Mini Series - Improve User Experience V

Avoid Constant Interruptions for Quiet Work Time
How many interruptions do you get every day? It's nearly impossible to complete anything when you allow constant interruptions from the phone, people stopping by your office, and instant messaging.
In Microsoft Office Outlook, you can book yourself a recurring appointment for an hour a day to process e-mail, and mark the time as Busy. During this time, don't answer the phone or permit interruptions, and work only on dealing with your Inbox.
At first, keeping these appointments will take discipline. But over time, it will become a habit. And after you get to zero e-mail in your Inbox, you'll see the value of this one hour a day and stick to it.

2003 to 2007 Tri-Pane Review
In Microsoft Office Word 2003, you can use the Compare Side-by-Side command to display two documents next to each other so that you can compare them. However, this is only a view and doesn't indicate actual changes to the document. The Compare and Merge command shows document changes but automatically merges the two together, regardless of whether or not you're ready.
In Microsoft Office Word 2007, a side-by-side view is still available if you want it, but the Compare feature now offers a tri-pane review: the original document in one pane, the revised document in another pane, and a combined version of the document with changes marked in a third pane. The tri-pane view shows document changes even if the other person forgot to turn on the Track Changes feature. If you want to keep the combined document, you can simply save it as a separate file.

Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith