Office 2010 Is Coming

[raro]

Got some spam customer information newsletter from Microsoft the other day proudly announcing the dawn of office 2010. Unfortunately the Small Business package (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) is no longer available and you have to buy Office Standard which has in addition Publisher (who needs that) and OneNote (utterly useless).

Does anyone know how to get volume licensing done? Just spent some 30 min on M$ webpages and couldn't find what I am looking for....

[carnac]

OpenOffice does the same and it's free. Can open and save Word, Excel, etc. Been using for years.

http://www.openoffice.org/

[raro]

I'm talking about Microsoft Office, not Open Office.

[siamect]

I'm talking about Microsoft Office, not Open Office.

yes that's the problem...and there are better free alternatives...

[raro]

I'm talking about Microsoft Office, not Open Office.

yes that's the problem...and there are better free alternatives...

then name me one that has the same features INCLUDING Outlook.

///edit: Just realize that the edit of my previous post wasn't saved for some reason...ok, here we go again:

Agree for Word and Excel, OpenOffice is a good replacement. Unfortunately, OpenOffice has nothing on offer that would replace Outlook and has those three functionalities:

1) syncing with my mobile phone

2) syncing through several computers (done with syncing.net, works like a charm!)

3) integrated calendar, small scale CRM etc...

Thunderbird does NOT have it, The Bat does NOT have it, and any other e-mail client I know of does NOT have it.

[george]

Raro, Google Apps is the answer. Have all these functions and Standard edition is free of charge:

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

[raro]

Raro, Google Apps is the answer. Have all these functions and Standard edition is free of charge:

http://www.google.co...ness/index.html

would that work with our corporate e-mail hosted by our IT people somewhere else on this planet?

[pitrevie]

I'm talking about Microsoft Office, not Open Office.

yes that's the problem...and there are better free alternatives...

then name me one that has the same features INCLUDING Outlook.

///edit: Just realize that the edit of my previous post wasn't saved for some reason...ok, here we go again:

Agree for Word and Excel, OpenOffice is a good replacement. Unfortunately, OpenOffice has nothing on offer that would replace Outlook and has those three functionalities:

1) syncing with my mobile phone

2) syncing through several computers (done with syncing.net, works like a charm!)

3) integrated calendar, small scale CRM etc...

Thunderbird does NOT have it, The Bat does NOT have it, and any other e-mail client I know of does NOT have it.

I agree I use Open Office but I have seen nothing to replace Outlook which is what I need for the same reasons you state.

[george]

Raro, Google Apps is the answer. Have all these functions and Standard edition is free of charge:

http://www.google.co...ness/index.html

would that work with our corporate e-mail hosted by our IT people somewhere else on this planet?

You don't need any IT people for this, that's the big deal. Sign up and connect to a test domain, Raro. You will love it. Your IT guys will not like it as they are redundant.

I've used Google Apps for years, will never use anything else.

[raro]

Raro, Google Apps is the answer. Have all these functions and Standard edition is free of charge:

http://www.google.co...ness/index.html

would that work with our corporate e-mail hosted by our IT people somewhere else on this planet?

You don't need any IT people for this, that's the big deal. Sign up and connect to a test domain, Raro. You will love it. Your IT guys will not like it as they are redundant.

I've used Google Apps for years, will never use anything else.

just about testing it...calendar works indeed perfectly, syncing with mobile phone within seconds.

I cannot find any e-mail application or how to import my contacts into google apps.

Apps is rather chunky as I have to upload each document for reading/editing. New docs must be downloaded to have them available offline. Not practical for us since me and the other sales people are more on the road than in the office. But here OpenOffice could kick in.

So we can tick off the calendar and the office software.

Remaining is e-mail client and contacts database with similar functions as Outlook has to offer (here especially the reminder functions and notes field, which serves us as a basic CRM system).

e-mail client must support several e-mail addresses and be able to allow different servers for POp and SMTP. Outlook express and Eudora are NOT able to do this!

[higgy88]

You may want to consider Evolution as your email client.

http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/

[raro]

You may want to consider Evolution as your email client.

http://www.dipconsul....com/evolution/

does that support drag and drop of attachments from the explorer window or another e-mail into a new e-mail - i.e. managing attachments without attach-browse-search-click-confirm?

Can I share the contact database with other people? Does it have reminder functions for the contacts?

[pitrevie]

You may want to consider Evolution as your email client.

http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/

The main question for me would I be able to sync the contact database with my mobile phone. However I will download and give it a try thanks for the suggestion.

[raro]

You may want to consider Evolution as your email client.

http://www.dipconsul....com/evolution/

The main question for me would I be able to sync the contact database with my mobile phone. However I will download and give it a try thanks for the suggestion.

...and other computers! We use www.syncing.net at the office and this allows us to share all contacts with all staff. Advantage: We have all the same contacts with the notes we make when we talk to customers PLUS now the secretary is keying in the contact details, not me.

We actually invested into syncing.net professional, this allows us to share files across the office with user rights management just as you had a server but minus the hardware, server software, server admin PLUS the convenience that this works over the internet and I get updated files wherever I am...as long as I have internet conmection.

[Digitalbanana]

The home and business version includes all the op is asking for doesn't it? Albeit with Onenote added. http://j.mp/bZshXn

[bkk_mike]

If your corporate IT has a volume licensing deal - you should be able to get the hup (home user pack)... - I got Office 2010 Enterprise edition for £8.95 for home use.

(Had to say I was in the UK as Thailand/HK were still only offering Office 2007 on hup).

Edited June 28, 2010 by bkk_mike

[george]

Or I you want all Microsofts OS and Products incl betas, join http://technet.microsoft.com

Costs around 20,000 THB per year and the versions never expires.

[raro]

Or I you want all Microsofts OS and Products incl betas, join http://technet.microsoft.com

Costs around 20,000 THB per year and the versions never expires.

are you sure you can use them commercially?

[siamect]

then name me one that has the same features INCLUDING Outlook.

///edit: Just realize that the edit of my previous post wasn't saved for some reason...ok, here we go again:

Agree for Word and Excel, OpenOffice is a good replacement. Unfortunately, OpenOffice has nothing on offer that would replace Outlook and has those three functionalities:

1) syncing with my mobile phone

2) syncing through several computers (done with syncing.net, works like a charm!)

3) integrated calendar, small scale CRM etc...

Thunderbird does NOT have it, The Bat does NOT have it, and any other e-mail client I know of does NOT have it.

I agree I use Open Office but I have seen nothing to replace Outlook which is what I need for the same reasons you state.

Why on earth do you need to have all Outlook functionality from the same package as the office stuff... Kmail is doing fine as mail client (not that I care but yes, it supports drag and drop of attachments) ...Korgaizer is ok.

I don;t like Evolution... it has performance problems when you have a lot of mails. I hope they have solved the problems they had in the windows version a few years ago.

Sync of address lists between computers is no problems, You have tons of alternative ways to do that.

Sync to mobile phones. Hmm I never thought that was a problem. People call and you save their phone number. What's the problem? But there are some projects doing sync stuff (Multisync/Opensync but I have never used them).

Reminders via telephone from the calendar in your computer can actually be a good thing... So for that I could understand the mobile/computer sync demand.

One word of warning...

I would personally never ever go for a "solution" like syncing.net

After reading the manual I tell you it is a recipe for disaster. Expensive, doesn't work without a central server that is outside your control, a really stone age way of synchronizing stuff, using lock/modify/unlock functions that was dated as early as when CVS was created.

No protection of contents what so ever, except moving deleted files to recycle bin but that's...

What about if you delete the contents in a file.. Then it is gone forever. So even if you have many users carrying around the data, it is still as vulnerable as if you only had one copy. Actually that would be safer because only one person would be likely to screw it up. Now every single file is exposed to the total mass of screw-ups from all people with write permissions. You better have a decent and at least hourly, backup system running, day and night.

You have to realize that safe synchronization between files on multiple computers only can be done using a distributed version control system. Otherwise you don't even know if the files match each other at any time. There is no way to find out manipulations and no way to verify that a file is untouched or is the right version. And we haven't even talked about the software dependencies yet...

... get rid of syncing.net... now!

Martin

Edited June 30, 2010 by siamect

[george]

Or I you want all Microsofts OS and Products incl betas, join http://technet.microsoft.com

Costs around 20,000 THB per year and the versions never expires.

are you sure you can use them commercially?

You can use all software on three installations.

[bazmlb]

You can get all the Volume licensing through http://it-store.thaivisa.com/, the only problem with Google apps is there is no backup options, if you company requires a backup solution by law there may be issues.

[bkkjames]

Or I you want all Microsofts OS and Products incl betas, join http://technet.microsoft.com

Costs around 20,000 THB per year and the versions never expires.

are you sure you can use them commercially?

You can use all software on three installations.

Sorry nothing to do with Office 10 but was impressed by George's signature : I guess quite a lot of thought went into it?

[siamect]

... only problem with Google apps is there is no backup options, if you company requires a backup solution by law there may be issues.

And if your company is not required to have a backup solution by law???

Of course you need good backups regardless of what the law says.

I cannot believe that Google Apps doesn't have any backups. If that is the case, you cannot use it, period!

If the backups that Google apps have is not in the form so you can save a copy locally on your own machine , you cannot use it, period!

And if the filefomat of the backups is proprietay , you cannot use it, period!

Martin

Edited July 1, 2010 by siamect

[raro]

some comments:

Google Apps: As I said, I like the calendar, but having my files saved online is not a good idea. I would need them also when I have no access to the internet. Downloading/uploading is too much of a hassle. Moreover, certain (read: most) files must be available to more than one staff. We are talking about 8,000 files at the moment and counting. Again, I really like the calendar and this will be implemented for all staff soon.

Syncing.net: I'm happy to hear about a cheaper and better solution. So far I haven't found anything that allows to share files and the contact database over the internet i.e. anywhere I go I get the latest version of files once I'm online.

Contact database: my secretary is keying in the customer contacts and syncing.net syncs it with my outlook and subsequently with my mobile phone. All 2,233 contacts in Outlook (and counting...we add new ones almost daily) are synced with my mobile.

CRM: Outlook can be used as a basic CRM system. The contact has a "notes" field where we fill in a brief memo of the last conversation with the customer. Then set a reminder for the time and date you want to talk to this contact again and forget about it. Outlook will remind you. That's all I need, I use it for many years like that and it works perfectly. If the reminder function could be synced with my mobile phone as well, it would be 100% perfect. Unfortunately it doesn't work, not even with a windows phone.

Back-up: Syncing.net is NOT a back up system. I am fully aware of this and backups are done separately. Still, if a file is deleted, it ends up in the trash can of all computers it was on, so syncing.net can be used as a basic (albeit not fool-proof) back-up as well.

For all other MS Office applications, I could get rid of them today and switch to OpenOffice. Just Outlook...haven't found anything with the above mentioned functions. I am not a Microsoft fan whatsoever, but win7 and Outlook are great products.

[siamect]

some comments:

Google Apps: As I said, I like the calendar, but having my files saved online is not a good idea. I would need them also when I have no access to the internet. Downloading/uploading is too much of a hassle. Moreover, certain (read: most) files must be available to more than one staff. We are talking about 8,000 files at the moment and counting. Again, I really like the calendar and this will be implemented for all staff soon.

Syncing.net: I'm happy to hear about a cheaper and better solution. So far I haven't found anything that allows to share files and the contact database over the internet i.e. anywhere I go I get the latest version of files once I'm online.

Contact database: my secretary is keying in the customer contacts and syncing.net syncs it with my outlook and subsequently with my mobile phone. All 2,233 contacts in Outlook (and counting...we add new ones almost daily) are synced with my mobile.

CRM: Outlook can be used as a basic CRM system. The contact has a "notes" field where we fill in a brief memo of the last conversation with the customer. Then set a reminder for the time and date you want to talk to this contact again and forget about it. Outlook will remind you. That's all I need, I use it for many years like that and it works perfectly. If the reminder function could be synced with my mobile phone as well, it would be 100% perfect. Unfortunately it doesn't work, not even with a windows phone.

Back-up: Syncing.net is NOT a back up system. I am fully aware of this and backups are done separately. Still, if a file is deleted, it ends up in the trash can of all computers it was on, so syncing.net can be used as a basic (albeit not fool-proof) back-up as well.

Outlook Contacts... all of the contact info is stored in the PST file together with emails and all other stuff. That's the problem.

If you use a system that store the contacts in a separate file, you just distribute that file. For example Kmail does this and most other systems I have seen allow you to do the same. Maybe even outlook can do this...maybe arrange a pst file with only the contacts.

For file sync, use a distributed version control system, you can use the same for distributing the files with the contacts too...

Most such systems are made for large open source software development projects, but some of them are using very basic principles and can be used for sharing and tracking any kind of files.

Git is the best one...

The problem with syncing.net is not the deleted files, it is that the files can be screwed up by anyone in the group that has write permissions. You will never know. You just see that one day the file is different. Someone changed it and there is no way back. and when do you think you will discover this?... after a year? Maybe people have been using the incorrect file for months and you don;t know!

For me that is absolutely unacceptable, but in this case it is your data, your pain... If you like it, enjoy the ride.

I still think most of us deserves a better solution especially if it cost money.

Martin

[raro]

Outlook Contacts... all of the contact info is stored in the PST file together with emails and all other stuff. That's the problem.

If you use a system that store the contacts in a separate file, you just distribute that file. For example Kmail does this and most other systems I have seen allow you to do the same. Maybe even outlook can do this...maybe arrange a pst file with only the contacts.

you can have several pst files, also one that stores only the contacts. The problem is here, the pst file is not accessible as long as it is open in Outlook. Syncing.net somehow found a way around it and they are AFAIK the only ones who were able to do so.

Distributing the file needs to be done manually (or with syncing.net - but if the file is in use it cannot sync the entire file. It works with the individual contacts but not with the entire file).

Does Kmail sync with mobile phones?

For file sync, use a distributed version control system, you can use the same for distributing the files with the contacts too...

Most such systems are made for large open source software development projects, but some of them are using very basic principles and can be used for sharing and tracking any kind of files.

Git is the best one...

Ha a look into the GIT manual...sorry, that is way too complicated for me. Syncing.net can be installed and set up by people like me. Took me an afternoon to set up the file system, assign user rights (read./right etc) and since no maintenance necessary

.

The problem with syncing.net is not the deleted files, it is that the files can be screwed up by anyone in the group that has write permissions. You will never know. You just see that one day the file is different. Someone changed it and there is no way back. and when do you think you will discover this?... after a year? Maybe people have been using the incorrect file for months and you don;t know!

For me that is absolutely unacceptable, but in this case it is your data, your pain... If you like it, enjoy the ride.

I still think most of us deserves a better solution especially if it cost money.

Martin

so what would be the solution here? I give you an example:

Our ISO SOPs are in one folder. The staff that drafts them has read/write access to this folder. The rest of the staff has only read rights as they are not supposed to change anything in there. If the ISO girl changes anything, seconds later the updated version is synced with all other computers, ensuring that everyone has the same file.

There are other folders that are open for writing to 2 or 3 staff as they all need to edit files in there. If they would have their OWN version of the file, then we would have duplicates and different versions in no time that are no longer usable. I tried that before (publishing via e-mail and so on...) but it takes up too much time and is not manageable after a while.

Again, this is all set up during an afternoon and needs no knowledge in linux script, assembler or other cryptic stuff....just click through 3 or 4 steps and there you go...

[bendejo]

I too am looking for an alternative to Outlook for syncing my PPC.

I just want to back up my data, the way I did when I had a Palm Pilot.

I don't like putting my personal contacts info into an online receptacle: if they snarf email addresses and send spam that's one thing, but street addresses and telephone numbers, well, the possibilities are too real. A few years ago my main account was yahoo mail and it got hacked (happened at a public internet place in Brazil) and they not only zapped all my data, but people I knew were getting spam that appeared to be coming from me, and I from them.

I want calendar sync and I'm not fussy about that: my little notes like "M's birthday" and "Hari Raya" won't really mean anything to anyone, so I'd be cool with google calendar. I tried it a few years ago with Thunderbird using Finchsync and google calendar. Took some patience, but did get it to work eventually (but only as a proof of concept). I don't use an external email client, I only used T-bird to keep the address book.

Anyway, I've been plotting to get away from Windows and move into Ubuntu full-time but this is one of the issues hampering efforts so I've been watching this thread. I would really prefer to not send my data off into the net. That said, I do use XMarks, but not for passwords.

Edited July 4, 2010 by bendejo

[raro]

I'm fully with you! I also try to get away from Microsoft for many years, but some applications (like Outlook) are just far better than the rest....let me re-word this....have far better functionality than the rest.

I would not store my business data in Google apps and certainly not my contacts anywhere online. Syncing.net does NOT store your data, just routes it through their server and some temporary storage if one of he users is offline (as an option, you can also say no to this one).

I tried Thunderbird but syncing contacts between computers and mobile phone is not possible, so no option for me.

[george]

Raro, why are you working with "files"? Wouldn't it be more practical with a searchable database instead?

[raro]

Raro, why are you working with "files"? Wouldn't it be more practical with a searchable database instead?

eerrmm...if I write something in Word, or safe a picture or in Excel....it produces a "file"...and those files need to be accessible to my staff, actually most of those files are actually produced by my staff.