Posts tagged Office
First Glimpses of Office 15 Are Minus the Ribbon
Feb 9th
As part of a carefully timed preview of the forthcoming Windows on ARM (WOA) operating system, which borrows the new “Metro-style” usage model from Windows 8, Microsoft released a video showing WOA running what were described as technical previews of four “Office 15″ applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. But the key question for which Desktop application developers have been seeking an answer may have been obscured: As Microsoft adopts a new usage model with elements gleaned from the “Metro” style, will Office be moving away from the ribbon? The first clips of the new Office in action deliberately obfuscate the answer.
Sponsor
What we do see from shots of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as demonstrated by Windows Principal Program Manager Scott Seiber, completely obscures the title bar, assuming one is even present. Along the top edge are menu categories that are now presented, for the first time, in ALL CAPS, reversing a design decision made a quarter-century ago to avoid making software seem like it was SHOUTING at its user.
The full-color shading for the File menu suggests that Microsoft will continue its full-screen approach to loading, saving, and converting files, which premiered in the current Office 2010. Such an approach would be in keeping with the company’s new “Metro” design approach, where options are made very clearly visible with plenty of white space.
But as these screenshots clearly show, Office 15 will not be a “Metro-style app,” running in the fast and fluid new WinRT-driven environment being grafted onto Windows 8. Although technically these shots do not show an Office 15 preview for AMD- or Intel-based PCs, they were described by Microsoft Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky today as fully feature-compatible as their x86/x64 PC counterparts.
“The new Office applications for WOA have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption,” Sinofsky wrote. “This engineering work is an important part of being able to provide Office software with WOA, as these are not simply recompilations or ports, but significant reworking of the products with a complete and consistent user experience and fidelity with their new x86/64 counterparts.”
At one point, the video (snapshot above) does depict the user right-clicking on a graphic object in PowerPoint (which, in multitouch, is accomplished by a tap-and-hold). This brings up a drop-down list, but also makes a pastel-shaded “FORMAT” menu appear. This behavior appears consistent with how PowerPoint 2010 works today. When you right-click on a graphic object, a new “Format” category appears, under a main heading “Drawing Tools” that extends into the title bar area. In the clips provided today, the title bar was obscured, so the “Drawing Tools” heading may actually be present and may also have been obscured.
Also in Office 2010, the Ribbon may be minimized until needed by way of an up/down carat button that appears in the upper right corner. That button does not appear in any part of today’s video, though conceivably it may also have been moved to the obscured portion of the title bar.
The Ribbon screen device, which first premiered with Office 2007, is not exactly compatible with the “Metro” layout approach, and for some users has proven to be more difficult with multitouch than it is for the mouse. Rather than the traditional drop-down menu that at one time was “written in stone” by the Common User Access specifications, the Ribbon divides a horizontal strip into segments by category, and places command buttons of varying sizes into each segment. The size apportioned to each segment may vary according to the width of the window, and may shrink itself as that width is reduced.
The reasons this issue is so important are twofold: 1) Developers of functions and add-ons for Office 2010 need to know whether they must begin the long, arduous process of redesigning for Office 2013 – or instead just give up and develop for some other platform. 2) An entire industry devoted to training employees depends on the stability of the Microsoft Office platform. If Microsoft made cosmetic changes to the Ribbon that we’re just not privileged to see yet, publishers can use in-house staff members to make new screenshots and quick rewrites. If it instead they scrapped the tool altogether in favor of a menu bar that looks more like Metro, those publishers will have to make significant new investments in completely rewritten content.
A Microsoft spokesperson declined all further comment on Office 15-related issues for now.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Top Maryland SEO Company Opens New Office in North Carolina – PR Web (press release)
Feb 3rd
 PR Web (press release) |
Top Maryland SEO Company Opens New Office in North Carolina
PR Web (press release) Blue Corona, one of the fastest growing online marketing and SEO companies in the country, opened a new office in Charlotte, NC. The move, part of a regional expansion program, is intended to provide the company with increased visibility and access to … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Select Testers Get First Office 15 Preview, New Cloud Services Emphasized
Jan 30th
Whether Windows 8′s radically re-imagined usage model catches on with tablet and PC users will depend in large part upon the role Microsoft Office apps will play. If it looks too much like Office 2010, then having Windows 8 relegate Office to the “Desktop” side while mobile-style apps take over the “Metro” side, won’t make much sense.
This morning, Microsoft gave out the first signal of how the shift will happen. The first technical preview of The Software Probably Known as “Office 2013″ has made its way to select testers, in advance of a public beta now scheduled for this summer.
Sponsor
With the Windows 8 public beta scheduled to begin next month, Microsoft will need some window of visibility for Office on Windows 8 in order for customers to evaluate whether the migration will be worth it. In a carefully crafted blog post this morning, the company’s Corporate Vice President for Office, P. J. Hough, listed four categories of distribution vehicles for Office-branded services, with #1 on that list being “cloud services.”
“With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio,” Hough wrote. “Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before.”
Listing “cloud services” first implies that “Office 15″ (its temporary code name, although there was never an “Office 13″) will be more centered around functionality delivered from the cloud. Theoretically, this could be done by delivering “Metro-style” versions of Office apps that are optimized for Windows 8, and that are licensed to customers of Office 365 for use anywhere. This while the “classic” Office apps continue to be maintained and licensed as part of the same package.
Still, judging from the company’s long prior history with Office beta programs, a late January milestone for the Technical Preview implies that general availability may not yet be feasible until at least Q1 2013. With tremendous importance being placed on Windows 8′s ability to show up in time for the 2012 holiday season – if not for back-to-school – then the company may need to consider making the Office 15 public beta available for pre-installation on new tablets and ultrabook PCs (Intel’s new, thinner form factor) directly through retail outlets.
We’ve asked Microsoft for further comment on the news, which may yet be forthcoming.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar
Jan 27th
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. David Beckham At Google: Google’s Moscow Brick Desk: Bing Bar at…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
CES 2012: Mystery of the Missing Office 15
Jan 11th
The last Steve Ballmer keynote has come and gone, and even after the company’s overt effort to reduce expectations about product announcements, if you listen carefully, you may still be able to hear the faint sound of a gospel choir chanting about one of the few remaining expectations that was left unmet last night: There was no word on a possible Metro-style preview of Office 15.
In fact, the company’s Tami Reller lowered expectations even further by repeating a demonstration of the existing Office 2010 running in a late build of Windows 8, alongside a Metro-style newsreader app, with the two worlds divided from one another by the partition that Microsoft calls “Snap.” While Reller’s point was that the two worlds could co-exist, there was one world many attendees wish they could have at least peeked into.
Sponsor
It didn’t help that Microsoft’s corporate Office Twitter feed trumpeted the start of Ballmer’s keynote as if an announcement were forthcoming.
During the keynote, it was reiterated that Microsoft would release its next “milestone” of Windows 8 in late February. That term “milestone” is apparently in preference to the earlier “public beta,” which suggests a higher level of tester input. While the final Windows 8 itself may be expected in Q4 at the earliest, prospective customers worry about not having enough of a testing window for Windows 8 tablets with the new Office on-board.
It matters, because there’s a big purchasing decision to be made. Yesterday, we reported that Forrester research data shows enterprises appear to be postponing their cloud deployments while they purchase new iPads. Those purchases put a dent in the firm’s forecast for capital spending for cloud in 2012. If CxOs could see Office 15 running in the Metro style on Windows 8, the results could defer their purchases of tablets as clients until Q1 2013 – assuming they like what they saw. Office 2010 does run on Windows 7 tablets today, but having to type on-screen while at the same time using the PC-style Ribbon control to manipulate the program, results in a work environment that’s not unlike peering out at the world through Robocop’s helmet.
Any kind of productivity applications suite that runs in the Windows 8 “Metro” world, and that carries the Office brand – whether it be conventional software or an online SaaS like Office Web Apps – would serve as validation for prospective customers that Microsoft believes in its own product. If it can’t get Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook to run – even in some limited format – in Metro, even while separate versions continue to be developed for the Desktop world, customers may perceive Windows 8′s launch the same way they perceived Windows Phone 7′s launch: as incomplete.
During what might otherwise have been an opportunity for stoking at least some customer excitement, Reller instead took the opportunity to demonstrate the wonders of finger-painting on the same Samsung prototype tablet released last September.
Microsoft spokespersons declined comment on Office 15′s status for this story.
Demonstration of a Desktop app and a Metro-style app, and efforts to switch between the two, in the Windows 8 Developer Preview from last September.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Start Up Beats Microsoft In Releasing Office iPad App
Jan 3rd
A low-profile Silicon Valley startup beat Microsoft in delivering an application that allows users to access MS Office documents on their iPads.
CloudOn launched its eponymous iPad app Tuesday. Working in conjunction with DropBox, CloudOn lets users access and create MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on their tablets. Unlike CitirixReceiver and other desktop access apps, CloudOn is designed to work specifically and only with Office.
Microsoft originally said it would try to take on Apple’s iWork suite of productivity applications by developing an iPad app when the original device was first introduced. By the time it was launched in 2010, however, Microsoft had changed its mind. In November, citing unnamed sources, The Daily reported that Microsoft planned to launch an iPad Office app in the first half of 2012.
Sponsor
We haven’t had a chance to review CloudOn’s app just yet, but screen shots on the Web site show the familiar MS Office toolbar. In its limited test of CloudOn, MacRumors said it performed “as advertised” and included “a significant number of tools and functions.”
“Given the constraints of operating on an iPad and via a cloud-based interface, however, there are some limitations such as an inability to insert outside images into a document via the interface,” MacRumors concluded.
CloudOn, formerly known as AppToU, was formed in 2009 by several former Cisco employees. The company, which has a sparse Web site, has attracted several rounds of financing.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Machinima Office Tour – Where Gaming & Online Video Collide – ReelSEO Online Video News
Jan 3rd
 ReelSEO Online Video News |
Machinima Office Tour – Where Gaming & Online Video Collide
ReelSEO Online Video News He is also founder of The Viral Orchard (http://www.viralorchard.com), an Internet marketing firm offering content writing and development services, viral marketing consulting, and SEO services. Jeremy writes constantly, loves online video, … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
SEO Services Firm MarketTarget Opens Madison Avenue Sales Office – San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Dec 18th
|
SEO Services Firm MarketTarget Opens Madison Avenue Sales Office
San Francisco Chronicle (press release) MarketTarget, a leading SEO Services and Internet Marketing Agency announced the opening of an additional office location on Madison Avenue in New York. MarketTarget, a leading provider of Search Engine Optimization Services announced today the opening … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
SEO Services Firm MarketTarget Opens Madison Avenue Sales Office – PR Web (press release)
Dec 18th
 PR Web (press release) |
SEO Services Firm MarketTarget Opens Madison Avenue Sales Office
PR Web (press release) MarketTarget, a leading SEO Services and Internet Marketing Agency announced the opening of an additional office location on Madison Avenue in New York. We are excited about having a presence on Madison Avenue. With our Southern California tech … Top 3 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blogs To Follow Religiously MarketTarget Announces New SEO Services San Diego Product Line Internet Marketing Company Announces an Increase in the Search for Keyword … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
