Saturday, February 11, 2012

How to Integrate Office Communicator 2007 R2 32bit with Microsoft Outlook 2010 64bit Edition

If you find yourself in the situation where you have Microsoft Outlook 2010 64bit Edition Installed together with Communicator 2007 R2 you will find that without the proper Exchange Configuration you will not have access to your Outlook Contacts and your Presence in Communicator will not be synchronized with your Calendar or OOF Events.


In a installation, meaning Outlook and Communicator both, 32bit, Communicator relies on Outlook to get the Presence and OOF information as well as Local Contacts. It does this by connecting to the mapi.dll, but more on this in a later chapter.

Here is how to get Presence, OOF and Contact Information synchronized with your 32bit Communicator even if you have Outlook 64bit or no Outlook at all.

Firstly you will need to update Communicator to 3.5.6907.0083 (http://support.microsoft.com/KB/976135), you need to do this because an automatic mechanism was added to Communicator to enable it to fall-back on a direct Exchange Connection when it is unable to connect to Outlook.
*Note: You will still get the Outlook Integration Error but you can ignore it as you should have the functionality, the error message is meant to inform you that you are not connecting via Outlook.
In Communicator CU6 3.5.6907.0206 (http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2028888)  the behavior was changed and the Error message does not appear anymore if you fall-back to an Exchange Connection.
Well after you have installed Communicator CU4 or CU6 all the work on the Communicator/OCS side is done; now we need to check your exchange CAS Server and the method you use for autodiscover.
The guys in the Exchange Team took a few moments to explain the workings of the autodiscover process… as it goes we have two options to get the autodiscover XML.
Outlook usually employs the SCP method and gets the CAS Server address buy LDAP Query, when you are in your corporate network. When you are outside the organization and a connection to the DC is not possible, Outlook will try to connect using the Exchange Web Services. In order to identify the Web Services it employs several look up methods, here is a KB Article describing the process in detail:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940881

Coming back to our Problem, Communicator will not be able to identify the SCP in AD so it will always employ the second method and it will use Exchange Web Services. So all you need to do to enable Communicator Integration with your Exchange Server is to create a SRV Record pointing to your Exchange CAS Server or create a DNS Host A record [autodiscover.] pointing to the same CAS Server or HLB.
Now we got the discovery method covered, the next step is to create a certificate and assign it to the IIS Server on the CAS. The certificate has to be created by a CA that your Local Client trusts, no SELF-SIGNED Certificates allowed hereJ.
Request a Certificate from the CA of choice, internally you could potentially get one from your internal CA, but if you are using OWA you will need to assign a Public Certificate for the Servers designated for external connections.
The Certificate will typically have a SN with the Server name and some SAN like mail.,apart from the usual SN and SAN, used by Exchange, you will need to add another SAN to this certificate with the fqdn autodiscover.
Assign this Certificate to your IIS, do an IISRESET if the services are started and you should be up and running.


Communicator should at this stage be able to resolve the autodiscover. and get the XML with the EWS URL that is used to get the Availability (AKA Free-Busy) and OOF information as well as Local Contacts stored in your Outlook Profile.


*NOTE: You will need to set your URL in Exchange to FQDNs that are accessible from any location in and outside your network in order to have overall coverage for your Communicator integration.
More Information on how to How to Configure Exchange Services for the Autodiscover Service can be found under http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201695(EXCHG.80).aspx

Friday, February 10, 2012

How to make a PowerPoint in Office 2010 read-only

PowerPoint in Office 2010 can be made read-only by using the PowerPoint Info menu features. This would prevent other users from editing and making changes to the PPT slides.
  • Click on File menu –> Navigate to menu
  • Click on the Protect Presentation and select Mark as Final from list of menus.


The following dialog box would be displayed. Click Ok to continue.

The following warning message would also be displayed. Click ok to complete the operation.

 This would make the PowerPoint Presentation in Office 2010 as a read-only.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

How to Use PowerPoint Effectively

Used in support of clearly articulated pedagogical goals, PowerPoint can enhance student learning in several ways. First, it can substitute for more cumbersome technologies like the overhead projector or a slide projector. A CD ROM loaded with images is a lot simpler and moreportable than a collection of slide trays—even if the picture resolution is considerably diminished. Similarly, complex mathematical and scientific drawings or formulas can be clearly and simply presented. PowerPoint can also vividly show processes: animated slides, for example can illustrate a chemical reaction, or reveal how a poet edited and changed a poem. Still the effective presentation of information does not ensure that learning has actually taken place.


PowerPoint slides can provide starting points for interactive processes that promote learning, but they are only a small part of that process. For example, prompts for writing or discussion, instructions for in-class activities, lists of talking points, or student comments can be clearly displayed to an entire class in large and easily legible type. In addition PowerPoint can enhance a discussion or lecture by providing supplemental materials for a variety of learning styles, including photographs, illustrations and graphs in color, and charts that reveal relationships.


Many teachers believe that students using PowerPoint presentations is a productive learning activity (Alster, 2002; Mason & Hylnka, 1998); yet detractors believe that its rigid format stifles not only students’ creativity, but also their ability to understand and convey information (Tufte, 2003; Keller, 2003). Consequently, teachers need to make as clear as possible what the use of a tool like PowerPoint is supposed to accomplish, both in terms of skills and learning.


Outside of the classroom PowerPoint can be used to provide review and supplementary materials to students: for example, notes with references to important passages discussed in class can be posted to a website and downloaded by students after class. For the disorganized teacher or student, PowerPoint can support preliminary organization of data. However, it does not support the processes of analysis and interpretation of data equally well, especially the complicated and extensive interrelationships among them.

Friday, February 3, 2012

How To Remove Microsoft Office 2010 from your PC

If you got an error message that saying “this product installation has been corrupted. when trying to uninstall Office 2010 (beta), the tips that I found on Techgeekmore may help you.

There are two methods: Most probably the error is caused by a missing xml file from the Grove portion of the Office installation. However, if you haven’t installed Groove, there are other reasons also.

First method with Groove installed: To solve this issue, you will need a copy of your installation source / CD.

1 – Locate the Grove Folder on your installation Source / CD

2 – Copy the setup.xml from the groove folder, and paste it in C:Program Files – Common Files – Microsoft Shared – OFFICE14 – Office Setup Controller – Groove.en-us –

3 – Try to uninstall Office again

Second method without Grove Installed or without the Office Installation Source

Go to the Microsoft Support Page at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179/. Using the Microsoft Fix It function, you can solve your problem. The process helps you remove Office 2010 (also 2007) from your PC.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

How to Activate MS Word 2010

Similar to other programs in the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, Word 2010 must be activated after installation. This action helps confirm that the application is a genuine Microsoft product and that it has not been installed on a greater number of computers than its license allows. If you choose not to activate Word 2010 during the install process, the program gives you the ability to do so at a later date. Once you know where to find the proper menu item, performing this task takes only a few clicks.


  • Click the Windows "Start" button and select "All Programs," followed by "Microsoft Office" and "Microsoft Office Word 2010."
  • Click the "File" tab in the top-left corner of the window.
  • Select the "Help" item and then click "Activate Product Key." The Word 2010 Activation Wizard window appears on your screen within a few seconds.
  • Select "I want to activate the software over the Internet" or "I want to activate the software by phone," depending on your preference, and then click "Next."
  • Follow the on-screen instructions presented by the Activation Wizard. The exact instructions will vary, depending on the activation mode and the configuration of other Office 2010 programs installed on your computer.
  • Click the "File" tab in the top-left corner of the window and select "Exit." The activation process will be finalized the next time you start Word 2010.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The complete guide to Office 2010: Word

Text Effects, revamped document maps and intelligent spellchecking are among the new features of Word 2010

Although at first glance Word 2010 looks like an elaborate spot-the-difference competition from its predecessor, a number of subtle differences begin to emerge after a few hours’ use. These can be broken down into two categories: presentation and productivity.

PRESENTATION

Microsoft definitely doesn’t want you knocking out documents in Times New Roman. Building on the improved styles and themes that arrived in Office 2007, the latest attempt to beautify your documents arrives in the shape of Text Effects.

These allow you to add graphical effects to text – such as reflections, glows and shadows – which help lift the copy and give a professional sheen to headings and title pages (provided the effects are used in moderation, of course). Unlike WordArt, copy typed using Text Effects isn’t inserted as a graphic, so can be cut, pasted, edited and rendered at will.

Fonts have been given extra sparkle, with OpenType fonts offering elegant typographical features such as ligatures, number forms and number spacing.

Word also benefits from the same photo-editing functions and screenshot features that are found in Outlook (hardly surprising given that Word is Outlook’s default text editor). Additionally, there’s a wider portfolio of shapes and SmartArt to throw into documents, which again help make pages look attractive.

PRODUCTIVITY

Document mapThose who spend their professional lives knee-deep in lengthy Word documents will appreciate the new productivity features. The revamped Document Map (now retitled Navigation Pane) allows you to browse long documents using thumbnail images of each page. Cleverly, it allows you to drag and drop sections or chapters of your document into a new position. So, if you’ve belatedly decided you want to move the chairman’s letter behind the financial results in the company’s annual report, you drag the section’s title bar into the relevant position and all the page numbers are automatically updated.

This feature relies on documents being created with headings that are properly marked up – Word isn’t smart enough to guess where sections start and finish by itself.

The Navigation Pane also houses the revamped Find menu. Searches for words or phrases are now delivered in a search-engine-like list, including snippets of the text surrounding your keywords. It’s a far less painful way of finding the passage of text you’re looking for, compared to the previous system of trawling through every keyword match.

Spellchecking has been made more intelligent, in a bid to Hoover up errors where the word itself is spelt correctly but has been used in the wrong context. Type the phrase “bare in mind”, for example, and Word will put a little blue squiggle under “bare” and suggest you replace it with “bear” when you run the full spellcheck.

Finally, Word 2010 promises to put an end to those moments when you’ve spent hours battering away at a document without saving it, and then blithely clicked “No” on the dialog box that prompts you to save before closing. Now Word automatically saves versions of all documents by default, and allows you to retrieve unsaved work.

This feature is hidden away in the new Backstage view, however. Click File | Recent, and at the foot of the document list you’ll see an option to Recover Unsaved Documents. The Info tab of the File Menu allows you to recover previous versions of the document you’re currently working on.