’ve spent days, if not weeks, preparing the file, compiling countless amounts of slides, graphics, links, and embedded objects.

Approaching the classroom computer, you plug in your thumb drive and open the presentation file. You steady yourself, take a gulp of air, start the presenter view and – notice that every single piece of image, audio, and video is gone. Blank. Nada.

Arguably one of the most venerated of presentation software, Microsoft’s PowerPoint provides a robust, feature-rich, and professional aid to presenters across a variety of disciplines and environments. From the boardroom to the classroom, PowerPoint has proven its usefulness and importance as a de facto method to revolutionizing the way we deliver speeches, presentations, assignments, etc.

But what if it doesn’t Work?

One common, yet egregious, issue with PowerPoint, especially in versions pre-dating 2013, is media and custom fonts not displaying correctly when a presentation file is transferred to another computer. The seemingly logical approach is to download images, sounds, and videos to your computer and simply insert them into a presentation. When you save and transfer the file, everything should clone and transfer as is, right?

Not exactly.

PowerPoint is big on trying to keep file sizes small and compressed, and one of the ways it does that is by linking media objects in a presentation. Remember that video you inserted into PowerPoint? It’s not really in the presentation file – rather a link to it is that PowerPoint then pulls when presenting.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix to this. Most PowerPoint versions include an option called Package for CD (On Mac, the issue can be circumvented by simply saving as a PowerPoint Show [.ppsx] format – you won’t get the viewer mentioned below, though). The feature allows the creator to compile all of the resources that PowerPoint has used to create the presentation (including your media), and create a packaged folder, including a mobile version of PowerPoint, called PowerPoint viewer, to ensure your presentation can run on a computer that does not have PowerPoint Installed. The Package for CD option allows you to create a presentation CD, or simply save the packaged files on a drive.

The Fix.

The steps to accomplish this are fairly simple, as provided by Microsoft. Go ahead and give it a try – it may just save your grade.

What to Do when PowerPoint’s Presenter View Won’t Play Nice

The Presenter View option allows PowerPoint users to show the audience the slide show while giving the presenter a view of upcoming slides, a timer, notes to yourself, and other handy tools. (If you haven’t yet, be sure to give it a try.)

The problem is that every now and then Presenter View doesn’t happen, and the laptop screen only shows the slides. Most people don’t memorize where these controls are, so in this situation, users are often forced to press on without the use of Presenter View. Since this little headache pops up from time to time, it pays to know how to set this option.

For Windows PC Users: At the top of the PowerPoint screen are a series of tabs. Click on the one that says Slide Show. In the ribbon’s Monitors section, you will see a check box next to the words Use Presenter View. Check this box and Presenter View will start up when you begin the slideshow.

Mac Users: Click on the Slide Show tab and look for a section titled Setting for Two Displays. Click on the icon that says Presenter View, and then start your presentation again.

Mac users may also need to be sure that their laptop is not set to mirror the displays. To do this, click on the Apple icon in the top-left of the desktop, then click on System and choose Display. Click on the Arrangement tab at the top of that screen and be sure that the check box next to Mirror Displays is unchecked.

Lastly, if the Presenter View shows up on the wrong monitor simply click on the Display Settings button at the top of the Presenter Tools page and select Swap Presenter View and Slide Show.

Of course, Classroom Support is always available to help with this. Call us at 214-768-8888, and we’ll be glad to set it up for you.

Resist the Urge to Answer the Email Now

It’s so easy to quickly reply to email as soon as you receive it. Consider scheduling times to process email throughout the day. Otherwise, you may end up buried in your inbox! If you are working on a critical project, consider using an Outlook Alert to let others know you won’t be processing email until a specific time. Here are tips to consider when processing email.

Delete It
Delegate It – Can this be assigned as a task or forwarded?
Do It – Will it only take a few minutes to process? Do it now.
Delay It – Calendar the item or put on your task list, so you will remember it later.

Interested in learning more about Outlook?

Outlook Productivity Webinar

Wednesday, Feb 4 from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Register

Do you ever feel like you are drowning in email and need some strategies to reduce inbox clutter? The Outlook Productivity session will help you beef up your inbox and calendar skills at the start of the new year! In this session, we will cover a number of time saving tips in Outlook 2013 to manage your electronic communications more effectively.

Learn how to:

Create quick steps to process mail in a timely manner
Minimize distractions by creating rules and alerts
Utilize task features including: categories, custom fields, view settings and more…