My Word 2007 installation is filled with macros and keyboard shortcuts, but I'd never realised that it was also possible to implement those within Outlook, which uses Word as its email editing interface. Microsoft's Word Team Blog runs through the gory details (essentially, you have to store customisations in the NormalEmail template edited through Word, while for macros you need some object tagging so that Outlook doesn't lose the plot when you try and run them). One point the post doesn't note: you can't edit the template while Outlook itself is running without serious file permission dramas. It's a distinct nuisance that Microsoft's design approach means you have to define keyboard customisations separately for Word and Outlook -- integration is meant to be a selling point for Office -- but at least it gives you a way of avoiding the painful Ribbon keyboard shortcuts.

Windows only: Sticky notes applications are fairly common, but StickySorter, a new offering from Microsoft's Office Labs division, is designed to deal with a particular challenge: organising large groups of notes from multiple sources into relevant groups. Microsoft originally built it to help with the process of affinity diagramming, and it includes options for importing notes data from CSV files, tagging notes, and allowing structured data within the free-form sticky environment. Like most Labs products, there's no clear indication of what will ultimately happen to this, but it's an interesting new take on working with unstructured information. StickySort is a free download for Windows only, requires .NET Framework 2.0.

In an effort to improve user experience and secure more machines from becoming zombies on botnets, Microsoft's anti-malware project codenamed "Morro" will be free with every copy of the operating system. It's specifically designed to require few computing and connection resources to work with older machines and limited bandwidth in an effort to protect new users on inexpensive computers around the world. The company has also announced plans to end the Windows Live OneCare paid subscription security service. Want to protect yourself now? Check out downloads like Hitman Pro and our top five antivirus applications.

In the age of Gmail, Microsoft's Hotmail service has a distinct last-century vibe about it, but Microsoft is still trying to maintain its relevance. A promised list of upgrades announced today in a press release include integration with feed from other social networking, sharing and blogging sites (including Flickr, Twitter and Wordpress), and access to Gmail and other external accounts via Hotmail. The social networking options are also being added to Live Messenger, though it should be noted that the big three -- Facebook, MySpace and Bebo -- aren't part of the deal. (A bunch of other Live features were also mentioned in the announcement, but most of these are already available as separate downloads.)
The new features are scheduled to be rolled out to Australian users between now and February 2009; they haven't shown up in my Hotmail account as yet, and frankly I'm reluctant to reinstall Live Messenger while I'm on the road because of the hideous effect it has on system start-up times. But if you've seen the new-look Hotmail, tell us how it rolls in the comments.

Over at APC, I've looked at some of the techniques which Microsoft is using to punch up performance in Windows 7. Many of these are familiar as means of improving the responsiveness in Vista and earlier Windows versions, such as minimising the number of services loaded at start-up and not running unneeded software. However, some changes -- like loading device drivers in parallel and letting graphics processors take on a prominent role -- can't be readily replicated on older systems. Doubtless Windows 7 will eventually develop its own mythology about performance tweaking (any user tweaks on the current M3 release can't be taken too seriously since so much of the user interface is still to be implemented).

We've heard plenty about the potential of Windows Live Mesh, but ZDNet reports that Microsoft has finally developed some real live Live Mesh apps that put the system to use. The four apps—called the MeshPack—include a collaborative crossword app, a digital bulletin board, a list sharing tool, and a collaborative group-polling tool. Unfortunately you need a PDC code to actually download any of them. [via Gizmodo]

The Google Operating System blog points out that both Google web search and Gmail can now read and convert Office 2007 documents, i.e. .DOCX files. That makes for easy mail-yourself conversion if you need it, or bulk-converting files to HTML, just like with PDF files. There are, of course, online tools like Zamzar for those without Gmail.

Microsoft's Outlook Team Blog walks through how you can customise the RSS feed in Outlook 2007, changing the displayed details for each feed. Although I'm confirmed Outlook addict, I actually prefer Google Reader for feed tracking, but if you do want to keep it all in Outlook, this kind of customisation is appealing.

The Microsoft Office Word Team blog runs down how you can see inside the contests of a Word 2007 file (essentially, renaming it to a .zip extension and then looking inside at the collection of XML files; the details are in the Appendix). The same technique can be used on any Office 2007 file, and could prove useful if a file gets corrupted and you're trying to extract some key data. It also provides an insight into how Office files are structured, though casually parsing XML is not for the faint of heart.

Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference continues to roll out exciting new announcements; this time, Microsoft announces the next version of Microsoft Office will include a web component that will allow users to create, view, edit, and collaborate on Office documents over the web. With robust online editing already available with Google Docs, Zoho, and a handful of other tools, the question is: Is it too late for Microsoft Office to head to the web? Keep reading for a quick screenshot tour of the "Office Web Applications."

Read More »