Category Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft Word 2013 Will Introduce PDF Editing

Over the past couple of days we have been hearing a lot of things about the upcoming version of Microsoft’s most popular Office Suite the Office 2013,as we have already reported earlier this week that the Beta is expected as early as next week.

As we inch closer for the beta release,more details about the upcoming features of Office 2013,One of the most appealing features this time around is the PDF Editing support.So now whenever you download a PDF document you can directly open it in the Word and can edit the same without use of any third party tool,as reported earlier by LiveSide.

This is how it will work,

To convert a PDF, you open it like you would any other document.

Click File > Open > Browse.

Find the PDF and click Open.

The converted document might not have a perfect page to page correspondence with the original. The conversion works best with mostly textual documents.

Paul Thurrott also reported about some new features coming to Office 2013,PDF viewer as well as a new Reading mode which allows the conventional Word Documents as well as the PDF documents to be viewed in a columnar fashion which adjusts the text automatically for a better viewing alignment.

Image Credits[Winsupersite]

As you can see from the above screenshots which shows the new Reading Mode.In the existing version of Office there is a feature of saving the document as a PDF(Office 2010) and even a plugin is available for the same feature to work on Office 2007.So with the upcoming release of Office 2013 we can expect some more interesting features like the one shown above and as we all know that the final release is at least half a year away we can certainly expect some more features to be added to the final version of Office 2013.

Office 2013 will be available in the desktop version of Windows 8 as well as in the ARM version i.e for the Windows RT version of the upcoming operating system.

Source[Liveside] and [Winsupersite]

Microsoft Details Pinning Sites On Windows 8

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The main highlighting feature of Windows 8 has been the Metro Interface.The Metro Interface consists of Live Tiles which shows us the new and updated content.

In a recent post on the Internet Explorer blog Microsoft described in detail about IE10’s pinned sites and their availability on the Windows 8 Start screen which features site-centric visuals and badge notifications.With badge notifications, site tiles come alive with up-to-date information which helps us in case there is an updated content.

The post guides the website developers so that they can utilize the pinned sites feature to a better effect with their users and promote their site’s brand directly in the Windows start screen.

If you are a developer you can provide your sites Favicon that IE10 uses throughout the browser to represent the site, in the address bar, on the new tab page, and on the Start screen. standard large site icon (32 x 32 pixels) is used to identify the site which is pinned using the website pinning feature on the Start Screen.IE10 will automatically extract the dominant color from the icon and will automatically use it as background color for the Start screen tile.

Windows 8 can use the polling method for updates for pinned tiles on the Start screen. This works perfectly well with the lightweight notifications like a new messages has been received from other users (email & social networking), new discounts on a shopping site, news articles etc.

Image Credits[Microsoft]

The jump list in the Windows 8 Pinned sites is as shown above ,it appears whenever the user launches the site from the Start screen, the pin button shows that there are jump lists available for this site.One can add static tasks to the site’s jump list via page markup or dynamically based on user interactions,using the jump list users can navigate through the sites various links.

There’s been a lot of improvement in the user interface front as well as in terms of rich features as far as Windows 8 is concerned from day one and as we inch closer to the Release Candidate we can expect some more changes to the existing features and some of the new innovative features.

Microsoft Announces 11 Winners Of Kinect Accelerator Program

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Last year in the month of November Microsoft launched the Kinect Accelerator Program for the start ups companies those would develop a custom made software for the Kinect motion gesture-capture technology and the contest winners were slated to get $20,000,office space and Xbox development kit.

Initially they were going to pick 10 start up companies for the program,but as announced earlier today Microsoft have selected 11 winners for the program.So the winners will now head to Seattle for the next three months period where they will develop their Kinect applications during this course of 3 month period,Microsoft representatives and along with some of the entrepreneurs and investors will help and guide the participants during this program.

Here are the names of 11 Winners of this Program Freak’n Genius, GestSure, IKKOS, Jintronix, Kimetric, Manctl, Nconnex, Styku, UBI, Voxon, Zebcare.This program will help in developing new applications in healthcare, education, the arts and other fields which can utilize the power of Kinect hardware.

Kinect was first introduced for Xbox 360 Gaming console as a new concept of keypad free gaming using the gestures then after the release there were many people who tried to explore the hardware to do some more creative things.Quite recently Microsoft also launched Kinect for Windows hardware along with the SDK to bring the kinect hardware to PC platform.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ep II To Integrate Windows Phone and Xbox 360

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Microsoft has been working hard to bring all their platforms closer with Windows Phone+Xbox 360 and even the Windows operating system together.Making attempts like bringing the Kinect hardware to Windows as well as the much awaited Windows Phone to Xbox 360 integration.

It looks like we are ready to get our hands on such type of integration for Windows Phones and Xbox 360 with the next version of Sonic Game Sonic the Hedgehog: Ep II.The game will allow a user who is playing that game on his/her Windows Phone to pause it on the phone and then later on he/she can continue playing the game(resume) on their Xbox 360 on the big screen.It will be the first Xbox Live game to support this feature.

As demonstrated earlier by Official Xbox Magazine for the game which is slated to be released this Spring on multiple platforms like Xbox 360, Playstation, iOS and Windows Phone. Talking about the unique feature of the game Ken Balough, Digital Grand Manager on Sonic Episode II, said,

“one of the cool things about it is that the Windows Mobile 7 (sic) and the Xbox are going to be able to work in tandem in ways that are completely new. So when you pick up the Windows Mobile 7 and you’ll be able to play Sonic Episode II, save it, stop, boot up your Xbox 360 and pick up right where you left off. And that’s a really cool thing Microsoft has going between the devices and I’m a huge fan of it”

With this release we can expect some more such games to bring this feature in their upcoming editions for Windows Phone and Xbox 360.

Checkout the Video in Action:

Via[WPCentral]

Microsoft Office 15 Features Leaked

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According to a recent post on The Verge, details of Microsoft’s Technical Preview version of Office 15 have been revealed. The next-gen office suite has lots to offer, with a host of new and improved features in each of the core applications of Office 15. New features such as Touch and Reading Mode and also Weather Bar feature are incorporated in Outlook 15. Following are the improvements in the new Microsoft Office 15:

Word 15

In order to improve the reading experience in its word processor application, Microsoft has included a new Read Mode that removes distractions from the user interface, and provides for an easy reading experience with text that aligns automatically into columns to fit the screen. The Read Mode also works well with a Resume Reading function that automatically bookmarks the last position in a document.

Microsoft has also included two new features to Word 15— Object Zoom, Expand and Collapse. With Object Zoom users can zoom in on pictures and objects by simply double clicking on them, filling the screen with tables, charts, and images. Whereas, Expand and Collapse will allow user a one-click option to hide or reveal paragraphs under their headings.In addition to this, there is a Touch Mode feature for Word 15 which lets users scroll through documents with touch, also enlarging the ribbon along the way.

Excel 15

With Excel 15 again, Microsoft is planning to make it more efficient and convenient for the users who work with large data sets. With Quick Analysis Lens, users can quickly access ways to visually represent data, and with the use of recommended charts and Pivot Tables, visualize information based on data patterns. Another feature named Flash Fill, simplifies the reformatting and rearrangement of data in an Excel spreadsheet. Excel 15′s Touch Mode feature is designed to let users browse through charts, graphs, and tables on tablet devices just by their touch.

PowerPoint 15

In order to improve the standard of presentation in the corporate world, Microsoft is planning to give users the functionality to do so by making the aspect ratio of PowerPoint presentations 16:9 by default in PowerPoint 15. This will allow PowerPoint 15 users to create professional-looking designs and presentations.PowerPoint 15′s new touch mode features will also let presenters move through slides and presentations using a touch screen or tablet PC.

Outlook 15

With Outlook 15, Microsoft aims to bring in some new features to improve user experience. Thus, a new Peeks feature which lets users see their schedule, view details about people they’re emailing, and review tasks all within the same screen.Also, a new Weather Bar feature will allow users to check the weather before accepting meeting invites or planning new meetings.

OneNote 15

Image Credits[TheVerge]

In addition to preparing a Metro style version of OneNote for Windows 8 users,Microsoft is also bringing some new features to the desktop version of OneNote. Auto-updating file views let OneNote 15 users see content previews from embedded Excel and Visio files, including any updates made. Tables support in OneNote has been improved, allowing users to sort, add headers, and convert a OneNote table into an attached spreadsheet. The Touch Mode feature of OneNote 15 lets tablet users take advantage of their fingers and hands to move through pages and notes without a keyboard.

In totality a number of improvements and new features are incorporated in Office 15, and Microsoft is only at the beginning of testing some of these externally. However, Microsoft isn’t revealing any of the planned features for Office 15 just yet, but the features that have been detailed in this post are part of its key testing phase for the initial Technical Preview, which makes waiting for the beta to be released in summer worth while waiting.

Microsoft To Launch New Music Service Later This Year [Rumor]

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With the launch of Windows 8 nearing, it seems Microsoft is considering to supplement it with the rumored launch of a new Music Service. Well, this is the latest rumor doing the rounds which mentions the software giant’s new venture in the music stream. According to this new rumor which was initiated today by cnet.com ,the site claims, via unnamed sources, that Microsoft is in negotiations with a number of the major music companies about this new service. The speculated music service will be targeted for platforms like the Xbox 360 and an unnamed Windows Phone-based device.

While the negotiations are still in the preliminary stage, the site claims that Microsoft would like to launch this new music service later this year.Also, it is speculated that it would support both streaming music and music downloads. The Windows Phone device that would support the unnamed service could be made by Nokia or HTC.

While Microsoft already possesses its own music service, the Zune Music Pass, which can be used on Windows Phone 7-based devices as well as PCs and the Xbox 360. The subscription service offers access to millions of tunes for a $9.99 monthly fee. And with the service to be integrated with XBox, the record companies will welcome the chance to have a higher profile on the XBox, with its 40 million worldwide XBox Live subscribers, as well as on any new Windows phones.

As Microsoft already possesses music licenses, it’s still unclear whether Microsoft must acquire new licenses for its service .Also, it remains to be seen of what would happen to Zune Music Pass,will it replaced by this new service or if this new service would simply be an upgrade to the existing Zune Music Pass.

Kinect for Windows Released

“Office 15” technical preview begins, beta this summer

Cut the Rope Now Available to Play Online for Free Courtesy Microsoft

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At CES 2012 apart from talking about Windows 8 operating system and revealing some new Windows Phones from HTC and Nokia,Microsoft also announced the HTML 5 version of the highly popular game Cut the Rope,bringing the highly popular game over iOS and Android platform to the Desktop’s running Internet Explorer 9,taking the advantage of Internet Explorer 9′s hardware acceleration.

The app works exceedingly well on the Internet Explorer giving the same experience of the Native game on the mobile platforms.The game has been successfully ported to HTML 5 courtesy PixelLabs, ZentoLab and the Internet Explorer team.The game has sold over 70 million copies over the mobile platform till date.

Officially supported browsers for the game are Internet Explorer 9,Chrome,Safari and Opera,i personally checked it on my Firefox 9.0 and it works perfectly fine on that too.Though the game is available for multiple browsers,Internet Explorer 9 has a slight advantage over others since it has some exclusive additional levels which the other Browsers doesn’t have.

So what are you waiting for? Point your browser to CuttheRope.ie and enjoy the HTML 5 gaming experience with Internet Explorer 9.

[CES 2012]Kinect for Windows Up for Preorders,Releases on February 1