Takeaway: Here’s a cool attention-grabber: a countdown to kick off your presentation or lead into a big announcement. Follow these easy steps or download our ready-to-use slides.

A quick countdown — 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 — can add a bit of excitement to the beginning of your presentation or to an announcement at any point in the presentation. Fortunately, it’s an easy effect to create. In 10 steps, you can add five slides that seem to act as one as they count down from 5 to 1. I’ve kept the graphic elements simple, so as not to distract from the technique. Entrance and exit effects and a simple transition work together to build this countdown. There are other ways to achieve the same result, but this method is the simplest. My instructions will apply to PowerPoint 2010, but I’ll supply alternative steps for PowerPoint 2007/2003 where applicable.

Note: This article and our sample countdown slides are available as a download.

1: Create the slide

Insert a new blank slide and set the background color, which should be a strong contrasting or complementary color to the number elements and the enclosing circle. I used a black background and a white circle and numbers in this example. Right-click the slide, choose Format Background (Background in PowerPoint 2003), click Fill in the left pane (skip this step in PowerPoint 2003), and choose Black from the Color drop-down, as shown in Figure A. Click Close (Apply in PowerPoint 2003) to return to the slide.

Figure A

This black background will contrast nicely to the white numbers we’ll add.

2: Add a circle AutoShape

Next, add a circle AutoShape by clicking the Insert tab and clicking the Shapes drop-down in the Illustrations group. Choose Oval in the Basic Shapes section. (In PowerPoint 2003, click Oval on the Drawing toolbar.) As you draw the circle, hold down the [Shift] key to draw a true circle. Make the circle almost as big as the slide and center it. Then, right-click the circle and choose Format Shape (AutoShape in PowerPoint 2003). In the Fill section, choose No Fill. In the Line section, select Solid Line and choose White from the Color drop-down. In the Line Style section, set the Width property to 5 points. Then, click Close to return to the slide.

3: Add 5

A text box will house the numbers in the countdown. Click the Insert tab and click Text Box in the Text group. (In PowerPoint 2003, choose Text Box from the Insert menu.) Draw the text box inside the circle. Enter a 5 and use the Font group on the Home tab to format the number as Arial, 300 point, and White. (In PowerPoint 2003, the font options are on the Formatting toolbar.) If you use a different font, you may need to adjust the font size. Center the text box in the circle.

4: Set the number’s entrance effect

Now you’re ready to add the entrance effect. Select the text box and click the Animations tab. Click Add Animation in the Advanced Animation group and choose Fade from the Entrance section. (In PowerPoint 2007, click Custom Animation in the Animations group. Then, in the Custom Animation pane, click Add Effect, choose Entrance, and select Fade. In PowerPoint 2003, choose Custom Animation from the Slide Show menu, click Add Effect, and choose Entrance and Fade.)

In the Timing group, change the Start property to With Previous. (In PowerPoint 2007/2003, click the Start drop-down and choose With Previous.) PowerPoint will display an animation tag with the number 0 next to the text box.

5: Set the number’s timing

The next step is to specify how long the number should be displayed. In the Timing group, set the Duration to 01.00. (In PowerPoint 2007/2003, choose Fast from the Speed drop-down.) At this point, your slide should resemble the one in Figure B.

Figure B

PowerPoint displays an animation tag next to the text box.

6: Set the number’s exit effect and timing

To set the number’s exit effect, select the text box and click the Animations tab. Click Add Animation and choose Fade from the Exit section. (In PowerPoint 2007, click Add Effect in the Custom Animation pane, then choose Exit and Fade. In PowerPoint 2003, choose Custom Animation from the Slide Show menu, click Add Effect, and choose Exit and Fade.)

In the Timing group, change the Start setting from On Click to After Previous and change the Duration setting to 01.00 second. (In PowerPoint 2007/2003, choose After Previous from the Start drop-down and Fast from the Speed drop-down.)

7: Add a transition

To add the transition, click the Transition tab. In the Advance Slide section of the Timing group, uncheck On Mouse Click and select After. Don’t change the setting though — leave it at 00:00:00. (In PowerPoint 2007, you’ll find the Advance Slide section at the right end of the Transition To This Slide tab. Select the On Mouse Click and Automatically After check boxes. In PowerPoint 2003, choose Slide Transition from the Slide Show menu. The default speed is Fast; you don’t need to change this, but you can.)

8: Make copies of your slide

Click the Slides pane if necessary (it’s the default) and select slide 1. Right-click the slide and choose Copy. Then, right-click the blank area and choose Keep Source Formatting from the Paste Special options. Repeat this three more times. You’ll have five slides. (In PowerPoint 2007, right-click the first slide in the Slides pane, and choose Duplicate Slide. In PowerPoint 2003, select the first slide and choose Duplicate Slide from the Insert menu.)

9: Change the digits

Now, change the 5 in each of the duplicate slides to the remaining countdown numbers — 4, 3, 2, and 1. When you finish, you’ll have five slides with the numbers 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

The Slides pane shows your five countdown slides.

10: Run the presentation

To run the countdown, press [F5]. Each slide will transition into the next automatically. The current settings keep a constant flow of fading one number into the next. You might want to adjust the fade timing, making it a little faster or a little slower.

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Microsoft took the beta label off of Office 365 last week, and many consider the cloud-based productivity suite a potshot at Google and Google Apps. Office 365 may offer cloud-based document, storage, and collaboration services that look like Google Apps, but the user experience and price tag are very different. Here’s a look at the major differences between them.

User Experience

The way the user interacts with the application suite may be the biggest difference between Google Apps and Office 365. When you use Google Apps, you live in your Web browser. You edit documents and spreadsheets in Google Docs through your browser, you get your email through Gmail, and you chat with colleagues using Google Talk – all in your browser.

Conversely, Office 365 requires you download a plug-in that will link your desktop with the cloud-based service. You’ll need Microsoft Office installed on your desktop already (to make use of offline and cloud-based features as opposed to webapps,) and you’ll need the .NET framework installed. You’ll also need Lync installed on your system as well if your organization will leverage instant messaging and chat. It’s a hefty list of system requirements you’ll need just to get started, especially compared to Google Apps’ requirements: a supported browser.

Document Collaboration

Microsoft Office documents are the de-facto standard in office environments, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Office 365 has an easier time with advanced formatting in Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets than Google Apps does. Microsoft has put a lot of time and effort into making sure the polish in Microsoft Office made it to Office 365. Office 365 users get the same templates, formatting features, and tools that desktop users get, and since the two services connect, you can create a slideshow in PowerPoint and upload it to Office 365 for editing later without worrying you’ll lose the formatting or images.

If your organization already makes heavy use of Microsoft Exchange for mail and Microsoft Office for productivity, Office 365 will appeal to those who want a familiar, robust tool. Google Apps, and specifically Google Docs, feels barren and plain by comparison, even if it’s more accessible and open.

Google Docs, on the other hand, does a solid job of importing most Microsoft Office documents, auto-saving them, and giving groups a way to all work in and on the same documents and files at the same time without stepping on each other. It’s definitely more bare-bones than Office 365, but it works seamlessly and without the need for desktop software.

Microsoft rolls in Sharepoint to handle document sharing and management, and depending on your opinion, it can be a good or a bad thing. Sharepoint adds a layer of complexity where Google allows more openness. While you do get the benefit of revision history, check-in/check-out, integration with Microsoft Office on the desktop, and integration with Sharepoint Web services with Office 365, Google Docs offers much of the same and lets you and others work in the same document at the same time and see who’s viewing and who edited last, all without the need for another platform.

Chat and Communication

Office 365’s presence tools, including Lync (formerly known as Office Communication Server) integrates with other Microsoft Office and Office 365 products so you can always see if someone is available for chat or a VoIP call, or who’s editing your document or viewing the same files that you are.

Google, on the other hand, already offers this with Google Talk and Google Voice. They’re not as tightly integrated with Google Docs as Lync is with Office 365, but they’re all there.

The only area where Office 365 and Lync outshine Google Talk and Google Voice is in screen-sharing and white-boarding, which Lync has natively but Google Talk does not. Again, Microsoft has more polish and shine on their applications, but feature-for-feature, they’re largely matched. Google Talk and Google Voice may be more Spartan, but they do have broader reach, especially for users who already have large contact lists.

Price

Google Apps Standard for your domain is free. Google Apps for Business offers two pricing plans: a flexible $5/user per month where you can add or remove users at will and pay the difference, and a $50/user per year plan where you commit for a year to get a discounted rate.

Office 365 requires the initial investment in Microsoft Office on your user desktops (as noted above: for use with some enterprise-level features,) some Microsoft Office Servers and services in your environment (like Active Directory if you plan to use those features,) but after that you’ll pay $6/user per month for the small business plan. If you don’t have Microsoft Office on your users’ desktops, you can pay another $12/user per month to get each one of them a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus.

Larger enterprises can choose tiered pricing plans that run from $10/user per month up to $27/user per month depending on how many services that want hosted in the cloud versus in their own environments. There’s no two ways about it: Office 365 will be more expensive for almost every business, but Microsoft thinks they have the feature depth to justify the price.

Which One’s Better?

The jury is still out, and even though Office 365 has been in beta for months, Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do if they want to win back enterprises that are looking for affordable cloud-based collaboration products. The familiarity that almost every business has with Microsoft Office may play a big role going forward, but the price tag will be something else they’ll have to overcome.

Feature-for-feature though, the two services offer the same basic functionality, although it can be said that Office 365 shines with polish and flare where Google Apps offers affordability and accessibility.

Takeaway: On February 22, 2011, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 to the general public. Should you download and install it?

As of February 22, 2011, Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 is available to the general public from the Microsoft Service Pack Center. Windows 7 SP1 includes previously released security, performance, and stability updates, plus some improvements to features and services.

Microsoft suggests that individuals just let the normal Windows update system handle installation of the service pack. However, if you’d like to accelerate the process you can download the file and install it manually. The install will take around 30 minutes and you will have to reboot the PC during the process.

Depending on what method is used to install the service pack, you will need anywhere from 750MB to 7400MB of available disk space storage to complete the installation procedure, so plan accordingly. If you have a pre-release version of SP1 installed, you will have to uninstall it before you install the latest version.

Also note that some antivirus software will prevent SP1 from being installed properly, so you may want to temporarily turn off your antivirus while the installation takes place

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Everyone’s favorite government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, has launched its own mobile application.

Released last week to iPhone and Android users, the free IRS2Go provides a few tidbits of information that could make April 15 a bit less stressful.

Those of us fortunate enough to qualify for a refund can find out exactly when Uncle Sam will be sending out that check. Entering your Social Security number (which the IRS says is masked and encrypted), filing status, and expected refund amount delivers the due date for your payment.

People who file their federal taxes electronically can check their refund status about 72 hours after they get an e-mail from the IRS acknowledging the receipt of their tax return. Those still doing things the old-fashioned way–on paper–will have to wait around three or four weeks after filing before they can learn when their refund check will arrive.

According to the agency, around 70 percent of the 142 million individual tax returns filed last year were done electronically.

Beyond providing the refund status, the app lets you subscribe to tax tips and updates sent each day during tax season and less frequently the rest of the year. IRS2Go also points you to the agency’s own Twitter feed where you can learn even more about filing your taxes.

“This new smart phone app reflects our commitment to modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a statement. “As technology evolves and younger taxpayers get their information in new ways, we will keep innovating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information.”

The IRS has increasingly been moving taxpayers toward e-filing and encouraging them to access more information electronically as a way to cut costs. Last year, the agency announced that it would no longer mail paper income tax packages to individuals and businesses since all of that information is freely available online or through libraries and post offices. The IRS is also looking for other ways to take advantage of technology, especially the move toward mobile.

This phone app is a first step for us,” Shulman said. “We will look for additional ways to expand and refine our use of smartphones and other new technologies to help meet the needs of taxpayers.”

To view the original article in it’s entirety, Click Here

Over the last few years, anti-malware software has become increasingly costly. But believe it or not, there are still ways to protect your computer for free. In this article, I will list 10 free utilities you can use to either prevent malware infections or to help clean up the mess once a PC becomes infected.

1: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011
I have been using AVG’s free antivirus product for a few years now, and although it isn’t perfect, it seems to be at least as good as most of the commercial anti-malware products. AVG’s free edition provides basic protection against viruses and spyware, but the company also offers a more comprehensive security suite called AVG Internet Security 2011. This suite offers the same anti-malware protection as the free edition, but it also provides real-time protection against Internet search and social networking sites.

2: Comodo Antivirus
Comodo Antivirus takes a different approach to virus protection than most other antivirus products do. Comodo is based on the idea that it is foolish to allow code to run without first proving itself to be benign. So Comodo implements a default denial until an executable proves itself trustworthy. To keep the software from being too chatty, Comodo executes unknown code in an isolated sandbox where its behavior can be monitored without running the risk of the executable harming the system.

3: PC Tools AntiVirus Free 2011
PC Tools AntiVirus Free 2011 is a basic antivirus / anti-spyware program that is designed to protect Windows desktops against various forms of malware. Besides its basic detection capabilities, PC Tools includes a feature called Search Defender that is designed to warn you about unsafe Web sites (or phishing sites) before you click on them. The software also includes a File Guard component that monitors the file system and blocks attempted malware infections in real time.

4: Avast Free Antivirus
Like AVG, Avast sells comprehensive security suites, but makes its basic antivirus / anti-spyware product available for free to home users. Although I have never used Avast Free Antivirus, I’ve recently noticed posts in various message boards from people who claim that Avast provides better protection than some of the commercial products.

5: Ad-Aware Free Internet Security
Although it was originally designed as a product for detecting adware, Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware has evolved into a complete anti-malware product. Ad-Aware Free Internet Security provides real-time protection against spyware, rootkits, and more. It also includes a utility called The Neutralizer, which you can use to clean a PC that has already been infected.

6: HijackThis
HijackThis is one of my favorite anti-malware utilities, but it’s not for the faint of heart. HijackThis is designed to compile a report of critical file and registry settings that are often prone to viral infections. The thing that makes HijackThis difficult to use is that it makes no distinction between malicious and legitimate entries. As a result, you can end up doing even more damage to a PC unless you know what you are doing. Even so, I consider HijackThis to be a must-have utility.

7: Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft provides free antivirus protection for home users through a relatively new application called Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft Security Essentials is based on the same ForeFront technology as Microsoft’s enterprise class anti-malware software. The difference is that Microsoft Security Essentials is available solely to home users and businesses with fewer than 10 Windows desktops.

8: Windows Defender
Microsoft’s Windows Defender is a free anti-spyware utility for Windows. It’s not comprehensive, but it does a surprisingly good job of protecting Windows as long as you install it before an infection occurs.
Windows Defender is included with Windows Vista and Windows 7, but you can also download a version for Windows XP. If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, Windows Defender is disabled by default. You can enable Windows Defender by typing the word Defender into the Windows search box and then double-clicking on the Windows Defender option. When you do, Windows will tell you that Windows Defender is turned off and will give you the opportunity to enable it.

9: Malicious Software Removal Tool
Although not a comprehensive antivirus tool by any stretch of the imagination, Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool does a good job of detecting and removing the most common viruses. The Malicious Software Removal Tool works with Windows 7, Vista, XP, and Server 2003. Microsoft releases updates to this tool on the second Tuesday of each month.

10: McAfee virus removal tools
McAfee makes commercial antivirus products, but it also offers some free tools for removing viruses. Specifically, it offers tools for removing Sasser, Bagle, Zafi, Mydoom, Lovsan / Balster, Klez, and Bugbear. You can download all of these tools here

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Hopefully, why you should never trust Facebook is obvious by now. Perhaps you feel like you still need it, though — or stubbornly refuse to believe it is really all that bad, whether because you think it is not much of a risk or just do not believe the evidence.

You may take all reasonable precautions, including using no personally identifiable or sensitive information in your account or profile data. Maybe you use a password and email address for the account that you use for nothing else, and refuse to communicate with anyone who actually knows any personally identifiable information or secrets about you on Facebook. Even so, there are risks.

Facebook clearly is not concerned with your privacy any more than the absolute minimum required to keep itself in business. There’s no such thing as a trusted brand, but there is certainly such a thing as a brand that is thoroughly suspicious — and Facebook seems to fit the description when it comes to personal privacy. Any time Facebook appears to care about your privacy, keep in mind that it took Congressional posturing to keep the corporation in line even to that small degree.

It is clear that even when Facebook offers something that looks like some kind of privacy protection, the offer is not a promise, and relying on it is a recipe for disappointment. With that in mind, the problem of protecting even the most minimal sense of privacy while using Facebook seems insurmountable. Thanks to the efforts of a number of hackers and entrepreneurs who actually care about privacy — not only theirs, but that of others as well, even if only because it serves as a convenient business model — there are some options that can help at least a little.

In no particular order:

1. SaveFace
Untangle offers the SaveFace bookmarklet, a script that can be saved as a bookmark in your browser. When you click a bookmarklet, it does “something” — usually involving whatever page you happen to be visiting at that moment. In the case of SaveFace, you can visit your Facebook page then click on the bookmarklet to rest your privacy settings to Private. According to Untangle, it currently covers Contact Information; Search Settings; Friends, Tags, and Connections; and Personal Information and Posts.

2. ReclaimPrivacy.org
A similar bookmarklet is offered by ReclaimPrivacy.org. Unlike SaveFace, the purpose of ReclaimPrivacy.org’s tool is to scan your Facebook settings and detect certain types of privacy vulnerabilities in your account settings. In theory, at least, it should be more thorough than SaveFace — but less automated as a means of protecting yourself.

3. Connect In Private
At ConnectInPrivate there is an annoying tablike thing floating over the left-hand side of the page. Take a closer look: it reads “Secure Your Facebook Profile”. If you click on that, it takes you to a Facebook application that offers a fairly comprehensive Facebook privacy feature set. Of course, what it provides is little more than a convenience layer over manually adjusting your own Facebook privacy settings, but it can be used for free and, if you like that kind of thing, you might find it valuable.

Using Connect In Private’s Facebook privacy scanner is a remarkably tedious and uncomfortable process for something so simple. It involves reading, and thinking about, a series of questions about what kind of privacy preferences you have — in ways that are poorly defined, and requiring Facebook account access that should make the average security concerned user hesitate. Access to the source code is not exactly a matter of easy access the way it is with the JavaScript in the ReclaimPrivacy.org bookmarklet and the .js page it references, either.

A final word
Connect In Private has one definite advantage over the other tools, though: it is more actively maintained. As of this writing, ReclaimPrivacy.org’s script is not compatible with current Facebook privacy settings, and there is a note on the page to that effect. SaveFace is far from a complete solution, for that matter. None of them are perfect, and there is always a risk if you trust your private data to a site like Facebook. Each of them might help a little, though.

In the end, I for one find it difficult to trust the Facebook application offered by Connect In Private. Your mileage may vary.

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CCleaner
Optimization and Cleaning

Features
CCleaner is a free SJT recommended system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Cleans the following:

Internet Explorer
Temporary files, history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.

Firefox
Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.

Google Chrome
Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.

Opera
Temporary files, history, cookies.

Safari
Temporary files, history, cookies, form history.

Windows
Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.

Registry Cleaner
Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.

Third-party applications
Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Microsoft Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…

100% Spyware FREE
This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

To download your free copy of this software Click Here

The latest version of Microsoft Office offers a multitude of collaboration tools to streamline the way you communicate with you coworkers and clients.

1- Express your ideas more visually.
Office 2010 opens up a world of design options to help you express your ideas with more impact. New and improved picture formatting tools, such as color saturation and artistic effects, let you transform your visuals into works of art. And a wide range of new customizable themes and SmartArt® graphic layouts offer more ways to make your ideas stick.

2 – Accomplish more when working together.
Brainstorm ideas, keep versions in sync, and meet deadlines faster when you’re working in groups. Co-authoring in Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Excel Web App, and OneNote 2010 shared notebooks enable you to edit the same file at the same time with other people — even when they’re in different locations.1

3 – Enjoy the familiar Office experience from more locations and devices.
With Office 2010, you can get things done on your schedule.
• Microsoft Office Web Apps. Extend your Office 2010 experience to the Web. Store your Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online and then access, view, edit, and share content from virtually anywhere.2
• Microsoft Office Mobile 2010. Stay current and respond quickly using new mobile versions of Office 2010 applications designed specifically for your Windows phone.3
• Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010. Synchronize SharePoint 2010 lists and libraries with SharePoint Workspace, formerly known as Microsoft Office Groove, so you can access, view, and edit files anytime and anywhere from your computer. Everything will automatically sync to the SharePoint server when you’re back online.

4 – Stay connected to your business and social networks.
Outlook 2010 is your hub for colleagues, customers, and friends. Use Outlook Social Connector to quickly view history of e-mails, meetings, or attachments you receive from individuals. Get additional information about people to stay on top of your business and social circles through SharePoint My Site, Windows Live, or other popular third-party sites.

5 – Get your message out instantly.
Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation to a remote audience, whether or not they have PowerPoint installed.4 The new PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show feature enables you to present right from your desk, while your audience views the presentation live in their Web browser.

6 – Create powerful data insights.
Track and highlight important trends with new data analysis and visualization features in Excel 2010. The new Sparklines feature delivers a clear and compact visual representation of your data through small charts within worksheet cells. Slicers let you filter and segment your PivotTable data in multiple layers so you can spend more time analyzing and less time formatting.

7 – Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease.
Save valuable time by streamlining your inbox. Outlook 2010 lets you compress long e-mail threads into a few conversations that can be categorized, prioritized, and conveniently filed. The new Quick Steps feature lets you perform multi-command tasks, such as reply and delete, with a single click.

8 – Deliver compelling presentations.
Captivate your audience with personalized videos in your presentations. Embed and edit videos directly in PowerPoint 2010. Trim, add fades and effects, or bookmark key scenes. Videos inserted from your files are now embedded by default, so you can share your dynamic presentations without having to manage separate media files.

9 – Store and track all of your ideas in one place.
Get the ultimate digital notebook for tracking, organizing, and sharing text, pictures, and audio and video files with OneNote 2010. New features such as page version tracking, automatic highlighting, and Linked Notes give you more control over your information, so you’re always on top of your content and changes made by others.

10 – Work your way, faster and more easily.
Microsoft Office Backstage™ view replaces the traditional File menu to give you a centralized space for all of your file management tasks, including save, share, print, and publish. The enhanced Ribbon, common across Office 2010 applications, lets you access commands quickly and create or customize tabs to fit your work style.

You can prevail in the seemingly endless battle against email chaos — it’s just a matter of knowing which Outlook tools to use and how to set them up to fit your needs.
When oh when oh when will we ever feel that we are back in control of our Inboxes? It seems that the faster technology moves, the more mail pours in on us from all sides. We get messages from colleagues and peers, from family and friends, from causes and social media sites. Much of this stuff we need to know, of course. But it doesn’t need to take up permanent residence in our Inboxes. Here are some practical ways to use Outlook 2010 features to bring your Inbox back under control.
1: Use Conversation view
Conversation view is a new feature in Outlook 2010 that threads together all e-mail messages in a particular conversation among two or more people. The conversation includes sent and received messages so that you can easily see the whole conversation at a glance. Turn on Conversation view by clicking the View tab and clicking Conversations. Choose Show Messages In Conversations to get started. You can also set other options, such as Always Expand Conversations, in the Conversations list to set up the conversation display the way you want it.
2: Ignore threads that annoy you
Have you ever been cc’d on a conversation that made your eyes roll up in your head? Or perhaps two team members are debating the use of the serial comma and you really have other things you need to focus on today. You can ignore a conversation and remove yourself from receiving further posts in that particular thread. Click the last message in the thread you want to ignore. Then, in the Home tab, click Ignore in the Delete group. A message box appears telling you what to expect. Click Ignore Conversation to complete the job.
You can opt out of future messages in conversations that leave you cold.
3: Automate message management with Quick Steps
Quick Steps are a new feature in Outlook 2010 that enables you to automate mail management tasks with a single click of the mouse. You can use the Quick Steps that come with the program — Add To Calendar, To Manager, Done, Team E-mail, and Reply & Delete — to instantly send messages where they need to go. You can also create your own Quick Steps by clicking the More button in the Quick Steps gallery and choosing Create New.
4: Build your junk mail file
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is important to right-click any junk message you receive, point to Junk, and click Block Sender. Over time, this creates quite a file of spammers and other unwanted senders you can immediately cut right out of your Inbox real estate. Nice.
5: Make your peace with AutoArchive
Those of us who like to have quick access to important messages may not be too comfortable letting Outlook wrap old messages up in a bundle and tuck them away in an archive file on our computers or the company server. But if you’re game, AutoArchive can help you keep your Inbox uncluttered. By default, AutoArchive is turned off. You can enable the feature and tailor your settings by clicking the Folder tab and clicking AutoArchive Settings in the Properties group. In the AutoArchive tab, select the Archive This Folder Using These Settings option and enter the age of items you want to archive, where you want the older items stored, and whether you want the removed items to be deleted from your Inbox. After you make your choices, click OK to save the changes.
Out with the old and in with the new with AutoArchive.
6: Who makes the rules around here?
Sometimes rules aren’t such a bad idea, especially if you manage huge volumes of email and you need to organize what you receive by client, project, or contact. You can easily create rules that file your messages for you so that you can read them in detail when you get a chance or put your fingers on the one you need quickly when you go searching for it. Start by clicking the message from the sender you want to create a rule to manage. Then, click Rules in the Move group of the Home tab and choose Create Rule. Enter the desired conditions (Who is the message from? What’s in the subject line?) and choose what you want Outlook to do with it. Click OK to create the rule, and Outlook will start carrying out your wishes with the very next email message you receive.
7: Get rid of those invitations
Outlook includes a number of options that make it easy for you to tailor how mail behaves after you receive it. Some messages you really don’t need to leave in your Inbox forever. Case in point: meeting invitations. You can tell Outlook to automatically delete any message you respond to by displaying the Outlook Options dialog box (click File, click Options, and click the Mail tab). Scroll down to the Send Messages area and click the Delete Meeting Requests and Notifications From Inbox After Receiving check box. Click OK to save the change.
8: Clean everything up
So do you have a clean Inbox? One where you can go directly to a message you’re looking for without a lot of searching and scrolling? Do you organize your messages by folder and discard the ones you don’t need right away? I thought so. Me neither.
Outlook includes a few cleanup features that can help you create some breathing room in your Inbox once again. The tool gives you three choices for the item you want to clean up. You can clean up the selected conversation, clean up the current folder, or clean up folders and subfolders (which means everything). When you click the tool, Outlook lets you know that it’s going to delete redundant messages and put them in your Deleted Items folder. You can change that by clicking Settings and entering the settings you’re most comfortable with. Click OK to clean up your selection and gain a little more room for incoming mail.
9: Search smart using filters
People shy away from Outlook filters because they think they are too much trouble to use properly. But actually, the opposite is true. If you consider the time you spend pushing PgDn and scanning the various messages looking for that one you need, you know that any tool that helps you cut to the chase is a good thing. The filters in Outlook help you find messages that meet specific criteria. For example, you can instantly display only messages that have attachments, messages you sent to a specific person, messages with the word “petunia” in the body of the message, and so on. Once you create this focused subset of messages, you can do what you like with them — delete them, put them in a folder that won’t clog up your Inbox, or print them and hang them on your cubicle wall (but why?). You’ll find the filters in the Filter E-mail tool in the Find group of the Home tab. You can click More Filters to display the Search Tools contextual tab so that you can see all the filters together in convenient spot.
10: Combine and conquer
Okay so it may seem counterintuitive, but it actually saves you time to bring all your different Web-based email accounts into Outlook 2010. You can easily set up your accounts by clicking the File tab and choosing Add Account in the top of the center column in the Info tab of Backstage view. Follow the prompts to get the email working properly. This will create a new email folder for your Web-based account. So anytime you check email (or Outlook does it automatically), all accounts are checked and you never have to go out to the various sites, enter your email address and password, and do the checking yourself. Yes, it could give you more messages to deal with. But after reading through the other nine tips in this article, you have a handle on how to do that, right?

At the end of the day on April 16, Microsoft officials said Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 were released today to manufacturing.

According to the company, more than 7.5 million people have downloaded the beta of the “2010 set of products” for the PC, mobile phone and browser. That’s more than three times the number of individuals who tested Office 2007, company officials said in a post to the Office 2010 Engineering blog.

MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to download the final bits starting April 22, company officials said.

Volume licensees with Software Assurance for these products will be able to download them in English from the Volume Licensing Service Center on April 27. Customers without SA will be able to get these products through the VLSC starting May 1.

The launch of Office 2010 is on May 12 in New York City. Virtual launch events also kick off that day. Office 2010 will be available in retail stores in June in the U.S.

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