Filed under: Office

Straight out of the "you can never have enough SKUs" files, Microsoft appears to be prepping a new flavor of Office 2010 for release next month.

Dubbed Office Small Business Basics 2010, the package will include Word, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook. Make that probably includes, because there's not a whole lot of information about SBB on the Web apart from recent speculation that it's about to be released. There's a one-line nod to it on this Microsoft page, where you'll see it crammed in amongst all the other Office 2010 bits.

In fairness to Microsoft, the additional SKU actually does make sense. With so many different purchase options available for Office 2010 -- like those looks-like-a-prepaid-phone-card-but-isn't activation cards -- why not offer as many different combinations of the core Office apps as they think consumers may want? It's also pretty clear that the goal with Office 2010 is to get everyone using it -- whether they pay for it or not (Starter, Office Web... ).

In all honesty, the inclusion of PowerPoint in the small business versions was kind of a mystery to me -- though maybe that's because most of the customers I support during the day have a hard enough time staying on top of Word and Excel, let alone mastering a presentation app.

[via ZDNet]

I got a heads-up email today that Foxit Reader -- one of the most widely-used Adobe Reader alternatives -- had released a new version. Curious, I headed over to the site to download and install the new version. After all, Foxit's popularity means our readers might be interested in reading about a major version update.

During the installer's first couple of screens, the Ask toolbar was offered -- not a bit deal, really. It's included in plenty of apps nowadays. It does, however, default to being checked, so make sure you uncheck it (unless you're the type who likes to cram as many toolbars as possible into Internet Explorer).

After seeing the Ask toolbar offered, I chose to do a custom install -- just in case Foxit defaulted to including anything else I didn't want. I noted eBay shortcuts and unchecked them, and then got a rather rude surprise (take the jump to see what):

Based on a very interesting job posting at Microsoft, Neowin is speculating that Office 2010 might become part of the mobile experience for more than just WIndows Phone users. The job (which has since been filled) called for a developer to help "bring Office Mobile to hundreds of millions of Nokia smartphone owners, followed by other leading smartphone platforms."

Wait, other smartphone platforms? We knew Microsoft had partnered up with Nokia, and that Office Mobile for Winmo 6.5. and Windows Phone 7 were part of the roadmap, but this job specifically mentions "working across other devices and operating systems." So, are we going to be seeing Office Mobile popping up in the Android Market one day? Unfortunately, the ad isn't that specific.

Neowin interprets "leading" platforms as RIM, Apple's iOS, and Android, but there's not really any evidence one way or another. [Don't forget Office for Mac! -Ed]

Those ingenious folks over at RescueTime have compiled another fantastic set of statistics -- last time it was how much money the Google Pac-Man homage cost the world, and today it's some damning graphs of just how much market share Gmail and Docs are gaining at the expense of Microsoft's Office suite.

Last year, Outlook lost almost 6% of its users, while Gmail gained 3%. Google Calendar shows a massive gain, from obscurity to almost 10% of RescueTime users. Google Docs gained about 5%, which matches the 5% loss shown by Microsoft Excel. In total, 79% of users use the range of Google Apps, while only 52% are using Microsoft Office.

Don't worry, both RescueTime and I are well aware that these numbers are biased -- but in a good way. With these numbers coming from a tool used primarily by those trying to boost productivity, these numbers are a leading indicator.

The tech industry has proven time and time again that early adopters drive entire industry segments, and looking at these graphs, it's pretty clear that Google has all but won over with the tech-savvy crowd. Now it's just a matter of driving home a victory, something Google seems more than capable of doing.

It's now plaintively obvious why Microsoft has hurried its Office Web Apps: to reclaim some of its market share before it's too late.

[via Into Windows]

We've known about Microsoft's plans to release a stripped-down, free version of Office 2010 for quite some time. What's been slightly less publicized is the fact that Office Starter will only be available on brand new computers. That doesn't seem like such a big deal, but there's more to the story.

Take a look at the image above. Microsoft wants OEMs to preload Office 2010 (most big companies like Dell, HP, Acer, Toshiba, etc. already do this). However, instead of using a free 60-day trial like they did with Office 2007, Microsoft wants those same OEMs to pony up for Office Starter.

If they're willing to tack on the added bloat of the Bing Bar and Live Essentials, it'll only cost them $2 per PC -- otherwise, it's $5. That doesn't seem like much, but you're talking about millions of new PCs over the next three or four years (likely how long it will be until Office 2010 is replaced).

OEMs, maybe it's time to look at alternatives. Maybe drop some shortcuts to Google Docs or Zoho on your systems instead. Or heck, you could even point them to Microsoft's own Docs.com!

This sure is strange behavior -- considering Microsoft removes all the bloatware from computers they sell in their retail stores. You may now begin complaining about cash grabs and bullying.

[viz ZDnet]

We've covered After the Deadline before -- from its emergence as a WordPress plug-in to the arrival of the Firefox extension.

Now, Google Chrome users can get in on the grammar-y goodness: After the Deadline is now available from the Chrome Extension Gallery.

The new extension is loaded with options, allowing you to whitelist certain phrases and websites, automatically check textareas prior to submission, and optionally look for bias language, clichés, double negatives, and more.

In addition to English, ATD also supports French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. As with most grammar checking tools, After the Deadline isn't perfect. It didn't catch some intentional errors I threw at it like a random capitalized word in the middle of a sentence or misplaced or things that had been shuffled around. For example, "Where I am going at?" avoided detection.

When ATD does spot something wrong, it gets underlined. Click one, and you can see what kind of error was detected, possible replacements, and a link to an explanation. You can also ignore a particular error -- or choose ignore to never be bugged about it again.
ATD does have some display problems that need fixing. The pop-ups which appear when you click an error get cut off by the textarea's borders (lined in red) -- so if something at the very bottom of the box gets marked, you probably won't be able to see it! Edit: according to Raffi from Automattic, this is a CSS issue with our editor...shouldn't affect the rest of you!

Still, having After the Deadline installed is better than no grammar check at all -- especially if you need the things you type in Chrome to look erudite and professional.

Purchasing software for your business can take a pretty big bite out of your budget, but finding programs that you're actually allowed to use on a home business computer can be tricky. There's a lot of free software out there, but much of it is only free for personal use -- and you can't use it legally on your business systems.

Here's a list of 13 great, free programs that you can definitely use. Doing so could also help your small or home business save some serious cash.

Microsoft Security Essentials
Antivirus software is a good place to start, and Microsoft Security Essentials is an excellent option. It's been rated very highly in head-to-head tests and is every bit as good (if not better) than programs like Norton Antivirus, AVG, and Avast. Best of all, Security Essentials is free "for use in your home-based small business," as specified in the license agreement.

A couple of days ago the second beta of Office 2011 for Mac OS X leaked. I didn't want to report it immediately because it's always a little bit dangerous to download pre-release software, especially from infamous torrent sites... But enough people have now tried it -- and apparently it's awesome!

The Boy Genius Report has the best hands-on information and also a ton of screenshots to feast upon. If this is the first you've heard of Office 2011 for Mac (it's very similar to Office 2010), the official Microsoft press release is a good place to start.

Everyone that's used the beta seems be praising one common thing: the UI. They're actually loving the Ribbon, believe it or not! Everything else seems to work as intended, with Outlook apparently receiving less love than the other parts of the suite, but according to Boy Genius it's still "the best and most powerful email client we've ever used on OS X".

Don't forget, like its Windows counterpart, Web apps will also play a large part of Office 2011 for Mac -- but there's no mention anywhere of whether they are included in this leaked beta! If any Mac users can confirm whether they have Office Web App access, that'd be great.

There's a safe torrent for Office 2011 for Mac OS X Beta 2 available; but of course I won't be linking it here. You know where to go... but do so at your own risk!

Live SkyDrive is an awesome service. 25GB of web storage for free? Yeah, that sounds good to me. Sure, the 50MB per file limit is a little bit of a downside but it's still a great place to store documents, music, and photos.

Heck, if you tell an app like 7zip to chunk big files up into 50MB pieces you can store whatever the heck you want. If only there was a way to access your SkyDrive storage like a local hard drive without an app like Gladinet or SD Explorer...Why, that'd make it like a free Dropbox account x 12.5!

As it turns out, there is a way to do that -- and it's pretty darn easy to do now that Office 2010 is here.

Here's what you'll need to to turn your SkyDrive into your Z: drive (or whatever letter you choose):

• Office 2010 -- a trial version or unexpired beta is fine
• a Windows Live account
• ...the ability to follow directions

That's about it. Let's go!

One of the big announcements at Facebook's f8 developer conference was Facebook Docs, a Facebook-powered version of Microsoft Web Office. Facebook Docs will let users create, upload and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, right on Facebook. It was created in collaboration with Microsoft's Fuse Labs, and the uploading system was based on Facebook's existing Photos app. Your docs are social objects on Facebook, so they can be shared and commented on.

Basically, Facebook users get Microsoft web apps, and Microsoft gets ... a whole bunch of Facebook users. Since Microsoft's campaign to bring Office to the web means a head-to-head battle with Google Docs, I'm sure MS was thrilled to get a few hundred million extra users. Facebook users are valuable, too. Microsoft is doing fine in business environments, but the younger, student-heavy Facebook crowd offers an opportunity to snatch some users away from Google.

[via The Guardian]