Let me just say, I know I've been bubbling to friends, family, and ... well ... the whole Twitterverse about how excited I am to go to the SharePoint Conference next week. But seriously, when the sessions were finally released and I was able to log-in and start building my own personal agenda ... I thought I had died and gone to SPfangirl heaven. On first pass I quite literally had some time slots with 4-5 sessions I wanted to sit in. It took days and the advice (and gentle ...um... "prodding") of coworkers and SP-sympathetic friends to decide what I am going to attend in person as opposed to what I will be listening to digitally in the wee hours of the nights following conference close.

Without further ado, I have pasted my chosen sessions and evening events below for all those who asked. w00t - just a few more days ... ! ugh, now I have to figure out what to pack =/

So when I bought my new car I signed up for new car insurance - at the time I gathered quotes from a few different companies and settled on Progressive. One of the reasons I made that decision (apart from the slightly lower rate) was their website, another reason was their cutesy commercials, and lastly - their TripSense (now myRate) program. Basically, you sign up for the discount with your policy - plug this little device they mail you in to your car's computer - and start raking in the discounts (provided you have good driving habits). Okay, the discount was appealing (starts off @ 5% and based on my driving so far will build to 10% at next renewal) - but also the ability to be able to log on to a website and view all the details of my trips. I get that that's weird ... it's a little big brother ... but I can actually compare myself to the "avg myRate user". Here is a screenshot, as you can see I drive a lot less (and better!) than the norm. A+ me =)


... I guess had the results been different I might not be singing praises ... but whatevs.

Progressive myRate Program Blog

So ... I have been taking a break from tweeting for awhile now, focusing on the important work of making connections with all my facebook friends, or whatever. Actually, I kind of put twitter on pause for awhile because I was having difficulty with the constant influx of information. I'm not talking about the "just made a peanut butter sandwich" kind of info, the kind that actually benefits me. That and I have to admit that when celebrities and tv shows and other people with not too much to say started hyping Twitter as "the next big thing" it kind of lost something for me. Regardless, it was too much and I wasn't in the place where I could gracefully and efficiently consume it.

Anyways, I'm considering slowing lifting my finger from the STOP button and entering back into the Twitterverse - I'll be checking out different apps and add-ins, etc to figure out what way I want to get my info out of Twitter - but to kick it off right I decide to run some Tweetstats... turns out my top words are "sharepoint" "day" "work" "time" and "good". No big surprise there ... maybe a little hooked on phonics but what do you expect? Big step up from the last time I took a look @ my Tweet Cloud and discovered that I say my own name more than anything else =/

So yah, see you on Twitter (maybe) feel free to give me a follow ... if you want to hear me talk about My Day at Work Spending all my Time being Good at SharePoint. w0rd.

tweetstats / cloud generated from the TweetStats website

This post is going to be short and sweet, I just wanted to point out the cuteness that is the way Free/Busy info is presented to you when you utilize the "Scheduling" button in the ribbon of a calendar appointment. I love how the little nits (knits?) I used to have about moving around in Outlook have almost all been addressed in this version.

Previously, when scheduling a meeting you could jump to the free/busy info to view your invitees availability ... but, even if you had access to view their calendar appts you would have to hover over the appt or right click - open to actually see some details. That's important to me since I make a habit of stepping on folk's "unimportant" meeting conflicts =)

This ties to my previous post as well pointing out that Outlook2010 has made it easier to view folk's free/busy info without having to crack open a meeting occurrence.

I'm telling yah, all these seconds I am regaining in my calendaring processes are going to add up ... and I guess give me more time to post to my blog? Or eat lunch. One of those things. hmmm.

*Be an AA (Administrative Assistant), not be in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) ... not that there is anything wrong with AA, but it doesn't have anything to do with Outlook 2010... at least not that I have noticed yet.*

So yah, for ya'll who actually know me in real life you are undoubtedly well informed of my pull herself from her bootstraps, coming of age, me against the world career climb. The one that started in the mean streets of Administrative Assistant-dom and eventually (with the help of a friend called SharePoint and -admittedly- an extremely tolerant boss / IT Director) ended me in the illustrious roll of SA (SharePoint Administrator - soon to be real live Systems Administrator). That was dramatic, I realize, but if you could crack open my brain and take a look inside (and brains were more like treasure chests of thoughts, feeling, and memories and less like bowls of gooey spaghetti) it is that story you would see - so deal! eek - blog ADD strikes again.

The whole point of that was to let ya'll know that scheduling meetings used to be my life ... it isn't now (thank goodness), but calendaring efficiency is still extremely close to my heart.

This post focuses a bit on the scheduling goodies offered by Outlook 2010. Okay, MS marketing blurb excerpt first.

Lucky for me we do utilize Exchange Server @ my company, however, it's Exchange 2003 so we're missing out on a few of the options ... but I won't complain too much (at least not in this post) because the features that are available make me happy enough that complaining isn't necessary (yet.)

Look and Feel meh ... it's grey ... I'm sure I can change the color scheme - but who cares. What is intriguing is the ribbon (I know there are a lot of people who had a heart attack when the ribbon showed up in Office 2007 - but I liked it, always have, and I'm glad it's permeated all the 2010 product). One thing I've noticed is that I believe the ribbon is now more intuitive, I'll focus on that more in my Word and PowerPoint posts, but so far I'm not doing nearly as much hunt-and-pecking as I did when I started using Office 2007. And don't say it's because I'm so used to the ribbon with Office07, because it's changed, dangit.

Now the first thing I noticed about calendaring in 2010 is that some of the calendar groups I had created previously (that vanished a few months back in that special magical way things seem to vanish in Outlook from time to time) are now back. For serious, the calendar groups and all the calendars I put in them appeared for me. In addition, there is now a heading for my Team (all the peeps exchange knows report up to my bossman), and a heading for "Shared Calendars" (the couple of peeps who have explicitly given me view permissions to their calendars). See screenshot to get an idea of what I'm working with.


So all that is nice, we already know how much I like it when Outlook gets smart and does stuff for me... but check out what happens when I actually select one of the groupings. For fun, I'll select the group created for my team ... why you ask? Well, because there is only one person on that listing who actually shares his calendar with me, the rest I don't even have read access to. In past versions of Outlook, if I tried to open one of their calendars I would get a nasty pop-up saying I don't have access or the calendar can't be found or some such, and do I want to let them know I am engaging in professional stalkering by sending them a sharing request. Truth being, I don't care what the actual appointments say, I just want to know if they are busy or out of the office - without having to add them to a meeting request and then hit the scheduling tab. *deep breath*

So check the screen shot, it took about 10 seconds to populate this view and you can see clearly who is here and who isn't ... who's busy, etc - you can even see the appointments that are actually shared with me. And using some of the big knobby Fisher Price buttons in the ribbon I can interact super easily ... like by choosing "New Meeting With All". The sad thing about the meeting scheduling is that (I'm assuming because of our version of Exchange) I can't seem to use the "Meeting Suggestions" taskpane that is newly available in Outlook 2010 when I launch a new appointment. I'll find out the reasons why for sure and post back on it.

There are other things I already know I will love - like the option to email my calendar, which allows me to (with a click of a knobby button) to email a lovely listing of my free/busy/available slots. I will post on that feature specifically in the future, but I want to get editor access to another calendar before I do ... because I would love to be able to say calendar delegates (like an Admin Assistant) will be able to send their bosses availability to others. I can't say that though until I see it with my own eyes - so for now, let's just be excited about the features above.

So, I want to call out a lovely little feature in Outlook 2010 that has already improved my productivity after just a couple days usage. I've been applying GTD (David Allen's Getting Things Done) principals to my work/life management for a few months now. Of course, as an avid Outlook user (see previous posts on my journey with Taking Back My Life w/ Outlook 2007) one of the most important techniques I learned through GTD has been helping me manage my inbox / tasks / calendar. For me, there have been some minor hiccups in bending Outlook functionality to what I need to accomplish when processing my inbox. Mainly, when I receive email that needs to be turned into a task (which of course, unless it takes less than 3 minutes to deal with, it will end up in my tasks as a next action or a project) – Outlook lets me drag the email into tasks, but I still have to take the extra step to delete the email. And yah, it's a small thing … but when you are processing hundreds of emails at a time it adds up … and frankly, the extra step is annoying – so there.

Well, Outlook 2010 has addressed mini-workflow processes like that with one of their new features, Quick Steps. The little marketing blurb is below – as you can see it's a pretty flexible feature … and it's super easy to do. They even (of course) start you out with some suggested Quick Steps like "Forward to Manager" and "Send Email to Team". I love it when the tool is smart enough to use the directory information to know who manages you and who you work with … I mean, duh, right? Use the info that's there, software – make my life easier!

From within the Outlook ribbon – expand the My Quick Steps area and click "New Quick Step – New Custom Pick from List of All Actions" … building your little mini-macro is as easy as naming the Quick step and clicking your way to happiness. Press "Create" and you're done … easy peasy.

My new step is now easily accessible and with a single mouse-click I can create a task and delete the email all in one swoop. So yes, Outlook 2010 … a thumbs up for productivity ;P

Yes, lovelies - your Angi has *finally* been recognized by the mothership. A couple of months earlier I had filled out the application form for the Office 2010 technical beta ... taking special care to point out the fact that I am a professional Office component evangelist (SharePoint Admin ;p) ... and that I would be talking about my experiences and giving lots of feedback ... and so on. So, when I received the email inviting me into the program I was ... well ... I admit it, overcome. I immediately told my work friends, and posted to my FB ... and made my pc inoperable for an hour while I installed my first pass at the available downloads.

So, as I type, I am smiling lovingly at Outlook 2010 (sadly, due to an insane week, I've not had a chance to do much more than type in stsadm commands and answer email). But again, I babble. The point of this heralding blog post is this ... I have something to frickin talk about for a change. And so I will. (also, we are allowed to - which I was waiting to get thumbs up on ... not willing to risk having my beautiful prize yanked away from me).