Curious about Outlook.com?

If you are wondering about what an account with www.outlook.com looks like, look no more.

This is what the landing page of www.outlook.com looks like

Once you are logged in, you will see the clean left menu navigation, it is very appealing that is a given.

It is easily noticeable that you have your first email as well.

When viewing your email you will get two a navigation pane on top of the email and a sort of happy face, which when clicked will display a messaging panel

Is this encouraging enough to switch from gmail?

Unlinking SkyDrive account from your local folder

In the previous post, we looked at how to Link your SkyDrive locally; but not always will there be a need to link your SkyDrive files to a local folder. In this post we will cover two items

1. Unlinking your SkyDrive account from the local folder

2. Configure sync of files with other devices

Click on the taskbar to show hidden icons and click on the SkyDrive Icon

A menu with options will appear, for the most part they are self-explanatory.

· The Open your SkyDrive folder will display the local SkyDrive Folder

· Go to SkyDrive.com will take you to the online SkyDrive Storage

· Manage Storage will navigate towards your SkyDrive storage so that you can upgrade or manage it

· Settings does offer a couple of extra tabbed options when clicked

o General allows us to

     § Configure the syncing of files towards other devices

     § Allow SkyDrive to start automatically when you sign into Windows

o About

     § Contains more info links

     § Unlink SkyDrive which is what we were looking for, click this option to Unlink you SkyDrive account from the local folder

Once clicked you will see the following screen, welcoming you to SkyDrive. This does not mean that your files have been removed you must do that manually, by going to your SkyDrive local folder and deleting the folders and files.

SkyDrive and SharePoint/Office 2013

SkyDrive is much more integrated with SharePoint and Office 2013, once you have a SharePoint Installation it will show up in the Start Menu as shown below

If you click on the icon you, welcomed to SkyDrive and prompted to enter your SkyDrive account

 

The location of your SkyDrive Folder on your current computer will be displayed

Followed by being asked about the configuration for syncing with other devices

Once completed your newly created SkyDrive folder will be displayed

Does this seem familiar to Cloud Storage users? Certainly! That said, your files are available with other devices and for use within Office 2013 that does allow you to access and manage the files directly from your SkyDrive account.

Office 2013–Questions and Installation

By now there is a lot of interest regarding Office 2013, particularly since its beta release on July 16, 2012.
Lots of questions are on everybody’s mind
· Is it only 64 bits?
· Will it run side-by-side with my Office 2010?
· How long does it take to deploy?
· What do the User Interfaces look like?
The answer to all these questions is to be covered in this blog post; that said, let’s start right away!
The setup file is available in two flavors
· 32 Bit
· 64 Bit
Once you’ve downloaded the setup file that suits your needs, you are given the choice to select the look of Office.

Office 2013 Look

The choices for look are
1. None
2. Calligraphy
3. Circle and Stripes
4. Circuit
5. Clouds
6. Straw
7. Tree Rings

From here on there are not much more steps to complete, followed are some of the screenshots that follow the Office look selection


A quick tour is available if you decide to learn a little more about Office 2013.

Wrapping up the Installation

This step takes a while so feel free to grab a drink or take a break
Ready to start using Office 2013!

You will also notice in your “All Programs” folder the newly added group and icons

Office 2013 User Interfaces

Access 2013

Excel 2013

OneNote 2013

PowerPoint 2013

Publisher 2013

Word 2013

Taskbar Icons

Conclusion

After testing and creating this post with Word 2013, I did notice it is snappier that is predecessor. In Excel 2013 there were a few quirks when entering values and data in Formulas, no error but it was a big sluggish.
All in all, it seems like a worth addition to the Office line.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer’s Compendium – The Best of Packt for Extending SharePoint – Book Review

The book is a great way of getting familiar at a high level overview the development capabilities that are possible with SharePoint 2010; chapters from other books have been compiled together in a seamless manner.

The book is divided into ten chapters:

·         Chapter 1 – Understanding SharePoint Development Choices

·         Chapter 2 – Building an Engaging Community Site

·         Chapter 3 – PowerShell Scripting Methods and Creating Custom Commands

·         Chapter 4 – Integrating SilverLight 4 with SharePoint 2010

·         Chapter 5 – Interacting with Rich Media and Animations

·         Chapter 6 – List Definitions and Content Types

·         Chapter 7 – Workflows

·         Chapter 8 – Introduction to Programming Windows Phone 7

·         Chapter 9 – Building SharePoint Pages for Windows Phone 7

·         Chapter 10 – Building a Windows Phone 7 Dashboard Application with SharePoint Data

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developers Compendium: The Best of Packt for Extending SharePoint is an enjoyable book to read and while it does not cover topics in depth it does flow easily and deep enough to provide the reader a good understanding of what can be achieved through development with SharePoint 2010.

The link for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer’s Compendium: The Best of Packt for Extending SharePoint is: http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-sharepoint-2010-developers-compendium/book