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4851

General Software Discussion / Re: To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 14, 2007, 06:19 AM »

BUT ... is Office 2007 really aimed at new users? Where are these new users coming from? If you wanted an Office app you have a choice of Microsoft Office (by far the major player), Corel Wordperfect Suite (long time struggling suite) and Open Office (if you want a cheap/free office app you aren't going to move to MS). There are some others out there but they are all really small fry by cmparison with MS Office !

I suppose it might be but truly new users must be a truly tiny proportion given that Office has been out there since the early 1980s in its pre-2007 format!

The ribbon is more likely to have appeared as a response to really bad publicity affecting ALL upgardes since Office 97 - namely that almost nothing new was added! No one can say there is nothing new in O2007 - whether it really lives up to the hype is another matter.

I haven't spent long playing with the ribbon but I have to confess I quite liked the approach but whether it is worth the proce of an upgrade .... I think I am skipping Office 2007 and Vista and see what happens next.

4852

General Software Discussion / Re: To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 13, 2007, 05:17 PM »

Also .3% of the user base is still a hefty number of users (probably over a million) when you consider how pandemic MS Office is on people's systems.

What about other plugin toolbars? (For example how does something like MathType integrate in Office 2007 - in all other versions it adds a toolbar, similarly Adobe Acrobat)

4853

General Software Discussion / Re: To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 12, 2007, 05:20 PM »

I haven't even installed any part of Office 2007, but for those of you who want 2007 but long for the old UI, this bit of software may help ($30):

http://www.addintool...nuoffice/default.htm

I got the link from http://www.larkware.com, who's one-liner for this was, "A third-party fix for the Office 2007 UI disaster".

-mwb1100 (April 12, 2007, 02:35 PM)

I love it  - a third party add-in to remove all the changes (pretty much) that are in Office 2007.

Question - why not simply stick with Office 97 / 2000 / 2003 in the first place.

AFAICS the only changes for 2007 are the UI, a few new corporate client tools and non-standard file formats ??? Unless you want the 'ribbon' interface is there any real point in upgrading unless you want some of the specific corporate mode changes?

4854

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody Have A Reason Why I Should NOT Purchase RegExBuddy This Week?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 09, 2007, 01:09 PM »

I don't know the answer to the specific questions with RegExBuddy (I do have a copy but have never used it enough to really comment) but JGSoft is a great site. There are regular updates, mostly free (I use AceText and EditPad Pro) - and they have a money back guarantee.

4855

General Software Discussion / Re: What fonts do I actually need?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 06, 2007, 02:55 AM »

As an aside there are loads of font utilities out there that let you add fonts only when you need them.

There are quite a few free one but I use Extensis Suitcase which will even load fonts as needed (though you should still leave the basic Windows set in tact). Basically all the fonts you don't use regularly are removed from the font folder into their own folders. You can still preview them and choose to add them manually or if you load a document that requires a font not currently loaded it will automatically find and load the font.

4856

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 03, 2007, 11:49 AM »

To be fair Lightroom's principle aim is not as an image viewer - though if you only ever tried the beta version the full release is much faster than it was.

Must admit for quick viewing ExifPro will take a lot of beating!

4857

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 04:45 PM »

Try right clicking on the taskbar and then in the Toolbars sub menu untick it (you can always re-enable it when you need it)

Also - you could try making sure the taskbar toolbars are unlocked and then dragging the left bar of the WDS toolbar to the right. Not sure if that will work (I haven't got it installed at the mo) but it works for most toolbars.

4858

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 04:23 PM »

Hi guys,

Brandon from the Windows Search team here.

WDS 3.01 (and Vista) do support indexing of Outlook, including Outlook 2003 (and everything else after Outlook 2000).  After installing WDS 3.01, the next time you run Outlook it should set itself up for indexing.  If you have Outlook running, try restarting it and then looking in the Indexing Options control panel again.

You do NOT have to change the settings for PST files, and in fact you should not.  WDS does not index PST files, it indexes Outlook items via the MAPI protocol - so in order for the contents of a PST to be indexed it must be loaded in Outlook and Outlook must be running.  There are a number of reasons for this, including authentication which Outlook handles automatically.

-BrandonLive (April 02, 2007, 04:05 PM)

Thanks for the clarification - that really rules out WDS for me. I have about 10 PST files (some quite large) which I want to be able to search instantly but I definitely don't want them to load every time I open Outlook (it slows Outlook startup to cup of coffee time). If there is no way of indexing offline PST files I need a different solution.

I quite like X1 Enterprise Client which does just what I want - but I had some issues with PST files before. That was when I was using Outlook XP now I am using 2003 and I see that X1 has been updated quite a few times since my issue. I have decided to give it another go. Seems OK at the moment but I will keep my eye on things closely for a while.

FWIW X1 is free and gives the option of having a task bar search box (like WDS) and/or a single tray icon. It also has an Outlook toolbar which allows you to do some things to emails within X1 (like mark as read etc.) see x1.com. Like Google etc. it seems to generate quite large indexes but you can put those where you want and it doesn't seem to have problems indexing larges drives (I have over 1Tb which indexes fine) and gives the options to index contents or just filenames (so combining the functions of a file interogation suite and a simple file locator) amongst other options.

The only thing X1 won't do as far as I can tell is index removable drives - my USB drive doesn't even show up in the drives list to be indexed and network folders are disabled in the free client - though they tell you to contact them if you want that functionality - not sure if that is available for free or if you have to buy a different client. It used to be included as standard.

4859

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 01:30 PM »

Think you are right about the little Outlook issue http://search.msn.co...CANTFINDANYEMAIL.htm - but in general it works for everything or there is a plugin/ifilter available.

-dk70 (April 02, 2007, 12:30 PM)

So is it meant to work "out of the box" for Outlook XP, 2003 and 2007 ??

Seems strange that Outlook is not mentioned in any of the settings at all (I have other PST files that aren't loaded into my Outlook profile by default so how would they be indexed) and also ONLY Outlook 2000 is mentioned in the help files - given that that is now 4 generations of outlook ago now there seems to be something missing somewhere along the line.

Is anyone actually using this with Outlook 2002 and later - can you search your emails? Given that for me this is the major search issue (as I have tens of thousands of archived emails) there is no point in me installing this if this basic requirement isn't met.

4860

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 11:30 AM »

Same for you Carol Haynes.   How did we miss your 3,000th?

-momonan (April 02, 2007, 09:19 AM)

Not sure - I meant to nest it into my last post but missed the boat - never mind I might leave it to 5000 now !!!

4861

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 07:02 AM »

There doesn't appear to be an option for indexing outlook messages (there is for outlook express). I looked at the filetypes supported and PST was unchecked - when I checked it it said it would index as a text file !!

It suggests in the help file that it supports Outlook 2000 (and installs a search bar inside Outlook 2000) but only in corporate mode according to the help file (which is presumably why exchange is supported). It doesn't seem to work with Outlook 2003 and what if you aren't connected in corporate mode??? The file format changed from Office XP to 2003 so maybe that is the problem. Typical of MS not to support its own products.

4862

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2007, 05:11 AM »

Doesn't support Outlook - bummer ...

4863

Living Room / Re: Good Video Editing Software? Is there any?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 01, 2007, 06:42 PM »

You have to be careful with the Mediachance stuff - it is good but when I tried it there was no AC3 codec included (which for DVD building seemed pretty narrow minded) plus I really couldn't get on with the interface. DVD-Lab isn't really video editing software though - it is DVD Authoring software.

For authoring I really like DVD Architect from Sony (in a package with Vegas).

For quick DVD builds I like to use TMPGEnc DVD Author 3. In this, the new version, it supports DivX DVD formats too - it really is surprising what you can achieve with such a simple package and can recode some formats (though you need TMPGEnc XPress for full flexibility in recoding)..

4864

Living Room / Re: The End of the Internet?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2007, 09:06 AM »

I was thinking more of the current obsession with bottled water.

4865

Living Room / Re: Good Video Editing Software? Is there any?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2007, 08:08 AM »

Haven't tried it but ...

http://www.silhouettefx.com/roto/

might be what you are after. It is a plugin for Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects. The Adobe product is an additional product for Premier.

4866

Living Room / Re: Good Video Editing Software? Is there any?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2007, 05:40 PM »

Sony Vegas is really excellent and if money is no object (and learning time) add Boris Red as a plugin. As a system you then have a really kick-ass system with all the text effects you could ever wish for.

If money is a bit of an issue then you could use Boris FX and/or Boris Graffiti (both of which are subsets of Red functionality). They had a special on these recently and I grabbed a copy but haven't had enough time to get to grips with them yet.

The Boris stuff can be used in lots of different host applications (including Sony Vegas and Adobe Premier).

Personally I never got on with Adobe Premier - but it has been a while (version 5) since I used it.

There are cut down versions of both Sony and Adobe software too (Vegas Movie Studio and Adobe Premier Elements)

4867

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2007

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2007, 04:41 PM »

Don't believe any prices from Ashampoo - they always have special offers (usually many on the same product all at the same time!) and if you go to their website there is a page somewhere that you can suggest a price too - I have used that and got a whole pile of stuff in the past cheaper than even their best special offers.

I have no probs with Ashampoo Burning Suite though I only really use it to burn DVDs from folders, otherwise I use ImgBurn which is excellent (and free)

4868

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you disable XP's Recovery System partly?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2007, 04:38 PM »

You are welcome - I only knew about this because I had the same problem.

If you swap back to Windows Update it fixes the issue - if you use Office you will then need to occasionally use Office Update to check for Office product updates (from the Help menu in any Office App).

4869

General Software Discussion / Re: Your favorite Registry Viewer + Editor?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2007, 06:33 AM »

RegEdt32.exe is not present in Windows XP (it just starts Regedit) and whilst regedit does the job it is very slow to use when you have a large registry and has poor search facilities and almost no frills (like bookmarks  or global replace etc.)

4870

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you disable XP's Recovery System partly?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2007, 03:30 AM »

IME MS don't really respect the settings you enter WRT scheduling!

Try turning off automatic update altogether and see if that fixes your problems.

4871

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you disable XP's Recovery System partly?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2007, 06:28 PM »

Bet I know what it is ...

Did you upgrade to "Microsoft Update" rather than "Windows Update" ?

I had huge problems and found a number of articles in the MS knowledge base admitting that Microsoft Update hogs the CPU during the first startup each day while it checks your system and the MS website for updates.

If you have ever gone to the Windows Update page it asks you to upgrade to Microsoft Update so you may have done it without thinking. You can opt to revert to Windows update (it is hidden in one of the links on the left) and that certainly solved my startup problems.

4872

General Software Discussion / Re: GPS Software?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 25, 2007, 02:03 PM »

The biggest problem is getting maps !

If you buy maps form companies like MemoryMap, Anquet, Fugawi etc. then they come with reasonable software that you can use on a desktop or laptop computer. Some have handheld (Palm pilot type) software included too.

The best software I have found that isn't tied to map purchases is OziExplorer - it isn't free though (shareware) but is in constant development with a responsive developer. You can put in your own maps and calibrate them (with a scanner or downloading topo type maps).

I don't know of any non-proprietary software that does the route planning or provides realtime directions.

4873

Living Room / Re: Calling UK people

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2007, 08:50 AM »

I think we can all agree on "christian values".

-f0dder (March 24, 2007, 08:39 AM)

That's the problem for me - I am not a christian and therefore don't agree with 'christian values' (I'm not sure what they are and I am not even sure 10 christians in a room can agree on what they are let alone all assent to the same things). I am all for religious education in schools as the only way to help different factions in society to understand each other and cool the temperature - but education ABOUT religion is not the same as  "broadly christian daily assembly" which is what the government in the UK has legislated for all schools (even muslim schools are supposed to have one!).

If you mean 'do to others what you would have them do to you' as a guiding principle in life then that seems a reasonable basis. I consider myself a moral person but I can't/don't claim to have 'christian values' and would find it mildly offensive if someone tried to assert that I did.

By the way I have only replied because I wanted to clarify what I was saying and my reaons for starting the petition. I don't want this to become a religious discussion/argument. If you disagree with me don't sign the petition and ignore me, if you do agree then please sign up. I am not trying to 'preach' here just make any UK members aware that the petition is out there if they want to sign it.

4874

Living Room / Calling UK people

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2007, 08:31 AM »

This topic is way Off Topic but I would like to drum up some support for something I feel strongly about.

If you don't live in the UK this isn't relevant to you ... though you could mount your own campaign in your own country ....

Anti school assembly petition

I have set up a petiton on the UK Prime Ministers website to abolish compulsory religious school assemblies in all state run schools.

If you live in the UK and agree please sign up and pass the word to friends.

You can see the petition at http://petitions.pm....v.uk/schoolassembly/

I have personally been affected by this. The rural area of the UK in which I live has predominantly 'church foundation' schools - many of which contractually require teachers to assent to teach children the christian faith - as a result I cannot complete their application forms without hypocrisy or stating that I cannot assent to their religious principles. These are state funded schools and children/teachers/parents in my area have no alternative but to bus their children up to 40 miles to find a non-denominational state school.

In theory teachers and parents can opt out of the religious practices of the school but realistically I cannot be employed in a school where I am unwilling to participate (most of the schools only have 2 or 3 teachers because of the size of communities they serve).

4875

General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone recommend a good DVD to AVI program?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2007, 08:13 AM »

I agree Doom9 is the place to look.

If you can grab a copy of SmartRipper you can rip DVDs to your hard disc and then find a VOD > AVI conversion program. There are lots out there (mostly not free) and the quality varies enormously.