Welcome to my first post about fonts, those indispensable tyepface-y things that you need to make decisions about every day (which one for THIS doc; which one for THAT email; for whom, how big, how small, how readable, how...etc.).

Today we'll go over some basics about fonts and then, in the next post or two, we'll get into some of the more juicy topics like where and how to get more fonts (because you can never have enough), the difference between the various types of them, and even how to create your very own font. (Speaking of which, I recently read that schools in 41 states will no longer be teaching cursive handwriting. How can this be? My third grade, left-handed, nearly indecipherable, scrawl is priceless!)

Nevertheless, we're talking about typing today, not writing. Let's go font it up.

How do you generate ideas? And how do you go from those first ideas through the editing and the polishing to a completed project?

These videos walk you through different ways to get from start of an idea to a finished work. They're a mix of Office 2007 and Office 2010, but the processes work in both. Read and see the full story...

Folks have asked me how I come up with my ideas for these videos. Hence, a video on the topic (with lots of links in the full post). Can you share how you come up with your ideas? Add a comment below.

Check out our monthly collection of Microsoft OneNote-related news, stories, and tips from right here on the Microsoft Office Blog and from all around the Web. Read the full blog post for this month's roundup and to catch up with OneNote on Facebook and Twitter!

Working with data in Excel 2010 can be a beautiful thing, but getting your data into Excel can be a huge chore. PowerPivot, a free add-in from Microsoft, makes it easy to pull in data from multiple sources and merge it all into one workbook. It's like supercharging your spreadsheets with live data.

In this excerpt from The Office Show, Oliver Chiu demonstrates some of PowerPivot's incredible features:

Sometimes, it may seem like Microsoft Office has been around forever, but in reality, it's only been 22 years. That's not long if you consider that consumer PCs started becoming available in the market in the 1970s.

Microsoft Office has undergone considerable transformation since the days of Cheers, R.E.M. and Grunge fashion of the late ‘80s. One thing has remained constant over the years: Office has evolved as customers’ needs and usage patterns have changed.

With the latest version of Office, we embraced three major technology trends that have been evolving over the past few years: the prominence of social networking, mobile computing, and cloud computing, enabling people to connect to others and information from any device, anywhere.

Here at the PowerPoint blog, we want to help you make your presentations visual, engaging, and memorable. Not text-heavy and boring. To help you, in essence, become a great storyteller. Even (especially?) if your story is about bacon.

We also want to give you a chance to win a trip to TEDActive or a copy of Office 2010 for PC/Mac and a Kinect.

To help you create memorable, dynamic presentations, and to show you what other people are doing in their quest to design interesting content for their audiences, we're introducing SlideFest.

Once you get to know Access, it doesn't take long before you start putting all your important data into Access databases. These databases are likely to become indispensable, especially in business setting. At that point, it's important to have a plan in place to recover the databases in case something bad happens, such as an accident or natural disaster.

Matt Shelton contributed today's post about how to use Out of Office and Automatic Replies to send email responses when you're away from the office. Matt, a senior writer, focuses on creating Office content for teachers and students.

If you can't reply to e-mails during the work day (or if you're away from your computer), you know how emails can pile up. And it can be frustrating when you email someone with a question and you get no response. For days. Only to find out later that they were on vacation.

Enter the Out of Office Assistant and Automatic Replies. You can send an automatic email response to anyone who emails you during the time you're away from your desk. If you're on vacation, in an extra-long meeting, or just taking a lunch break, use Out of Office to tell the sender where you are, when you'll be back, and who to contact in your absence.  Find out how ...

It's come to my attention that some of you (who shall remain nameless thanks to my own sense of restraint and corporate responsibility) have been left behind in the world of computing. Let's just assume—for the time it takes to read this post—that it's not your fault. In fact, I think I know why so many of you have been reticent to jump in there and start mail merging and frolicking in the task pane: You have no clue what these things are or how they can give you a better life—or at least free up some of your time.