Author: josh

Outlook.com & Custom Domains

Posted on by josh

I just posted about Google Apps Standard Edition and how it is still available.  But what about those of you who might need more users?  Perhaps you are running a small neighborhood organization and would like to setup email service for a custom domain & allow more than 10 users to use the service.  Perhaps you would even like those people to be able to sign themselves up instead of administratively adding them all.  Outlook.com may be the better option for you.

Until tonight, I didn’t even realize that Outlook.com offered a free custom domain option.  The setup is pretty much exactly like that of Google Apps’, but you get everything through the new Outlook-like web interface.  There is also the ability to sync your mail account, calendars, and contacts to your Windows 8 PC and most mobile devices including Windows 8 Phone, Android, and iPhone/iPad.  Another benefit is the ability to create up to 50 users (versus 10 in Google Apps).

When you begin the domain setup, you will have to sign into an already existing Windows Live account (or create a new Windows Live account under the new domain) that will be used as the administrating account for the domain.  If you have multiple domains, I believe you should be able to use the same administrative account to manage all of them.

To setup your custom domain with use on Outlook.com mail service, go to http://domains.live.com to begin the domain setup & verification.

Updated — Google Apps Free – It’s Still Here, Just Hidden — Haha, J/K

Posted on by josh

Recently, Google announced that they would be discontinuing the Google Apps Standard (Free) Edition of their Google Apps platform.  This was kind of lame to hear, especially since Google seems to be so big on offering free stuff to personal/non-profit users.  Luckily, I had already created my domains and had them setup on Google apps long before this “discontinuation”, so my account was grandfathered in.  In fact, one of my accounts was created back when they offered 50 users in the Google Apps Standard Edition and I have apparently been allowed to keep those 50 licenses for that domain.

At any rate, I am posting because I have recently discovered that it appears Google Apps Standard (Free) Edition still exists.  It is just slightly hidden.  The trick is to sign up for a Google Apps Business Edition 30 Day Trial.  Before your 30 day trial is up, Go into your domain settings and attempt to Cancel your Google Apps account.  You will need to not have any users & all market place apps need to be removed as well in order to do be able to get the Cancel option.  Upon attempting to cancel your account, you will be presented with 2 options: 1) Downgrade your account to a Google Apps Standard (Free) account — allows no more than 10 users & limits some of the Google Apps functionality, but perfect for those who just need good free webmail service with a custom domain & 1-10 users.  Or option 2) Cancel the account immediately.

So for those of you who were wanting to take advantage of Google services with your own custom domain without the cost that businesses pay, this is how you do it.  I have not actually gone through these steps.  I just happened to notice the option when I was deleting some sub domains for one of my customers so that they could be re-added to their primary Google Apps domain.  I did not take the time to test the Google Apps Standard option, but it is there.

Update (4/21/2013 1:57AM): I just attempted to setup a new domain with Google Apps following my method above.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work.  The accounts I was toying with must have been grandfathered in to have the ability to downgrade while still in their 30 day trial period.  But it appears that new domains do not have the options to become Google Apps Standard accounts period.  This is unfortunate, but Outlook.com offers a solution for free (and up to 50 users).  See my next post here: Outlook.com & Custom Domains 

Protect Your Google Data From Yourself!

Posted on by josh

Are you one of the many users who has embraced the Google Cloud?  If so, then you probably have a lot of data out there that is important to keep.  Especially after an accidental deletion.  Did you know that Google offers no built-in restore function for your calendar?  Once you delete an event, it’s gone.  What if some kind of a syncing glitch happens with Outlook and causes your calendar to delete? Or what if you accidentally sync in the wrong direction with a new empty calendar.  oops.  Now what?

Spanning Backup offers a solution.  Integrated, online, incremental and daily backups.  With a very simple setup (just sign in with your Google account and authorize Spanning Backup to access your account), you can enable backups for your Google account.  These backups allow you to restore data from Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Sites from any point (daily) in time–at least since your first backup of course.

You just have to check it out, here is there website: http://www.spanning.com
They offer a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.  After 14-days you can purchase a license, or your account will just be deleted if you decide to not use it after all.  If you decide to purchase, be sure to use my link or coupon code below to receive $5 off the annual price of $40 — only $35 per year — The coupon code continues to apply each year!

Spanning Backup $5 OFF Coupon Code: QBXR47

Office 2007 & Office 2010 Direct Download Links

Posted on by josh

As a tech, I have on many occasions had the need for the installation files for Office 2007 or Office 2010.  Unfortunately, there’s not really an all in one install for every single flavor of Office.  In case you were unaware, there is the obvious Office Home & Student, Office Professional, etc.  But apart from that you can also get Office Word 2007, Office Outlook 2007, etc., all as separate products with individual licenses, or product keys.  This makes it very difficult, especially in cases where users did not purchase a disc or have lost their disc.

Well, thanks to Jan Krohn at HeiDoc.net I have a list of the download links for English (US) Office 2007 & Office 2010 products.  I have downloaded and included some of the setup files straight from my server (the local links).  All of the file names are links to the original Digital River download files.

Download Link Listings:
– Office 2007 Direct Downloads
– Office 2010 Direct Downloads

Original Source (HeiDoc.net Collection):
– Office 2007 Direct Downloads
– Office 2010 Direct Downloads

Office 365 Home Premium (Office 2013)

Posted on by josh

I have been setting up various companies on Office 365 lately and have enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to look into Office 365 for my personal use.  Luckily, they offer plans catered to home use, so it’s much more affordable.  At $9.99/mo., I can definitely budget for a subscription.  I’m currently running the 30 day trial just to see how it runs.  Following is my personal review of Word 2013 and Excel 2013 as these are really the only two programs that I, or anyone that I do IT work for actually use.

With my $9.99/mo subscription to Office 365 Home Premium, I get 5 licenses of Office 2013 to install on 5 different PCs within my household.  In addition, I get the usual access to the WebApps in SkyDrive which are Web based versions of Word, Excel, etc.  In addition, you also have the ability to “stream” a copy of Office 2013 to PCs that do not already have Office installed without actually installing Office.  This does not use any of your licenses as the software will not actually be installed on the computer.

Last night, I decided to do a test.  I booted up a VM with Windows 7 installed.  No Office product is installed on this VM, so I logged into my Office 365 account and downloaded the Word App.  After a short installation, I was prompted that I could start using the software, but that it may be slow while more components were being downloaded.  At this point, I did not see any icons for the software (as I had expected since this was a streamed version of Office.)  However, Word launched and I was able to use it just like a normal copy of Word.  I typed up a line and saved the document, conveniently, to my Sky Drive documents folder.  I shut down my VM and opened up Chrome on my host PC running Windows 8.  From here, I logged into Sky Drive (online) and launched the same document using the Word Web App.  This launched a very familiar looking version of Word.  Honestly, when put into full screen mod, it almost didn’t look any different than the actual Word application on the PC.  At any rate, I typed a line and saved the document, automatically going to my Sky Drive documents folder.

I then opened Word 2013 which was already installed on my desktop PC.  I opened the document from Sky Drive and typed a few lines.  I then opeend the file back up in the Word Web App.  Every time the document and the application UI remained the same.  It was very familiar, very universal, simple, and Cloud based!

If you have used or have been using Office 2010, then the switch won’t be to terribly different.  There are definately some differences, but the overall UI is very similar.  Office 2013 incorporates the SkyDrive platform.  By signing into Office with your SkyDrive account, you are able to open, edit and save documents right from SkyDrive without the need to install SkyDrive separately.  Though you can still install SkyDrive if you are like me and prefer to have a local copy of your cloud documents.  I did a test last night beginng

All of the applications in Office 2013 include a neat feature that has been used before.  This is the little “Quick Tools” button that appears whenever an object is selected.  This gives you access to the most common tool for the object you have selected.  For example, in Word 2013 if you select an image, the button gives you immediate access to choosing how the image interacts with word wrap in the document.  2-Click access to the most common option.  Genius, I think.

Excel has some very cool new features.  One in particular I want to mention is the Quick Analysis button.  This is the icon that appears when you select an entire table of data (including headers and titles).  Using this button gives you quick access to automatically generated charts, graphs, diagrams, and advanced formatting using the table data that you have selected.  I have used this feature already on some CSV files exported from my financial program.  So far I have gotten excellent output with absolutely no configuration.  I guess that would be 2-Click graphs?  Genius!

Another cool feature, one which I haven’t found any other application for than the demonstrated purpose, is their Auto-fill (or Auto-guess) feature.  Say you have a spreadsheet with 2 Columns: 1st is for Email addresses, and the 2nd is for First names.  Let’s say that the email addresses are all in the format of [email protected].  Let’s also assume that you have quite a few email addresses, but no names associated with them.  By filling in the first box manually, upon filling in the second box you will be prompted to auto-fill all of the following first name boxes using the auto-guessed first names from the email address column.  Genius!

I thought about including some screen-shots, but honestly I was lazy.  If you didn’t quite understand my explanations of these features, check them out for yourself.  Everything I mentioned is included in the “Take a Tour” document of each Office application.  Microsoft was very generous and included a nice little starter document that shows you some of the new featuers and how to use them.  Each thing I described above is included in the respective Office application.  Get a copy of Office today free for 30 days.  After that, it can be as cheap as $9.99/mo. (possibly cheaper if paid by the year).