Follow-up: More ways to shrink Office documents
Last night, I made a post about shrinking Powerpoints without any special software. Today I was saving a Word document and noticed the “Tools” menu, clicked it and saw … wait for it …
Compress Pictures!
This is an even simpler method for reducing Microsoft Office document sizes. Once you click “Compress Pictures,” you can choose the level of compression (printed or screen / web), and whether to delete cropped areas of pictures or not. You still have the original image, right?
The only thing left is to make this the default option during Office setup; If it’s possible, you’ll see it here. Please comment if you experience success with this tip 
Joel
Edit: Found another awesome resource for reducing Office Document file sizes: University of Queensland “Ask IT” page (they also have the same information in .PDF handout format)
Setup a Windows XP Administration Workstation
From Digg:
Tips for setting up a Windows XP Pro computer to perform administrative tasks on a MS windows network. Links to downloads of the tools you’ll need.
I love it when I come across another great blog. Thanks Rob Durkin!
Google Spreadsheets invites using chat feature
I signed up for an invitation to the new Google Spreadsheets beta, and it only took about a day for the invite to arrive. I played around with it, saw some cool features, but wanted to show my friend what it was like. I couldn’t see any “Invite” button or functionality in the application, but I did see a “Share this Spreadsheet” link at the top-right.
Clicking the link opens an invitation sidebar that allows you to invite others to read or edit the document:
You can only invite users who have Google Accounts, but hey: who doesn’t have one by now? As soon as the invited user opens the spreadsheet, the sharing section changes:
Clicking “Chat with …” displays a sidebar allowing the spreadsheet’s users to chat while editing the spreadsheet, all in real-time.
Keep up the suprises, Google
Drastically reduce PowerPoint file size – EASY!
Got a call from a user today:
“I need to send a powerpoint to a grant organization, and it’s got to get there TODAY! I tried sending it but got a message saying that it exceeds the limit for this user. I need you to take that limit off as soon as possible!”
Whoah, whoah – hold your horses. Those limits are there for a reason. How big is the file?
“I don’t know! Can you please just take the limit off?”
Well, let’s see what we can do first. Right click the file and click … [explaining right click vs. left, what tab the file size is listed on under a file's properties window (it's the general tab)...] OK. So the file is 11MB. That’s 7MB more than the limit. Let’s try something:
- Open the document and right click on an image.
- Click “Format Picture.”
- Now click on the tab “Picture.”
- Click Compress
- Select “All pictures in document.”
- Choose a resolution (hint: screen creates a smaller file).
- Check “Delete cropped areas of pictures” and “Compress Pictures.”
- Click OK (and Apply if prompted).
- Save the file. If you’re paranoid, save it with a new name.
So what’s the file size now?
“It says 1.1 em-bee”
You should be able to send it now.
“Wow, thanks!”
Resource used:
Microsoft Office Assistance: Reduce the size of your PowerPoint files
Boot Windows PE from RIS with PXE
Just a quick post: I’ll be taking a look at this:
How to boot the Microsoft Windows Preinstall Environment from an RIS server by using PXE-enabled clients
looks promising.
Initial issues with SMS 2003 OSD FP
In my initial testing of the SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack, I ran into a couple of issues that, after a bit of determined googling (I’m seeing now that Google Groups has a lot more to offer than previously assumed), yeilded a few gems that I’m sure would come in handy for others facing the same problems.
The first adventure was successfully capturing a build with the Image Capture CD. I created the CD per the instructions in the included guide. Windows PE got all the way to attempting to connect to the Image Share, then crapped out with an error code 8000704fc.
My initial attempt did not include any additional network drivers, and as a result, Windows PE was unable to connect to the share I setup for capturing images to. After a few botched attempts at including the drivers, I realized that all the .inf and other related driver files had to be in the same folder – Windows PE does not search through subfolder structures. After lumping all the drivers together, I was able to capture an image (4.6 Gigs) and move on to the next step: deployment.
I created the OS Package and Program, then created an Image Installation CD, with the same driver setup. I popped it into a bare metal system and booted to the CD. This time, it began restoring the image, then failed at the State Restore phase with “exit code 3″ – it turns out that there is a hotfix that addresses this issue. I called Microsoft PSS, got the hotfix and applied it. I re-created the Image Capture CD, grabbed the image, and the created the package, program and installation CD. I started the Image Installation process just before leaving this afternoon. We’ll see tomorrow if it was successful.