I was using Excel 2007 doing an assignment a few days ago, and I tried to concatenate numbers and text together (had to write out what the confidence interval was so I needed the ' < u < ' bit in between two numbers if you're really interested), so I tried to use the CONCAT function which I vaguely thought existed. Didn't work, so I clicked help, and got this:



Well what do you think Excel? If I click on 'was this information helpful?' I get a dialog saying your response will help Microsoft improve the the user experience, select my answer, then I return to this dialog, but without the 'was this information helpful?' link.

Developers, if you're trying to make your program helpful, at least do some further testing so you don't look like an idiot. I expected you to do a search in Office Help when I clicked 'was this information helpful?', not a quick survey by Microsoft about their help quality.

By the way, the actual function I was looking for was CONCANTENATE.

There also seems to be a bug in the 'napkin math' code in OneNote. Napkin math is the nickname for the quick calculator in OneNote - just type in 8+2= then press space or enter, and it'll add in the answer, e.g. 8+2=10. The bug is the way OneNote handles the order of operations. Enter in 1/2*100= and you expect the result to be 50 right because it's (1/2)*100. However OneNote doesn't recognise it that way - it thinks it's 1/(2*100) so you get 0.005 instead. Whoops!

On this upside, after using Office 2007 for 2 full on assignments now, I must say it's a lot better than 2003, after the initial small learning curve.

• The new ribbon interface lets you do more in less clicks once you knew where things were, which is intuitive most of the time, except for things like AutoCorrect Options, now hidden in Office orb -> Word Options -> Proofing.
• The new equation editor in Word is integrated a lot more and more intuitive.
  
• A quick formatting toolbar now comes up when you select text in Word, allowing you to change font, size etc.
• The new immediate word count in the status bar is awesome; saves me pressing ALT-T-W all the time.
• Excel has dumped the chart wizard - instead you get a new ribbon with the options clearly displayed, click, and it'll change your chart. It's more productive once you get used to it, but it was a bit disconcerting when I first used it.
  
• Excel now has formula autocomplete - start typing in your function name in the cell, and it'll offer up all the matching ones; very helpful.
• In all ribbon Office apps the old Office 2003 keyboard shortcuts still work. I discovered this when I pressed ALT-T-W because I was so used to doing that. This is great advance planning I reckon - they used different keys for the ribbon so users don't get random behaviour when they blindly use their old shortcuts.
• OneNote now recognises the writing when I print my PowerPoint lecture slides to it so I can search them too.

For OneNote though, I'd love them to add a new 'pen mode' though when installed on a tablet - yes, you can use it on a normal PC, in fact I often type instead of write on my tablet. By 'pen mode', I mean when I convert my laptop into slate form, it will hide un-necessary toolbars (e.g. text formatting), and make the toolbar buttons bigger so they're easier to tap. Check out the 'pen mode' in Mindjet's MindManager - great implementation.

If you don't know whether to get Vista or Office, and you use Office a bit, I'd suggest Office and hold off Vista until later. Speaking of which, the It's Not Cheating promotion (Office 2007 Ultimate for 75 bucks for students) ends May 30!

I know we're all sick of the whole Office cheating campaign here, and I wasn't going to revisit it, but I figured it was only fair that I acknowledge what Microsoft is doing to help notify students about the offer, especially at Monash Clayton, seeing as that was one of my main whinges.

I got a global email (i.e. went out to all students) from Monash's ITS department today telling students about the offer.

"Microsoft is offering the top of the range Ultimate 2007 version of Microsoft Office to all Australian university students at a low price for a limited time.

This offer is available from Monday 12th March to midnight Monday 28th May."

The email goes on, explaining the pricing structure, conditions of purchase, and gives the link to the site.

This is a great move as it adds a lot more authority to the offer (i.e. students assume that Monash University has checked it out and won't be passing on dud offers). I've already had a mate tell me about the offer today from the email, so it's definitely working - he agreed it was a great deal.

More could be done, especially given the number of people who don't check their uni emails, but this is a good start and at least gets people talking about it. Some free trial version CDs (along with an insert directing them to the site to purchase it) and posters are other quick ways to make it better. It's hard for Microsoft to get traction at Clayton though when they don't have any student partners to help them out, like they do at QUT.

P.S. Berno, if you're reading this - check your email.

I have just discovered that one of the points I made in my previous post is partially incorrect. I stated in the third dot-point,

Why do I want the new Office? What's wrong with the old (or pirated) one that I'm using right now? What's included in Ultimate? Hell, there isn't even a link to the Office site on it at all (not that I could find, and I looked unlike most other visitors)! The only somewhat helpful page is the one is the 'don't believe its real' link, and that's the boring-est page ever. Looks exactly like one of those licence agreement pages, and everyone knows noone reads them. Doesn't tell me what the lesser-known components of Office do either - wtf is InfoPath or Groove? Geez, do you expect us to go spend our precious non-drinking time researching your product too before we part with our limited cash supply? Only those who intended to buy it anyway will benefit atm (i.e. geeks who researched it, or those with new computers without Office on it at all). Sell your product (not overly, but smartly and in context with uni students) - the new UI is a good starting point because we're superficial creatures (admit it); if it looks good we're more likely to take a second look.

I obviously didn't look hard enough - the link to the official Office site and the list of what's included is there after you click on the following button on the site:
That is better but still not good enough if you ask me - the button looks like something I'd click if I was ready to make the purchase, not something I'd click to find out more (doesn't help that the button links to the digitalriver domain, but the typical person won't see that).

Anyway, assuming I stayed long enough to click on that, I get a page that gives me a quick 5 second somewhat-relevant spiel and a list of what's included (still, no explanation as to what each does). To find out more, I get redirected to the official Office site, where the site is primarily oriented towards the business customer, and offers no more information than I got before. I have to click further for that. Someone has to tell Microsoft that the more clicks a user has to click, the greater the cognitive load and the less interested they become. Anyway, assuming I click on to say the Overview page, everything there is so general you actually have to think about what's written before knowing whether you need it or not - increasing the cognitive load.

I still stand by the point I made in the above post (except the bits that are wrong, i.e. no link to Office site, no list of what's included). Too much research is required; sure some might go to the lengths of actually looking it up, but that number will be small compared to the potential hundreds of thousands of students out there wanting/needing Office.

A much better way would be to add an overview (complete with nice screenshots) on to the actual itsnotcheating site itself (with a big link on the front page), and write an overview for a student audience. Then, link that to the official site when the visitor is sucked in and wants to know more. The cognitive load is reduced substantially, and you can get a much stronger feeling of 'I need it' in the visitor, rather than 'I think I need it because I think that's what it can do for me'. Maybe Microsoft expects magazines and bloggers to write relevant pieces to provide this - wake up Microsoft, there are no student mags I know of that talk about productivity software, and the student population who'll write about this on their myspace is miniscule. You need to do the hard yards yourself, make yourself needed, make yourself look cool, make yourself desirable enough for a student to forgo a decent night out.

I posted a quick update to the post in the comments too, which I'll repeat (elaborated on and edited for clarity) here for those who missed it:

Quick update:

My mates just told me about how outragously expensive Office and Vista is, especially if they wanted at least Home Premium and needed Publisher and Access (therefore have to buy Ultimate). I directed them to the www.itsnotcheating.com.au site, but alas, it took me over 15 minutes just to try and convince them that its legit and real, and I'm still not convinced that they're convinced (don't think I could add 'convince' into that sentence again ). They're right to be skeptical - Office never sells this cheap here, especially the one with the lot.

This is real-life research showing you the site's not working.

This site isn't getting much love from Long Zheng either, though he's attacking it from a completely different angle, saying that the price is ridiculous for piracy, those who bought Home & Student, retail partners, and the true value of Office. He compares it with the full version of Office Ultimate, even though its likely the copy obtained via this promo will be an Academic/non-commercial licence. Still, his points are valid ones.

Seems like Microsoft's luck is continuing to deterioriate...

The Microsoft Office marketing team in Australia have a new target in their sights - uni students. Mentioned on many blogs, e.g. here and here (as well as on the aus-dot-net mailing list too), they're selling Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for 25 bucks for a year, or 75 bucks for an unlimited-time licence. They've launched a promo site for this offer titled, It's not cheating! (http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au/).

If you're just cruising through seeing if this offer is a scam, here's the answer: this offer is not a scam; it is a legitimate offer from Microsoft Australia.

What follows is a promotion nearly as bad as the global Office dinosaur campaign. Here's what's wrong in my opinion, and given I'm a uni student atm, I think it resonates with many others:

• Why can't Microsoft be innovative and stylish about their advertising? The idiot (that's the nicest word I can think of - he reminds me of Borat actually) is hardly appealing, the site lacks design (check out www.scouta.com for a similar style but better design - cool site btw), and looks like a promo site for crappy 'made in china' products (but without the spelling misteaks). There's hardly any authority conveyed in it, apart from the Microsoft logo at the bottom of the page. Curious types aside, I wouldn't have even looked that far.
• Following on from the previous point, add more credibility! The 'don't believe its real' link at the bottom of the page after you've selected your uni is not good enough. We're a skeptical bunch, especially when it comes to 'special offers', though we're easily swayed by them too.
  
• Why do I want the new Office? What's wrong with the old (or pirated) one that I'm using right now? What's included in Ultimate? Hell, there isn't even a link to the Office site on it at all (not that I could find, and I looked unlike most other visitors)! The only somewhat helpful page is the one is the 'don't believe its real' link, and that's the boring-est page ever. Looks exactly like one of those licence agreement pages, and everyone knows noone reads them. Doesn't tell me what the lesser-known components of Office do either - wtf is InfoPath or Groove? Geez, do you expect us to go spend our precious non-drinking time researching your product too before we part with our limited cash supply? Only those who intended to buy it anyway will benefit atm (i.e. geeks who researched it, or those with new computers without Office on it at all). Sell your product (not overly, but smartly and in context with uni students) - the new UI is a good starting point because we're superficial creatures (admit it); if it looks good we're more likely to take a second look.
• What's do I have to do to win the competition? Having a competition is a start, especially one that taps into our new social communication mediums, but ambigiuity lets it down. Just include the two phrases, and it'll be judged on the creativity of the story - story on what? Not getting caught cheating? Be more specific, or get us to answer a question, e.g. What was the biggest scam you've gotten away with? I reckon creating a social site where users can submit their best stories then getting that rated would work better, but its nice that they're trying new things, just that they're not pulling it off right. The 'highest supporting comments' thing is just screaming out for solicited blog comment spamming...
• Email signatures? Which uni student actually uses email signatures? Hell, I'll bet half don't even know what it is and how to set one! Email's old and tedious anyway, especially given Windows Live Messenger now has offline IM too. The only time I use email is to submit an assignment, or sending it to a group member. Get with the game -  how about providing blog widgets and images, like you did with the Imagine Cup and various other conferences? I reckon more of us know how to get a blog widget/image up on their myspace than setting an email sig.
• Does anyone actually know about this promotion? What's being done to promote it? I know because I read Microsoft blogs, but I can assure you the average uni student doesn't. I know the promotion's still new, and runs til May, so I'm not sure what your plans are yet. But here's one - you've already got a student partner network, use it! (speaking of which, I wonder who the Monash Clayton one is this year...) Sponsor bbqs, stick up posters, give them stickers to place around uni, give students stickers to stick on their laptops (preferably with witty messages/comics), give out trial version CDs... Of course we hate blatent and pushy advertising, but that doesn't mean you don't sell your product at all; they're two extremes and a compromise needs to be found.

It remains to be seen how good this promotion is, but personally, in its current state, its worse than cheating. The site is worse than if the promotion company decided to cheat themselves and copy the various other uni promotional campaigns out there that have worked. The offer itself is good, and better value for money than the Home & Student edition (which retails for 250 bucks, and less Publisher, Access, Outlook, InfoPath and Groove, but you get 3 non-commercial licences). It's really not that hard promoting it, and there are plenty of uni students out there willing to give you ideas. Just give us a shout.

I know I've been bashing Microsoft recently, but they seriously need to wake up and get their marketing act together (among other things). It's not as bad as the politically-incorrect WhatsWrongWithU.com, but it can be so much better, and hence more effective. Put it this way, and I'm not saying Microsoft should copy directly, but would marketing-genius Apple ever do this?

P.S. Yes, this counts as an entry into their competition, but I doubt they'll pick it
P.P.S. The site's just begging to be parodied - I'm sure there's tons of variations available on the URL. I know www.itsworsethancheating.com.au is available for starters...

UPDATE: One of the points I made above is partially incorrect - see this update post for more.

I should've put this up earlier but it slipped down my 'stuff to blog about' list - it's still available at some places though.

When Microsoft was deciding on the packaging options for the new Office 2007, they decided to drop Microsoft Outlook from the Student & Teacher edition (now called Home & Student edition) in favour of Microsoft OneNote, probably because they realised most home users don't use Outlook, and rather promote OneNote to students (which as I've said before, is an awesome application).

So in Microsoft Office Student & Teacher 2003, there was:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Outlook

But in Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007, there's now:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft OneNote

So where's the good news? Well, Microsoft was generous enough to consider those who actually used Outlook so if you buy Microsoft Office Student & Teacher 2003 before February 28th, and send in the Office 2007 Technology Guarantee application before March 31st, you will get Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 and Outlook 2007.

Microsoft Office Student & Teacher 2003 is also a fair bit cheaper to buy now too ($219 for 2003 vs. $249 for 2007 at Harris Technology), however as it is not being produced anymore, stocks are limited. Harris Technology do have stock right now, but if you shop around and manage to get it elsewhere, you'll probably get it cheaper as Harris Technology is not known for being cheap. I got mine at CPL in Notting Hill for around 160 bucks.

Both are still valid for installation on up to 3 computers for non-commercial use, so its a pretty good deal, especially given the big advances made in Office 2007.

You've got 12 days to take advantage of this deal (until February 28th)!