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26 June 2020 - Podcast #699 - (21:38)
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Office 365 subscribers have had access to Office apps on Apple and Android phones and tablets, and new a new Office App for mobile devices makes the components more usable. Don't expect full parity with the desktop applications, but being able to view or edit documents while mobile is helpful.
The average phone has more computing power than desktop computers from a decade ago, but they still lack full-size screens and keyboards. Some editors I know work with three or four large screens attached to their computers -- one with the document they're working on, another for a style manual, a third for reference materials, and a fourth for general office tasks such as email. If I try to imagine someone like that doing any serious editing on a phone, or even a tablet, my hair begins to smolder.
But if you need to touch up some text in a Word document, add current information to an Excel document, or review a PowerPoint presentation, the device in your hand can do the job. It's the camera comparison all over again: If your $5000 digital SLR with 15 lenses is at home and all you have is the camera in your phone, the camera in your phone is the best camera in the world. If you need to make changes to a document and you're not in the office, your phone becomes the best office in the world.
The Office App integrates Microsoft's Lens technology to create editable Word and Excel documents from documents user captures with the phone camera. It also adds the ability to perform tasks that people often need to do when not in their office — things like making quick notes, signing PDFs, scanning QR codes, and transferring files between devices.
Microsoft's new app for Iphones and Android phones combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a way that users of LibreOffice will recognize. The advantage to the Microsoft Office app is that the single app with shared resources takes up less space the apps would use if installed individually. The app is designed for phones. If you have an Ipad, it will work but the display will be unpleasant; stick with the individual apps. The Android version will work on both phones and tablets. For this article, I'll compare the individual Office apps on an Ipad with combined Office app on an Android phone. If you have an Apple phone, the presentation will be similar.
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Microsoft prices the Office suite so that users can install it on several devices — a desktop computer, notebook, tablet, and phone, for example.
The document is open here in Word on an Ipad and Word on an Android phone. The computer in the background is running Adobe Dreamweaver, which is the eventual destination of the article.
To get started, visit the Apple App Store with an Iphone or an Ipad and download the app (or, for the Ipad, the individual apps), or visit Google Play with an Android phone or tablet down download the Office app. When you open the app, you’ll be prompted to connect to your Microsoft account. Once that’s done, you can edit existing documents on One Drive or create documents on the mobile device and save them to One Drive for use on another computer.
On a phone (Android in the example), Microsoft will display (1) Office and, separately, Lens. Lens is a camera app that allows the user to take pictures of whiteboards or printed documents, and then enhances the photo by cropping, sharpening, and straightening it, so it looks almost like a scanned image. You'll see that I have have OneNote as a separate app and that Google Docs and Google Sheets are in the same group of apps on the phone.
Opening Office displays (2) Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Media, and Notes. The Home screen (3) shows the files that are stored on One Drive.
When you create or edit a document, you'll quickly realize that the mobile apps have far fewer functions than the desktop versions. You'll find basic editing and formatting tools in Word and limited equations in Excel. Even the online Office 365 apps are more powerful, but the apps will probably gain new capabilities over time. Just don't expect them to ever match what you'll have on a desktop or notebook computer.
Office 365 accounts are set up so that they can be installed on up to five machines. The good news is that the mobile devices don't count against the total, so you can still install the mobile apps even if you've installed Office 365 on five computers.
Moving around from one app to another is easy enough. Note that any document you want to edit or any document you want to create and save must be saved to One Drive, not to the phone. Even poking around One Drive seems to be a bit limited. When I created a Word document on the computer and tried to open it on the phone, the Office app was apparently still in spreadsheet mode and couldn't see the Word document. That's something else that will probably be improved as development proceeds.
Let's see what the apps look like on both a tablet and on a phone.
It's clear that Word on an Ipad or Android tablet (A) will be much more usable than Word on an Iphone or Android phone (B).
The key point to keep in mind on the phone is that you should limit what you do to minor edits. On a tablet, and particularly if the tablet has a keyboard, you can do more; but this is still not an application that's indented to be used for extensive editing or formatting.
You also won't find Track Changes or a host of other power-user functions. It is possible to add a comment to a both Word and Excel documents. Select text or cells and then add a comment for later review.
Microsoft promises new features for Word and says that dictation will likely be one of the first of the new features.
As with Word, it's clear that Excel on an Ipad or Android tablet (A) will be much more usable than Excel on an Iphone or Android phone (B), even in landscape mode.
Users can edit existing Excel files or create new ones. The function toolbar works as it does on a desktop computer. Multi-sheet documents are supported and some equation functions are supported.
Expected enhancements to Excel mobile include the ability to edit a wide row of Excel data in a single vertical "card" format that's intended to play well with the narrow vertical screens found on phones.
And just like Word and Excel, One Note is far easier to use on an Ipad or Android tablet (A) than on an Iphone or Android phone (B). In portrait mode, One Note is challenging to use on a phone. It's a digital note-taking app that can be a single place for keeping notes, research, plans, and other information.
One feature I've always liked about One Note is its two search methods — one to find information on the current page and another that searches all pages in all sections of all notebooks.
The mobile version includes Quick Notes, the electronic equivalent of sticky yellow notes. Quick Notes are immediately saved to a One Note notebook which is then synchronized to One Drive.
I'm not even going to show a screen shot of PowerPoint because it is, to nobody's surprise, the most limited of the applications. Users can edit existing presentations, but you can't create a new one. Editing is also quite limited, so plan to use PowerPoint mobile for what it can do: Fixing typos and adding last-minute details to an existing program.
The primary enhancement in the works for PowerPoint on a mobile device is the ability to create new presentations.
The key to using the mobile office apps involves setting realistic expectations. Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers handles the basics and gives Office users the ability to connect with their documents on One Drive. Just don't expect desktop applications on a phone or tablet. If you need to make a quick change to a document and you're not in the office, this is the solution. If you want to write or edit the Great American Novel, or design a spreadsheet that will be used to manage a Fortune 100 company, you'll be disappointed.
If you think you've noticed the Windows 10 Taskbar and Desktop refreshing every few minutes, it might not be your imagination. I've been seeing comments about it, along with recommended solutions. More may exist, but I know of six possible ways to fix the annoyance. Even more may exist, so you may not be able to eliminate the annoyance even if you try all six possibilities I know about.
Other than being a significant annoyance, it's not serious. Because it's just a visual annoyance, it took several weeks to bubble to the top of my "let's fix this" list. After that, finding and eliminating the cause took less than a day. I'll explain the steps I took in order.
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These are the two steps that Microsoft always starts with. Sometimes one of them will reveal a problem. Less often, of of them will fix it; so don't expect much to change after you perform these two tasks. You've probably read about them here previously: The System File Checker tool that Microsoft uses to identify problems with system files and the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), a command-line tool that is used to mount and service Windows images before deployment and is also used to repair an existing installation.
The two commands are run from the command line running as Administrator:
Each will take a few minutes to run and may report that everything is fine or that problems have been located and repaired.
Don't expect a lot from either command; these are just good starting points that ensure there's no obvious problem with system files.
Don't expect a lot from this one, either. Why am I starting with all the duds? Although the first two steps aren't likely to find and solve the problem, they're relatively quick and easy. So we take the easy ones first.
Run the Task Manager. If you don't have it pinned to the Taskbar or Start Screen, just press the Windows key and type "task". You'll find the Task Manager at the top of the resulting list.
Click the CPU column on the Processes tab until you see the down-pointing chevron. Watch the column to see if some application bubbles to the top when the Desktop and Taskbar refresh. If something does, there's a good chance that this is the renegade application.
Try shutting the application down and see if the problem persists. The most likely result here will be that no application will bubble to the top and, even if one does and you disable it temporarily, it probably won't be what's causing the problem.
I'm just a bundle of optimism, aren't I?
Apparently a recent system update installed an audio driver from Integrated Device Technology and it has been shown to be a common source of this annoyance. My computer didn't have the IDT audio driver, but yours might.
Press the Windows key and type "device". The Device Manager should appear at the top of the list. Open the Device Manager and then click the disclosure triangle at the left of the line that says "Sound, video, and game controllers".
If you see the IDT Audio Driver, uninstalling it may resolve the problem. First confirm that there is at least one other audio driver in the list. If so, right-click the IDT driver and select "Uninstall"; then restart the computer.
According to those who have removed the IDT driver, this has a good chance of resolving the problem.
Another common cause of this problem seems to be the Bitdefender protective application. If you're running a paid version of the application, you'll probably want to reinstall it after you uninstall it. If you're running the free version, as I was, just uninstall it and reboot the computer.
As soon as you've uninstalled Bitdefender, Windows will step up to enable Windows Defender, so your computer will still be protected. Reboot the computer so that random bits of Bitdefender can be cleaned up.
I had expected this to resolve the problem on my computer, but it didn't. Although I could have reinstalled Bitdefender, I've left the protection to Windows Defender for now.
The Error Reporting Service produces alerts after program or operating system errors and prompts you to send the information about the problem to Microsoft. Generally speaking, you shouldn't do this because both you and Microsoft benefit from error reporting. That said, turning the service off won't cause any harm and some people turn it off to avoid accidentally sending private information to Microsoft.
To try this step, press the Windows key and type "services"; then select the Services app from the top of the list.
Scroll down to Windows Error Reporting Service and double-click it. Change the Startup type from "manual" to "disabled", then click OK to exit the dialog.
Wait a while to see if this resolves the problem. If it doesn't, repeat the process and set the Windows Error Reporting Service back to "manual", or leave it off if you want to keep Windows from sending reports to Microsoft.
After disabling the Windows Error Reporting Service, I still encountered the problem.
In an ideal world, this would have been step 3 instead of step 6, but I had been following guidance provided by others. Hearing that intro, you've doubtless concluded that this is what led me to the solution.
Press the Windows key and type "event"; then select Event Viewer from the top of the list.
Expand the Windows Logs section and choose the System tab. Look for errors that occur with about the same frequency as the unwanted Desktop and Taskbar refresh events. It took about three seconds to spot the pattern and to identify the Ninite Agent Service as the problem.
Without the Event Viewer, I never would have suspected Ninite, which is a system update service that finds and installs new versions of some applications. Ninite had been working normally, collecting updates, and installing them.
* Applications monitored and updated by Ninite: 7Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, Chrome, Firefox, GIMP, Google Backup and Restore, Google Earth, Handbrake, Img Burn, Inkscape, IrfanView, ITunes, KeePass2, Launchy, LibreOffice, Malwarebytes, MedaiMonkey, several versions of Net Framework, Notepad++, Opera Chromium, Python 3, Revo Uninstaller, Shockwave, Silverlight, Thunderbird, VLC Media Player, WinDirStat, WinMerge, WinRAR, XNView, and Zoom.
Terminating Ninite also terminated the problem.
So then I needed to fix the fix. Turning Ninite off eliminated the annoyance, but eliminated Ninite's ability to find, download, and install updates for a lot of applications. *
Apparently the Ninite Agent was unable to connect to the service's certificate revocation server, and the solution turned out to be easy: Press the Windows key and type "internet", then select Internet Options.
Next, select the Advanced tab and scroll down to the Security section. Disable "Check for server certificate revocation", click OK, and reboot the computer.
Ninite now works as expected and the Taskbar and Desktop Refresh annoyance is gone.
Recognizing that a smart phone camera serves as the primary camera, and possibly the only camera, for a growing number of people, Adobe continues to add features to its Lightroom Camera app and the June update included a new application called Photoshop Camera. Both apps may be downloaded for free and run on Android and Apple phones and tablets.
On Apple tablets, Photoshop Camera operates only in phone mode, but we can probably depend on Adobe's developers to fix that soon. Lightroom Camera can capture standard JPEG images or work in camera raw. The raw files are large and cause the phone to heat up alarmingly, so it's best to run in JPEG mode except for when you know that you'll need more latitude for editing. The first image below was captured with Lightroom Camera in raw mode. The other images are all from Photoshop Camera.
The new app adds filters that can be used when you're capturing the image, but you can also go back later to change the filter. In the intro to the 19 June program, I said "the additions range from fun toys to highly desirable new and improved features." These filters are in the "fun toys" category. Silly, perhaps, but Photoshop Camera is likely to become a popular download because they exist. Let's take a look.
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I drove to a nearby office building and used Lightroom Camera in raw mode on an Android phone to grab a photo of an office building. As architectural photography goes, this is not an impressive image. It does show how even the tiny sensor in today's smart phone can capture a lot of detail.
Here's one of the painterly effects that can be added when you're taking the photograph, but you can go back later and change or remove the filter.
This one is referred to as the Spectrum effect. There are also several effects that add animation, and you'll find filters intended for food photography to make the most of our restaurant photos (should we ever be able to eat in restaurants again.)
This is another artistic effect that converts the image to monochrome and adds a distinctive pattern.
The original photo show a sky that's mostly blue with only a few streaks of clouds. Using Adobe's Sensei technology, Photoshop Camera can identify the sky and add some puffy clouds.
If you want more dramatic clouds, the application can accomplish this, too. What's remarkable is that these effects are being applied in the camera while you're taking the photos.
But maybe you want more drama.
OK. How about a tiny space ship on top of the building? No space ships were in the vicinity when I captured these images. Also, it was a daytime photo, not something I went back to capture at night.
Or maybe you'd like some hot air balloons.
Inside the house, I pointed the camera at a ceiling light fixture and activated one the of the five pop-art filters.
And, of course I had to give the rear-facing camera a try with of of the filters.
If you're an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber or an Adobe Photography subscriber, you'll be have access to all of the features in the desktop and mobile photo applications.
Covid-19 is bad and likely to get worse. Computer sales have been both helped and hampered by the disease. Demand has been so strong that many manufacturers are running out of stock.
The reason is obvious. Huge numbers of former office workers are working from home, and some have been told that they won't be back in the office until fall, or maybe the end of the year, or maybe sometime next year. IDC, one of the primary research firms that tracks computer sales, says that sales have spiked. This is particularly true for laptop computers. Many computers are made in China or sourced from parts made in China, so supply is difficult at a time of high demand.
Intel's low-end processors have been in short supply for a long time, so PC shipments saw an 8% decrease from last year according to another research firm, Canalys. So if you're looking for a computer, you may have trouble finding what you want in stock. Manufacturing in China has begun to rebound, so supplies should begin to edge up again. Even so, Canalys is predicting a further downturn in sales.
The huge PC Expo was about to begin its run in June 2000. The 2001 show would be the last big one. In 2002, the show that once filled every available space in Javitts Center fit on part of just a single floor.
One afternoon, 3Com bussed a bunch of journalists to an uptown brownstone that they had taken over for the show. Using a variety of wired and wireless devices, they created a house that virtually breathes data. Some of the future vision was a bit off, though. Instead of using a computer to play online radio stations, 3Com placed a device that looked like a radio but was connected to the internet on a table.
Home networks were beginning to attract attention, but I still didn't have one. "So far, I’ve resisted because I don’t want to run the cables from one room to another. There are other options, such as networks that run on telephone lines that are already in place or that use the house’s electrical wiring to transmit data. There are also wireless systems. Maybe next year."