Yes, yes, I know that Internet Explorer 8 is still in beta testing. Despite that and the fact that I permanently run my browser in IE7 emulation mode, I have still seen a few problems here and there while surfing the web. The biggest one so far is probably whatever problem it is that completely stops me from using Google Maps.
Have a look at the screenshot and see for yourself the horrors which I was subjected to when trying to plan a little journey of mine.
As well as not seeing any actual mapped journey (just a couple of markers), the map also broke out of its usual confines and the zoom controls were obviously on acid or something. Cool. I wonder how it’ll look if I print it out…
The standards compliance (or lack thereof) of Internet Explorer has always been a talking point and object of ridicule of the web community, and Microsoft has received its fair share of criticism regarding this important point. With Internet Explorer 7 (the first major update in many years), Microsoft started to put it all right with things like alpha PNG support, better CSS and tabs which users of other browsers had been enjoying for a long time.
With that release, Bill Gates himself came out to apologise for the lack of work on IE and promised a major update every 12-18 months from now on. A year has passed since that date and until recently, there was precious little news about Internet Explorer 8. However, the IEBlog recently posted up a little news item which put a nice smile on the faces of many people who had been ridiculing IE previously. Internet Explorer 8 now correctly renders the Acid2 test, the de facto test of compliance. Opera has supported it since version 8, as has Safari and Firefox as of version 3 (currently in beta).
This might not sound like anything groundbreaking, but putting it into the context of Microsoft’s previous allergy to standards and compliance, it really is something to talk about and the developers have to be congratulated for this step. Hopefully, it’ll be the first of many announcements in the same vein.
I’ve been using Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 ever since the beta emerged and I recently purchased a copy from The Ultimate Steal. So far, I have been very impressed.
Microsoft Office Word is obviously the one application I use the most day-to-day. I’ve used it for everything from reports to drafting blog posts and have to say that some of the new features or ways of doing things have made my life much easier than before. Using Word’s new styles panel and range of professional designs, I was able to complete a report in must less time than I thought it would take. Applying styles was as easy as clicking one button. The word count feature, which has its home in the status bar, helped me keep an eye on how much I was writing.
Microsoft Office PowerPoint is another staple in the student’s armoury of tools, and I have been using it quite a lot as my second year of university demands increasing numbers of presentations. New SmartArt allows me to quickly insert professional-looking diagrams and charts, while the templates give the whole presentation the polish it needs. I have particularly found that the new ribbon has made many tasks much quicker and has unveiled many existing features.
Finally, I have used Microsoft Office Outlook as my personal email manager and planner. Outlook has allowed me to manage my email deluge and prioritise my tasks. To to-do lists keeps tabs on what I have outstanding, while the calendar reminds me to wake up for lectures!
All in all, the Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 suite has allowed me to organise my student life and get my work done much faster than I expected.
This blog is part of the Microsoft “The Ultimate Steal” Blogging Contest. Go to www.theultimatesteal.co.uk for details.
Microsoft has been busy these few weeks and months. Not only with software updates to Windows, Office and Exchange, but also the rollout of what is probably its most ambitious web project since Internet Explorer: Windows Live. As we all know, Windows Live is an umbrella for all kinds of weird and wonderful services competing with just about every major web company out there from Maps (Google) to Expo (eBay).
Most of all however, Windows Live is a search portal, as its home page reveals. Microsoft has been very diligent with searching recently. Ever since Google took the search baton from the “golden oldies” (Altavista and MSN Serch to name but two), Microsoft has been trying to find a way to get it back. Even though recent surveys show an upturn for Live Search, there’s still a long way to go before Google feels remotely threatened. This is why Microsoft is now turning to twists on the now stale search paradigm.
Ms. Dewey was the first really different offering - web search based on Flash. The sexy “webmistress” probably helped too! But it was obviously the wrong time for Microsoft to sit on its laurels, which is why it has been innovating to the extreme these couple of years.
tafiti is what I saw yesterday and it’s what prompted me to write this post in the first place. I haven’t had the time to look through it properly, but from what I can see, it shows Microsoft beginning to “get” what people want, if nothing else. Based on its Silverlight “Flash killer” technology, tafiti takes ideas that have already been done and presents them in a new interface. Multiple searches, storing and sharing results have all been researched before, but they’ve never been intergrated together with a search engine, packaged into a flashy website and presented to everybody. I’m thinking that it’ll be a boon for students research complex topics, who’ll be able to open multiple searches, find what they’re looking for, and then store the results and share them with their peers.
Now I just have to find something to search for!
