go on, ask

It's a quiet holiday week. Many of my co-workers are taking some of their vacation time this week. My hallway is remarkably silent. Me, I'm here all week, since I'm burning through all of my vacation time in December.

So here's what I'm going to do this week, blog-wise. Ask me a question, and I'll do my best to answer it. There are questions that I can't answer, but I'll at least tell you that I can't answer them. Remember that I can't talk in any detail about the next versions of Office or Messenger yet, no matter how much I'd love to.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2006
    Hi Nadyne, Thanks for the opportunity to pick your brain. I've got a doosie... I have a client who uses Entourage with an Exchange server.  What is the best way to backup emails that reside on the exchange server and take into consideration that she's a mac user? I know that Entourage caches the exchange data, but if the exchange server crashes, or she accidentally deletes an email I'm not sure how to safely recover things from this cache.   I've tried to backup the Identities folder, but when I try to swap a backed up identity with the damaged identity, Entourage immediately recognizes that the cache is out of sync with what's on the exchange server and it merely rebuilds the Entourage cache with what's on the exchange server, and often times that is missing the very email that we're trying to recover. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated? What's the best method of backing up Exchange/Entourage emails? Thanks, Mark

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2006
    Your question is answered in a new post, but I just wanted to say that I really like your website. :)

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    Hi Nadyne! I was just wondering what kind of support the Mac version of Powerpoint has for tablet PC style pens. Let me elaborate :)... In my university, many of lecturers use tablet pc's to deliver their powerpoint presentations because they can draw directly on the screen (in slide show mode) to illustrate their point. I know that there isn't a tablet MAC so to speak but I'm wondering how far the 'Pen' pointer option in Powerpoint 2004 can go. Is there any specific support for hardware to connect to the mac and get similar functionality? cheers!

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    Varun -- That's a great idea, but it's not something that we can do right now.  MacBU is a really small team, so sending out a couple of developers right now when we're pushing towards our next release just isn't feasible.   There are opportunities in MacBU for students.  We have summer interns who come and work for us, and we give our summer interns some pretty cool stuff to work on.  Feel free to pass this URL out to anyone who might be interested in a summer internship with us.  You do have to come to either Redmond or Mountain View for the summer, but both are nicer in the summer than Amherst is anyway. ;) http://www.microsoft.com/college/ip_overview.mspx

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2006
    Hi Nadyne, Thank you for the link! I'll definitely let our members know and spread the word. -Varun

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2006
    Hi Nadyne, Quick question: do you know of a way to use Entourage with an Exchange account but not synchronize the calendar, only email? I have significant issues interacting with my Exchange calendar in Entourage, but would like to be able to use it for email (I'll use Outlook 2003 to manage my calendar). Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2006
    Varun - Make sure that you let them know that they should apply soon!  We usually have all of our interns selected by March.  

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2006
    I'm not sure you'll see or answer this, since by the time you get back from your vacation and Macworld it will have been nearly 2 months since this article was posted but here goes... I found myself in need of a greeting card template for Word.  I checked the Mactopia site and finally found the template area (the link was not where I expected it at all), and I found no card templates.  :( I then did a google search and discovered a HUGE supply of templates for the Windows version of Office.  Unfortunately, these proved problematic.  First, the site complained about my OS, second it downloaded a CAB file.  Stuffit Expander 11 opened the CAB file, but Word 2004 complained that the file wasn't a valid word file (.DOT - I'm assuming there may have been an issue with Stuffit here) I had to borrow a friends Windows PC to complete my task, which isn't always an option for me. Now the question... Can Microsoft provide the same sets of Office templates to both Mac and PC users in such a way that the process is usable by both platforms, especially since DOT files are supposed to be cross platform?   Very Frustrating.