DISPATCHES
GOODBYE, FACEBOOK? Are social networking sites like Facebook already passé? Tariq Krim, the founder of Netvibes, believes that in the not-so-distant future, Web users will enter the Web in new ways. Rather than using a highly formatted social networking site, they’ll have a landing page where they’ve assembled all of their favorite sites in small page-on-a-page boxes, or widgets. — fortune.com
older programs are generally incapable of reading them, so users who have Office 2007 need to be aware of this problem. If you are a user of Office 2007 and you want to send a file to someone who may not have the same version, you should save the file using the older file format under the “save as” function. Or you might as well change the default file format back to the Word 97-2003 (*.doc) format. To do this, open Microsoft Word 2007 and click on the “Office Button” (top left of your screen). Then on the bottom of the list click “Word Options.” When the “Word Options” window opens, click on “Save” in the left panel. Change the top option (in the right panel) “save files in this format” from “Word Document (*.docx)” to “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc),” then click on OK to complete the setup. (Follow the same steps for Excel and Power Point.) If you are on the receiving end of these
new documents, you have a couple of options. The first would be to tell senders to make their documents compatible with the rest of the world. The other option is to download the file conversion utility from Microsoft so that users of older Office suites can convert the new files without having to “return to sender.” NOTE: in order for this file conversion utility to be installed, you must have the latest service pack for your version of Office, so you may want to go to http://office. microsoft.com and click on the “Check for Updates” button at the top right corner of the site. For the complete installation details and the link to download the “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack,” go to http://support. microsoft.com/kb/923505.
!
17 23
Gary Hubbard is owner of Data Doctors Computer Services, www.datadoctors.com. Have a technology question? Send it to CurrentinCarmel@DataDoctors.com.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT WITH OUR EXCLUSIVE BOUTIQUE TEAMWEAR! FOR TRULY ONE-OF-A-KIND COLTS APPAREL, WE’RE THE PLACE TO BE! 37 W. Main Street, Carmel
www.chaoscentral.com
317.582.0500
www.currentincarmel.com
HEALTHY CLOTHING: The approach of flu season sends many people scurrying for vaccinations and vitamins. But what if you could avoid the flu and other viruses simply by getting dressed? A two-tone gold dress and metallic jacket designed by Olivia Ong, a senior design major at Cornell University, contain a sprinkling of nanoparticles intended to protect the wearers of these garments from invisible threats to their health. The upper part of the dress is made from cotton coated with silver nanoparticles that deactivate bacteria and viruses. The jacket’s hood, sleeves and pockets contain palladium nanoparticles that act like tiny catalytic converters to break down harmful components of air pollution.
I
have Office 2003 and can’t open any files that are sent to me using Office 2007.” Does this sound familiar? The folks at Microsoft decided to “move the ball forward” when they created the latest version of Office 2007 and used XML based file formats. (Some analysts speculate it was also a move to make open source free productivity suites such as Open Office incompatible). XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language, which is more capable of integrating with the Internet and various databases. Microsoft claims this new file format Gary Hubbard is more compact Technology (which means more information will fit in smaller file sizes), better able to be recovered from file corruption, provides better privacy for shared files and more interoperability with other data systems. The new file formats are easy to identify because they have an “x” at the end of the traditional file extensions (docx for Word, xlsx for Excel and pptx for Power Point). Whenever a new file format is created,
TOYS FOR THE RECORD
BUNDLES OF FUN: Microsoft has announced two Xbox 360 bundles that will come with two games packed in for the holiday season. Gamers in the market for an Xbox 360 can get Pro and Elite models of the console with copies of Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 2 and Activision’s Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The bundles will sell for the standard Pro and Elite prices of $349 and $449, respectively, and Microsoft expects them to be readily available at retailers by the end this month. — gamespot.com
OLDER PROGRAM DISLIKES NEW OFFICE 2007 FILES