Hot topics

What Can I Do with a Web Site?

RxDave — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

This question was asked the other day in the Office Live Small Business Community. The obvious answer is small business. Your site can be a calling card for a brick-and-mortar business, you can sell, rent lease or contract out goods or services with your site, or you can use it for both. They are not the only uses for a web site, however, and the variety of purposes grows every day. Here are some examples we have seen here:

Hobby, craft and special interest sites
Political campaign sites
Organization sites
Movie review sites
Neighborhood and community sites
Family sites
Authors’ book sites
Sports fan sites
College alum sites
Teachers’ class sites
Tutoring and lesson sites
Résumé and curriculum vitae sites
Special event sites
Church and special ministry sites
Class reunion sites
Opinion and blogging sites
Entertainment sites
How-to/Do-it-yourself sites
Tourist attraction sites
Charity sites
Reference and information sites
Start a revolution sites (see Iran)

Because there are no limits to the purposes for a web site, this list will be a work in progress. Every honest, legitimate venture or interest is allowed within the Microsoft Terms of Use guidelines. Not even the sky is a limit here. Sky sites, Weather sites, Astronomy sites, Milky Way sites...

How to make a good home office great

Monte Enbysk — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

By Jeff Wuorio

It really doesn't take much to make a home office today. Just clear some space, hook up a computer and phone, and—presto—you have your home office.

That may make for a decent home office—even a perfectly good one. But it won't make it into a great office, one that's as comfortable and productive as you can make it.

Here are six ideas to help you make your home office great.

Invest in your office. As mentioned above, it's no great chore to piece together a workable home office. But, to make it a place where you can excel, you need to sink some money and thought into it. For example:
- Invest in a chair that's ergonomically correct and comfortable and a desk that's big enough but not oversized.
- From there, give some thought to the best physical arrangement possible.
Tip : Kathleen Alessandro, president of Energized Solutions, a Dearborn, Mich., concern that specializes in office arrangement, suggests a "U" shaped setup to promote efficient flow: Keep material coming into the office on the left of the office, keep ongoing work in the middle, and keep items headed out the door on the right.
Keep things light. Naturally, your office shouldn't be a dark, shrouded workspace where you can't see your hand in front of your face. By the same token, people with home offices consistently emphasize the importance of abundant, focused lighting that keeps your office bright and functional. For many, that means more than just a desktop lamp. Notes Stacey Udell, a Dix Hills, N.Y., public relations consultant: "I work from home and could not survive without an abundance of natural daylight."
Make it into an inspirational space. Every person who works from home can occasionally become discouraged due to isolation, technology breakdowns, or simply a rash of unreturned phone calls. Combat that by decorating your office with reminders of why you're there in the first place—awards, certificates of achievement, and other upbeat mementos.

The home office of freelance publicist Carrol Van Stone, in Shepherdstown, W.Va., is filled with framed cover stories, photos, and other tokens of success. "I've found that setting up a home office must be done in a way that motivates," she says.
Got dead space? Use it! Home offices—particularly those with a modest amount of space—have to make use of every square inch to be as productive as possible. Yanik Silver of SurefireMarketing.com in Potomac, Md., installed a large whiteboard on one wall of his office. "I can brainstorm and plan my projects where I can see them right in front of me."
Leverage technology to the max. A home office usually means someone working solo. That underscores the importance of various kinds of technology to make work more efficient and, ultimately, productive. Some suggestions:
- Go wireless. When possible, maintain wireless connections with all computers, printers, and other gear to afford as much flexibility as possible. "Wireless un-tethers the home officer, and his or her family. I really do work from bed, the kitchen table, the patio, even the hammock," says Fort Lauderdale, Fla., writer and speaker Jeff Zbar.
- Consider digital storage. One of the great challenges of a home office is adequate space to store records, notes, and other material. If your files are bulging like an overstuffed briefcase, give some thought to digital storage. This allows off-site storage in a separate location that can be accessed by way of the Internet. It’s not only convenient, but also is an added measure of safety if your home office is damaged by fire or other mishap. (To store your documents in an online workspace, check out Office Live Workspace.)
Make an office great with great work habits. Making a home office exceptional isn't simply a matter of a great layout and all the latest technical gizmos. Think, too, about how you work within that space. Along those lines:
- Be ruthless with paper. Even the best laid out office can malfunction if you don't maintain efficient paperwork procedures. Try to think carefully about how to handle paperwork in an orderly and, if necessary, cutthroat fashion, says American Fork, Utah-based Christi Youd, author of "Organize Your Office for Success." "As you handle each piece of paper,” she says, "ask yourself: Can I discard this yet? Can I delegate this? Can I handle this in 60 seconds or less? What heading do I want this filed under in my files?"
- Set rules for others. Your beautiful, clean, up-to-date office, arranged in the most optimal fashion, is likely not the place for a Schnauzer gnawing on computer paper or your five-year-old screaming about Dora the Explorer. So, one final element to a truly great office is a firm set of guidelines that delineate when you're available and when access is verboten.
  
  Draft those guidelines and share them with family members and others. This lets you enjoy the best of both worlds: a productive workspace and a proximity to your loved ones—but on your terms.

About the author Jeff Wuorio is a freelance writer, author, and speaker based in southern Maine. He writes about small-business management, marketing, and technology issues. You can find Jeff's business and finance blog at http://wuorio.blogspot.com.

Brief Community site downtime planned Sunday for server upgrade

Sue-Msft — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Hi everyone. I wanted to provide you with advance notice that we are planning for a brief downtime on the Office Live Small Business and Office Live Workspace Community sites on Sunday, Nov. 15.

The downtime will last only 30 minutes, and is scheduled to happen between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Pacific time. The downtime is occurring in order to perform hardware upgrades to the servers for our Community sites.

The downtime of the Community sites will NOT impact your Office Live Small Business or Office Live Workspace accounts or services.

On behalf of the Office Live team, we appreciate your patience.

Sue Sonday

Re: Adding a link to photo from craigslist to my website

barryconnick — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Depending upon what catagory you're trying to post in, if the option is available to add a photo, a pop up menu will appear and you can add your photos... the process is self explanatory. As for linking the pictures to your website, just add the http link in the body of your ad.

Barry

Need image enlarged, magnified, or in a popbox on hover, mouseover, or a click

RobynShaddock — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Is it possible in office live small business to have an image enlarged, magnified, or in a popbox on hover, mouseover, or a click. I've tried every suggestion on here and nothing works the way I would like it to. I don't want the rest of the page to be effected when the image is enlarged. As seen here...

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/magnify.html

Does anyone have any suggestions???

My goal is to have a group of thumbnail images that are enlarged when clicked, but not in a new window, and appears over the other images without resizing or moving anything else on the page.

Is there a simple way to do this???

Deactivating site

BrookeRiley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

How do I temporarily remove my site from public view?

Receiving Email

sfranzen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

One of my users cannot receive email from one specific address. This user has asked the domain admin of the sending host to trace the problem and they state it is being blocked by Microsoft. She has allowed this user under options in Windows Live, but is still unable to receive email. This problem has just started within the last month, and she was previously able to receive emails from this address just fine.

Our user email: lhorner@medstatusa.com

Sending User: horner@sharpsec.com

lhorner is not able to receive emails from horner@sharpsec.com

why does O.L.S.Business gets SO slow to the point of not writing..?

adventures — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any idea why does Office Live Small business gets SO slow to the point that if I write fast will not type letters, sort of just omit letters...

lets see, if I'm not paying 100% attention and just let go thinking what to write here.... looking back and back at what's on this text, and fixing and fixing... this will look like this....:

"lets e, if Iot paying attennd thinking what to wte here.... looking k and back as printing andng and fixing... this wll look lke this"

HERE I just paste it before correcting it... :-O

And this happens too when I'm writing my pages for my web site...

It is embarrassing, everyone keep telling me my grammar is bad, and I kept saying, yes I know... but NEVER REALIZED THIS PROBLEM WAS ACTUALLY HAPENING, AND IT LOOK THIS BAD...!!!terrible..!!!

Any ideas on how to fix this...???

This is ONLY using Office live small Business, when I use other program this does not happen...

When I send E-mail through my small business based web-site E-mail address, is terrible and SO SLOW...!!!

compared with when I send an E-amil from my msn account... so it is not my server...

what is going on..??

HELP..!!

Thankx Guys...

Re: my web page

RxDave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Asked and answered:

http://ask.officelive.com/smallbusiness/qna/t/23408.aspx

Re: Email Account & Domain Name

RxDave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 GMT

One little requirement you need to complete is resetting your password along with a little bit of tap-dancing. Follow the instructions here:

http://office-live-skills.com/email.aspx