People have been using the Office Web Apps at an astonishing rate. And if you haven't, well, you're on the wrong bus headed to wrong station in the wrong town. You've heard the term cloud computing right? Well, this is it, folks, and with Office Web Apps it's free and it's easy and it's kind of silly not to take advantage of it.

Rather than rehash what Office Apps are and how to use them, what I want to do today is address some of your questions.

But, before we get started, if you're not familiar with Office Web Apps, read up on them; this will fill you in on what they are, what you can do with them, and why they are the latest must haves. 

And if you're already using Web Apps, you've just become Crabby's pet readers and today you just may get the answers to the questions you've asked. (And how do I know what your burning questions about Office Web Apps are? A few different ways: 1: You write to me directly and ask me; 2: You post comments on the various Office Blogs posts about them; 3: From Microsoft Answers; and finally 4: I have—er—had them!)

Now that Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been released and is in your hot little hands, let's go over what it is, why we did what we did, and how it impacts you and your work.

Today I'll tell you about my three favorite enhancements: Outlook sync support, Exchange-based server-side rules, and the very useful redirect button.

For Wednesday's post, I offered up five useful features that I feel you should know about and use. Today I want to continue that list but I want to dig a little deeper into a few programs to uncover some features that, while useful and neat-o, may be underutilized (by you, by me, by the public at large).

So let's get crackin' and expose some of these things so that we can start using them...pronto!

Some things we just can't do without in life: love, friendship, a bathroom door that locks. With Office, the same is true: Some features should not be overlooked. Today I'll list five features that I think should come as second nature to you to use: the Bcc box, revision marks, AutoCorrect, AutoArchive, and security.

Friday I'll give you five more (because you love this sort of thing and because that's just how I roll).

The issue of getting elementary schools—public or otherwise—on board with electronic communication has taken some time. It takes a strong leader, possibly in the form of a principal, to guide that effort. When you're a busy school principal or administrator, your administrative assistants, secretaries, office managers, and other support staff are of vital importance to the day-to-day operations of the front office. If you're using Outlook with Microsoft Exchange, you can hand off some of the calendar and mailing duties to someone you set up as a delegate. Then you'll have more time to drop in, unannounced, to some of the classrooms and make everyone nervous.

When I saw a lot of email communication that was written by the principal coming from the email address of her front office admin, I wondered if they knew about setting up delegate access (they didn't). And so I'm on my way over there to show them how.

But hey, not everyone has the Crabby Office Lady right down the street, now do they?

I like notes; I take a lot of them and got into a lot of trouble passing them, as an overly chatty schoolgirl. Today I find notes here, there, on sticky pads, on my kid's homework, even on my own hand sometimes. But on my computer or my phones I only use OneNote and truthfully, all the other methods of keeping notes are starting to go by the wayside. I mean, I can jot down a note in OneNote Mobile on my iPhone, sync it with my SkyDrive, and then download it to my computer. I can also do this in the opposite direction: Type it up on OneNote on my computer, upload it to my SkyDrive, get it on my iPhone (or Windows 7 phone). Or...create a note or add to existing notes from within my SkyDrive, send them to the phone...etc.

As a matter of fact, I just now copied a recipe I found online into OneNote on my computer, it popped up on my SkyDrive...and *bing!* it's on my iPhone and ready to be taken into the kitchen at dinner time (Risotto Milanese).

Over the years, I've often been asked—by friends, by family, by Crabby readers—what some of my best Office tips and shortcuts are. Honestly, it's hard to just spout, off the top of my head (which would be rather gruesome anyway), the miscellaneous tricks that I've discovered, unearthed, and come across by accident over the many years I've been writing about Office.

So today, instead of spouting, I'll type up four that I think are worth your while knowing...and they all have to do with text, the meat and potatoes of what a lot of people do.

You know them, you see them every day running all over the office, and you have probably—at one time or another—overloaded their inboxes with your requests for a new computer, a better office, and a way to hide (possibly in their offices) from the local chatterbox. (Who, me?)

Who are they? Where do they come from? And why are we so tied to them? Why, they're your administrative professionals, of course, and the last full week of April—every April—is THEIR week.

So tell me: What have you done for your admins lately?

Today's post is a little more...technical than I'm used to doing and I must say, right up front, that I did not come up with the answer on my own. Nope. Keep reading.

A reader named Tim from New York had an Excel issue that while wasn't a work stoppage issue exactly, was driving him nuts nonetheless. With the help of a complete stranger on Microsoft Answers, Tim was able to solve his issue...and then some.

Do you remember what it was like in junior high? (Sorry if that question induced any flashbacks!) “Go ask that girl if she likes me,” to “Leave my little sister alone, or I’ll kick your butt!”  And sometimes even parents got into the act with teachers: "What do you mean giving my daughter a B-minus on her science project?  I worked all night on that thing!"

In each of these situations, a third party is taking responsibility for someone else’s stuff. But hey…it’s junior high.

(I'm handing over the writing reins today to a new friend I made through this blog. Tom Patterson and I have had some pretty interesting conversations about life, and more in particular, life at work. As a leadership coach, Tom works to provide insight and creative solutions for his clients, and it would behoove you to listen to—and put into practice—what he has to say. Take it away, Tom!)