The PC Informant » Office

Scrap files scrapped

Vic Laurie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:59:22 +0000

Windows is a complicated operating system and has many properties and features that most PC users are unaware of. One of the odder and lesser known features in Windows 98/XP was something called a scrap file. I wrote about scrap files some years ago in connection with their use by virus writers. I visit the subject again to note that, beginning with Vista, Windows no longer supports scrap files.

What were scrap files supposed to do? They were intended as a kind of handy way to copy a small part of a document onto the desktop where it could be kept and then used in another file. Only a few applications, mostly Microsoft Office, supported this function, however, and very few PC users even knew about it.

To see how a scrap file works in Windows XP, open a Word document. Then highlight some text and use the mouse to drag the highlighted material onto the desktop. A new file will appear. Double-click the file and a Word document containing the text will open. Or drag the scrap file and drop it into an open Word document and the text will appear in the Word document. With a slightly different procedure, images can also be manipulated. In that case, however, you need to use a right-click drag and make a selection from the context menu.

Because of backward compatibility considerations, Microsoft doesn’t often drop a Windows feature. But scrap files were little known or used and had some security issues so this feature was omitted from Vista and 7.

Microsoft patches patched

Vic Laurie — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:11:45 +0000

Some of the Microsoft security patches from the October patch Tuesday were buggy. Microsoft issued some fixes yesterday. So you may need to check Microsoft Update. Details at InfoWorld.

Microsoft Works to be replaced

Vic Laurie — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:37:54 +0000

The venerable Microsoft Works has long been an option for those who did not need all the many features or the big price that came with Microsoft Office. Now Microsoft is abandoning Works and will be replacing it with a stripped-down version of Office 2010. The new edition will contain advertising and will be available on new PCs starting next year. It will consist of Word 2010 and Excel 2010. Unlike the trial versions of Office now often bundled with new PCs, this new edition will not time out but will carry ads.

Via Computerworld.

Microsoft Office on your phone

Vic Laurie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:26:11 +0000

The mobile platform just keeps getting more like a small computer. At CNET, Ina Fried reports:

Microsoft is expected on Wednesday to announce a partnership with European mobile giant Nokia to help get its Office software onto that company’s mobile phones, CNET News has learned.

With the next version of Office, Microsoft is trying to expand its desktop hold on the productivity market into one that spans the PC, Web, and phone, and this deal is seen as a significant move in that last category.

The software maker has already said that, with the next version of Office, it plans to offer browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Those programs will be able to run inside Safari and Firefox in addition to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That means that Office, for the first time, will run on Linux-based machines.

Never pay full price for Microsoft applications

Vic Laurie — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:05:43 +0000

That’s the message of a post by Rafe Needleman at CNET. He begins:

I don’t know why Microsoft attaches retail prices to it mainstream software products, Windows and Office. You have to be a loser to pay them.

Needleman then discusses various ways to pay less for Windows and Office.

Microsoft admits it can’t stop Office hacks

Vic Laurie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:00:47 +0000

Microsoft can’t defend Office files against all the security vulnerabilities so the next edition of Office will be “sandboxed” to try to isolate any security problems. Computerworld reports:

Microsoft’s plan to “sandbox” Office documents in the next version of its application suite is an admission that the company can’t keep hackers from exploiting file format bugs, a security analyst said today.

The sandboxing is described this way:

According to Brad Albrecht, a senior security program manager with the Office team, Office 2010 will sport something called “Protected View” that isolates Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in a read-only environment. The sandbox, said Albrecht in a post to a company blog this week, will have “minimal access to the system, and no access to your other files and information. Even if the file is malicious, it can’t get out of the sandbox and do harm to your computer or data.”

Next version of Microsoft Office

Vic Laurie — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:32:56 +0000

I still haven’t gotten used to Office 2007 but the next version, denoted Office 2010, is coming soon. The big news here is that Microsoft is making this version of office available for Web use. MarketWatch reports:

Microsoft Corp. on Monday made the latest edition of its Office software suite available for testing and plans to make key applications such as Word and Excel available over the Web — acknowledging burgeoning competition from Internet giant Google Inc. and others.

Office 2010 is not yet available for public testing. Mary Jo Foley explains at ZDNet:

On July 13, Microsoft is slated to make available a limited technical test build of its Office 2010 suite to select testers via the company’s Connect download site.

The new build is not a public beta. A public beta of Office 2010 is slated for later this year, as company officials have said previously. The promised July test build, which will be downloadable starting today, is of Office 2010 Professional — one of the five planned Office 2010 SKUs — only.

Added later: TechCrunch has a post, The Complete Guide To Microsoft’s Office 2010.

PowerPoint patches

Vic Laurie — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:50:14 +0000

Today, Microsoft issued critical security updates for PowerPoint. If you use PowerPoint, be sure to install them. The update package is available here.

Combining Microsoft Office documents

Vic Laurie — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:30:34 +0000

Although I have been using one version or the other of Microsoft Word for years, I know very little about the application. It has far more features than I ever have need for. So I usually refrain from giving Word tips. Recently, however, I wanted to combine some documents and I learned something that seems worth passing along. In the past, I have gone the copy and paste route but there’s another way.

If you want to combine two or more Word documents into one, use the Insert-File command in Word 2003. In Word 2007, the command is Insert-Text from File. This latter command shows up when you click Insert-Object. Incidentally, Insert-Object can be used to place an Excel file in a Word document. Also, if you want to insert a Word document with graphics in it, Insert-Object can be used. In each case, first place your cursor where you want the new material to appear. (Experienced users of Office will no doubt mumble something like, “Doesn’t everybody know that?”)

New security issues- Adobe Flash, Excel

Vic Laurie — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:54:27 +0000

Security issues just keep coming, Adobe Flash again and Microsoft Excel. Microsoft acknowledges the problem in Excel but no fix yet. Adobe has a patch at this link. More details by Gregg Keizer at Computerworld. Also, see the information about Flash problems at Security Garden and also at ZDNet.