Roughly the TRUTH

Google opens up a trove of data for users to harness and build into their own websites…

The Basic Idea:
Allow users to create and publish spreadsheets with dynamically updating data online to their own websites. The method used to cull the data is quite easy -a little too easy if you have a desire to publish complex data results- and has the potential to make any Joe Shmoe an instant RSS expert (Not sure about this, but typically, RSS feeds allow for very little customization by the end user; this is unlike Google’s new dynamic cell formulas).
Here are the formulas users will apply in Google Spreadsheets:

GoogleLookup function
Syntax: =GoogleLookup(”entity”, “attribute”)

GoogleFinance function
Syntax: =GoogleFinance(”symbol”, “attribute”)

In The Past:
Only VB programmers and businesses wealthy enough to subscribe to Bloomberg and Reuters data services have been able to harness the vast amounts of dynamic data available over the internet. Today, they still are pretty much the only ones who can do this - Although, Google Spreadsheets has integrated these very interesting functions which at least takes a step in that direction.

The following is a live example embedded into this post:
(This was super easy)

Publishing your own dynamic spreadsheet:

1) If you haven’t already, sign up for a Google account. Play around with the above formulas until you’re happy with what the spreadsheet looks like (you’ll see the data dynamically populate the cell once you enter a “proper” attribute, entity and/or symbol - this wan’t so easy for me while messing with different LookUp function).

2) Click the “Publish” tab on the top right. Change the “Automatically update every 5 minutes?” option to YES. Now click on the “Re-Publish” button to save your settings.

3) Look further down in this section and click on “More publishing options”

4) For “File format” choose: HTML to embed in a webpage - adjust the other settings as desired.

5) Now, simply Generate URL and copy the HTML into your webpage (note: WordPress users should go into their options and revert from the RTF editor to avoid any problems).

Get examples & read more about these functions here:

If you don’t use MS Office applications, here’s your opportunity. If you do already, you can probably make use of this too - I’m just a little too nervous of screwing up my Office 2003 installation…

The heads-up on this interesting offer: Microsoft has generously decided to give away the beta version of their Office 2007 suite for free. I was able to download the installation packages and get the product keys after a brief online registration (hotmail, passport, .net account, etc. required).

Here is their expected pricing for the final version of the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Full Price/Upgrade Price):

$499/$329 Microsoft Office Professional 2007
$449/$279 Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
$399/$239 Microsoft Office Standard 2007
$149/None Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007

A few things Microsoft points out:

Expiration Date
All 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 software has an expiration date of February 1, 2007. After expiration, 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will continue to work in a reduced functionality mode that limits your options and operations.

Should I become bold enough to actually install this software, I’ll post again here; but in the mean time, let me know what kind of success you’ve had…Good luck!

Full Featured, Free & a Cinch to use…

If you’re familiar with 37signals’ “Backpack” application, you’ll have no problem getting used to it’s half sister - Zoho Planner. Zoho.com (a competitor of 37Signals) has just released an upgraded version of this personal/project planning application. I found it much more streamlined and less cluttered than it’s Backpack counterpart. Another huge advantage it has is the unlimited storage that accompanies the free user accounts (you may upload files to your account - not to exceed 10mb). You’re looking at $5 per month with Backpack and you still don’t even get as much storage space. I’ve just been using it for a day now, but am already hooked.

A brief overview of the features are as follows: there’s no apparent limitation to the number of pages you can create, and within each page you can add a description along with multiple occurences of To Do Lists, Notes, Appointments and Attachments. In addition to sharing these pages with others, Zoho Planner also provides a comprehensive overview of your To Do’s and Reminders. You can mess around with the demo sign-in and make up your own mind…or, if you’re looking for more opinions, here’s another recent review:

Web 2.0 Journal Product Review: “Zoho Planner” — The Zoho series of online software products from AdventNet has been growing quickly over the last year, and their Zoho Planner product has just been revamped. Designed specifically for the Web 2.0 era, Zoho Planner is an online service for managing task lists and appointments.

There is very little down side to this application, but a few things that I’d like to see added in the future are as follows: a print view (for use with paper planners); persistent URL’s for each individual page (helping integration with components of other various planning systems); sync or export capabilities with MS Outlook 2003 (a feature that no one has perfected to date - not even Microsoft itself)

For the record, I’m only using this as one component of my complete organizing system (based on Getting Things Done by David Allen & First Things First by Stephen Covey). Project planning and brainstorming appear to be the most effective uses for me; but it’s much more capable than this and may even meet all of your planning needs. I’ve had some difficulty finding reviews of this software, so please feel free to add your own or post links to others…thanks for reading!

Keep your writing in check with this free personal editor.

Writing styles are invariably unique. Excited by a topic though, many of us often rush to get our work published and as a result our style may suffer. Microsoft Office 2003 has a neat little function that can alleviate some of these pains (not sure if this works in earlier versions). With a little tweak to the options settings, you can get on-screen advice for some or all of the available issues that MS can identify. If the sea of edit marks annoy you to no end, then you can also use this option to turn all of them off.

If you don’t yet have this software, you can find Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 for around $130 and the Academic Version of MS Office Professional for $180 at Amazon (You can also read my review of the Academic Version of the product here).

Here’s how:

In MS Word 2003, Open the “Options” window under the “Tools” menu at the top of the screen.

Click on the “Spelling & Grammar” tab. Under the “Grammar” section of this tab is where you’ll make your adjustments.

In the drop-down box titled “Writing Style” it should default to “Grammar Only.” You can now switch this to “Grammar & Style,” click “Close” & That’s it!

Specific changes to the particulars of this function can be made by clicking the “Settings” button directly below the aforementioned drop-down menu. Check the boxes to turn-on or off any of the features.

I’ve just set this up and haven’t had much of a chance to use it yet, but I’d love to hear how it works out or if you’ve had any prior experience with this. It also seems that this is a global setting; meaning that changes in MS Word are also reflected in MS Outlook (assuming MS Word is set as your email editor). Good Luck!
[UPDATE: 02.21.06]
Here’s a link that describes what each element actually does in the “Grammar and Style” options menu. You can also find this list by searching the ‘Help’ menu in MS Word.