Keeping it simple

Office 2003 Mainstream Support Ending in April 2009

Mainstream support for Microsoft Office 2003 is scheduled to end on April 14, 2009. Extended support for the 2003 release will be available until January 14, 2014. Office 2003 was replaced by Office 2007.

We have found Office 2007 to be a bit slower in many areas. The new ribbon menu structuring takes a while to get used to, but thank goodness they have good imbedded help search. I have relied on these searches many times to find a feature or capability that was not clear at first glance. For instance doing a mail merge took me a while to relearn the new process. Once I figured it out, the new 2007 made sense; it was just painful to go through the learning curve.

Good luck with your own relearning process.

Oh by the way, when you use Office 2003 and receive a document created by Office 2007 you will undoubted have trouble opening the new document. The basic method for storing all Office 2007 documents (word, excel etc) all changed. The new Office 2007 files are primarily saved as xml doc' which will be more critical over time as we move to more web services and use xml standards to exchange data.

You can download compatibility add on to read the new 2007 files with your old 2003 Office software. Here is the link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

I recommend you consider getting this compatibility pack

 

Jeff Cozens

 

 

 

 

MS and Santa must be giving us an early gift with extended XP Availability

I was excited to see this news alert from Channel news.  This means that many new computers through May 2009 are likely to come with either XP or Vista as their operating system.  Heres a protion of the article:

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) system builder partners who've been feeling queasy about the impending Jan. 31, 2009, deadline for selling PCs with Windows XP pre-installed can now breathe a bit easier, as Microsoft is giving them a way to obtain XP licenses through distribution after the deadline.

In an e-mail to ChannelWeb, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the existence of a flexible inventory program that will allow distributors to place their final orders for Windows XP OEM licenses by Jan. 31, 2009, and take delivery against those orders through May 30.

Previously, distributors had planned to purchase as many XP licenses as they could afford before Jan. 31, 2009, and sell them after the deadline. But once that inventory was gone, they'd have no choice but to turn away XP-seeking customers.

Here is a link to the entire article; Link:  http://www.crn.com/nl/software/212501445

Personnally I am glad to see XP pro licenses live on a little longer...

Regards,

Jeff

Credits on Orders and Invoices

Credits on Orders and Invoices Sometimes users need to show a credit on a new order or invoice.  This can occur when, for example, the firm wants to give a special discount or allowance or show that a customer has returned an item for replacement or credit (core charges, for example).  This tip will work for both Dynamics GP (version 9 & 10) and Dynamics SL (version 6.5 & 7.0) The credit item is entered on the sales document exactly as any other item.  The quantity ordered or invoiced, however, must be a negative quantity and the unit price a positive number.  This supports not only the application of credits (listed in inventory as Miscellaneous Charges, et cetera) but also items being returned.  When the invoice is posted, not only is the credit applied to the invoice but Sales Inventory items received are returned to stock. This tip was originally provided by Accolade Publications. http://www.accoladepublications.com

I recently upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 and in Word there is an option to blog directly to my typepad blogging service. This is my first attempt to try it out. Has anyone else tried using Word 2007 directly as your copy creation source?

 

Dynamics SL starts showing off Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services

Yesterday I watched a webinar put on by Brian Lloyd, Plumbline Solutions, on Dynamics SL and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS).  For some time owners of Microsoft GP and SL have had a hidden pearl on their price list for clients to MOSS.  Moss is a supercharged version of Windows SharePoint services and there are some very powerful add incapability’s with Moss.   It is interest to see how many of our larger customers seem to be using or at least experimenting with Moss.  I am expecting with this lower price point for Moss clients, when working with Dynamics SL and GP, will be picking up shortly.

One of the new things coming with the Feature Pack for 7.0 Dynamics SL was the ability to publish selective documents to the Moss web portal.  The portal can be customized for the needs of a Dynamics SL employee, a customer or a vendor.   Examples of published documents from the back office include: draft or final project invoices for the Project managers to view, order confirmation and order invoice documents for customers.  All of these published documents flow seamlessly from the ERP system to the web portal and greatly enhance the customer service level for all viewers.

Getting information to people in a timely and efficient manner has always been a key goal for ERP systems. It is really exciting to see the merging of the Microsoft stack of technologies (ie Moss, SL, SQL etc) as we see more and more info coming via these web portals. The day when these options were only open to fortune 100 customers are definitely being left behind.  I see this movement being used by any size company who values keeping employees, vendors, and customer informed with 24/7 access to their data.

What do you think about the future of web portals at your company?  Have you experimented with Moss or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

Office 2007 -- xml watch out

What seemed like an eternity, back in the 1990's the software world changed from Dos to Windows.  Ouch, it was painful.   But if you ask me, would I like to go backwards and I would say emphatically NO.  Well we are on the verge of the same gigantic changes and most of us don't realize it.   But looks at all the big releases coming from Micrsoft in 2008 will have one common theme: everything seems to be supporting 64 operating systems and software.  Looking backwards we moved from Dos to 16 byte software, then 32 byte software, and now is 2008 were are really moving rapidly towards 64 byte software.

Office 2007 with its focus towards xml as the common file saving methodology, laid a big foundation piece for the 64 byte world.  Xml is creating a common communication platform for exchanging data much easier between multiple sources of information.   What do you see coming down the path and how is it going to change the way your business runs and talks to other business?  Like it or not,  there are big changes just around the corner....