Reviews - Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Beta (free)

A few months ago, I wrote about Microsoft Office 2007 Beta and lamented the fact that FrontPage 2003 was not part of the upgraded. I was reading a PC Magazine and one of the articles said that Microsoft's Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Beta was a much better software for newbies who need to put up web pages quickly. So, I went to Microsoft's site and downloaded the FREE beta. It's great that it is free. It also comes with a FREE PDF user's guide https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=40&DownloadID=240 that looks pretty nice (good use of color), is 244 pages long, and seems pretty thorough. The full software download was a whopping 1.3 GB!

First off, the program is not intended for the same level of ease as FrontPage 2003. You can't just start typing text and inserting pictures. It's more like FrontPage's code-view layout, which I never paid any attention to when I was using FrontPage. However, if you have been doing some html (or xml) coding in the past few years, the Visual Web Developer 2005 Express provides a very nice set of modular boxes (small windows) for you to write your web codes in. Microsoft also included a nicely organized and extensive set of functions (code sets) that you use by simply clicking on drop-down boxes. So, there is no need to remember all the codes. You can just select one by clicking from a list of similar codes. The modular windows also look very well thought out. It really helps organize the process of coding. You can quickly jump around in your data files or in your code sections (or blocks). The modular windows looks a lot like MatLab windows to me. I think the recent year's beta products have been much nicer in ergonomics/process organization than their previous products. Maybe the new guy is making the difference in product design. Sorry Bill, but Ray Ozzie may have a finer touch ; )

I haven't actually built any web pages using it yet. I think I will read the user's guide first. The program is much more extensive in features (it is a full blown web development program behind all the built-in wizards), so it will take longer to get a handle on it than FrontPage. I am also learning Adobe's Flex2 for developing client-side user interface. Flex2 is VERY easy to use. It also has modular windows. You can drag and drop objects such as table, text box, checkable list box, graphics etc. Flex2 may be easier at coordinating color and font styles than Visual Web Developer Express. But Flex2 does not also integrate with the backend server-side and database interface, which the Microsoft's Web Developer does. I'll post an update of actual user experience from an amateur web developer in a couple of months.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/

Review – Microsoft Office 2007 Beta, blog posted using Word 2007 Beta

I have tested the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta components, and here are my reviews.

Summary:

• OneNote 2007 - a MUST upgrade if you use OneNote 2003.
• Word 2007 - a pleasing upgrade if you like better looking and better organized formatting menus
• Internet Explorer 7 (not part of the Office, but just thought to include it here) - a very nice upgrade. Pleasing to look at, more features, better security. Does not support Yahoo Mail, except via a registry edit by the user.
• Excel 2007 - still not reviewed. Cannot see what is different right off the bat. Not compatible with 3rd party plug-in and web mesh-ups.
• Publisher 2007 - not recommended. Use FrontPage 2003, or templates provided by web-based services.
  

OneNote 2007 Beta -- I REALLY LOVE this upgrade.

This is a much needed upgrade to round out the rough spots in the earlier version of OneNote. Now you can have more than 1 notebook, there is an “explorer” like view to organization of notebooks and pages by dragging them around, and the much needed table feature has been added. There is also a web browser button that will add web clippings directly into OneNote’s unfilled pages section. In my opinion, the 2003 OneNote was a beta software, and the changes to 2007 OneNote finally make this software a full featured offering.

Outlook 2007 Beta – not much change, slightly better look.

The 2007 Outlook has a slightly better looking business card view. The ability to see the task plane in the calendar view is nice. Has one-button integration with OneNote, which is nice if you use it.
Recently, I printed a 5x7 sized address book from Outlook. It printed a nice directory with "a..b" etc legends along the right-edge of page.

It had compatibility issues when I upgraded to IE 7 and also with a few other providers. It also does not like having Outlook 2003 installed at the same time as 2007. The corrupt files seems to have repaired itself from the original install files (since I no longer know where the install CD is).

Generally, I really dislike Microsoft Outlook. After killing off Lotus Organizer back in 1996(?), I have yet to find a version of Microsoft Outlook that worked as well. The only feature I use consistently in Outlook is Contacts, and this only because I need to sync with my Microsoft PocketPC’s Contacts. However, Outlook 2007 Contacts does NOT sync with my Pocket PC 2002 Contacts. I may start looking around for a contact management software with better organized contact fields, better user interface, much better handling of duplicate entries, and better syncing directly to the storage card on the pocket pc -- and ditch Microsoft Outlook altogether. It will be good riddance! Bye bye Outlook! Bye bye to countless hours wasted manually correcting sync error!!!

Word 2007 Beta – much improved organization of formatting options. Worthy upgrade if you do a lot of complex formatting.

The look is very different than Word 2003. Similar tasks are grouped together. Menu bar section has become a menu ribbon and takes up a large real estate at the top of the screen. There is a context sensitive mini-popup-menu. Just select the text you want to edit and right click.

I posted a sample of this page directly to blogspot.com using the new “Blog Post” function. It worked surprisingly well! Bloggers might want to upgrade just for that function. I have recommended to a small business an office wide upgrade to Word 2007 when the final version comes out.

----- Update: OK, the test image did not upload correctly using the built-in "Blog Post" function fromWord 2007. Still, that's not bad. Just getting the text to format correctly and uploading with 1-click to Blogspot.com is worth getting excited about. ---------

Publisher 2007 Beta (no FrontPage 2003 upgrade available):

O.K., I think I know why there is no FrontPage 2007. WordPress and TypePad seem to have taken over the blogging domain and personal/small business web hosting services seem to have taken over everything else. Each web hosting provider offers web templates, complete with graphics, for the novice web user. The experienced users seem to write code directly into PhP, Java, Ruby on Rails, and Rails scaffolds. FrontPage 2003 seems to be redundant, and not too many people are using it anymore.

I still use FrontPage 2003. I am sorry Microsoft did not choose to upgrade it. When FrontPage 2003 came out, it was a big improvement over 2000 because 2003 allowed multiple views of the page being edited. A (web) preview and (html) code screens can be viewed simultaneously in a tile format, which saved a lot of time. I like the built-in template for a photo montage and photo film-strips. But Flickr and SiteKreator.com both offer these templates. Still, if you have a photo edition & managing software on your desktop, it's MUCH faster to create such a photo montage on the desktop. You may need to downsize them and edit them a few times, and uploading/refreshing each edit takes a long time on these websites. If you have FTP ability on the web, it's fast and a one-click operation to load the templates and all of the edited photos in one fell swoop.

Publisher is for printing business cards, photo calendars, and greeting cards. I exclude brochures from this list because Microsoft Word has very good templates for printing business brochures and complex 100 page reports with pages of footnotes, as it should.

Excel 2007 Beta – 3^rd party plug-ins not compatible. To be reviewed.

Update - Internet Explorer 7 review:

I use a Yahoo Mail paid service. When I click an e-mail link from a websites, ex. Linked-In.com, the browser fires up a "mail client" on the desktop. The Internet Explorer (all versions after 4) requires the user to go into the registry to add a "mail client" other than Outlook. I found instructions on support.microsoft.com to make this registry edit, but it's really lame of Microsoft to require this. I use the Yahoo mail and use the browser to directly read and reply to e-mails. I only download e-mails to archive them on my desktop and then delete them from Yahoo's servers. I really like Yahoo's built-in virus scanner, spam filter, and auto direct to my folders for news and shopping emails. I have not gotten a virus infection in many years. In general, I like the nice look, better security, and enhanced Google button choices of Internet Explorer 7, so I will probably do the registry edit and keep IE as my browsers, but will spend more time checking out Firefox to see if the integration to Yahoo Mail is easier. It seems strange that IE 7 has Google Mail & services buttons but not Yahoo Mail & services buttons.

Jennifer Yoon's Review of Blogging Services, Free Personal Websites, Software on the Web

I came across an extended discussion of blogging software by veteran bloggers. The general consensus seems to be -- that Blogger.com & Blogspot.com was very bad and WordPress is the best for serious bloggers (the ones who want a following). TypePad got 2nd choice for ease of use. WordPress seems to require some investment in time to learn some new software & codes, but a lot of good tutorials are supposed to be available and it's definitely not just for programmers. WordPress is said to be a do-it-yourself project, but also gives full control over the design/look of your blog.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/07/12/what-would-i-do-different-if-i-had-to-start-my-blog-over-duncan-riley/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/07/16/1-question-interview-index-page/
http://wordpress.org/
http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/

I am writing this and other negative reviews of Blogger.com right on my Blogger blog. So, at lease it's proof the company is not sensoring anything. My main complaint is that it is difficult to make my blog look anywhere near nice looking using layout, font sizes, and image uploads. It's very slow and often freezes, losing my edits. Others mention SPAM from blogspot.com's comments section as their number one problem. I don't have this problem, even though I have the comments turned on.

I've tried out the Flickr for uploading multiple images. Flickr IS a well executed, nice looking site, with a fun way of forming "groups" to pool public photos by topic/tags. I had a lot of fun looking at handmade cards and sewing & craft photos. Flickr also offers simple blogging, which may be MUCH more preferable if you want to blog with a lot of pictures, like I do.
http://flickr.com/photos/jyoon/ (my sample photo of cards on Flickr)
http://flickr.com/search/groups/?q=craft%20cards%20handmade&w=15834567%40N00&m=pool (a serach result for craft, cards, handmade on Flickr)

Best looking FREE website I've come across is SiteKreator.com. They have enough templates to choose from for that your site can look good. The only drawback is that the free version comes with only 10 MB of storage, but 100 MB is only $20/year. Of course, you can also create a blog. The "passing through India" blog had BEAUTIFUL photos from all over India. It's travel without leaving your desk. The added benefit of SiteKreator is the multiple location hosting. In the unlikely event that your blog/website becomes famous, it will still serve up pages to tens of million of your newfound friends.
http://sitekreator.com/sitekreator/personal_edition.html
http://sitekreator.com/passingthroughindia/index.html

A very good collaborative web service for a small group to share calendar, to do lists, project files, and divying up tasks among co-workers is CollectiveX. Users can also edit word-type of documents online, though the features are a bit basic.
http://www.collectivex.com/

A service that I LOVE is Zoho's spreadsheets. It has 300 functions including almost all statistical and financial functions built-in (this is comparable to Excel's data analysis pack plug-in). So far, I have not found any function lacking for financial statement analysis. It is not customized for stock investment analysis like StockWiki's spreadsheet will be, but this sofware has all the basics we hope to offer on our site and it looks great too. It's said to be a tad slow and loses edits when 2 people are editing the same spreadsheet simultaneously. I supposed it would work fine if the 2 people take turns editing (every other day), which will be closer to real usage.

Others rave about Zoho's word processor. They seem to offer other Microsoft Office like applications over the web. I think you should definitely check it out if you are interested in alternative Office-like apps, especially if you need to work with someone over the web and usually e-mail documents back and forth.
http://www.zohosheet.com/home.do

That's it for now. I have more neat software I've found, but will post about them later.