I’ve posted before about blogging from Word, notably when I discussed Blogger for Word and creating Technorati tags in Word. Now today, I was just skimming through Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog when I found a post that discusses blogging from the new Word 2007 (Beta). Being a reasonably early adopter, I thought I would check it out. He points to a blog post by Joe Friend, which has all of the information of how to do this wondrous thing. So I headed over there to check it out. Sounds pretty good and the instructions are pretty clear, so I’m giving it a whirl. I’m writing this post in Word 2007 (and boy is it pretty), and I’m even going to try uploading a picture…

Update: I pasted in a lovely little screenshot and tried posting. Unfortunately, no matter what I do, I cannot get the image to upload, even though my Yahoo Groups space theoretically lets me use an FTP address and I typed in my name and password, etc. So, no easy screenshots. Too bad, because this is what I really wanted to be able to do. Siiiiiigggghhhhhh…..

Now, let’s see if this makes it over to Blogger okay, and what it looks like when it gets there!

<span class=”technoratitag”>Categories: <a href=”http://del.icio.us/GTDWannabe/blogger” rel=”tag”>blogger</a>, <a href=”http://del.icio.us/GTDWannabe/word” rel=”tag”>word</a>, <a href=”http://del.icio.us/GTDWannabe/beta” rel=”tag”>beta</a></span>

Update: You can see what happened ot the tag code that I pasted into Word, it turned it into gobbly-gook instead of treating it like HTML. Another strike against Blogging from Word right now. (Note that I didn’t use my macro trick mentioned above, simply because I actually don’t have any of my macros working at all right now :( ).

Argh. Frizzlefrat. Phooey. Ptouie. These are nice versions of what I’m really saying right about now.

So, I installed the Office 2007 beta, just because I wanted to see how it looked, and I’ve been reading some nice things about it online. ARGH. Little did I know what kind of can of worms I was opening here. And it’s my own darned fault - I didn’t think far enough ahead. How bad could it be? Well, if you want your Palm device to sync to your Outlook stuff, and you have DataViz’s Documents to Go [1] installed - it could be very bad indeed.

The Symptoms

After installing the beta, I can’t get anything to synchronize. I would do my normal sync thing and the Palm screen would show that it was synchronizing voice memos, while the computer showed that it was synchronizing Documents to go. And both just hung there. Cancelling does not work. For the computer, I had to kill it through the task manager, and for the Palm, I had to actually do a reset - not the easy one either, the one where you have to stick the pin in the hole and hold the up key at the same time. Frizzlefratting dratting darn stupid garrrrrrr. Or, if you’re lucky, unplugging the cable might work too.

The Initial Solution

So, I had to start searching. The best advice I could find stated that Documents to Go didn’t like having Office 2007 on the machine. The forum suggested that you could get around the Documents to Go problem by manually updating each document you wanted synced. I also read somewhere that suggested using Chapura’s PocketMirror to sync. So, I tried the following:

1. Manually modify each document in the Documents to Go window (i.e., “right click on files in DTG desktop and select ‘update item view’ - this creates the PDB file in your user folder in the Palm folder” [2]).
2. Downloaded and installed PocketMirror Standard XT. $29.95 but free trial.
3. PocketMirror is a mystery to me - you don’t seem to need to do anything but run your hotsync normally.

So, this little dipseydoodle approach seemed to work. I got stuff synced. But there were duplication problems. I had extra calendar events (didn’t even bother looking at tasks, since I’m not using them right now, but that’s a different story). Fortunately, MapiLabs has a nice tool called Duplicates Remover for Outlook, and they too offer a free trial. I had over 400 duplicates, and the trial was enough to let me remove all of them, albeit 10 at a time.[3]

Now, I have my calendar items synchronized, although there are still some problems - half of my items are “unfiled” on the Palm, even though they are clearly categorized in Outlook. No idea what to do about that, but I’ll let it sit for now.

Test it Out

I’m going to test the synchronizing now. I’ll leave the Documents to Go documents completely alone, add a new calendar item in Outlook, and another one in the Palm, and see what happens. Oh, look at that. The gorramn (I’m stuck on Firefly these days) thing is hanging again. Stupid frikin frizzlefrat goshdarn it.

Crash everything. Set each Documents to Go document to “Needs Sync” (”Current” is just not good enough, I guess). Try again. Sync works, but categories refuse to transfer over, i.e., my new Outlook calendar item is in the Palm, but Unfiled and the new Palm calendar item is in Outlook, but Unfiled.

The Final “Solution”

So, it seems that there is much kludging required, and you don’t get all of the original functionality. Here’s what my new little process will be until: (a) the new Outlook is finalized and it/Documents to Go can figure themselves out or (b) I get completely pissed off and trash the Office Beta (or (c) I get completely pissed off and trash Documents to Go, but I don’t see that really happening).

1. Make desired changes to either Outlook, or Palm, keeping in mind that categories will not transfer over. In my case, Outlook will be my primary, and I’ll keep the categories there, and not worry about the Palm categories.
2. Before EACH AND EVERY SYNC, open Documents to Go, and manually “update item view” for each document. (Note: I haven’t experimented yet with creating documents that are not synced, i.e., Synchronize=No.)
3. Synchronize as you normally would.

Note: Before I tested this process out, I uninstalled PocketMirror, to see if it really was necessary, as I had read. Turns out that I was able to synchronize anyway, without a difference. The biggest problem really seems to be the Documents To Go software. Plus the fact that categories aren’t working, but that’s got to be an Outlook 2007/Palm issue.

Anyway, I hope that my trials and tribulations this afternoon (so much for getting home in time for dinner) are helpful to someone! Grumble grumble ;)

———-
[1] I’m deliberately not linking to the web site for this product because they don’t support Office 2007. Yes, I realize that it’s new, but the party line is “The 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta is released for evaluation and planning purposes only. Microsoft states this beta release is not appropriate for production use. While we do not know exactly when Microsoft will officially release Office 2007, we will do our best to offer Office 2007 support within Documents To Go when Microsoft does release Office 2007 or shortly thereafter.” (See their FAQ). This means that I’m going to be suffering with this kludge for months!!!
[2] From afore-mentioned forum, post by Mikeslax.
[3] The next time I have a duplication problem, I’m running out to buy that software. Not only does it work great, but it works for Outlook 2007, and it even looks nice.

I was listening to Merlin Mann’s 43F Podcast: The Perfect Apostrophe ‘cast this morning on my commute. It struck so close to home that I just have to share it. In it, he describes part of the process of writing the ultimate productivity manual and how ended spending 1/30th of his time making a pretty binder in which to hold the hardcopy “fool-proof” version.

Listening to how he shopped for the perfect stationary supplies, and wasted hours looking at fonts online in order to make the perfect cover page, I was struck by lightening. Well, a minor epiphany at least. I do this! I waste time making things pretty, making things ready so that I can get things done. This was especially hit home this weekend when I was cleaning up my desk. On it, I have a little index card holder, which was holding index cards relating to articles that I had recently read for my PhD research. Unfortunately, my research topic has evolved since I read those papers, which now makes them, and the summary notes, obsolete. No worries, you say. True, just toss the cards, and when I read something new, create new cards. But you should see these cards! Are they simply scribbles, in whatever colour pen I happen to have handy? NO! These are computer-printed, using a special template that I created in Powerpoint (after having tried a template in Word). They are printed in a typewriter font, which I spent at least an hour looking for online. Actually, there are two fonts - one for the title, one for the notes. Each card has various keywords on it, tied to keywords in my EverNote database. Some cards have images scanned (!) and printed on the back for more quick-reference. In short, they are individual 3×5″ little masterpieces. And now, completely useless.

This is only the most recent example I have of me ‘looking for the perfect apostrophe’. Merlin, man, I sympathize with you! Oh, how many hours have I wasted on various database, organization schemes for research, the perfect hierarchy of categories, the perfect combination of keywords, organizing keywords, etc. etc. I can only hope that my paying attention to what I’m doing, I can discover earlier when I’m wasting time being “productive” and just stop it.

Categories: GTD, procrastination, productivity

Update: I was obviously tired when I wrote this post, I originally spelled both procrastination and productivity wrong!

This post is in response to Neal’s comments on my last post about Copernic Desktop Search. He asked for a bit more detail:

I’d be interested to know what is new in the beta? In particular, does it yet give you a “list as you type” list of results from the task bar search box, like GDS? That’s one thing that I do miss.

Neal, this one’s for you!

First, I haven’t noticed any big functionality changes in the beta - I’m sure they’re there, and all you need to do is read Copernic’s beta page to see what the official party line is. For me, I like the fact that I didn’t notice anything big - that means that (1) I wasn’t missing any functionality in the first place and (2) The beta didn’t break anything. It’s like getting a good haircut - people don’t notice when you get a good haircut ;)

Anyway, what I did notice was that the interface had changed slightly - it’s more colourful and gooey, as you can see below. Things I like about the interface:

• I can choose to look only at files (this is my default - I never search for anything else).
• In files, I can choose file type, file location, size, date, etc.
• I can sort my results by date, so that that newest files are on top, older files below, grouped by categories, like Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month, etc. etc.
• I can still open a file’s folder, as opposed to opening the file first. Now, this button has moved to on top of the preview pane - it used to be on top of the file listing, and at first I was scared that it was gone for good, but I found it.
• Preview is awesome, as always. It might be even more awesome now.

And, in response to Neal’s specific question about “list as you type”. YES! Here’s an example of my typing “copernic” into the search bar. As soon as I typed “c”, stuff started popping up, but I’m showing you what happens after I type “coper”. Notice that it even asks if I’ve spelled a word wrong! And, you can select what kind of file you’re looking for, etc. And, even better for me, if you right-click on a file in this list, there is a context menu option for “Open Folder”. Love it.

There’s a post over on the David Allen Co GTD Forum asking for advice about desktop search programs. Smithdoug has some specific requirements that he wants his search program to satisfy. I read the list, decided that Copernic Desktop Search definitely fit the bill, and posted a response. Here it is, in all its glory:

I think I’m looking for something that:• Is Fast. I presume this means indexing the drive(s). But it should not degrade overall system performance. (I assume this means that it’s smart enough to do its indexing only while the system is idle.)
• Can find and retrieve any pertinent piece of information, including documents whose existence I’ve forgotten. This would include e-mail messages both within Outlook but also those archived in an out-of-Outlook folder by MessageSave. Also pdf documents, in addition to all of the other standard formats. And how about Outlook Journal records too?
• Can search local drives and also files or directories on a server. But not the Internet. (I think there are utilities that search both desktop and Internet, are there not?). The Google-type Internet search engines work fine, but I prefer to keep desktop searches separate.
• Being able to preview retrieved files without opening applications—a la Enfish—would be great. And the ability to do Boolean searches would be useful.

I heartily recommend Copernic. I’ve been using their desktop search for about a year now and have just switched over to the Beta of their version 2.

It is fast - I don’t time the indexing, but after the initial indexing of your hard drive, you won’t even notice it. It indexes only when your machine isn’t busy, and you can adjust those settings as well, e.g., mine will index if my machine is not busy for 2 minutes. In addition, you can have it set so that it indexes on the fly, i.e., as soon as a document changes. I’ve got this option set, and haven’t noticed any performance problems. (Well, actually, when I first got the beta for version 2, this setting caused a bit of a problem when I came back to my machine after a while, but it was a beta after all. I contacted Copernic and within a week, they had sent me a patch which had fixed the problem - excellent customer support in my mind.) It’s also fast while searching - amazingly so. I use the copernic toolbar and often before I finish typing, the search results are coming up. (As an aside, the toolbar is good for quick and dirty searches, but I prefer opening the main program so that I can see the location of my files, and the preview.)

CDS finds everything that I need: standard office documents, pdfs, email in outlook (don’t know about saved mail or journal entries, since I don’t use those), contacts, favourites (and you can tell it to use Firefox), music, pictures, etc. etc. etc. You can set what kind of files you want it to look at (love this feature over Google and MSN when I was trying them out), and you can add new file extensions. This last is good for when you deal with say, .bat or .pl files. Since they’re text, you can see the contents in a preview. For other strange extensions, you can just see the titles, but that’s okay too.

You can tell it what directories to search, or not search. I have no need to search my program files, so they’re turned off, as are a couple of miscellaneous directories. You can even tell it what kind of thing to look for in a directory, e.g., just music or just files or everything. I just did a quick check, and when you add in a new folder/directory, you can browse to your network computers, so I think you should be able to look at networked drives no problem. And as far as I remember, it doesn’t search online. I thought the older version did have that option, but I don’t see it in my settings.

The preview is awesome. You can see Word, Excel, PPT, text, HTML, etc. You can even see pdf content. (Sometimes the pdf isn’t really pretty, but it’s good enough to see the context of what you’re searching for).

Also, when searching, you can designate what kind of thing you want to search for, e.g., all, images, music, files, email, etc. You can also specify a file type, e.g., txt, doc, etc. You can specify even a location to look, if want to narrow things down a bit, and specify size and date. These last few I never even have to use because the basic search works so well for me. I have the results sorted by date (and grouped), so things that I access often are near the top of the list - this structure works well for me, since I can usually remember if I’ve worked on something yesterday, last week, last month, last year, etc.

Anyway, I hope this review helps you. I’ve played with a few other desktop search programs but as far as I’m concerned, CDS takes the cake.