Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Blogging from Office 2007 (Beta 2)

  Well, I finally got Office Beta 2 downloaded and all of my machines upgraded from Beta 1 Technical Refresh. So far, so good. Performance is still not ideal, but it's much improved from previous builds (especially in Outlook). I was going to write this in Word, but I can't seem to get it working. When I try to configure an account, I get a popup that asks me for a password, but clicking either Ok or Cancel doesn't close it. I guess that's why it's still a beta, right? Like most of the new Office, I absolutely love the interface in Word 2007. I've been using it since the alpha last September, and I've used it for 5 papers over the past two semesters. It's wonderful. That being said, it's sort of weird to say that Word supports blogging. Is it sad that this might be what people use Word for most? (Well, and writing e-mail in Outlook, since Outlook 2007 now forces you to use Word as the editor). Personally, if I wanted to blog from one Office product, I think it would be OneNote. It looks like... Posted May 25 2006, 04:20 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Productivity, Web 2.0

• Using Exchange and FolderShare for ubiquitous access to your information

  I've mentioned in the past that I have an effective way to consume information , and also alluded to my use of FolderShare , but I never really discussed the system in its entirety. The problem I want to keep my desktop and tablet synchronized, including e-mail, contacts, documents, etc. I want it done seamlessly and without requiring any affirmative action by me. I need to be able to synchronize or access those files even when I'm not on the same network (which is most of the time). The solution It might sound like a tough thing to solve, but the combination of Exchange Server and FolderShare make it quite easy. Sure, it's not a perfect solution, but it's damn close. Exchange for the information When I have my tablet, I'm running the full Outlook client, connected to the Exchange Server via RPC over HTTPS. This means that all of my e-mail, contacts, and calendar information is live data. Not only do I get new items, but I can create new items, mark things as read, delete items, etc. During... Posted Feb 22 2006, 11:16 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Productivity, Outlook Tips, Web 2.0

• Why I can't get excited about Feed Demon: Newsgator's "synchronization" is useless

  I purchased Newsgator Online in the past because, unlike some, I like having my feeds pulled into Outlook (and thus Exchange). I like using search feeds and colored flags (now colored categories) and I get synchronization - including read/unread status - across all consumers. I have a rich client (Outlook), web-based access (Outlook Web Access), and even mobile access (Outlook Mobile Access + AUTD synchronization). And I get it without introducing additional processes. Even though I want to, I just can't get excited about the new version of FeedDemon . The software and new UI look excellent, but the synchronization just doesn't work. That is, it synchronizes subscriptions and folders, but not the read status on individual iteams. ( In fairness, it may be a problem with Newsgator Outlook Edition as far as marking things unread, because it doesn't seem to reflect the appropriate status in the online edition when I read in Outlook ). Either way, though, what's the point? Exchange does a fine... Posted Jan 21 2006, 03:35 AM by Tim with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Productivity, Web 2.0

• My Categories Wishlist for Community Server

  My wishlist for categories support on Community Server which I recently posted on the official forums. Some of these (global categories especially) I've mentioned in the past... 1. Better category management. As it stands, it is pretty tedious to change categories - you have to enter each post, click a different tab, change the category, save, and repeat. This needs to improve. I'm thinking something along the lines of "painting" a set of posts with a category, or something similar to how Outlook 12 handles categorization of individual posts. 2. Uncategorized Posts . Include an "Uncategorized" group in the categories list. I often forget to categorize something when I post it initially and it's not easy to go back and make sure soemthing has been put somewhere. 3. Global categories . Ultimately, I'd like to have a series of "virtual" blogs here for technology, law, and gadgets. I could certainly just create real blogs for each of these and ask people to post there, but then we lose the... Posted Dec 07 2005, 04:02 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Personal, Productivity, Web 2.0

• RSS is not e-mail, but it is information

  Furrygoat says RSS is NOT e-mail , but that doesn't mean it shouldn't live in Outlook. The fact is, Outlook is an application for consuming information . The mindset may be a bit different, but both my subscriptions and my e-mail are information that I consume in similar ways. Weblog posts may be actionable in the same way an e-mail is. By bringing my subscriptions into Outlook, I can apply the same workflow I use for e-mail. I immediately decide whether an item is actionable, valuable as reference, or trash. If actionable, I then apply a particular colored flag based on the nature of the action. The key here is extensive use of search folders, which I discussed a bit in the past . Search folders are effectively views of the underlying information over different axes. To combine similar subscriptions . I have a folder for "Technology Weblogs", "General Legal Weblogs", "IP Legal Weblogs", "Deals", "Security" and so on. This is the axis I use most often to read. My categories are fairly granular... Posted May 31 2005, 05:03 PM by Tim with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Productivity, Outlook Tips, Web 2.0

• Putting Outlook 2003's Search Folders to Work

  I mentioned in the past that my aggregator of choice these days is NewsGator. I use NewsGator for 2 reasons: To pull all subscriptions into Exchange server and keep them in sync across machines (and via OWA), and So I can leverage the new search folders in Outlook 2003. The first set of search folders don't have any criteria - I simply use them as a way to "roll up" all the individual folders into a single folder. (The 'Reading' folders below). I also have search folders to deal with my action items. I use the colored flags extensively here (on both e-mail and RSS folders), and each of these folders simply matches a different colored flag. Finally, I create specific keyword folders which let me read everything on a particular topic regardless of how I've categorized the underlying feed. The topics on this list tend to change over time based on what is relevant. There are two limitations in Outlook that I've come across with this system... 1. There are limitations on the number of search... Posted Jun 28 2004, 10:18 PM by Tim with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Productivity, Outlook Tips, Web 2.0