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The Microsoft Office Live Journey
our personal experiences implementing the Microsoft Office Live platform
elcome to The Proficient Project’s website blog! You are invited to come here often to watch this major component of our website as it grows and improves. It’s a place where you’ll experience with us the journey from our first encounter with MOL to where we are today. You’ll track the progress of our development, while we share with you our experiences, the triumphs as well as the setbacks, and explore the ever-expanding range of options and functionalities of the MOL platform. You’ll see us harness it for our use, and you’ll marvel, we hope, at the ways we make it available, with all its adaptations and nuances, for our clients. |
As of late September night we started testing the feature of integrating a windows live spaces account into our site for purposes of keeping a blog. The content that follows also can be seen Treebreeze's Blog. Please be patient as we determine the most optimal configuration practice for integrating these blog entries. |
This Blog- Sharing data with Office Live Small Business still has problems!
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2/24/2008 |
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As much as I enjoy the new features that the new Microsoft version of Office Live allows, especially the improvements with sharing data private to public, it still has major problems that many would not realize unless certain scenarios are in place. I guess that's why it's unfortunate for us, attempting to lead the way in this environment, sometimes the most minor of problems takes days to figure out, and unfortunately many have not encountered it nor figured it out because some these things have not yet been tried and tested. For instance it was only this morning, that I finally discovered why and under what circumstances, that all our lists display code rather than text, and thankfully how to remedy it. So it was while working on this blog, lack of a better term, that I finally discovered how to remedy this and will remedying it one page at a time. Once these pages are complete, and that’s to a little personal encouragement from Garey from Microsoft, we will be launching this website officially after these minor changes are complete. Oh boy, I cannot wait, it's been a long last few months trying to stabilize this environment, and I think we are finally ready to unleash ourselves on the public. So it will probably be announced here, at least a few days before we launch. Artotems will actually be the one to officially launch it and have the honor of announcing us as new kids on the block as developers of this Microsoft Office Live platform. Yet still it may be at least a week more yet while we make some final adjustments and last minor improvements, so stay tuned and let us know what you think.
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Store Manager – A quick overview getting it up and running
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2/23/2008 |
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The initial interface makes it easier and less daunting if you go through it step by step you will in fact, and least we were, the up and going in a short time. Although there are some features that are definite shortcomings in major limitations, in my sure experience last night testing this new office live component, I have to admit that it's a good first up, and in short a success. In saying that however, let me explain very quickly some of the things that I definitely think they need to change immediately, and could possibly be bugs or things that were not thought of. The most frustrating, and built-in characteristic that I don't understand the most, is that although it's very simple to add your items to your eBay store, and it works well if you already have one, because that's what we had in our case, it only allows you to a sudden or 10 day auction. For people with “stores” this does not make much sense, because most of us want products up their as “inventory”, meaning and eBay terms 30 day period. This means lower cost for us, although it's less visibility, and you do not need to keep relisting the same item. This seems to me that this is only a win for eBay, and I hope that's not why it was created this way. That would be a little underhanded. Someone experienced in eBay at all, would most likely spot this immediately, and be a frustration to them as well. Another thing that I'm not sure what the integration of eBay, that I was must be a bug, is that it does not transfer of the main description. Of course the listing that posts in eBay is so basic anyway, you would have to overhaul it completely once it's out there, and all that we have not done that as of yet, we can only hope that it would allow you to do just that. There many other items to discuss, like a possible interference with possible graphics with your header, and of course the oh so common poor image display, that is just still a problem with Microsoft Office live small business period. Overall though, quite honestly I was up if they got this up and running as soon as they did, especially when you consider their still major problems, and most debilitating bugs within the backend of office live platform. So in short, personal opinion is, that this is a major step ahead and it true success even though there are bugs and issues that are sure to be addressed. Of course, as always, I'll keep those reading this in the loop because we plan to use this mechanism extensively just to show our clients possibly what can be done, even though as a more service oriented company it does not lend itself to freely this type of service driven company. Nevertheless our decision has been made to incorporate as many of these kind of components in our website is possible, as a more complete display of what office live small business has to offer.
You can see our “Office Live Store” as it unfolds, contact us and tell us your thought or questions you would like us to answer possibly right here in this blog. |
Revisions have Finally Begun
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2/22/2008 |
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It’s been a long time coming, but we are finally ready. Our website is undergoing complete revision now that the new office live 2.0, is more complete. Admittedly, it is a bit disheartening to have to change and modify so much of the text, when we were hoping that the Office Live product team would take care of such problems. It is unfortunate that, because of the nature of the changes they've made, we have to completely overhaul so many pages. True, much of this is because we’re using more of the advanced features: sharing lists, data collection forms, and so on, but the good news is that we will be more than ready to take on our clients’ needs because of all the things we've had to learn to master to improve our own site. During this transition period we will take advantage of some of the advanced features found in the new version, so stay tuned as we fine tune each page bringing everything up to speed. |
From the Philippines - They call themselves Office Live Customer Service
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2/18/2008 |
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On Monday, February 18, 2008, at approximately 9:15 a.m., I got a call welcoming me, AGAIN, to Office Live Small Business. Now, I've received calls from these people before, so I asked this caller a few questions. When pinned down, these people will admit that they are calling “on behalf of” Microsoft, yet they refuse to say what company they actually represent. I haven’t yet figured out what value they add, despite numerous calls from, and conversations with, them. It's been most frustrating, to say the least. While they claim to be welcoming you, they show no interest in your success. I certainly hope they're only volunteers, as I cannot see someone getting paid to do this. Personally I think this “department” does more harm than good; they are rude, arrogant, and serve the customer in no way, shape or form. They could be likened to someone coming to your house to welcome you to the neighborhood, but who couldn’t care less about you, and from whom you never hear again. When I began to ask the normal sorts of questions one would pose to Customer Service personnel, and received no good answers, I finally had to say, “I don't understand; you called me.” Most everyone I’ve talked with has had a poor attitude, inconsistent with who they claim to be. Lest I go on and on about this, let me just say that this “service” is pointless. I compare it to receiving an elegantly wrapped gift box, but with nothing inside.
If you ever want to call this alleged “customer-service,” prepare to be greatly disappointed. I was given the number 1-800-591-9396 by the previous agent from the Philippines, though when I called I was disconnected. Don’t be confused with the actual tech support team which is, by far, the best-run support department I've ever encountered, or could ever hope to encounter. Their number is 1-866-591-5483. If you have any further problems you’re invited to call us, as we specialized in everything Office Live. |
Hats off to the Office Live team.
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12/30/2007 |
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How can we ever express how much the Office Live support team has meant to us? The level of competency in their department is extraordinary. Artotems and I jokingly say they are philanthropists at heart, for they are remarkably patient and seem to truly care about adding value to those they serve. I have to say I consider Garey my greatest advocate, although there are so many individuals to mention that leaving anyone out really would truly be unfair as they work so well as a team. They are the reason we continue to push the envelope and have not abandoned what we set out to do with the MOLSB product. If it were not for them, we would most likely not have stayed in during this beta-like transitional period. We at The Proficients Project consider the Office Live team our ‘lifeline on speed dial’ and say a resounding “Thank You,” as we continue to wait for the next release of Microsoft Office Live Small Business. |
Updating the blog, now starting to use Dragon naturally speaking
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12/30/2007 |
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We have not abandoned contributing to this blog, nor have we taken a step back in the overall focus and direction in developing our Microsoft Office Live site. However, after developing quite a bit of it using this platform, we decided to wait until the 2.0. version is released. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, the release has been delayed. Unless further delayed, we hear that the new version will start being available on January 6, 2007, concluding in a six to eight week window. Personally, I believe that Microsoft Office Live Small Business is still the best platform for businesses to start functioning online, but I also believe 1.0 and even 1.5 should have been considered beta. And, as we rely extensively on the private side of this platform, it has become imperative for the sake of our clients that we wait until more of the bugs are worked out. Additionally, we believe Office Live Workspaces are an important part of the greater picture for ultimate functionality and well worth our wait.
Be assured, we are as committed as ever and continue to work toward our ultimate goals. In the interim we are preparing to open our doors to clients in early spring. Part of this preparation is employing e-talent from around the globe. We are greatly excited about this as we believe this will ultimately allow us to serve clients on a massive scale. Additionally, we are implementing technologies that will help us work faster and smarter resulting in better cost effectiveness for our clients. One of the best examples of this is the use of programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.5, as I am doing today. In all likelihood, I would not have gotten this blog entry accomplished without it. Wow! Contributing is so much easier this way. I cannot even begin to tell you. |
A blog about Microsoft Office Live (MOL)
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10/7/2007 |
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Not too long ago, I heard something on tech radio that inspired me to create a blog. I went to Donna, my wife, and proposed we do this. My chosen topic was, What Makes a Proficient? To say the least, my idea did not go over well. She explained she was not opposed to creating a blog, but thought the subject should focus on something of interest to more people. I took it personally and was a bit upset, but nevertheless conceded and began to focus on other things. Several weeks later (which brings me to today), a topic just naturally came to me and a blog was truly born. We were spending an enormous amount of time looking into Microsoft Office Live and had recently committed to be the #1 MOL site on the internet, so the MOL topic was perfect for a blog. How we are using MOL, the problems we are having, and what we would like to see changed are all topics that will be addressed and will be, it is hoped, information that is of interest. After starting to write the blog I thought I would talk to Donna about it again. She agreed this was a topic others would enjoy and get value from sharing, and something we should write about. So here I am, getting my way once again :). In reality, it was just a matter of better timing, approaching a better subject, and the best direction to focus on for now. |
Our Website Development Blog; Sooner than Later!
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10/7/2007 |
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Microsoft Office Live is AWESOME! (I just HAD to say that!) Creating a blog from the back end of MOL and displaying it in the front end of our public website is definitely not something we had planned to do right away. However, while asking Reid, a very knowledgeable MOL team member, and trying to find the answer to another feature in MOL, as well as an answer about blogging with MOL, it became apparent that starting a blog right away was the thing to do. It is one of the first things we are doing that demonstrates the integration of MOL. Although most things we have been doing are more in the back end and are only going to be seen at first by developers and people that work on this site, we will use this blog to keep informed anyone who wants to know what we are doing with our website. This should be of interest to our clients because whatever we do for ourselves we can also do quickly and more adequately for them. This blog should also be of interest to anyone who is using MOL because we will be pushing the limits of this platform. But it sounds like we will have to act quickly because there is a new version on the way soon. Today was the first day we posted anything, but I will go back and explain what we have done so far and how this site first came to be. Then, Lord willing, I will do my best to keep everyone up to date with the developmental progress of our overall web presence, using Microsoft Office Live. |
Contracting with Artotems
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10/6/2007 |
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Artotems patiently awaited our initiation of the project as we continued to experience delays because of the many things we were wrapping up. Still, many aspects of in-house/office changed because we were, for the first time, launching our company in a direction away from research and development and more into the mainstream of business services. To say the least, many changes were taking place. However, once Artotems came on board to work on our site, a huge burden was lifted and I felt I could start focusing on my work again and what I needed to get done. And, interestingly enough, the more I understood what he did, the more I knew what I wanted to focus on. I believe we just might be a really good match. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised when later that very night I saw changes in the direction that I felt really good about. I cannot wait to see what we can pull off, together. He is the best I’ve been able to find thus far to work within the stringent restrictions of MOL templates, and I would rather work on the back-end because my clients are going to need me to have these capabilities. This blog is going to contain so much exciting ‘stuff’ that I cannot write it all in one night, but I will try to keep up-to-date as development continues. |
DelPadre - A Great Developer!
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9/25/2007 |
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Upon my wife’s return from a trip, I shared with her my desire to build up our site using Office Live and spoke with her concerning Artotems (there is much discussion about this and it is something I will share another time. It is some pretty awesome stuff). She suggested contacting Nino Del Padre again and even though I knew she was right, I dreaded it because, quite frankly, I had been difficult to deal with. There is just no other way around it. They were doing an outstanding job and I was making some difficult requests. And yet, they not only pulled off what we wanted, but even exceeded our expectations. So, to make a long story short, we humbly went back to them to obtain and ask for help with a slightly modified version of the Treebreeze intro they had originally created for us a few years back. Nino graciously and professionally worked with us again, got it done very quickly, and uploaded it to our site Treebreeze site. At that point I did not know how we were going to take it from there. I was still considering Artotems, but we had worked with DelPadre before and I wanted to give him the first shot at it. In the end, the template problems in Microsoft Office Live really made this all so much more complicated. It was not as though developers were standing in line. Working with the templates in MOL, as it stands at the time of this writing, is way too cumbersome. Nevertheless, I personally was more and more committed to working within the framework of MOL because I started to see the capabilities, even though the templates made us, possibly, look less professional. Yet, what started as a problem, actually forced us down a good path of getting the right people on the right part of the project. DelPadre tweaked the 3-D animation, and soon Artotems would start integrating this and all of what he does best in the MOL template, while we, The Proficients Project, continue to develop the back-end applications and workspaces. By the way, Microsoft’s use of “applications” and “workspaces” in the back-end of Office Live is very confusing, which at some point I will write about in more detail. My hope is that they will make this clearer in the upcoming version 2.0. |