Entries tagged with office labs - Channel 10

Office Labs: Chart Advisor

Tina — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:43:00 GMT

Chart Advisor is a prototype that provides an alternate approach for creating charts in Excel 2007. This add-in uses an advanced rules engine to scan your data and, based on predefined rules, displays charts according to score. Top scoring charts are available for you to preview, tweak, and insert into your Excel worksheet.

Office Labs: Email Prioritizer

Tina — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Email Prioritizer is a plug-in for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (running on Exchange Server) that helps you manage email overload. This concept test provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system. We hope this prototype helps you focus on the emails that are most important to you.

Office Labs: Speed Launch

Tina — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:45:00 GMT

This is the first community prototype from Office Labs. Community prototypes are projects Microsoft employees work on in their spare time. Speed Launch's goal is to let you get to the stuff you use faster and with less frustration.

Speed Launch - Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Why do I need Speed Launch?
What is Speed Launch?
Is there a shorcut key to open the launcher?
Is there a limit to how many items a single Speed Launch shortcut can open?
How do I use Speed Launch to open multiple things?
I notice that Speed Launch comes with some shortcuts that allow me to search websites. How do I use them?
How do I create my own functions?
How do I delete shortcuts?
How can I hide the floating bull's-eye?
Can I choose which shortcuts are displayed on the Speed Launch window?
Sometimes Speed Launch is slow to respond. Can I fix that?
How can users provide feedback on Speed Launch?
Who developed Speed Launch?
What type of assistance did Speed Launch receive from Office Labs?
Is this going to be included in the next version of Windows?

Why do I need Speed Launch?
Work faster and with less frustration. Speed Launch gives you lightning quick access to all the documents, files, and websites you use often. In the past when you used something a lot you might have created a desktop shortcut, added it to your IE favorites, or placed it on your quick launch bar. Speed Launch allows you to create centralized shortcuts to all the stuff you need and allows you to access them effortlessly.

What is Speed Launch?
Speed Launch is an application launcher that extends the functionality and usability of Microsoft Windows. With Speed Launch, users can select their own words to open frequently used websites, documents, and applications. The most compelling feature of Speed launch is the use of a drag and drop interaction model to make this advanced functionality more intuitive to novice computer users.

How is it used? How does it work with Windows?
Speed Launch is a downloadable program available at www.officelabs.com. After you've download Speed Launch, simply drag the file, document, or website url onto the Speed Launch bull's-eye to create a Speed Launch shortcut. From then on, any time you need to access that file, document, or website, just hit "Windows+C", type the shortcut name, and what you need will immediately appear.

Is there a shortcut key to open the launcher?
Yes. Use "Windows+C".

How do I use Speed Launch to open multiple things?
Drag the first item on to the bull's-eye and give it a name. Next, drag the second item on to the bull's-eye and give it the same name. When you do this, Speed Launch will give you the option to replace or merge the two items, choose merge. Now, hit "Windows+C" and type the name. Speed Launch will open both items.

Is there a limit to how many items a single Speed Launch shortcut can open?
Not that we know of :)

I notice that Speed Launch comes with some shortcuts that allow me to search websites. How do I use them?
Speed Launch comes preloaded with a few useful fucntions. For example, to search Wikipedia just type “Wikipedia Search” and hit enter. Next, type what you want to search for in the new window and hit enter. Speed Launch will open the related Wikipedia page.

Cool! Can I create my own "functions"?
Yes... but it's a little tricky. You can watch the video below for a walk through (and some good music). In short, go to the results page (e.g., search for the information you are looking for) and, if the search term appears in the URL, you can drag it on to the bullseye to create a function. Name it with a period (e.g., "MySearch.") which tells Speed Launch you want a function, and follow the prompts. We will make this easier in the future, but our current focus is in making the basics as easy as possible.

Office Labs is Live

sarahintampa — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:58:00 GMT

A new web site called Office Labs has just gone live. Here, you will find all sorts of projects, prototypes, proof-of-concepts, downloads, and more, all of which are centered around productivity. The site features tools for the Microsoft Office system and SharePoint, too. To get the launch started with a bang, Office Labs is already offering a bunch of cool projects you'll want to check out, including the following:

Community Clips - Community Clips is a place where you can find "how to" videos made by other users like yourself; you can also easily create your own.
Search Commands - This is quite possibly the hottest of the current Office Labs offerings, considering how strong user demand was for just this sort of tool. Search Commands is an experiment designed to see if search is an effective way for you to find commands in complex software applications. You can download the Search Commands add-in into your Microsoft Office 2007 installation and begin using it today to help you find the command you need.
InkSeine - A tool for Tablet PC users, InkSeine offers an innovative new interface for pen input
Task Market - This is an online marketplace that can help you find freelancers skilled in graphic design, writing, editing, translation, and more.
SharePointPedia - SharePointPedia is social community application that can help you find useful info about SharePoint technologies, tools, tips and tricks.

To stay up-to-date on all the latest news from Office Labs, you can follow the new Office Labs blog, available here.

Lançado o Microsoft Office Labs

Galileu — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:59:00 GMT

O Microsoft Office Labs foi lançado ao público hoje. De certa forma ele já existia internamente para que funcionários opinassem sobre algumas idéias tecnológicas para melhorar a produtividade de um profissional. Agora com o site público, qualquer um poderá opinar e dar feedback em protótipos que possivelmente serão integrados a produtos finais da Microsoft. Um produto que está no site que venho usando há um tempo é o Community Clips. Ele é uma ferramenta de gravação de tela para fazer screencasts. Não é nenhum Camtasia, mas a qualidade é ótima e ele não poderia ser mais simples. As únicas opções que ele tem são gravar, pausar, parar e escolher entre uma janela ou área de trabalho inteira. Outras ferramentas que estão lá são:

Search Commands – procure por comandos do Word, Excel ou PowerPoint usando suas próprias palavras e a ferramenta apontará o botão para realizar a ação desejada.
SharePointPedia – uma ferramenta estilo Web Social para ajudar as pessoas a melhor encontrar informações em um portal SharePoint.
InkSeine – uma ferramenta, muito popular internamente na Microsoft, para uso em Tablet PCs.
Task Market – um mercado online onde empresas se conectam com freelancers e profissionais autônomos especializados em design gráfico, edição e produção de textos, tradução e mais.

Office Labs: Project "Community Clips"

Tina — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Community Clips is a portal for viewing, sharing, and discussing informal "how-to" videos (screencasts) on Microsoft Office products. It also includes a client application for easy recording of screen views and voice.