You know that in Outlook 2010 and 2007 you can have more than one calendar and that you can view all of your calendars together in a couple of different ways. For instance, I have three different calendars: one for work, one for personal, and one for birthdays only. I usually just want to see my work calendar when I'm at work but sometimes I want to get a snap shot of all my calendars together (if only to see what a mess I've made of my schedule and how I've overbooked myself...yet again).

In that case, instead of seeing my calenders one at a time, I can view them side-by-side or overlaid, one on top of the other. But how about printing them like that, in overlaid mode? It doesn't seem possible...or does it???

You may think you know all there is about Excel--I mean, you've been using it since its inception in the mid-80s. (Well, okay, maybe you haven't. I sure haven't; my parents bought me my very first computer in 1995—a PowerMac--and it had Excel 5.0 on it. So...that makes it 15 years for me.) 

But even so, an old hat (like the Hogwart's sorting hat) can discover new tricks that it didn't know were possible. Excel 2010 has some really great new additions as well as improvements (I probably shouldn't use that word--improvements--but everything and everybody can fashion some room within themselves in order to to squeeze some in...right?).

And then one day the clouds part and Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and partying AND  fertility--which, in our context here, means productivity--smiles his sweet, naughty, benevolent smile down at you and y ιδού * you are anointed! But with what?

Read on to find out...

You know when you save for a whole year to buy the hottest Manolo Blahniks only to discover two days later that a whole new line of his shoes is being released (and the pair you own is looking like nurse shoes to you)? No? Me neither (with my fallen arches??).

How about this then: You've been making it through grad school with Office 2000, and although it was workable, some things were becoming intolerable and you were really feeling left behind. So off you (finally!) go to your nearest retailer to purchase Office 2007. As you proudly ferry the package out the door, an ad on the wall catches your eye:

If you need to get from point A to point B quickly and someone offered a safe and easy shortcut, would you take it? Of course you would.

I love finding ways to get my work done quicker so that I can push myself away from my desk, take a deep stretch, and ponder the many avenues I have taken on my way to the Kingdom Of Crabbyland. What about you? What would YOU be doing if you weren't chained to your desk? How about you learn some new tricks from me first and then figure that out what you're going to do with your time later.

Today's post offers one simple, small-but-powerful Word tip. Let's get to it.

I once owned one of those low-to-the-ground robotic vacuum cleaners that goes round and round in ever-widening circles, allegedly picking up dirt, hair, and any bad memories you happened to have tossed under your bed. The thing worked pretty well but it didn't really get to knowmy floors like, say, a housekeeper or (heaven forbid) I would. I could only program it for a small-, medium-, or large-sized room; there wasn't anything else I could tell it to do. Needless to say, we soon parted ways.

What about your computer? Ever wish you had a tiny creature inside it that did your bidding (instead of gremlins that undo everything you just did)? Something to pick up slack on a particularly hard day? It happens that you do: your macros. You tell them what to do and when to do it, and they are forevermore at your beck and call.

I love getting emails and comments from my readers, even if they're less than...happy or flattering. What they say to me is that you're paying attention, and I can't really ask for more than that (although I do and will continue to do so).

Speaking of letters...(indulge me, won't you? If no, you can't/won't, just go directly to the full post). A couple of days after Halloween I found a letter addressed to "Halloween Wrecker" in my mailbox. Apparently I'd hurt the feelings of 6 foot tall 13-year-old when I asked him if he might be too tall/old for trick-or-treating, and his mother found it necessary to write me a piece of anonymous and vitriolic hate mail. Calling me out as a "cruel and insensitive judger of children," she told me how sensitive her son is because he's so tall (I'm pretty sure that will work out in his favor in a year or two), that he'd spent the week wearing a costume of his favorite cartoon character, and that their dog had recently had a leg removed due to cancer and so couldn't go out that night with him and his little sister, who he accompanied (nice touch).

The moral of this story for my readers: If you need to tell me (us) something, don't keep it all bottled up! Submit a feedback in the form of an email or a comment, I read them all and hey, I don't even know where you live! 

Back in June, I wrote a post about a free Outlook add-in called the Missing Attachment Power Toy, a little program that reminds you, before you send your email, that you've forgotten the file or photo or whatever you promised you'd be sending along. Smart, huh? The company that makes this program, Fortis Software, is a Microsoft Office Marketplace Partner (see the Browse Office Marketplace heading halfway down that page) and I'd spent that entire week in June introducing you to some of the free services and programs that our partners offer.

Well! Someone named Vaibhav told me in a comment on that post that Office Labs (Microsoft's internal "sandbox" of sorts where smart people explore, experiement, and research new things) has something called Forgotten Attachment Detector that does the same thing as the Missing Attachment Power Toy, AND it's free too, AND it works with Office 2010 (while the Fortis program does not).

And so, today's post is all about OUR free attachment reminder program, something I'm guessing many of you could really use.

Updated: See the bottom of this post for the latest Office how-tos on embedding Excel and PowerPoint files on web pages.

Yesterday I told you about how you can now embed Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations in your web pages and blogs from Office Web Apps. I even tried it myself with the embedded Vehicle Loan Payment Calculator and it was quick and simple to do.

That being said...I forgot to add an important instruction for this sort of embedded interactive file..Because if you don't do what I'm about to shed light on, your embedded file will be static and your readers disappointed.

When Office 2007 first came out, what everyone noticed first was the new interface, namely, the ribbon. This ribbon replaced the menus and toolbars—yes, the self-same menus and toolbars that you constantly griped about and yet were suddenly so enamored of:

You cannot imagine how much whiny feedback I received about the change:

• "I can't find anything!" you grumped.
• "Why do YOU get to decide where my most useful features are?" you groused.
• "This ribbon takes up way too much space!" you grumbled.

(And so on and so forth until my eyes rolled up into my head, my mouth went slack, and I wondered if it's too late to become a ballerina after all.)

And now that Office 2010 has come out...the ribbon is still there. Get used to it my chickadees because you will come to love it (and it's here to stay). But don't get crabby with me because although many  of you may realize that learning to use this ribbon involves a steep learning curve in low gear, we created a few roadmaps to make it easier on you.

Update: See near the end of this post for the latest Office how-tos on embedding Excel and PowerPoint files.

Hi everyone,

My name is Larry Waldman and I'm a program manager on the Excel team. This week the Crabby Office Lady was nice enough to let me combine a couple of Office's cool features to highlight one of my favorite little tricks. (Note that this post and these features refer to the Office Web Apps.)

First we've got a feature called "Excel embedding" that lets you put Excel files—yes, interactive Excel files—into your web pages by using Office Web Apps and SkyDrive. You may have seen Crabby's earlier posts about embedding Excel (or PowerPoint) files into web pages and making sure they ARE interactive. Doug Thomas also did an Office Casual video about the free Office Web Apps and SkyDrive accounts.

Also, I've long been a fan of the file templates we have in Office—that's right, Office.com Templates that you see when you click the File tab and click New in Office 2007 or 2010. For me, things really come alive when you start with a fully functional (and premade) Excel template, tweak it as you need, and then plop it on your site. An example (and I got my example below straight from the Office.com Templates site) is worth a thousand words...