Over the years of continues improvement of Microsoft Infrastructures and its business tactics, many company choose Microsoft products over Google apps. The saying of some of its consumer is Google is just focusing on its Advertising business and they released Google apps to serve people more advertising. With Hidden Costs. Document Fidelity. Security Concerns. Lack of Roadmap. and no support.

Here are some of the point which has been collected from some of the old Google consumers by Microsoft Itself.

“Google Apps is not an enterprise-class solution. It’s a consumer solution, and we did not want to risk our business on it.” – Credit Immobilier de France

“The Google applications just weren’t robust enough to compete with Office Outlook functionality,” – James C. Nolan Law Firm

“Many of the things you normally expect to be able to do at an enterprise IT management level were not available with Google Apps—things like the ability to easily manage groups and users.” Vinci PLC

“Google has Google Docs and Google Sites, but what’s the point of having Google Docs when everyone is working in Office Word…If I threw Google in the mix, I’d have to code all that integration.“ Kellwood

“The ability to have an archiving solution that integrates more fully with our e-mail system gives us a level of integration that we never had before when we using the Google Apps platform” – Phaeton Automotive Group

“The Microsoft online and offline applications complement each other. Google is online only and posed compatibility and formatting issues” Competitiveness.

“When we looked at the actual difference in price over a 12-month period, and the amount of grief we’d have gone through with Google, sticking with Microsoft was the clear-cut choice.” -SBFI

“Yes, we might have saved one or two dollars per month going with Google Apps, but it wasn’t worth it. Selecting software that makes it more difficult to work is the wrong way to save money.” – SaaS IT

Apart from these there are more companies which values Microsoft Solution effective over Google Apps. – Case study.

Any developer who is looking for Office customization, SharePoint integration, or who wants to build cool add-ins for Office system, i suggest u to download the training kit and get ahead on the office development ramp.

This training kit is an offline complement to the Office Learning Center and provides you with links to the videos but you’ll have the hands-on labs (HOLs), source code and presentations conveniently available on your machine.

The Office 2010 Developer Training Kit content is designed to help you get started developing solutions, from add-ins to full featured Office Business Applications (OBAs), using Visual Studio 2010 with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 as the core platform.

Each of the HOLs in the training kit have a number of exercises to incrementally expose you to the concepts and help build your skills. The labs included in the training kit are:

• Getting Started with Office 2010 Development
  • In this lab, you will build a small add-in for Word 2010. You will then use the Visual Studio 2010 Ribbon Designer to build your own ribbon.
• Office 2010 UI Customizations
  • In this lab, you will explore the different ways in which the Office 2010 UI can be customized to provide a platform for building rich office applications. Here you will see how to use the Ribbon and Backstage together while making use of C# and the Visual Studio 2010 support for Office.
• Client Workflow
  • In this lab, you will build a workflow process using Visio 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. The end goal of the workflow process is to approve timesheet submission. The employee will submit an entry. The process will examine several fields and end up with an approved timesheet. At this point, the data is used to generate a Word document containing a printable version of the timesheet.
• Security and Deployment
  • In this lab, you will use the VSTO Runtime 2010 to deploy several add-ins. The deployment scenarios used will represent real world scenarios that require secure deployment of multiple add-ins via SharePoint.
• Open XML
  • In this lab you will create a SharePoint event handler that will automatically mark an Open XML document as finalized when its status has changed to completed. This is a common practice in the final steps of a workflow or other process that is intended to move the document through a specific lifecycle.
• InfoPath and Forms Services
  • In this lab, you will use InfoPath to define custom forms to aid in the entry of time tracking data for Contoso Corporation. This system will use rich InfoPath forms to manage entry of employees and timesheet data. To provide a complete view of the system, the site’s main page contains web parts to provide contextual information to the user.
• Business Connectivity Services
  • In this lab, you will explore the use of Business Connectivity Services to connect external data to SharePoint. You will use two different tools, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 to build the definitions necessary to connect SharePoint to external data. Once the connections are established, you will extend a simple Outlook Form Region to use the external data offline using SharePoint Workspace 2010 cache.
• Office 2010 Service Applications
  • In this lab, you will use the Office 2010 services applications to build a report generation application. This application uses Excel Services to access an Excel workbook via REST services and generate a Word document based on the data. Word Services converts the Word document into a PDF and XPS file and stores it in a report repository. Finally, you will create a web part that will monitor the printing jobs started in a Printable Document Library. This web part will show the total number of jobs in action and the number of jobs in each state.
• Developing BI Applications
  • In this lab, you will learn about the BI offerings in SharePoint 2010. You will start by performing simple visualization of existing list data using the Chart Web Part. You will then use Excel to analyze external internet sales data and then post your results on SharePoint using excel services. Based on that work you will finish by creating a complete dashboard used to monitor reseller sales and track actual versus expected year to date sales numbers.

Links :

Download : Office 2010 Beta Developer Training Kit

If you are an ISV that’s interested in participating in our early adoption program for Office or SharePoint, please email metroreq@microsoft.com.
via : donovanf’s msdn blog

• Office developers Resource
• Customizing the Office Fluent User Interface with Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition
• Customizing the Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers
• Extend The Office System With Your Own Ribbon Tabs and Controls

Today Microsoft has made the availability of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Beta to the MSDN and technet Subscribers. They are offering only Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta 32 and 64 bit versions, and Only 64 bit version of SharePoint Server 2010 Beta .

MSDN and technet users download it through following links :

• Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from MSDN
• Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from TechNet
• SharePoint Server 2010 Beta (x64)

]]> http://winspark.net/2009/11/17/download-office-2010-and-sharepoint-2010-beta/feed/ 1 http://winspark.net/2009/11/14/how-to-start-using-office-web-apps-in-windows-live/ http://winspark.net/2009/11/14/how-to-start-using-office-web-apps-in-windows-live/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:22:24 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=1361

Microsoft Office Web Apps are free online companions to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that give you the freedom to view, create, and edit documents from a supported Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari).

From virtually anywhere, Office Web Apps let you work the way you want:

• Storing files on Windows Live SkyDrive and editing them with Office Web Apps lets you work from virtually anywhere.
• Office Web Apps allow you to easily share your documents and work with others.
• Office Web Apps have the same familiar Office interface, so you can work on documents easily over the Web. In addition, you can quickly and easily save your documents to the Web directly from Office 2010 on your computer.

Before you can start using Office Web Apps, you must install the Office 2010 Beta. Looking to use Office Web Apps for your organization? Find out more.

How to begin using your Office Web Apps in Windows Live

Follow these instructions to successfully begin using your Office Web Apps.

1. Open an existing document or create a new one in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 2010 on your PC.
2. Click File to open Backstage, a full-window file menu that gives you easy access to functions such as saving, printing, and sharing.
3. Click Share and then Save to SkyDrive (The free online storage service from Windows Live).
4. In Backstage, click Sign in. You will be prompted to enter your Windows Live ID, or create a Windows Live account. If you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox Live, you already have a Windows Live ID.
5. Select from the list of SkyDrive folders that is displayed and then click Save As.
6. In the dialog box that appears, type a file name and then click Save. Click File, and then click Close.
7. Visit http://skydrive.live.com. If prompted, enter your Windows live ID and password and click Sign in.
8. Select the folder where you saved your document. Click the file and then select View.
9. You will be prompted to read and accept the terms of use. When you click Accept, you will be able to view, edit, and share your document online.

More Links:

What’s New

• Word 2010
• Outlook 2010
• OneNote 2010
• Office Web Apps
• All Office 2010

Checkout the new Office 2010 Beta Homepage Live now….

Microsoft has announced the availability of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office system few days back. The update includes major performance enhancements for Office applications, most notably Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Another big benefit is SP2’s boost to interoperability.

This tutorial will help you to slipstream Office sp2 updates into your Office 2007 DVD.

Follow the simple steps given below.

1. Download Office SP2 update pack
2. create two folders “office2007_setup“, “office2007_sp2” folder under C:\Office directory,
3. Put all your content of Office 2007 DVD and SP2 update file into “office2007_setup” and “office2007_sp2“.
4. Open command prompt and execute the command given below.

“C:\Office\Office2007_sp2>office2007sp2-kb953195-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:C:\Office\Office2007_setup\update”



5. Make the DVD of your integrated Office SP2 suit located into the “office2007_setup” folder and Install it.

Microsoft today announced the availability of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The update includes major performance enhancements for Office applications, most notably Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Another big benefit is SP2’s boost to interoperability. With this release, Office supports additional built-in file formats such as PDF and ODF.

The service pack includes the latest updates to the 2007 Office suite and two types of fixes:

• Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack. You can find out more information in Knowledge Base Article 953195, where product-specific changes are described.
• All of the Public Updates, Security Updates, Cumulative Updates, and Hotfixes released through February 2009.

• Download : Microsoft Office SP2
• Read the entire change list

Now you can translate your Microsoft Office documents with Microsoft Translator . You can even translate words, phrases, or even your entire document, through the Research task pane.

The Microsoft Translator Official Team Blog has blogged about setting up manually for Office 2007 and Office 2003 previously.

Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 currently use WorldLingo as the default machine translator in the Research task pane. This download will update the Research task pane registry keys to set Microsoft Translator as the default translator and WorldLingo as the fallback translator.

This works for both Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007. Download the Installer through following link.

• Download Microsoft Translator Installer

]]> http://winspark.net/2009/04/18/translate-your-microsoft-office-documents-through-microsoft-translator/feed/ 1 http://winspark.net/2009/04/10/office-2007-service-pack-2-will-be-available-in-april/ http://winspark.net/2009/04/10/office-2007-service-pack-2-will-be-available-in-april/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:29:00 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=581

Its a very great news that Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Office System will be made available to Windows Server Update Services in April, classified as a service pack. It is going to be released somewhere in may.

Service Pack 2 includes some significant work, including: built-in ability to save as ODF & PDF formats, improvements to Outlook’s performance and calendar reliability, significant bug fixes for charts in core Office applications, the ability for client service packs to be removed using an uninstall tool, and a host of customer-requested improvements to the Office Server products.  It is also a rollup of all fixes that have previously been released for Office 2007 products.

To know more info on Office 2007 Stay touched with Office Sustained Engineering Blog.

Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server provides fast and effective protection against IM-based malware by including multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners and helps reduce corporate liability by blocking IM messages containing inappropriate content.  And when you download the beta software, you’re automatically registered to access valuable beta resources assembled in one convenient location.

Get Started Today

StarOffice software is a complete, feature-rich office productivity product that costs approximately 75% less than Microsoft Office Edition. It includes powerful programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, database, graphics, and Web publishing.

New features include improved Microsoft Office compatibility, blog and wiki publishing features, and the ability to edit PDF documents — all in a multi-platform office suite that is available on Microsoft Windows, Linux, the Solaris Operating System, and Mac OS X.

Combining an excellent out-of-the-box experience, compelling features, and a great set of extensions, StarOffice 9 is a must-have for every desktop. For end-users, StarOffice is available for $34.95 and includes three support incidents.

Get it now.

Total Guide to new Features | *.PDF

StarOffice includes

• StarOffice 9 Writer (Word Processing)
• StarOffice 9 Calc (Spreadsheet)
• StarOffice 9 Impress (Presentation)
• StarOffice Extensions
• StarOffice 9 Draw (Graphics)
• StarOffice 9 Base
• Enterprise Tools & Support