Track changes in Word and text documents

by Sharon Campbell

Have you ever been working on an important letter or proposal where the wording had to be just right? You sent it off to another team member for their contribution, and then they emailed you the updated version with their changes. But while you were reading it over one last time, you realized they didn’t just add the stuff they were supposed to, they changed the wording from a really important part, and who knows what else they changed, and now you’re going to have to go over the whole thing again with a fine-tooth comb…

Actually, you don’t. The same word-processing programs you use to write your documents can also be used to automatically compare them. The differences between the documents will be highlighted in bright colors. You can spend five minutes glancing through the changes and get everything back to the way it’s supposed to be. There’s even a DOS command that will do the same thing for you command line users out there.

Microsoft Word

Make sure you save the updated document with a different name or in a different place, so it doesn’t overwrite your original file.

Now, open both documents in Word 2010. Go to the Review tab and click on the Compare tool. Choose the Compare… option.

In the window that pops up, use the dropdown menus to choose the two files you want to compare. Open the first document as the Original document, and the new one as the Revised document.

This will bring up a screen with a couple of different panels. The panel on the left shows a list of the changes. The center panel is the most useful one. It highlights every change between the two documents in blue. Words that were deleted from the first document are shown with a strikethrough, and words that were added in the new version are underlined. The two right panels show both versions of the document.

File comparison in Word 2010

More about file comparison in Word: office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/compare-documents-with-the-legal-blackline-option-HP010368863.aspx

Notepad++

Notepad++ is like Notepad but with lots of extra features. You can download it for free from notepad-plus-plus.org.

Notepad++ is great for comparing files of the “text” type, like HTML files, database backup files, regular .txt files, etc.

To compare two files, first you want to make sure both of them are saved with different names. Open both of them in Notepad++.

Go to the Plugins menu option. Hover over the Compare option, then choose Compare again from the sub-menu.

Two screens will come up, with one file on the left and one on the right. Every line that’s different will have a yellow exclamation point next to it. Specific words that are different will be highlighted in a darker color.

File comparison in Notepad++

More about file comparison in Notepad++: www.davidtan.org/how-to-compare-two-text-files-using-notepad-plus

DOS fc Command

The DOS “fc” command – short for “file compare” – will generate a list of all changes between two files.

To use this command, bring up the DOS command prompt. Type the following:

fc c:\path\to\file1.txt c:\path\to\file2.txt

The output will show any lines that are different between the two files.

File comparison with the command line

More about file comparison with fc: www.computerhope.com/fchlp.htm

BlueStacks goes Metro with Windows 8

Very Interesting about BlueStacks in Windows 8 – Can’t Wait Thanks CES and CNET

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33377_1-57355786/bluestacks-goes-metro-with-windows-8/?tag=mncol%3bcontentBody.4

Target picks Microsoft’s HyperV virtualization software

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20045503-75.html

Microsoft Office 2010:How Will it Effect Your Small Business’ Productivity?

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

Many small businesses began using the Google Docs suite in 2007 and 2008 to create at least some of their standard documents because the programs were light, intuitive, enabled instant collaboration and were hosted in the cloud. But over time, users began to note certain flaws: access to the service, particularly for spreadsheets, can be interrupted, sometimes leaving users stranded for hours. Also, though Open Office and Microsoft document file types are supported, all document formatting is not retained, which means time consuming re-formatting. Not to mention that much of the functionality taken for granted in client office suites is noticeably absent in Google Docs. Want to track changes in a collaborative document? No can do. Want to make a pivot table? Sorry.

Microsoft Office 2010 is an effort to combine the best features of its traditional office suite (upgraded of course) and the collaborative ability of web apps like Google Docs. But there are some differences in how the collaboration tools work compared to Google Docs. Here is a list of some of the most interesting, new features and tools of Office 2010 and how they might effect productivity:

Web Apps:
• Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents can be uploaded to the cloud via a web browser for collaboration and web viewing
• PowerPoint retains much of its functionality in the web version, minus the light video editing capabilities added to the desktop version for 2010
• Excel Spreadsheets look and feel the same in the browser and multiple people can edit at once on the web, provided you give them access
• Word documents look and feel the same in the browser as on the desktop and multiple people can edit at once, though only through the desktop environment

How will this effect productivity: For PowerPoint and Excel documents, easier sharing through the web and collaboration is a huge boost and will eliminate a lot of version confusion. However, creating some of the complex tables and graphs in Excel, like pivot tables, isn’t possible through the web version — but there is considerable more functionality than Google Docs spreadsheets. If the Office 2010 web apps can prove consistently reliable to users, it will be a big boost to productivity, compared to current desktop or web solutions.

Word is another story. If users can’t collaborate over the web, that means all parties need to have Office 2010 to collaborate at all on Word docs, which means a lot of collaboration won’t happen. Because a lot of small businesses collaborate frequently with many different parties, for many Google Docs still may be the best live document collaboration option.

Outlook:
• Emails are now grouped into whole conversation threads
o “Clean up” conversations by eliminating redundant parts of threads
• Improved Search
• Users now have the option to connect Outlook to social networking services like Facebook and Twitter to see status updates from friends, in the application
• View all threads and attachments, calendar entries and more from a given person in People Viewer.
• The ability to add more than one Microsoft Exchange Account

How will this effect productivity: Email is often sited as one of the biggest productivity drains for large and small businesses alike. Anything that gives even small benefits to productivity in email, is bound to have a measurable effect. These new changes add more contextual information and a more intuitive way of viewing and accessing email conversations, which are big improvements and might even make email more fun.

Graphics Editing in Documents:

Users can now:

• Do basic editing of photos and images in Word and PowerPoint
• Do basic editing of videos in PowerPoint.

How will this effect productivity: In my experience, small business employees not familiar with graphics editing will often strip down or leave out graphics because editing them is too time consuming. If they are now able to make graphics (or video) look good easily, I think they will add them to presentations and documents more readily. Documents won’t be completed faster, but they will be more interesting and colorful.

Conclusion:

If collaboration and web apps are the biggest draws Office 2010, use the free web versions and then decide if want to purchase the whole suite. If you are already a happy customer of Office 2007, then it is probably well worth your while to switch to Office 2010 for the new Outlook alone.

You can contact the author at press@janusnetworks.com

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The Rhetoric of Behavioral Targeting

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

In March, I wrote a piece about Google’s behavioral ad targeting and possible legislative action in the works to insure customers understood Google’s (and other advertiser’s) privacy policy. There is still not a bill on the table, but congressional hearings were held in mid-June and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) has been vocal about his plans to draft a bill. Although, Boucher insists: “My overall purpose is not to interfere with the legitimate practice of people who are doing targeted advertising. My goal is to try to create a greater sense of confidence on the part of consumers.”

The definition of what exactlyA qualifies as behavioral targeting varies across the industry. Some companies that claim to offer behavioral targeting, really only offer vague demographic information. Also it is unclear if retargeting (ads based on a users visit to an advertisers site) is considered behavioral targeting by legislators.

Opponents to regulation of behavioral targeting argue that it could “cripple” the online advertising business. I think this is a bit hyperbolic. It might be true if retargeting is outlawed, which is unlikely because it requires the collection of only one piece of information. True behavioral targeting requires following a user across several sites, and represents a relatively small but growing percentage of ads. Advertisers selling high price-point items like cars or travel packages use behavioral targeting the most. For the majority of advertisers, it is still unclear if behavioral targeting is worth the premium. Perhaps as the technology improves, it will become more of an advertising mainstay.

Having said that, the the cost of online advertising inventory was plummeting before the crash, and with cutbacks in ad budgets, even a small change in the industry could impact a lot of businesses. The businesses most scared of this legislation are ad networks. Google has its own ad network, as does Yahoo. They sell billions of dollars worth of “remnant” publisher ad space. Ad networks, rather than the advertisers or publisers, do the actual behavioral targeting in most campaigns. Limiting behavioral targeting would definitely cause them to rethink the way they do business.

However there is another, quiet trend in the industry that may one day replace ad networks as they are now. Advertisers and agencies know that ad networks function as a middleman between them and publishers and they would like to have more direct access to remnant inventory. Ad exchanges give advertisers direct access to impression by impression inventory for purchase through auction. Right now, ad exchanges are still an emerging platform, but if they gain popularity, they would decrease the relevancy of ad networks. That doesn’t mean behavioral targeting would go away, but it may become less attractive to advertisers if they can target remnant impressions more precisely.

In conclusion, congress and the FTC continue to debate regulation of behavioral targeting while the online advertising industry attempts to standardize a definition and develop practices to polices itself. Though true behavioral targeting currently represents a relatively small percentage of impressions, regulating would adversely effect some advertisers, agencies and especially ad networks. However, behavioral targeting is only one set of innovations emerging in online advertising and other technologies may make it less desirable.

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Microsoft Reaches out to iPhone Users and Developers

Microsoft is promoting a study by a third party research group, Crimson Consulting, that documents how developers can port applications they have developed for the iPhone over to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Although Microsoft’s rival app store is not scheduled to open until late this year, the company is hoping the study will entice developers and bring competitive variety to the store.

The report centers on the iPhone app Amplitude, which turns audible recordings into graphical displays. According to Microsoft, Amplitude was an ideal app for the study because it is the type of high-quality app the company is hoping to have in its upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile. “It combines a rich user interface with features such as alpha blending (a computer graphics technique in which an image is combined with a background image) and transparency with specific audio and sound requirements, which makes it challenging to port the app but, at the same time, provides a number of helpful learning experiences,” said Constanze Roman, a Windows Mobile community team manager.

Microsoft is late to the app store game, but its store will have some features that could give it an edge. By allowing users with older versions of Windows Mobile to access the store, it has created a ready audience of 30 million smartphone users for developers. This audience is comparable or slightly higher than the number iPhone users. Also, users can buy apps by credit card or through their carrier bill and can return apps within 24 hours if they chose.

The fact that Microsoft needs a special study and app store for ported iphone apps suggests they will perhaps always be riding behind the iPhone in app development. Nevertheless, 30 million Windows Mobile users will soon have a place to find apps and developers have a huge new audience.

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By Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

Uncertainty and Benefits in the Yahoo Microsoft Deal

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

I’ve been monitoring the coverage on the Yahoo Microsoft deal since it was announced on July 29th and I am a little puzzled why so many analysts and reporters seem think the deal is so positive for Microsoft and so negative for Yahoo. From what I can see of the companies’ strengths, Yahoo is loosing nothing that wasn’t draining money and Microsoft’s ability to power search is still unproven

After the announcement, Yahoo’s stocks fell and and several analysts bemoaned Yahoo’s surrender of “data” that, according to these analysts, is where the real money lies. I am not sure what data they are speaking of. If they mean search algorithm data, it seems clear that, for the last several years, Yahoo has been unable to use the search algorithm data it has to effectively gain in the search market. If instead the analysts mean user or cookie data — used for behavioral targeting of ads — the actual advertising power of this data is still unproven for the vast majority of advertisers. Behavioral targeting could also be outlawed if some law makers have their way.

For their part, Yahoo and Microsoft are being vague as to who will control what data. I suspect this is for two reasons, the most obvious being that they don’t want to give away plans to competitors. But also because part of what I believe they have planned might raise the same privacy concerns behavioral targeting does for some. In early May, Yahoo announced a service that allows advertisers to target display ads to users based on recent search queries. I’d be willing to bet Yahoo will continue that service with Bing results. Like behavioral targeting, it is a new, unproven and potentially controversial technology, but it could be very lucrative.

Let’s also not forget that Bing has yet to prove itself. It has seen a decent beginning in user volume, but Microsoft is spending $100,000,000 in advertising. Who knows if those users will continue the habit after the buzz dies down. If they don’t, Microsoft is left with maintaining a huge infrastructure at a loss.

The bottom line is that Yahoo is deciding to focus on display advertising, a field in which it clearly excels. It already has one of the largest display advertising networks on the web. If it hones new technologies that improve targeting, it could ratchet up profits significantly.

Both companies have a lot to prove if the deal is to create lots of value for either. But considering the strength of the Google habit and the youth of Bing, I am just not at all certain Microsoft has the easier road ahead.

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It Will Take More Than a Great Product for Microsoft to Gain in Search

Several information blogs reported last week that Microsoft’s new search engine, possibly named Kumo, could debut as early as this week at the All Things Digital conference. Microsoft has been trying to gain more of a voice in the search market for some years and has purchased several search technologies. However, this is the first sign the new engine might be ready to hatch. There is plenty of genuine interest in watching if Microsoft can be a real player in search, but when competing with Google, technology is only one of many battle grounds.

A recent Neilsen study gives Google 64.2 percent of the US search market with Microsoft only at only 10.3 percent. Other studies have put Google’s share closer to 80 percent and growing. Even within Microsoft, it is reported, 80 percent of employees still use Google.

Despite the omnipresence of Google, there is a lot of improvement to be made in search. All of the big search engines return a lot of irrelevant information, especially on long tail searches. Google has had a few outages lately and recently there have been some rumblings at search conferences that perhaps Google has hit a wall– in market share and innovation.

Kumo plans to tackle the challenges of search with some neat user experience features and some potentially powerful back-end technologies. The UI will have a left hand navigation bar that breaks search results into different categories ( photos, blogs, product detail pages etc.) and allows the user to quickly switch between categories. The back-end technology will encompass the abilities of the search engines Microsoft has purchased: Medstory, a health search engine, Farecast, a travel search engine, and the highly anticipated but untested semantic search of Powerset.

With all this innovation, what stands in Kumo’s way? Well, like it or not, Google is the backbone of the Internet right now. It has, arguably, one of the most powerful brand associations in history. Google has become synonymous with finding information. Websites and businesses spend huge amounts of time and money trying to master Google’s algorithms and web crawlers. Google has gained close to a natural monopoly, something that has continually worried federal lawmakers. But people go to Google largely because they want to. And, at the moment, they do have the best technology.

To really gain ground in search, Kumo will have to return better results with a superior user inferface, get a blitz of good press, earn some very influential fans and–most importantly–wait it out. Breaking the Google habit is a cultural shift at this point, even if the technology promotion are perfect. Cultural shifts, though they don’t always seem like it, are long sells. Ripples do become waves, but rarely overnight.

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Windows 7 to Have Touch and Gesture Capabilities

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

By now you have probably heard of Microsoft Surface, the expensive tablet PC that enables the user to manipulate images and interact with applications by touching and tapping the surface–similar to a giant iPhone. But now it is confirmed that Windows 7, set to come out sometime this fall, will have some touch and gesture recognition features built in.

Acer also announced on April 30th that its Aspire Z5600 will feature a 24-inch screen with 1080p resolution that was designed specifically to utilize the touch features of Windows 7.

On compatible equipment, Windows 7 will recognize gestures such as: tapping and double-tapping (just as you would with a mouse button); drag and drop; scrolling (by pull-touching the main window rather than a scroll bar); pinching (to zoom in and out); two-finger tapping (to zoom and orient); rotating (by touching two spots and then twisting); flicking (for quick shifts left and right); and pressing-and-holding (to right-click).

As a pure concept the Surface, and all touchscreen technology, has a lot of sex appeal to consumers. But there are doubts the technology will really get mouths watering on the business side. Bill Gates has said the expansion of user interfaces beyond the keyboard will have a far reaching impact on computing. “In the next few years, the roles of speech, gesture, vision, ink, all of those will become huge. For the person at home and the person at work, that interaction will change dramatically,” said Gates at a digital event last year.

There is huge potential for this kind of technology, but habits, ideas and computers will also have to evolve before it fundamentally changes computing. For touch and gesture recognition to take off in the work place, I think work styles and culture will have to change–and that is long sell.

On the consumer side, I don’t see the Surface becoming mainstream until the price comes down–way down. Despite strong interest, the Surface it self sells for about $17,000, and (probably for due to price) is only being sold to retailers and hospitality businesses. Touch technology within computers like the Aspire will catch on if the hardware and software make it natural to use, which may not happen right away.

As with all computing advances, it may take two or three generations to find the right recipe for large scale adoption. However, being part of Windows 7 means touch and gesture recognition has come a long way culturally and technologically, even if kinks need to be worked out and devices themselves still need to evolve.

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Windows 7 Beta Gets Good Reviews

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

The problems with Vista have been so widespread that they have become tired jokes. So, it is a bit of a surprise that the Windows 7 Beta has been getting such good reviews.  After having read many such reviews and reports, here are the primary hits and misses.

This latest version of Windows promises:

• An end to excessive security pop ups by making it easy for users to choose security settings
• To boot up faster, run faster, use less memory and power (especially great for mini PCs)
• A UI redesigned for easier web use
• A redesigned task-bar that features larger icons of programs–mouse over them to see all windows associated with that program
• More intuitive window resizing–dragging a window up screen maximizes it, pulling it down restores; dragging a window to the edges re-sizes it to 50%
• Easier home networking and wireless connecting
• More stability
• A new, better back-up and restore tool
• Multi-touch touchscreen capabilities

But there are still some problems to deal with, at least in this Beta:

• The Sleep/Hibernate mode is STILL unstable and often incapacitating
• It doesn’t work well with Windows Azure Cloud OS tools
• There are problems installing iTunes
• ISO disk images don’t boot well

Overall, the biggest complaint about Windows 7 is that it’s really just what Vista should have been. Some people also dislike having to download Windows Mail and Photo Gallery from Windows Live. Others like this flexibility. If reports of highly improved stability continue after the final version is released, it will be enough for me to upgrade right away. Though I still don’t understand why they can’t fix the sleep function.

You can contact the author at press@janusnetworks.com