Happy Birthday, Windows!

Interface Manager is the code name and is considered as the final name, but Windows prevails because it best describes the boxes or computing “windows” that are fundamental to the new system. Windows is announced in 1983, but it takes a while to develop. Skeptics called it “vaporware.”

The fully-packaged Windows 1.0

On November 20, 1985, two years after the initial announcement, Microsoft ships Windows 1.0. Now, rather than typing MS‑DOS commands, you just move a mouse to point and click your way through screens, or “windows.” Bill Gates says, “It is unique software designed for the serious PC user…” 

Happy Birthday, Access!

Microsoft released Access version 1.0 on 13 November 1992. Access 1.1 was released in May 1993 to improve compatibility with other Microsoft products and to include the Access Basic programming language.
I started using Access with version 2.0. It is a tough program to use as it borders between end-user and programmer. Both users can use it at different levels, which makes it great.
I giggle every time I have a question that I know Access can do, but I don't know how to make it work. I ask a programmer friend of mine, and the first thing they have me do is switch to SQL view to work. I say, "that's great, but how can I use the GUI instead?" Their response is, "I don't know." Two users, two very different experiences with the same product.

PivotTables in Excel 2013

I love PivotTables. They are an easy way to take the data you have and manipulate in such a variety of ways to get the results you want. Today I am being efficient and sharing a wonderful post from the Excel Blog all about PivotTables. Seriously, I can't do any better than this... Practical PivotCharts in Excel.

Sort Folders in Outlook 2013

In previous versions of Outlook, your folders were sorted alphabetically. What annoyed me is that they were sorted among the Drafts folder, Sent items, etc. To work around this, I either put all folders under my Inbox or in a special folder I labeled "My Folders."

With Outlook 2013, you can move your folders anywhere you want by clicking and dragging. You'll notice when you move a folder, a gray highlight bar appears to let you know where it is going. Watch the dark gray horizontal line to determine it will drop into another folder, be a main or a subfolder.

If you really do prefer the alphabetical sorting, right-click your e-mail at the top of the list and click Sort Subfolders A to Z.

Happy Spreadsheet Day!

October 17th was voted the best day for Spreadsheet Day, because VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet for personal computers, was released on October 17th, 1979.
If you're a spreadsheet geek and like to read, you can learn all about the history of spreadsheets at A Brief History of Spreadsheets, by D.J. Power.

Happy Birthday, Word!

In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers, and the primary developers of Bravo, the first GUI word processor, They started work on a word processor called Multi-Tool Word for MS-DOS in 1983. Its name was soon simplified to Microsoft Word. Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first program to be distributed on-disk with a magazine. Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a mouse, and it was able to display some formatting, such as bold, italic, and underlined text, although it could not render fonts.
This takes me back to high school when I learned to type on WordPerfect 4.0 for DOS. Can anyone tell me what F7 did? It's been years, but I still remember it is to print. 

Happy Birthday, Excel!

Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on 30 September 1985. Excel was one of the first spreadsheets to use a graphical interface with pull down menus and a point and click capability using a mouse pointing device. The Excel spreadsheet with a graphical user interface was easier for most people to use than the command line interface of DOS spreadsheet products, like Lotus 1-2-3. Many people bought Apple Macintoshes so that they could use the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. When Microsoft launched the Windows operating system in 1987, Excel 2.0 was one of the first application products released for it.