Send a Calendar via E-Mail

Being able to view my coworkers’ free/busy time is a great time-saver when I want to schedule a meeting with them. But there are times when I need to schedule a meeting with someone outside of my organization. When that’s the case, I send them a copy of my calendar for the time period requested so they can match their free time with mine.

To send someone your calendar…

1. In a new e-mail message or a reply, click in the body of the message.
2. On the Message tab, Include group, click Attach Item and select Calendar.
3. In the Send a Calendar via E-Mail dialog box:
   1. Specify which calendar to include (if you manage more than one).
   2. Specify the date range. If you don’t see the option you need, select Specify Dates to choose the beginning and end of the date range.
   3. Select the amount of detail to include.
   4. If you only want to include working hours,
      select ☑ Show time within my working hours only.
4. Click OK.

The calendar will be added to your message as a neat and easy-to-read table, making it easy for the recipient to select a time that works for both of you.

Take Attendance in Excel (and so much more)

In training, I need to take attendance. I can have a list in Excel that looks like the one below. But, by using Conditional Formatting, I can get a better looking list that is easy to filter/sort to what I need. Here’s how I do that.

The first step is to change how I use the “Attended” column. Instead of x’s, I need to enter 1’s and 0’s. Excel is designed around the use of numbers and this will only work if I do the same. In this instance, I use 1’s for those who have attended and 0’s for those who were absent.

1. Select the column with the values to format. In my example, I selected column D.
2. On the Home tab, Styles group, click Conditional Formatting and select the 3 Symbols (Uncircled) under the Indicators options. (It's the green check, yellow explanation point and red X.)

You will see the icon and the value listed in the column together. Now to hide the value.

1. Click Conditional Formatting again and this time select Manage Rules… at the bottom of the gallery to open the dialog box
2. Click the Edit Rule… button.
3. Select the Show Icon Only check box. Click OK to finish the rule, and OK apply.

The bonus is now you can filter/sort on this column. Turn on the Filter (on the Data tab) to view the filter arrows on each column heading. Click the filter for your column, move to Filter by Color and select to view only those who attended or get a list of those who were absent.

Migration Guides

How is it that I have not come across these before? Apparently, around the time of the release of Microsoft Office 2010, a few of Microsoft's bloggers created migration guides for Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. For some reason, I'm just now finding these fantastic guides. So, here are the Microsoft Office 2010 Migration Guides. ENJOY!

Microsoft Office: Open documents that Office wants to block

Old stuff ain’t safe. At least according to Microsoft. Therefore, when you try to open files in the 97-2003 file format (or earlier), Office 2010 will block editing (and macros) of these files until you decide they are safe. The problem arises when you upgrade, all your files are in the previous format and blocked from editing. You can easily click the Enable Editing button that appears in the yellow bar under the ribbon, but if you want to be proactive, you can change this setting.

In Word or Excel, go to the File tab, click Options, click Trust Center on the left, and then click the Trust Center Settings.. button. On the left, select File Block Settings, and remove the checkmarks from the older Office files that you want Office 2010 to open. There are additional settings for how to open at the bottom of the dialog box.

Office 2010 Migration Guides

Making the jump from Microsoft Office 2003 into 2010? There are some handy migration guides just for you.

What's New in PowerPoint 2010?

Echo Swinford, who’s a PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) has written up a  list (65 of them) of the new features of PowerPoint 2010. It's a great list with short and easy-to-understand descriptions of each. Read the list!

Office 2010

Want to know more? Read the story online from PC Mag.

Office 2010 reaches RTM

Last week, Microsoft reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) milestone for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010. What does that mean?

• April 27th—Volume License customers with active Software Assurance (SA) will be able to download the products via the Volume Licensing Service Center. 
• May 1st—Customers without SA will be able to purchase the new products through Volume Licensing from Microsoft partners.
• May 12th—Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to business customers with Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft’s Business Division, delivering a keynote as part of a virtual launch at http://www.the2010event.com.
• June—Office 2010 will become available in U.S. retail stores, but you can pre-order retail versions of Office 2010 at http://store.microsoft.com/OfficePreorder.

What you'll be missing in Access 2010

Access 2010 will be missing some features from previous versions. For most, I say, "meh" but I did like the snapshot tool. At least you'll be able to print to PDF, so I guess it's even better. So long!

Read about the Access 2010 deprecated features and components.

Office 2010 Betas available!

Worried about what the next upgrade might bring? Check out it out for yourself with a trial download of the Office 2010 betas. Go ahead and try it. It's not as bad as you might think.

Backstage with Office 2010

Terry Crowley, Technical Fellow in Office, describes some of the thoughts and principles that went into the development of the Office Web Applications.

Office2010 Technical Preview

It's been fun so far and very easy to adjust to MS Office 2010. The ribbons and tools are the same as 2007, but the Office Button has undergone a major make over. At first I wasn't too sure I liked it, but it is very intuitive and I haven't needed to go to help to find anything yet. If you are still on Office 2003, you really should make the move to 2007 first to easy your way into 2010. You'll be much happier you did.