The Entourage User's Weblog has been relocated.

You should be automatically redirected to the new location in 5 seconds. If not, please click on the link below.
Please remember to update your web browser bookmarks.

This page has been moved to

http://www.barryw.net/weblog/files/archive-10.html.

content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> The Entourage User's WebLog
Office Update 11.3 is out
Microsoft have released v11.3 of Office. According to the update, this is what it contains:

"This update contains several updates to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. In addition, this update includes all of the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates."

There are the usual warnings about Exchange accounts on the web page as well, so read them first:
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.0

Note that the Entourage application itself has not been updated, although several support files have, so that is still showing version 11.2.5 the update has been applied. This is nothing unusual (not every update touches every file) and nothing to worry about.

This update also rolls up all previous updates, so it acts as a "Combo Updater" and should update any previous version of Office 2004.


Please feel free to leave a comment using the links below - comments on this article or requests for future articles are always welcome and will be responded to where appropriate.
|
Emailing PDFs for OS X 10.3.x...
I wrote the other day about setting up your mac to use Entourage for sending PDFs. The instructions I gave showed how to do it in OS X 10.4.x, and I had a few emails asking if it was possible in other version of OS X as well. the good news is that the same thing is possible in 10.3.x as well!

The views look a little different, but it works in the same way (although you have to set things up manually).

First, see if there is a folder ready - open up the Library folder in your Home directory. In there you may find a folder called "PDF Services" - if you don't, create one, but make sure you get the name just right.

Then, drag an alias to Entourage into that PDF Services folder (You can make an alias easily by command-option-dragging the Entourage application icon to that folder). Give it a sensible name, like "Send PDF through Entourage".

Now, when you start up the print dialog in any application, under the 'PDF button' (the second button in the bottom left hand corner of the dialog) you will see your option to send through Entourage.

This will work with Entourage 2004 or Entourage vX.



Please feel free to leave a comment using the links below - comments on this article or requests for future articles are always welcome and will be responded to where appropriate.
|
Emailing PDFs
Do you ever find yourself emailng PDF documents to other people? Or, do you wish it was a lot easier to turn that wrod document into a PDF to be emailed to a client? Well, it can be made as easy a two mouse-clicks. Read on...

If you open a document (any sort of document) and open the print dialog (in OS X 10.4.x) in the bottom left hand corner of the print dialog is a 'PDF' menu, looking something like this:

pdfMenu


Note that there is already an action to "Mail PDF". This will create a PDF of your document and try to send it using Apple's Mail.App. However, it is really easy to make a menu item that will use Entourage instead. Just select the last item in this menu ("Edit Menu...") to open this dialog:

pdfMenu2


Now, click the little '+' button in the bottom left hand corner and navigate to your Microsoft Office folder (usually in /Applications) and select the Microsoft Entourage application. This will be added to the menu.

Now, wnhenever you want to mail aPDF of a document, just open the print dialog in the normal way, and select 'Microsft Entourage' from the PDF menu in the print dialog. If a draft message window is frontmost in Entourage already, the PDF will be attached to that message. If there isn't, then a new draft message window will be opened and the PDF attached to that. It's that easy; two clicks - choose 'Print' in whatever application holds your original document, and choose 'Microsoft Entourage' from the PDF menu in the print dialog.

If that's all you needed, you can stop reading now, but if you want the explanation & geek stuff read on...

The entries for this menu are stored in two places - "/Library/PDF Services" (for options available to all users of your mac) and "~/Library/PDF Services" for the local user (i.e. you!). Normally, these entries are Automator Workflows or Applescript droplets (applications that can receive files dropped onto them). However, we can take advantage of Entourage's built in behaviour here. Any file dropped onto the Entourage application will be attached to a mail message in exactly the way I have describe earlier - an existing draft message window if one is open in front or a new draft window if not. So, by adding 'Microsoft Entourage' to the menu in the way I described (it is added to the local PDF Services folder) an alias to Entourage is added to the local PDF Services menu. Dropping a file on this alias works exactly the same way as dropping a file on the application itself. That's how it works.

Now, to customise things, you can open '~/Library/PDF Services' and change the name of the alias from "Microsoft Entouragfe" to "Mail PDF with Entourage" or anything else you like. Alternatively, if you wanted to do anything more complex with the PDF (like, use a specific account, or include some bod text etc) you could create an
AppleScript Droplet that would acheive those functions and add it to this folder. The function will then appear in the PDF menu any time you invoke the print function. Write me a comment if you have any particular requirements in mind, and I may create another article on how to write the scripts necessary...


Please feel free to leave a comment using the links below - comments on this article or requests for future articles are always welcome and will be responded to where appropriate.
|
Death of a Script
They say it's never too late to learn...

Us
MVPs are supposed to be experts. We're supposed to know all about the applications in our award area. there shouldn't be anything left to take us by surprise. But, just occasionally...

Less than two weeks ago, I set out to make one little task easier.
I wrote in this blog about a script I had written to easily remove the product key registration in Microsoft Office 2004 (because the only other way was to get down and dirty in the Terminal). Now, I learn that I wasted my time! There's a much easier way.

MacOSXhints
reports this simple method:

Go to the "Remove Office" application (in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remove Office/) and double-click to launch it. At the first dialog box, hold down the Option Key and the 'Continue' button changes to 'Remove License Info Only'. Just click the button!

Now, wasn't that easier?


Please feel free to leave a comment using the links below - comments on this article or requests for future articles are always welcome and will be responded to where appropriate.
|