New Article: Helpful Computer Hacks

A hack is no longer an inept person, but a helpful way of doing things that increases effectiveness and efficiency! Who knew!

I released an article to the publisher of some helpful computer hacks that will likely help every computer user. You can get to a free copy posted on my firm's website by clicking here.

New Article: O365’s Email Solution – Caution!

 
Microsoft’s O365 has many features that interest churches and ministries– especially because of the generous charity license Microsoft provides. Some aspects of O365 are good, but we found enough problems with their hosted email service that it’s worth posting an Enter at Your Own Risk sign.

I just released an article to the publisher; want to see a free preview? Click here!

New Article: Microsoft O365 - What You Need to Know

I just sent an article to the publisher on issues related to migrating to Microsoft's O365. It includes some good news, details some of O365's limitations, and concludes with a creative way to save money!

Interested? Click here to read a free copy!

Microsoft Resolves O365 Charity Licensing Issue for Churches!

I just released an article to the publisher announcing that Microsoft has resolved the non-discrimination language in its O365 charity licensing agreement. The Lord used MBS in that process, and we are excited to announce it!

Click here if you’d like to read a free pre-release of the article via the MBS website!

New OSes: Windows 10, Mac OSX 10.11 (El Capitan), & iOS 9

Just a quick post about Windows 10, Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), and iOS 9.

Windows 10

• We feel very good about this OS, but have not finished our worksheet on how to configure it yet.
• If you're an MBS client, we recommend holding off upgrading until we complete our worksheet and can thus certify it, which we hope will be by the end of this month.

Mac OSX 10.11 (El Capitan)

• It’s all about the apps; not about the OS (see my article on this topic).
• So far we’re seeing more spinning color wheels (though the color wheel is much prettier!), some crashes, and a problem running Office 2011 in El Capitan.
• The only current fix we’ve found for Office so far is to upgrade to Office 2016.
• At this time we are NOT recommending this free upgrade.

iOS 9.x looks good to go!

I hope that helps!

New Article about CITRT - The Community of Church IT People

Most people who work at churches and ministries are in behind-the-scenes positions. There is a group of these modern day heroes of The Faith who focus on IT that began gathering as peers in 2006 to and encourage each other. They have formed the Church IT Network, and their impact is huge!

If you'd like to read this article, click here!

New Article on Software Recommendations

Our team has had the privilege of serving many hundreds of ministries nationwide as network engineers and consultants. In those roles we have found that some software works better in church and ministry offices than others. We have also found that some software seems to be more trouble-free than others.

Click here to read this article about our recommendations!

Church IT Round Table was Awesome!

Every time I attend a CITRT event I am so thankful!  Last week was the national event in Phoenix, hosted by Christ's Church of the Valley (in Peoria, actually); here are some of my takeaways:

• Incredible relationship building with peers.
• Great opportunity to serve my peers by sharing information, processes, and encouragement.
• Solid time of learning hi-tech details that will help on some items on our project board.
• Terrific times of worship and challenge from CCV staff.

The next national event is October 21st - 23rd this fall at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, KS (actually in Leawood, KS), and I strongly encourage you to go if you are involved in church and/ or ministry IT at any level.

The event to watch is http://www.churchitnetwork.com/, and the Twitter hashtag is #citrt.

New Article: Should You Switch to Google Apps?

A common discussion these days is whether a move to Google Apps makes sense. Is it a good option compared to Microsoft Office? I just released an article for publication; click here to link to a copy of it on our website!

New Article: Outlook Email Mail Merge

Outlook is a powerful tool. Mail merge (the tool that allows you to create one document, like a letter or an email, and send it to many people with their personalized information inserted throughout so that it feels as though it was written just to them) is also a powerful tool. Do you know how to do mail merge emails in Outlook! The article I just released to the publisher tells how.

Click here to read it!

New Article on the Business Case for Charity Software Licensing

I just released an article to the publishers designed to help software providers understand the benefits they should consider regarding charity licensing discounts.  My hope is that it will sway those not currently offering charity discounts to begin doing so.

If you'd like to read a free advance copy, just click here!

New Article on Our Relationship with Our Mobile Devices

I just wrote a fun and helpful article on how to manage our mobile devices.  Click here to read it!

New Article: Keyboard Shortcuts

The Windows and Mac OSX operating systems each have built-in shortcut keystrokes that can be great time-savers. While this has always been true, I find that most computer users today have either forgotten many of them, or have never even known about them!

Click here to read this short article that will be a great help to you and your crew!

New Article: Review of Microsoft Office 2010 & 2011

Microsoft released two versions of their Office Suite last year (Windows and Mac), and folks want to know if it's worth upgrading to them. The bottom line is, yes! On either platform!


To read the article, click here!

Entourage Incorrectly Flagging Email as Junk?

Entourage uses the 'Junk' category to help users move classes of email into the Junk folder.  Sometimes unwary users will decide to rename the Junk category and use it for some other purpose-- after all, who needs a 'Junk' category, right?  The result will be that anything identified with that renamed 'Junk' category will be treated as junk!

A client had done exactly that, and then made her own contact a member of the renamed category.  The result was that every email she sent was moved to the Junk folder rather than the Sent folder.  The emails were sent out from her computer okay, they just didn't go to the correct folder after sending.

The fix was to rename the category she had renamed back to 'Junk', then un-categorize everything she had identified with that category.

Mac Office 2008 Critical Update Released Today-- CAUTION!!

Today Microsoft released a critical update for Mac Office 2008.  If you run the Web Services Edition (Version 13.0.3-- click the Entourage menu option and About Entourage to find out), DO NOT RUN THE UPDATE!

Because it was critical, I ran it, then spent the next few hours bonding with my friends in Microsoft's India support facility as we reset things back to where they were before I ran the install.  They will test it (don't you think they shoulda done that before releasing it?) and let me know tomorrow what they find.

In the meantime: STOP!

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

I've written a number of posts about Office 2008, and thought it could be helpful to list them for easy reference. Here are their links (I suggest right-clicking and opening them in separate tabs or windows):

• Entourage EWS Attachment Limits
• New Article on Mac Software Recommendations
• Mac Office Gets Essential Entourage Update
• Office 2008 12.2.0 Update Problem
• Office: mac 2008 SP1 Fix
• Office: mac 2008

Happy reading!

Entourage EWS Attachment Limits

We've been wrestling through an Entourage attachment-size issue that's been maddening. Today we finally got to work with Microsoft's Product Support Services technical lead. He and his colleague were helpful, and we got through it, but it took more than an hour! It was about as straight-forward as San Francisco's Lombard Street, but here's what we learned:

• Entourage file attachment limitations are managed by the Exchange 2007 server in the EWS folder.
• There's no easy-to-use checkbox to say someone has no limitation on attachment file size.
• Assuming that when you don't impose an attachment size limitation on a user-- presumably because you don't want there to be a limitation on their attachment sizes-- is enough won't work. Exchange applies its default limitation of 5mb!
• When setting a higher limit to allow someone to send attachments larger than 5mb, don't base the new limit on the actual size of the attachment files. Mime will expand attachments about 1/3 larger than their original file size. But don't base the new limit on that size either, because Exchange expands the attachments even larger! Set the limit to about double the original attachments' file size.

Many Mac users work on media files. While email isn't the best way to send large files, some will want to quickly send large (25-50mb) attachments. Microsoft will be wise to simplify this process.

New Article on Mac Software Recommendations

In 2007 I began using a Mac for a research project. When that project was finished I decided to stay on the Mac! Some say if you try a Mac you’ll never go back; I stayed with it because it helps us support many of our clients who use them. The switchover has been a little challenging, however, because I’m used to using business-class software. In this article I’ll share what software I use to keep me as productive as I was on the Windows platform, which may help the Mac users on your team.

Download the article (updated on 8/25/2009) here for free in PDF format!

Mac Office Gets Essential Entourage Update

Microsoft announced today they have decided the next release of Office for Mac will include Outlook instead of Entourage! That's great news for enterprise Mac users whose companies use Microsoft Exchange for their mail server!

There are many who are mis-stating that info, though, as though the new version's release is imminent. It is not! My sources at Microsoft tell me it will be released in late 2010 or early 2011. So, what should those Mac users do in the meantime?

Microsoft released today the next update for Entourage that includes EWS (Exchange Web Services). It's a free upgrade for Entourage 2008 users (make sure your Entourage 2008 is currently patched before installing!), and it delivers vastly improved Exchange integration for the Mac. This is also very good news for Mac users and should not be put off while waiting for the next release of Office for Mac in a year or two.

You can download the free upgrade to Entourage 2008 EWS right here:
www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/entourage-ews.mspx