Current special offers on Adobe products.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Free Accounting Software Online
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
And We Keep Running, Running, and Running, ...
After kicking and screaming albeit much of the time in the privacy of my own office, it is about time that we have a training website. I am not clear what it is about hiding in plain site. It's actually quite comfortable and warm, like a sweatshirt and long socks on a cold, rainy day.
So, we are off and running with Virtual Options Training & Coaching. It's a soft launch shaking all the loose ends of the website and looking at the planning of phase duo. Here's what we have: Great Trainers. Here's what we can do for you: Make it easy for you and your company to learn your software on your computer. We travel. We have fun. And we love to referee those rounds between you and your computer software. Call us. We will even bring the striped shirt and whistle! (no, really we can!) Here's the next step: Take a look at our website and tell us what you think. It's not flashy or modern. We are adding things every week and working out the kinks. So we need your help. Here's what's in it for you: Our undying gratitude and thanks. Not, enough? OK. hmm. Go to our home page and sign up for a certificate. Not enough? - hm Stay tuned.. I am still thinking. In the meantime, here is a great site for all those Office 2007 converters, command reference guides, and viewers. It's in once place!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Why can't you open that MS Office file?
Yep, it can be frustrating. A colleague sends you a file, perhaps Excel, Word, or PowerPoint. You open the attachment (after carefully running it through your virus checker!) but it doesn't open. You get a nice message that says something like "Can't open this file type."
These days, the answer seems to be related to the fact that there are several versions of the MS Office products out there. This usually means someone has Office 2007, and the recipient has an earlier or "lower" version like 2003. This means that Office 2007 has a different file structure, which is XML-based, and the file extensions have changed. They will look like this:
97-2003
Word - .doc
Excel - .xls
PowerPoint - .ppt
2007
Word - .docx
Excel - .xlsx
PowerPoint - .pptx
So, what is to be done? Here are a few tips we have discovered and shared with our classes.
Save your files as PDF.
If you have a means to convert to PDF, and the recipient of the file doesn't need to edit, PDF is a great choice. They are frequently smaller in file size, and you can also post them to the web for easy download. There are free PDF creation programs available on the web, just Google it!
If you use Office 2007, you can save the file "down" to the 97-2003 version.
That means that if you are using Word 2007, for example, when you save the file, make sure you select "Word 97-2003 Document" from the Save As Type drop-down.
This means that any version can read the file. You may lose fidelity in some cases, as Office 2007 files are XML-based, but in many business documents this is not noticeable. Where you might see an issue is in graphics intensive applications like PowerPoint or Publisher, and a message will pop up telling you what will be lost or changed.
One example was a SmartArt org chart done in Word 2007, saved as a docx, when saved to 97-2003 became a "flat" graphic file and was no longer editable in Word 2003.
If you just want to view the file, and not make changes, download the free viewers from Microsoft.
You can click here to get a page full of the viewers.
Load the Compatibility Pack.
Click here to download the compatibility pack. It will allow you to open 2007 documents in 2003; again, you will lose fidelity as mentioned above, but at least you can edit the documents.
Try an on-line conversion tool.
I have tried, and liked a tool called Zamzar. It is located at http://www.zamzar.com. It is free, but it takes a little time for them to e-mail your converted file. And there is loss of fidelity, again. You can pay a membership fee if you have the need for speed or remove the ads. There are others out there, so trying Googling "convert docx files" or some variation, and see what pops up.
Try another product.
You can open Office 2007 files in OpenOffice (a free download from OpenOffice.org) and also Google Docs. However, Google Docs will only support Excel 2007 files (xlsx), not Word 2007 (docx) at this time.
Wow - a lot of info to absorb.
You can contact us, Virtual Options, through our website at http://www.virtualoptions.net. We offer computer training, coaching, and consulting!
See you soon!
These days, the answer seems to be related to the fact that there are several versions of the MS Office products out there. This usually means someone has Office 2007, and the recipient has an earlier or "lower" version like 2003. This means that Office 2007 has a different file structure, which is XML-based, and the file extensions have changed. They will look like this:
97-2003
Word - .doc
Excel - .xls
PowerPoint - .ppt
2007
Word - .docx
Excel - .xlsx
PowerPoint - .pptx
So, what is to be done? Here are a few tips we have discovered and shared with our classes.
Save your files as PDF.
If you have a means to convert to PDF, and the recipient of the file doesn't need to edit, PDF is a great choice. They are frequently smaller in file size, and you can also post them to the web for easy download. There are free PDF creation programs available on the web, just Google it!
If you use Office 2007, you can save the file "down" to the 97-2003 version.
That means that if you are using Word 2007, for example, when you save the file, make sure you select "Word 97-2003 Document" from the Save As Type drop-down.
This means that any version can read the file. You may lose fidelity in some cases, as Office 2007 files are XML-based, but in many business documents this is not noticeable. Where you might see an issue is in graphics intensive applications like PowerPoint or Publisher, and a message will pop up telling you what will be lost or changed.
One example was a SmartArt org chart done in Word 2007, saved as a docx, when saved to 97-2003 became a "flat" graphic file and was no longer editable in Word 2003.
If you just want to view the file, and not make changes, download the free viewers from Microsoft.
You can click here to get a page full of the viewers.
Load the Compatibility Pack.
Click here to download the compatibility pack. It will allow you to open 2007 documents in 2003; again, you will lose fidelity as mentioned above, but at least you can edit the documents.
Try an on-line conversion tool.
I have tried, and liked a tool called Zamzar. It is located at http://www.zamzar.com. It is free, but it takes a little time for them to e-mail your converted file. And there is loss of fidelity, again. You can pay a membership fee if you have the need for speed or remove the ads. There are others out there, so trying Googling "convert docx files" or some variation, and see what pops up.
Try another product.
You can open Office 2007 files in OpenOffice (a free download from OpenOffice.org) and also Google Docs. However, Google Docs will only support Excel 2007 files (xlsx), not Word 2007 (docx) at this time.
Wow - a lot of info to absorb.
You can contact us, Virtual Options, through our website at http://www.virtualoptions.net. We offer computer training, coaching, and consulting!
See you soon!
This Just In
Working Smarter - Free Accounting Software! Did you ever wonder about all those free software that you can actually use in your home or office? Here are a couple of reccomendations. If you happen to be a soloprenuer or simply want great programs to manage your your account, both Microsoft and Intuit have free, full-version downloads of this off-the-shelf software. Microsoft has Office Accounting Express 2008.
This is great program to create invoices and quotes, email them as a PDF file, tracking expenses and paying bills. It also comes with about twenty reports as well. This slimmed down version does not calculate payroll, print checks, file tax forms or list inventory on Ebay unless you are willing to incur extra fees.
If you are a tried and true Intuit fan, you may love their free version - Quickbooks Simple Start. They have some of the same features and an almost equal number of reports. Quickbooks does however allow one to write and print checks, track customers and vendors, and receive payments. Be forewarned. This program will not be able to download bank and credit card transactions. Quickbooks Simple Start also makes it near impossible to import an excel file. It can import customer or vendor information in an Excel format, but forget about bank records.
Rest assured, the funniest thing about this program is it will allow you to convert a Microsoft Accounting file. Go figure. Both programs are great for the new business or simply getting your feet wet with an accounting program before you decide to try the bigger, full-featured versions of these programs.
This is great program to create invoices and quotes, email them as a PDF file, tracking expenses and paying bills. It also comes with about twenty reports as well. This slimmed down version does not calculate payroll, print checks, file tax forms or list inventory on Ebay unless you are willing to incur extra fees.
If you are a tried and true Intuit fan, you may love their free version - Quickbooks Simple Start. They have some of the same features and an almost equal number of reports. Quickbooks does however allow one to write and print checks, track customers and vendors, and receive payments. Be forewarned. This program will not be able to download bank and credit card transactions. Quickbooks Simple Start also makes it near impossible to import an excel file. It can import customer or vendor information in an Excel format, but forget about bank records.
Rest assured, the funniest thing about this program is it will allow you to convert a Microsoft Accounting file. Go figure. Both programs are great for the new business or simply getting your feet wet with an accounting program before you decide to try the bigger, full-featured versions of these programs.
Time flies!!
Glorioski! My mom used to say that all the time when she was amazed. Mom made up the best words, so she could express herself without cursing. My favorite example: feezymoggawuffwuff. This was supposed to be a lesson for us kids, to be creative with language. And so we were - but we got our mouths washed out for not being creative, too. :-) When you are under pressure, some of my mom's word inventions did not spring readily to mind. Now, I ask you, would "feezymoggawuffwuff" be the first thing on your mind when you whack your funny bone?
Anyway - Glorioski, for today - means, WOW, where has the time gone? How did it get to be October? So herewith is the update on what has happened in the "time passages."
We had, earlier this year, a fascinating grantwriting experience for the non-profit we work with, which, although the grant was very good, didn't achieve the results we wanted. The fine folks who disburse the funds saw things a bit differently than the grantwriting team, so we are now firmly back on track to get Virtual Options sailing straight. This will help the non-profit, as well as help Virtual Options get a bunch of new business, for training, materials, coaching and more. This blog will be a big part of it!
So, currently, we are training when we can. We are working now on finalizing our business plan, and testing several software packages to create a membership-driven web presence. We have some creative ideas to help trainers and computer users find just the right information, right away!
See you next time, sooner than this time! And remember to be creative! It'll make your mom happy.
Anyway - Glorioski, for today - means, WOW, where has the time gone? How did it get to be October? So herewith is the update on what has happened in the "time passages."
We had, earlier this year, a fascinating grantwriting experience for the non-profit we work with, which, although the grant was very good, didn't achieve the results we wanted. The fine folks who disburse the funds saw things a bit differently than the grantwriting team, so we are now firmly back on track to get Virtual Options sailing straight. This will help the non-profit, as well as help Virtual Options get a bunch of new business, for training, materials, coaching and more. This blog will be a big part of it!
So, currently, we are training when we can. We are working now on finalizing our business plan, and testing several software packages to create a membership-driven web presence. We have some creative ideas to help trainers and computer users find just the right information, right away!
See you next time, sooner than this time! And remember to be creative! It'll make your mom happy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
