Office 2013 – top features of Microsoft Office 2013

On my personal experience I can confidently say that; any person in the world who is new to computer and want to learn something about computer then he /she always demands for learning Microsoft Office. The reason is also obvious. MS Office simplifies many day to day activities for all of us. Every new launch of ms office has taken a step towards simplifying our life tremendously.

Yes! I agree that, to get comfortable with new versions of ms office; it takes time. But once you are through, then there is no problem. I am sure every one of us must be having same kind of experience with ms office various versions.

If you observe the history of ms office releases, the changes in different versions were not big or they were addendum to the existing features. However, I think Microsoft now has decided to change everything with release of windows 8 and Ms Office 2013 is no exception to that. MS Office 2013 is going to be the most ambitious release from Microsoft.

Based on my personal experience after interacting with various Microsoft product lovers, people tend to get confused with new releases and various features. Here in this post I am just trying to simplify the catchy features of Ms Office 2013.

What is Office 2013 –? What is difference between office 2013 and office 365?

Office 2013 is basically a desktop based application as opposed to Office 365 which is subscription based office version. As office 2013 is desktop based, it will be required to be installed on your devices be it, laptop, tablet, desktop Pc or anything. Office 2013 is traditional office product from Microsoft. Office 365 is subscription based cloud service which is not required to be installed on your devices. Office 365 delivers the office 2013 programs as a part of subscription service via Microsoft cloud.

Office 365 is an online subscription service that provides email, shared calendars, the ability to create and edit documents online, instant messaging, web conferencing, a public website for your business, and internal team sites—all accessible anywhere from nearly any device.

If you have Office 2013 installed then you can quickly configure it to work with Office 365 services. Office 365 can also be configured with 2007 and 2010. Office 365 is not office 2013. 

For example, If you use Office 2013 alone, the document will be saved on your device or computer. Hence it cannot be access anytime unless you carry your device everywhere. If you have Office 2013 configured to Office 365; then you can save the document to say SkyDrive and can access anytime on any device even if you don’t have your device or laptop or tablet with you.

This is the main difference between the two.

 Now let’s have a look at the features of Office 2013.

WPF Binding – Element Binding example - Enable Disable Control based on another control property in WPF

Gone are the days for me to work on Azure. 3 weeks back started with WPF. I have been in web technology for last 5 years and now suddenly shifted to windows applications using WPF.

Now struggling with binding, converters and what not. Anyways, I have started to digest simple WPF concepts one of which I am going to discuss here.

I want to bind a controls property “IsEnabled” to another controls property value. As an example, I am taking the textbox control to enable or disable based on the selction of value in drop down. Ohh sorry, combobox!!! (drop down we generally refer in web application!!)

Lets create a simple WPF application, add two controls viz. combobox and textbox. I created a simple class having 2 properties value and text. This class I will use to bind to combo box. The class is as shown –

public class MyItem

    {

        public int Value { get; set; } 

        public string Text { get; set; }

    } 

    public class MyItems : ObservableCollection<MyItem>

    {

    } 

Nokia PureView 808 – 41 mega pixel camera – Pre-launch review

The company who brings product in market first, gets the benefit of early bird launching. Then same brand name gets used in various similar products. For example, In India, Colgate was the toothpaste brand came first. So many people asks shopkeeper to give “Babool’s Colgate”. So In India Colgate has become a substitute name for tooth paste. Nokia got the same benefit in India in mobile market. Everyone will agree to the fact that, mobile reached to every single person in India mainly because of Nokia. So the equation was – mobile means Nokia. However, in last few years first Motorola, then Sony Ericson and now Samsung is responsible to end this monopoly of Nokia in Indian mobile market.

Now Nokia has again geared up to penetrate deep in Indian mobile market and is keeping all faith in Nokia Lumia. Similar to Nokia, Computer OS giant Microsoft has lost the wave in Mobile market. Therefore both Nokia and Microsoft will be benefitted if Nokia mobiles running on windows OS become popular.

Nokia understands the people pschycology very well and knows that, people will not notice you till you show some miracle. Nokia is about to bring this new miracle with the launch of Nokia PureView 808 mobile. In coming few weeks Nokia Pureview 808 mobile will be launched in India. Nokia is going to take mobile cameras to new height with the launch of Nokia PureView 808. The camera in Nokia PureView 808 is going to be of 41 mega pixels. This is really unbelievable. Nokia is using satellite technology to bring 41 megapixels camera in Nokia PureView 808.

Usually satellites have excellent quality remote sensors to get the pictures of Earth’s surface from space. These remote sensors are used in Nokia PureView 808 by keeping the efficiency same size is reduced. This is why you can also do HD recording in Nokia PureView 808. The experience of Nokia PureView 808 was provided to people who were present in Nokia Strategy Meet during cricket IPL season.

Set top box and DTH Set top box difference. Things to consider while buying Set top box in India

In India, after digitization, TV transmission is going change. This change in TV transmission will start from 1^st July 2012 in 4 metro cities of India. With respect to this announcement, customers in India will have to choose either “Direct To Home (DTH) set top box” or “Cable set top box”. Of course It is customer who is going to get benefitted out of this change. However, I saw that, there are many people who are confused about this change and don’t know what are the important points to be considered before buying DTH or Cable set top box. Following are the few points I feel one should consider while going for purchase of Set Top Box in India. First of all let’s understand digitization.

What is Digitization of TV services –

TV signals are currently distributed in India in analog format as well as digital format. Most cable operators within country provides analog format TV services whereas all DTH operators provide digital format TV services. Digitization means that all household TV sets using cable services would receive digital TV signal through Set Top Box. As a part of digitization every cable operator will be legally bound to transmit digital signals, which can be received at subscribers home through set top box only.

Comparing DTH and Cable Service at high level-

At high level if we compare DTH and Cable set to box, then I will say DTH is better. Because, DTH receives signal directly from satellite and reach to the TV through Set top Box; hence the picture quality is extremely good. However, the primary requirement of DTH is, the sky should be clean else disturbance in signal is observed. Signal disruption is a common problem in rainy season in India. Also DTH is costly and few may not find suitable financially. Cable set top box is attached to TV using fiber wires and it is cheaper as compared to DTH service.

DTH providers in India are Dish, Airtel, Sun, Videocon whereas for cable connection in Mumbai, we have Hathway cable, In cable, DigiCable, Den Cable providers. All these DTH and cable providers work as per rules and regulations set by TRAI however, quality of services will vary depending on the company network capabilities.